scene analysis and geometric homology During the last 10-12 years there has been a dramatic revival of interest in applied geometric problems. Geometers have reconsidered a number of questions in infinitesimal mechanics, questions treated by J.C. Maxwell and L. Cremona [6, 12, 13] in 1864-70, further developed under the banner of graphical statics [7, 11], but left largely untouched since the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, computer scientists have come to recognize that the tools of graphical statics and of applied projective geometry are fundamental to research in scene analysis. A good deal of the recent revival of interest is due to the efforts of the Structural Topology research group at the University of Montreal. The work of this group, reported in the pages of the journal Structural Topology [1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 18] (and elsewhere), was a biproduct of research on infinitesimal mechanics, using methods derived from graphical statics, as well as from exterior algebra and its modern offspring, the Doubilet-Rota-Stein double algebra [8, 14]. Independently, Huffman [11], Duda and Hart [9], and others recognized that Maxwell's reciprocal figures could help in deciding whether a given plane image is the projection of a 3D polyhedral scene. More recently, Sugihara [15] and his colleagues in Nagoya created what may be considered a pilot project for automated descriptive geometry. They wrote a software package capable of modifying a rough plane sketch, so as to make it a true projection of a 3D scene. The starting point of the During the last 10-12 years there has been a dramatic revival of interest in applied geometric problems. Geometers have reconsidered a number of questions in infinitesimal mechanics, questions treated by J.C. Maxwell and L. Cremona [6, 12, 13] in 1864-70, further developed under the banner of graphical statics [7, 11], but left largely untouched since the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, computer scientists have come to recognize that the tools of graphical statics and of applied projective geometry are fundamental to research in scene analysis. A good deal of the recent revival of interest is due to the efforts of the Structural Topology research group at the University of Montreal. The work of this group, reported in the pages of the journal Structural Topology [1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 18] (and elsewhere), was a biproduct of research on infinitesimal mechanics, using methods derived from graphical statics, as well as from exterior a[8, 14]. Independently, Huffman [11], Duda and Hart [9], and others recognized that Maxwell's reciprocal figures could help in deciding whether a given plane image is the projection of a 3D polyhedral scene. More recently, Sugihara [15] and his colleagues in Nagoya created what may be considered a pilot project for automated descriptive geometry. They wrote a software package capable of modifying a rough plane sketch, so as to make it a true projection of a 3D scene. The starting point of the projective geometric analysis of scenes is the observation that the set of all three-dimensional realizations ( scenes ) having a given two-dimensional projection (a drawing, or image ) form a linear space. Much information about an image, and about its possible spatial interpretations, can be obtained simply by calculating (either locally or globally) the linear dimension (or rank ) of its linear space of scenes. In practice, the image is a pattern on a cathode-ray tube, an aerial photograph, an engineer's or architect's drawing, or an X-ray or NMR scan. The rank of its space of scenes will reveal whether there is ambiguity or uniqueness in the construction of its spatial interpretation, or whether such a construction is in fact impossible, as would be the case for a poorly conceived engineering drawing, or even in an otherwise correctly conceived drawing, if too many hypotheses are made concerning the 3D structure of the scene. Calculation of the rank of the space of scenes having a given image should, in principle, be accomplished using simple combinatorial algorithms based on easily-remembered rules-of-thumb. This is the goal, and it shows every sign of being achievable. The problem has, however, a certain degree of unavoidable difficulty. The requirement that a given image be an accurate projection of a non-trivial (non-planar) 3D scene imposes conditions on the image, conditions which are perhaps best described in terms of not-always-elementary constructions with straight-edge and pencil. In this paper, we begin to sort out the interplay of these projective conditions by creating a new homology theory for geometric configurations. The new homology theory applies to geometric objects which are more rigid, less pliable, than the rubber sheets studied by the topology of Henri Poincar and his school. The passage to this higher degree of invariance is made possible by the creation of a homology theory with (restricted) vector, rather than (unrestricted) scalar, coefficients, or equivalently, by the use of a cohomology theory based on locally linear, rather than on locally constant, functions. We have verified that the new theory agrees with the cohomology theory for the sheaf of locally linear functions on a certain (combinatorially defined) topological space. The basic objects about which this new homology theory has something non-trivial to say are extremely general. From the geometric point of view, they are simply finite sets of points in a projective space or finite sets of vectors in a vector space. In order to emphasize the departure we take from linear algebra as it is usually practiced, we should say that we study vector spaces with a selected basis , that is, concrete vector spaces , in their usual representation as spaces F P of functions from a set P into a field F. Finally, we might say we are simply studying rectangular matrices . Since such objects are found throughout applied mathematics, the resulting homology theory has a very broad range of potential application. Indeed, potential applications of this new homology theory are to any domain where one is interested in the global behavior of systems determined locally by linear constraints.

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

point
applications
geometry
mathematics
use
invariance
analysis
linear algebra
project
theory
group
representation
paper
scan
spatial
research
behavior
3d
image
algebra
global
tools
help
order
drawing
case
general
pattern
software
structure
systems
space
interpretation

requirements sorting timing graphics constraint automation informal method packaging sketching configurability algorithm rules ambiguities engine computation object topologies practical observability vectorization ranking


ImageSense: Towards Contextual Image Advertising The daunting volumes of community-contributed media contents on the Internet have become one of the primary sources for online advertising. However, conventional advertising treats image and video advertising as general text advertising by displaying relevant ads based on the contents of the Web page, without considering the inherent characteristics of visual contents. This article presents a contextual advertising system driven by images, which automatically associates relevant ads with an image rather than the entire text in a Web page and seamlessly inserts the ads in the nonintrusive areas within each individual image. The proposed system, called ImageSense, supports scalable advertising of, from root to node, Web sites, pages, and images. In ImageSense, the ads are selected based on not only textual relevance but also visual similarity, so that the ads yield contextual relevance to both the text in the Web page and the image content. The ad insertion positions are detected based on image salience, as well as face and text detection, to minimize intrusiveness to the user. We evaluate ImageSense on a large-scale real-world images and Web pages, and demonstrate the effectiveness of ImageSense for online image advertising.

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

algorithms
experimentation
human factors


Construction and Blind Estimation of Phase Sequences for Subcarrier-Phase Control Based PAPR Reduction in LDPC Coded OFDM Systems As described in this paper construction and blind estimation methods of phase sequences are proposed for subcarrier phase control based peak to average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in low density parity check (LDPC) coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. On the transmitter side phase sequence patterns are constructed based on a given parity check matrix. The PAPR of the OFDM signal is reduced by multiplying the constructed phase sequence selected from the same number of candidates as the number of weighting factor (WF) combinations in a partial transmit sequence (PTS) method. On the receiver side the phase sequence is estimated blindly using the decoding function i e the most likely phase sequence among a limited number of possible phase sequence candidates is inferred by comparing the sum product calculation results of each candidate. Computer simulation results show that PAPR of QPSK OFDM and 16QAM OFDM signals can be reduced respectively by about 3 7 dB and 4 0 dB without marked degradation of the block error rate (BLER) performance as compared to perfect estimation in an attenuated 12 path Rayleigh fading condition.

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

peak to average power ratio (papr)
ldpc code


MATHSAT: Tight integration of SAT and mathematical decision procedures Recent improvements in propositional satisfiability techniques (SAT) made it possible to tackle successfully some hard real-world problems (e.g., model-checking, circuit testing, propositional planning) by encoding into SAT. However, a purely Boolean representation is not expressive enough for many other real-world applications, including the verification of timed and hybrid systems, of proof obligations in software, and of circuit design at RTL level. These problems can be naturally modeled as satisfiability in linear arithmetic logic (LAL), that is, the Boolean combination of propositional variables and linear constraints over numerical variables. In this paper we present MATHSAT, a new, SAT-based decision procedure for LAL, based on the (known approach) of integrating a state-of-the-art SAT solver with a dedicated mathematical solver for LAL. We improve MATHSAT in two different directions. First, the top-level line procedure is enhanced and now features a tighter integration between the Boolean search and the mathematical solver. In particular, we allow for theory-driven backjumping and learning, and theory-driven deduction; we use static learning in order to reduce the number of Boolean models that are mathematically inconsistent; we exploit problem clustering in order to partition mathematical reasoning; and we define a stack-based interface that allows us to implement mathematical reasoning in an incremental and backtrackable way. Second, the mathematical solver is based on layering; that is, the consistency of (partial) assignments is checked in theories of increasing strength (equality and uninterpreted functions, linear arithmetic over the reals, linear arithmetic over the integers). For each of these layers, a dedicated (sub)solver is used. Cheaper solvers are called first, and detection of inconsistency makes call of the subsequent solvers superfluous. We provide a through experimental evaluation of our approach, by taking into account a large set of previously proposed benchmarks. We first investigate the relative benefits and drawbacks of each proposed technique by comparison with respect to a reference option setting. We then demonstrate the global effectiveness of our approach by a comparison with several state-of-the-art decision procedures. We show that the behavior of MATHSAT is often superior to its competitors, both on LAL and in the subclass of difference logic.

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 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 arithmetic logic
propositional satisfiability

satisfiability module theory
integrated decision procedures


Strongly regular graphs with the \(7\)-vertex condition The \(t\)-vertex condition, for an integer \(t\ge 2\), was introduced by Hestenes and Higman (SIAM Am Math Soc Proc 4:41160, 1971) providing a combinatorial invariant defined on edges and non-edges of a graph. Finite rank 3 graphs satisfy the condition for all values of \(t\). Moreover, a long-standing conjecture of Klin asserts the existence of an integer \(t_0\) such that a graph satisfies the \(t_0\)-vertex condition if and only if it is a rank 3 graph. We present the first infinite family of non-rank 3 strongly regular graphs satisfying the \(7\)-vertex condition. This implies that the Klin parameter \(t_0\) is at least 8. The examples are the point graphs of a certain family of generalized quadrangles.

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

strongly regular graph
t-vertex condition
generalized quadrangle


(\(\epsilon \)-)Efficiency in difference vector optimization The paper deals with the problem of characterizing Pareto optima (efficient solutions) for the difference of two mappings vector-valued in a finite or infinite-dimensional preordered space. Closely related to the well-known optimality criterion of scalar DC optimization, a mixed vectorial condition is obtained in terms of both strong (Fenchel) and weak (Pareto) \(\epsilon \)-subdifferentials that completely characterizes the exact or approximate weak efficiency. This condition also allows to deal with some special restricted mappings. Moreover, the condition established in the literature in terms of strong \(\epsilon \)-subdifferentials for characterizing the strongly efficient solutions (usual optima), is shown here to remain valid without assuming that the objective space is order-complete.

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

dc objective
optimality criteria
\(\epsilon \)-solutions
vector \(\epsilon \)-subdifferentials


iterative visual clustering for unstructured text mining This paper proposes the iterative visual clustering (IVC) on unstructured text sequences to form and evaluate keyword clusters, based on which users can use visual analysis, domain knowledge to discover knowledge in the text. The text sequence data are broken down into a list representative keywords after textual evaluation, and the keywords are then grouped to form keyword clusters via an iterative stochastic process and are visualized as distributions over the time lines. The visual evaluation model provides shape evaluations as quantitative tools and users' interactions as qualitative tools to visually investigate the trends, patterns represented by the keyword clusters' distributions. The keyword clustering model, guided by the feedback of visual evaluations, step-wisely enumerates newer generations of keyword clusters and their patterns, therefore narrows down the search space. Then the proposed IVC is applied onto nursing narratives and is able to identify interesting keyword clusters implying hidden knowledge regarding to the working patterns and environment of registered nurses. The loop of producing next generation of keyword clusters in IVC is driven and controlled by users' perception, domain knowledge and interactions, and it is also guided by a stochastic search model. So both semantic and distribution features enable IVC to have significant applications as a text mining tool, on many other data sets, such as biomedical literatures.

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

text and document visualization
nursing data processing


Economic growth, telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector: Evidence around the world This paper studies the relationships between economic growth, telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector in different countries and regions of the world. In particular, this study assesses the impact of mobile telecommunications on economic growth and telecommunications productivity. The results indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between real gross domestic product (GDP) and telecommunications development (as measured by teledensity) for European and high-income countries. However, when the impact of mobile telecommunications development on economic growth is measured separately, the bi-directional relationship is no longer restricted to European and high-income countries. This study also finds that countries in the upper-middle income group have achieved a higher average total factor productivity (TFP) growth than other countries. Countries with competition and privatization in telecommunications have achieved a higher TFP growth than those without competition and privatization. The diffusion of mobile telecommunications services is found to be a significant factor that has improved the TFP growth of the telecommunications sector in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

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

telecommunications
economic growth
total factor productivity


Examining learning from text and pictures for different task types: Does the multimedia effect differ for conceptual, causal, and procedural tasks? The multimedia effect (ME) is a well-researched effect in the field of learning and instruction. In this article, two views that explain the ME are compared. The outcome-oriented view focuses on the beneficial effect of text and pictures on mental representations, whereas the process-oriented view focuses on the beneficial effect of text and pictures for information processing. To contrast these views, the ME sizes for different task types were compared (i.e., conceptual, causal, procedural tasks). Whereas the outcome-oriented view predicts no differences in ME size, the process-oriented view predicts that the ME is largest in causal tasks, smaller in procedural tasks, and smallest in conceptual tasks. Sixty-five students learnt with text only or with text and pictures. Task type and information source (i.e., whether the text, picture, or text and picture provided the answer to a post-test question) were varied within subjects. The results showed that, in line with the process-oriented view, the ME was smaller for conceptual tasks than for procedural tasks. Contrary to the expectations, the ME was larger in procedural tasks than in causal tasks. Moreover, the pattern of results varied with information source. Research and practical implications are described, so that pictures can be deployed optimally.

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

multimedia effect
conceptual
causal and procedural tasks

learning with text and pictures
static visualisations


Sufficient conditions for lambda '-optimality of graphs with small conditional diameter A restricted edge-cut S of a connected graph G is an edge-cut such that G - S has no isolated vertex. The restricted edge-connectivity lambda'(G) is the minimum cardinality over all restricted edge-cuts. A graph is said to lambda'-optimal if lambda'(G) = xi(G), where xi(G) denotes the minimum edge-degree of G defined as xi(G) = min{d(u) + d(nu) - 2: u nu is an element of E(G)}. The P-diameter of G measures how far apart a pair of subgraphs satisfying a given property P can be, and hence it generalizes the standard concept of diameter. In this paper we prove two kind of results, according to which property P is chosen. First, let D-1 (resp. D-2) be the P-diameter where P is the property that the corresponding subgraphs have minimum degree at least one (resp. two). We prove that a graph with odd girth g is lambda'-optimal if D-1 = 2, being the minimum degree of G. Using the property Q of being vertices of G - F we prove that a graph with girth g is not an element of {4, 6, 8} is lambda'-optimal if this Q-diameter is at most 2[(g - 3)/2]. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fault tolerance
restricted edge-connectivity


comparative analysis of clicks and judgments for ir evaluation Queries and click-through data taken from search engine transaction logs is an attractive alternative to traditional test collections, due to its volume and the direct relation to end-user querying. The overall aim of this paper is to answer the question: How does click-through data differ from explicit human relevance judgments in information retrieval evaluation? We compare a traditional test collection with manual judgments to transaction log based test collections---by using queries as topics and subsequent clicks as pseudo-relevance judgments for the clicked results. Specifically, we investigate the following two research questions: Firstly, are there significant differences between clicks and relevance judgments. Earlier research suggests that although clicks and explicit judgments show reasonable agreement, clicks are different from static absolute relevance judgments. Secondly, are there significant differences between system ranking based on clicks and based on relevance judgments? This is an open question, but earlier research suggests that comparative evaluation in terms of system ranking is remarkably robust.

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

transaction log analysis
wikipedia
web information retrieval


Splitting the Difference So, nat'ralists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum. Jonathan Swift, On Poetry: A Rhapsody, 1733

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

reward anticipation fmri human computation accumbens prefrontal


s2 s 2 -Quasicontinuous posets ? In this paper, we consider a common generalization of both s2 s 2 -continuous posets and quasicontinuous domains, and we introduce new concepts of way below relations and s2 s 2 -quasicontinuous posets. The main results are: (1) The way below relation on an s2 s 2 -quasicontinuous poset has the interpolation property; (2) The ?2 ? 2 -topology on an s2 s 2 -quasicontinuous poset is completely regular; (3) A poset is s2 s 2 -continuous iff it is meet s2 s 2 -continuous and s2 s 2 -quasicontinuous.

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

meet s2 s 2 -continuous poset s2 s 2 s2 s 2 s 2

s2 s 2 -quasicontinuous poset s2 s 2 s2 s 2 s 2


Does the Polynomial Hierarchy Collapse if Onto Functions are Invertible? The class TFNP, defined by Megiddo and Papadimitriou, consists of multivalued functions with values that are polynomially verifiable and guaranteed to exist. Do we have evidence that such functions are hard, for example, if TFNP is computable in polynomial-time does this imply the polynomial-time hierarchy collapses? By computing a multivalued function in deterministic polynomial-time we mean on every input producing one of the possible values of the function on that input. We give a relativized negative answer to this question by exhibiting an oracle under which TFNP functions are easy to compute but the polynomial-time hierarchy is infinite. We also show that relative to this same oracle, P not equal UP and TFNP(NP) functions are not computable in polynomial-time with an NP oracle.

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

computational complexity
polynomial-time hierarchy
multi-valued functions
kolmogorov complexity


Unsupervised Object Segmentation with a Hybrid Graph Model (HGM) In this work, we address the problem of performing class-specific unsupervised object segmentation, i.e., automatic segmentation without annotated training images. Object segmentation can be regarded as a special data clustering problem where both class-specific information and local texture/color similarities have to be considered. To this end, we propose a hybrid graph model (HGM) that can make effective use of both symmetric and asymmetric relationship among samples. The vertices of a hybrid graph represent the samples and are connected by directed edges and/or undirected ones, which represent the asymmetric and/or symmetric relationship between them, respectively. When applied to object segmentation, vertices are superpixels, the asymmetric relationship is the conditional dependence of occurrence, and the symmetric relationship is the color/texture similarity. By combining the Markov chain formed by the directed subgraph and the minimal cut of the undirected subgraph, the object boundaries can be determined for each image. Using the HGM, we can conveniently achieve simultaneous segmentation and recognition by integrating both top-down and bottom-up information into a unified process. Experiments on 42 object classes (9,415 images in total) show promising results.

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

graph-theoretic methods
spectral clustering


Dispersion free wave splittings for structural elements Wave splittings are derived for three types of structural elements: membranes, Timoshenko beams, and Mindlin plates. The Timoshenko beam equation and the Mindlin plate equation are inherently dispersive, as is each Fourier component of the membrane equation in an angular decomposition of the field. The distinctive feature of the wave splittings derived in the present paper is that, in homogeneous regions, they transform the dispersive wave equations into simple one-way wave equations without dispersion. Such splittings have uses both for radial scattering problems in the 2D cases and for scattering problems in dispersive media. As an example of how the splittings may be applied, a direct scattering problem is solved for a membrane with radially varying density. The imbedding method is utilized, and agreement is obtained with an FE 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 B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O

imbedding
membrane
timoshenko beam
mindlin plate

wave splitting
time domain methods
greens operator


Designing a Practical Data Filter Cache to Improve Both Energy Efficiency and Performance Conventional Data Filter Cache (DFC) designs improve processor energy efficiency, but degrade performance. Furthermore, the single-cycle line transfer suggested in prior studies adversely affects Level-1 Data Cache (L1 DC) area and energy efficiency. We propose a practical DFC that is accessed early in the pipeline and transfers a line over multiple cycles. Our DFC design improves performance and eliminates a substantial fraction of L1 DC accesses for loads, L1 DC tag checks on stores, and data translation lookaside buffer accesses for both loads and stores. Our evaluation shows that the proposed DFC can reduce the data access energy by 42.5% and improve execution time by 4.2%.

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


Analytical model for anomalous Positive Bias Temperature Instability in La-based HfO2 nFETs based on independent characterization of charging components PBTI improvement in HfO2 nFETs achieved by a controlled insertion of La. Anomalous negative ?VTH due to charge exchange between high-k and metal gate. Anomalous and conventional PBTI components are decoupled and studied separately. Analytical model including both components for lifetime extrapolation is presented.

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

metaloxidesemiconductor field-effect transistor (mosfet)


a social behaviour evolution approach for evolutionary optimisation Evolutionary algorithms were originally designed to locate basins of optimum solutions in a stationary environment. Therefore, additional techniques and modifications have been introduced to deal with further requirements such as handling dynamic fitness functions or finding multiple optima. In this paper, we present a new approach for building evolutionary algorithms that is based on concepts borrowed from social behaviour evolution. Algorithms built with the proposed paradigm operate on a population of individuals that move in the search space as they interact and form groups. The interaction follows a set of social behaviours evolved by each group to enhance its adaptation to the environment (and other groups) and to achieve different desirable goals such as finding multiple optima, maintaining diversity, or tracking a moving peak in a changing environment. Each group has two sets of behaviours: one for intra-group interactions and one for inter-group interactions. These behaviours are evolved using mathematical models from the field of evolutionary game theory. This paper describes the proposed paradigm and starts studying it characteristics by building a new evolutionary algorithm and studying its behavior. The algorithm has been tested using a benchmark problem generator with promising initial results, which are also reported.

O B I I 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 B I 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 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

social behaviour evolution
evolutionary optimisation
evolutionary game theory
evolutionary algorithms

social adaptive groups
dynamic optimisation problems


Planar C1 C 1 Hermite interpolation with PH cuts of degree (1,3) ( 1 , 3 ) of Laurent series ? We introduce a new class of PH curves, PH cuts of degree (1,3) ( 1 , 3 ) of Laurent series. We show how to find PH skew cut interpolants to a C1 C 1 Hermite data-set. We show that two of these interpolants are short, simple curves with stable shape. Our curves are fair with different shapes to those of other interpolants. We can obtain regular PH interpolants for collinear C1 C 1 Hermite data-sets.

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

c1 c 1 hermite interpolation c1 c 1 c1 c 1 c 1


Bicepstrum based blind identification of the acoustic emission (AE) signal in precision turning It is believed that the acoustic emissions (AE) signal contains potentially valuable information for monitoring precision cutting processes, as well as to be employed as a control feedback signal. However, AE stress waves produced in the cutting zone are distorted by the transmission path and the measurement systems. In this article, a bicepstrum based blind system identification technique is proposed as a valid tool for estimating both, transmission path and sensor impulse response. Assumptions under which application of bicepstrum is valid are discussed and diamond turning experiments are presented, which demonstrate the feasibility of employing bicepstrum for AE blind identification.

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

higher-order statistics
precision machining


on solving hierarchical problems with top down control We review recent work on the Hierarchical-If-And-Only-If problem and present a new hierarchical problem, HIFF-M that does not fit with previous explanations for evolutionary difficulty on hierarchical problems decomposed by levels for RMHC2. RMHC2 is a hill climbing algorithm augmented with a multi-level selection scheme. When used with the "ideal" sieve for a problem, as is done in this paper, RMHC2 exerts top-down control on the evolutionary dynamics, in the sense that adaptation of higher levels are given priority over adaptation of lower levels, and creates stabilizing selection pressure with potential to increase evolvability. Through HIFF-M, we discovered that the summary statistic, Fitness Distance Correlation by level, is not a reliable indicator of when a hierarchical problem is solvable by RMHC2, and that the two properties proposed to explain search easiness for RMHC2 are inadequate. Our investigation of this anomaly led us to propose an additional property for hierarchical evolution difficulty under RMHC2: inter-level conflict. We also discuss how hierarchical control can be subverted through the information transfer capacity of the transposition operation.

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

hierarchical test problems
level decomposition


Extracting Semantic Frames from Thai Medical-Symptom Unstructured Text with Unknown Target-Phrase Boundaries Due to the limitations of language-processing tools for the Thai language, pattern-based information extraction from Thai documents requires supplementary techniques. Based on sliding-window rule application and extraction filtering, we present a framework for extracting semantic information from medical-symptom phrases with unknown boundaries in Thai unstructured-text information entries. A supervised rule learning algorithm is employed for automatic construction of information extraction rules from hand-tagged training symptom phrases. Two filtering components are introduced: one uses a classification model to predict rule application across a symptom-phrase boundary based on instantiation features of rule internal wildcards, the other uses weighted classification confidence to resolve conflicts arising from overlapping extractions. In our experimental study, we focus our attention on two basic types of symptom phrasal descriptions: one is concerned with abnormal characteristics of some observable entities and the other with human-body locations at which primitive symptoms appear. The experimental results show that the filtering components improve precision while preserving recall satisfactorily.

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


Robust DOA Estimation for Uncorrelated and Coherent Signals A new direction of arrival (DOA) estimation method is introduced with arbitrary array geometry when uncorrelated and coherent signals coexist. The DOAs of uncorrelated signals are first estimated via subspace-based high resolution DOA estimation technique. Then a matrix that only contains the information of coherent signals can be formulated by eliminating the contribution of uncorrelated signals. Finally a subspace block sparse reconstruction approach is taken for DOA estimations of the coherent signals.

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


Checkpoint Allocation and Release Out-of-order speculative processors need a bookkeeping method to recover from incorrect speculation. In recent years, several microarchitectures that employ checkpoints have been proposed, either extending the reorder buffer or entirely replacing it. This work presents an in-dept-study of checkpointing in checkpoint-based microarchitectures, from the desired content of a checkpoint, via implementation trade-offs, and to checkpoint allocation and release policies. A major contribution of the article is a novel adaptive checkpoint allocation policy that outperforms known policies. The adaptive policy controls checkpoint allocation according to dynamic events, such as second-level cache misses and rollback history. It achieves 6.8% and 2.2% speedup for the integer and floating point benchmarks, respectively, and does not require a branch confidence estimator. The results show that the proposed adaptive policy achieves most of the potential of an oracle policy whose performance improvement is 9.8% and 3.9% for the integer and floating point benchmarks, respectively. We exploit known techniques for saving leakage power by adapting and applying them to checkpoint-based microarchitectures. The proposed applications combine to reduce the leakage power of the register file to about one half of its original value.

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

design
misprediction
out-of-order execution
early register release


A quadratic spline approximation using detail multi-layer for soft shadow generation in augmented reality Implementation of shadows is crucial to enhancement of images in AR environments. Without shadows, virtual objects would look floating over the scene resulting in unrealistic rendering of AR environments. Casting hard shadows would provide only spatial information while soft shadows help improve realism of AR environments. Several algorithms have been proposed to render realistic shadows which often incurred high computational costs. Little attention has been directed towards the balanced trade-off between shadow quality and computational costs. In this study, two approaches are proposed: Quadratic Spline Interpolation (QSI) to soften the outline of the shadow and Detail Multi-Layer (DML) technique to optimize the volume of computations for the generation of soft shadows based on real light sources. QSI estimates boarder hard shadow samples while DML involves three main phases: real light sources estimation, soft shadow production and reduction of the complexity of 3-Dimensional objects shadows. To be more precise, a reflective hemisphere is used to capture real light and to create an environment map. The Median Cut algorithm is implemented to locate the direction of real light sources on the environment map. Subsequently, the original hard shadows are retrieved and a sample of multilayer hard shadows is produced where each layer has its unique size and colour. These layers overlap to produce soft shadows based on the real light sources directions. Finally, the Level of Details (LOD) algorithm is implemented to increase the efficiency of soft shadows by decreasing the complexity of vertex transformations. The proposed technique is tested using three samples of multilayer hard shadows with varying numbers of light sources generated from the Median Cut algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed technique successfully produces realistic soft shadows at low computational costs.

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

augmented reality
shadow generation
soft shadows
environment map


The enhanced optical coupling in a quantum well infrared photodetector based on a resonant mode of an airdielectricmetal waveguide The hybrid structure consisting of periodic gold stripes and an overlaying gold film is proposed to enhance the optical coupling of a quantum well infrared photodetector. An airdielectricmetal waveguide is formed when the hybrid structure is integrated on the top of the quantum well detector with the substrate being removed. Finite difference time-domain method is used to numerically obtain the reflection spectrum and the field distribution of the waveguide. The results show that a strong electric field component is induced in parallel to the growth direction of quantum well when the waveguide resonant mode occurs at the detective wavelength of the quantum well infrared photodetector. The relationship between the structural parameters and the resonant wavelength is derived by using the effective refractive index method of the airdielectricmetal waveguide. A high coupling efficiency can be obtained and the performance of the QWIP can be greatly improved.

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

periodic gold stripes
quantum well infrared photodetector
effective refractive index
coupling efficiency


Redirection based recovery for MPLS network systems To provide a reliable backbone network, fault tolerance should be considered in the network design. For a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) based backbone network, the fault-tolerant issue focuses on how to protect the traffic of a label switched paths (LSP) against node and link failures. In IETF, two well-known recovery mechanisms (protection switching and rerouting) have been proposed. To further enhance the fault-tolerant performance of the two recovery mechanisms, the proposed approach utilizes the failure-free LSPs to transmit the traffic of the failed LSP (the affected traffic). To avoid affecting the original traffic of each failure-free LSP, the proposed approach applies the solution of the minimum cost flow to determine the amount of affected traffic to be transmitted by each failure-free LSP. For transmitting the affected traffic along a failure-free working LSP, IP tunneling technique is used. We also propose a permission token scheme to solve the packet disorder problem. Finally, simulation experiments are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

mpls
fault tolerance
affected traffic
minimum cost flow


Designing a cross-language comparison-shopping agent This research pertains to the design and development of a shopbot called WebShopper+. This shopbot is intended to help customers find and compare e-tailers that market their wares using different languages. WebShopper+ is built with a multilingual ontology to overcome the language barriers that arise with global e-commerce. This research proposes a semi-automatic method of constructing a multilingual ontology by using the formal concept analysis and association analysis. It also proposes an automatic method for the categorization of product data into predefined classes, with the aim of alleviating administrators' task load. Additionally, a semantic search mechanism based on concept similarity is designed to assist customers in finding more desirable products. The experimental results show that these methods perform well and the shopbot can help customers find real bargains on the Web and to find products that cannot be bought locally.

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

shopbot
ontology
formal concept analysis


Medical informaticsthe state of the art in the Hospital Authority Since its inception in 1990, the Hospital Authority (HA) has strongly supported the development and implementation of information systems both to improve the delivery of care and to make better information available to managers. This paper summarizes the progress to date and discusses current and future developments. Following the first two phases of the HA information technology strategy the basic infrastructural elements were laid in place. These included the foundation administrative and financial systems and databases; establishment of a wide area network linking all hospitals and clinics together; laboratory, radiology and pharmacy systems with access to results in the ward. A major push into clinical systems began in 1994 with the clinical management system (CMS), which established a clinical workstation for use in both ward and ambulatory settings. The CMS is now running at all major hospitals, and provides single logon access to almost all the electronically collected clinical data in the HA. The next phase of development is focussed on further support for clinical activities in the CMS. Key elements include the longitudinal electronic patient record (ePR), clinical order entry, generic support for clinical reports, broadening the scope to include allied health and the rehabilitative phase, clinical decision support, an improved clinical documentation framework, sharing of clinical information with other health care providers and a comprehensive data repository for analysis and reporting purposes.

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

hospital information systems
clinical information systems
hong kong


Prioritization of potential candidate disease genes by topological similarity of proteinprotein interaction network and phenotype data We construct a reliable heterogeneous network by fusing multiple networks. We devise a random walk based algorithm on the reliable heterogeneous network. Combining topological similarity with phenotype data helps to predict causal genes. The algorithm is still in good performance at low parameter values.

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

disease genes
random walk
topological similarity
phenotype


Extended Beta Regression in R: Shaken, Stirred, Mixed, and Partitioned Beta regression -an increasingly popular approach for modeling rates and proportions - is extended in various directions: (a) bias correction/reduction of the maximum likelihood estimator, (b) beta regression tree models by means of recursive partitioning, (c) latent class beta regression by means of finite mixture models. All three extensions may be of importance for enhancing the beta regression toolbox in practice to provide more reliable inference and capture both observed and unobserved/latent heterogeneity in the data. Using the analogy of Smithson and Verkuilen (2006), these extensions make beta regression not only "a better lemon squeezer" (compared to classical least squares regression) but a full-fledged modern juicer offering lemon-based drinks: shaken and stirred (bias correction and reduction), mixed (finite mixture model), or partitioned (tree model). All three extensions are provided in the R package betareg (at least 2.4-0), building on generic algorithms and implementations for bias correction/reduction, model-based recursive partioning, and finite mixture models, respectively. Specifically, the new functions betatree () and betamix () reuse the object-oriented flexible implementation from the R packages party and flexmix, respectively.

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

beta regression
bias correction
recursive partitioning
finite mixture
r


Four-layer framework for combinatorial optimization problems domain ? Four-layer framework for combinatorial optimization problems/models domain is suggested for applied problems structuring and solving: (1) basic combinatorial models and multicriteria decision making problems (e.g., clustering, knapsack problem, multiple choice problem, multicriteria ranking, assignment/allocation); (2) composite models/procedures (e.g., multicriteria combinatorial problems, morphological clique problem); (3) basic (standard) solving frameworks, e.g.: (i) Hierarchical Morphological Multicriteria Design (HMMD) (ranking, combinatorial synthesis based on morphological clique problem), (ii) multi-stage design (two-level HMMD), (iii) special multi-stage composite framework (clustering, assignment/location, multiple choice problem); and (4) domain-oriented solving frameworks, e.g.: (a) design of modular software, (b) design of test inputs for multi-function system testing, (c) combinatorial planning of medical treatment, (d) design and improvement of communication network topology, (e) multi-stage framework for information retrieval, (f) combinatorial evolution and forecasting of software, devices. The multi-layer approach covers decision cycle, i.e., problem statement, models, algorithms/procedures, solving schemes, decisions, decision analysis and improvement.

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

combinatorial optimization
decision making

problem solving environment
system architecture
problem structuring
system design


Computing monodromy via continuation methods on random Riemann surfaces We consider a Riemann surface X defined by a polynomial f (x, y) of degree d, whose coefficients are chosen randomly. Hence, we can suppose that X is smooth, that the discriminant delta(x) of f has d(d - 1) simple roots, Delta, and that delta(0) not equal 0, i.e. the corresponding fiber has d distinct points {y(1), ..., y(d)}. When we lift a loop 0 is an element of gamma subset of C - Delta by a continuation method, we get d paths in X connecting {y(1), ..., y(d)}, hence defining a permutation of that set. This is called monodromy. Here we present experimentations in Maple to get statistics on the distribution of transpositions corresponding to loops around each point of Delta. Multiplying families of "neighbor" transpositions, we construct permutations and the subgroups of the symmetric group they generate. This allows us to establish and study experimentally two conjectures on the distribution of these transpositions and on transitivity of the generated subgroups. Assuming that these two conjectures are true, we develop tools allowing fast probabilistic algorithms for absolute multivariate polynomial factorization, under the hypothesis that the factors behave like random polynomials whose coefficients follow uniform distributions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

continuation methods
monodromy
symmetric group
algorithms

bivariate polynomial
plane curve
random riemann surface
absolute factorization
algebraic geometry
maple code


Feature-based decision aggregation in modular neural network classifiers In several modular neural network (MNN) architectures, the individual decisions at the module level have to be integrated together using a voting scheme. All these voting schemes use the outputs of the individual modules to produce a global output without inferring explicit information from the problem feature space. This makes the choice of the aggregation procedure very subjective. In this work, a new MNN architecture will be presented. This architecture integrates learning into the voting scheme. We will be focusing on making the decision fusion a more dynamic process. In this context, dynamic means the aggregation procedure which has the flexibility to adapt to changes in the input. This approach requires the aggregation procedure to gather information about the input to help better understand how to dynamically aggregate decisions.

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

classification
classifier combination
dynamic decision fusion
modular neural networks


Efficient bootstrap with weakly dependent processes The efficient bootstrap methodology is developed for overidentified moment conditions models with weakly dependent observation. The resulting bootstrap procedure is shown to be asymptotically valid and can be used to approximate the distributions of t t -statistics, the J J -statistic for overidentifying restrictions, and Wald, Lagrange multiplier and distance statistics for nonlinear hypotheses. The asymptotic validity of the efficient bootstrap based on a computationally less demanding approximate k k -step estimator is also shown. The finite sample performance of the proposed bootstrap is assessed using simulations in an intertemporal consumption based asset pricing model.

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

? ? -mixing ? ? ? ? ?
consumption capm
gel
gmm
hypothesis testing


Multi-Relay Cooperative Diversity Protocol with Improved Spectral Efficiency Cooperative diversity protocols have attracted a great deal of attention since they are thought to be capable of providing diversity multiplexing tradeoff among single antenna wireless devices. In the high signal to noise ratio (SNR) region, cooperation is rarely required; hence, the spectral efficiency of the cooperative protocol can be improved by applying a proper cooperation selection technique. In this paper, we present a simple "cooperation selection" technique based on instantaneous channel measurement to improve the spectral efficiency of cooperative protocols. We show that the same instantaneous channel measurement can also be used for relay selection. In this paper two protocols are proposed-proactive and reactive; the selection of one of these protocols depends on whether the decision of cooperation selection is made before or after the transmission of the source. These protocols can successfully select cooperation along with the best relay from a set of available M relays. If the instantaneous source to destination channel is strong enough to support the system requirements, then the source simply transmits to the destination as a noncooperative direct transmission; otherwise, a cooperative transmission with the help of the selected best relay is chosen by the system. Analysis and simulation results show that these protocols can achieve higher order diversity with improved spectral efficiency, i.e., a higher diversity-multiplexing tradeoff in a slow-fading environment.

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

cooperative diversity
relay selection
spectral efficiency

diversity-multiplexing tradeoff
fading channel
outage probability


A motion-tolerant dissolve detection algorithm Gradual shot change detection is one of the most important research issues in the field of video indexing/retrieval. Among the numerous types of gradual transitions, the dissolve-type gradual transition is considered the most common one, but it is also the most difficult one to detect. In most of the existing dissolve detection algorithms, the false/miss detection problem caused by motion is very serious. In this paper, we present a novel dissolve-type transition detection algorithm that can correctly distinguish dissolves from disturbance caused by motion. We carefully model a dissolve based on its nature and then use the model to filter out possible confusion caused by the effect of motion. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is indeed powerful.

O O B 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 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

dissolve detection
shot change detection


GMM-Based Evaluation of Emotional Style Transformation in Czech and Slovak In the development of the voice conversion and the emotional speech style transformation in the text-to-speech systems, it is very important to obtain feedback information about the users opinion on the resulting synthetic speech quality. For this reason, the evaluations of the quality of the produced synthetic speech must often be performed for comparison. The main aim of the experiments described in this paper was to find out whether the classifier based on Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) could be applied for evaluation of male and female resynthesized speech that had been transformed from neutral to four emotional states (joy, surprise, sadness, and anger) spoken in Czech and Slovak languages. We suppose that it is possible to combine this GMM-based statistical evaluation with the classical one in the form of listening tests or it can replace them. For verification of our working hypothesis, a simple GMM emotional speech classifier with a one-level structure was realized. The next task of the performed experiment was to investigate the influence of different types and values (mean, median, standard deviation, relative maximum, etc.) of the used speech features (spectral and/or supra-segmental) on the GMM classification accuracy. The obtained GMM evaluation scores are compared with the results of the conventional listening tests based on the mean opinion scores. In addition, correctness of the GMM classification is analyzed with respect to the influence of the setting of the parameters during the GMM trainingthe number of mixture components and the types of speech features. The paper also describes the comparison experiment with the reference speech corpus taken from the Berlin database of emotional speech in German language as the benchmark for the evaluation of the performance of our one-level GMM classifier. The obtained results confirm practical usability of the developed GMM classifier, so we will continue in this research with the aim to increase the classification accuracy and compare it with other approaches like the support vector machines.

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

spectral and prosodic features of speech


Collage of two-dimensional words We consider a new operation on one-dimensional (resp. two-dimensional) word languages, obtained by piling up, one on top of the other, words of a given recognizable language (resp. two-dimensional recognizable language) on a previously empty one-dimensional (resp. two-dimensional) array. The resulting language is the set of words "seen from above": a position in the array is labeled by the topmost letter. We show that in the one-dimensional case, the language is always recognizable. This is no longer true in the two-dimensional case which is shown by a counter-example, and we investigate in which particular cases the result may still hold. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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


Inference management, trust and obfuscation principles for quality of information in emerging pervasive environments ? The emergence of large scale, distributed, sensor-enabled, machine-to-machine pervasive applications necessitates engaging with providers of information on demand to collect the information, of varying quality levels, to be used to infer about the state of the world and decide actions in response. In these highly fluid operational environments, involving information providers and consumers of various degrees of trust and intentions, information transformation, such as obfuscation, is used to manage the inferences that could be made to protect providers from misuses of the information they share, while still providing benefits to their information consumers. In this paper, we develop the initial principles for relating to inference management and the role that trust and obfuscation plays in it within the context of this emerging breed of applications. We start by extending the definitions of trust and obfuscation into this emerging application space. We, then, highlight their role as we move from the tightly-coupled to loosely-coupled sensory-inference systems and describe how quality, value and risk of information relate in collaborative and adversarial systems. Next, we discuss quality distortion illustrated through a human activity recognition sensory system. We then present a system architecture to support an inference firewall capability in a publish/subscribe system for sensory information and conclude with a discussion and closing remarks.

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

quality of information
risk of information
obfuscation
inference management


Digging in the Digg Social News Website The rise of social media aggregating websites provides platforms where users can actively publish, evaluate, and disseminate content in a collaborative way. In this paper, we present a large-scale empirical study about "Digg.com", one of the biggest social media aggregating websites. Our analysis is based on crawls of 1.5 million users and 10 million published stories on Digg. We study the distinct network structure, the collaborative user characteristics, and the content dissemination process on Digg. We empirically illustrate that friendship relations are used effectively in disseminating half of the content, although there exists a high overlap between the interests of friends. A successful content dissemination process can also be performed by random users who are browsing and digging stories. Since 88% of the published content on Digg is defined as news, it is important for the content to obtain sufficient votes in a short period of time before becoming obsolete. Finally, we show that the synchronization of users' activities in time is the key to a successful content dissemination process. The dynamics between users' voting activities consequently decrease the efficiency of friendship relations during content dissemination. The results presented in this paper define basic observations and measurements to understand the underlying mechanism of disseminating content in current online social news aggregators. These findings are helpful to understand the influence of service interfaces and user behaviors on content dissemination.

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

content dissemination
friendship relations
user characteristics


Usage of Agents in Document Management EXtensible Java-based Agent Framework (XJAF) is a pluggable architecture of the hierarchical intelligent agents system with communication based on KQML. Workers, Inc. is a workflow management system implemented using mobile agents. It is especially suited for highly distributed and heterogeneous environments. The application of the above-mentioned systems will be considered in the area of Document Management Systems.

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


EZPAL: Environment for composing constraint axioms by instantiating templates Many ontology-development tools allow users to supplement frame-based representations with arbitrary logical sentences. However, few users actually take advantage of this opportunity. For example, in the Ontolingua ontology library, only 20% of the ontologies have any user-defined axioms. We believe the difficulty of composing axioms primarily accounts for the lack of axioms in these knowledge bases: Many domain experts cannot translate their thoughts into abstract and symbolic representations. We attempt to remedy the difficulties by identifying groups of axioms that manifest common patterns, creating templates that allow users to compose axioms by filling in the blanks. We studied axioms in two public ontology libraries, and derived 20 templates that cover 85% of all the user-defined axioms. We describe our methodology for identifying the templates and present examples. We constructed an interface that allows users to create constraints on knowledge bases by filling in blanks; our usability testing shows that users could use templates to encode axioms with a success rate similar to that of experts writing directly in an axiom language. Our approach should foster the introduction of axioms and constraints that are currently missing in many ontologies.

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

frame-based system
knowledge acquisition
knowledge representation


Critical infrastructure dependencies: A holistic, dynamic and quantitative approach The proper functioning of critical infrastructures is crucial to societal well-being. However, critical infrastructures are not isolated, but instead are tightly coupled, creating a complex system of interconnected infrastructures. Dependencies between critical infrastructures can cause a failure to propagate from one critical infrastructure to other critical infrastructures, aggravating and prolonging the societal impact. For this reason, critical infrastructure operators must understand the complexity of critical infrastructures and the effects of critical infrastructure dependencies. However, a major problem is posed by the fact that detailed information about critical infrastructure dependencies is highly sensitive and is usually not publicly available. Moreover, except for a small number of holistic and dynamic research efforts, studies are limited to a few critical infrastructures and generally do not consider time-dependent behavior. This paper analyzes how a failed critical infrastructure that cannot deliver products and services impacts other critical infrastructures, and how a critical infrastructure is affected when another critical infrastructure fails. The approach involves a holistic analysis involving multiple critical infrastructures while incorporating a dynamic perspective based on the time period that a critical infrastructure is non-operational and how the impacts evolve over time. This holistic approach, which draws on the results of a survey of critical infrastructure experts from several countries, is intended to assist critical infrastructure operators in preparing for future crises.

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 B I I 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

holistic treatment
dynamic analysis
quantitative analysis


Traffic distribution for end-to-end QoS routing with multicast multichannel services With the development of multimedia group applications and multicasting demands, the construction of multicast routing tree satisfying Quality of Service (QoS) is more important. A multicast tree, which is constructed by existing multicast algorithms, suffers three major weaknesses: (1) it cannot be constructed by multichannel routing, transmitting a message using all available links, thus the data traffic cannot be preferably distributed; (2) it does not formulate duplication capacity; consequently, duplication capacity in each node cannot be optimally distributed; (3) it cannot change the number of links and nodes used optimally. In fact, it cannot employ and cover unused backup multichannel paths optimally. To overcome these weaknesses, this paper presents a polynomial time algorithm for distributed optimal multicast routing and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees in networks with multichannel paths which is called Distributed Optimal Multicast Multichannel Routing Algorithm (DOMMR). The aim of this algorithm is: (1) to minimize End-to-End delay across the multichannel paths, (2) to minimize consumption of bandwidth by using all available links, and (3) to maximize data rate by formulating network resources. DOMMR is based on the Linear Programming Formulation (LPF) and presents an iterative optimal solution to obtain the best distributed routes for traffic demands between all edge nodes. Computational experiments and numerical simulation results will show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than the existing methods. The simulation results are obtained by applying network simulation tools such as QSB, OpNet and MATLB to some samples of network. We then introduce a generalized problem, called the delay-constrained multicast multichannel routing problem, and show that this generalized problem can be solved in polynomial time.

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

multicasting
traffic distribution
linear programming

multichannel path
optimized routing
quality of services


Improved error exponent for time-invariant and periodically time-variant convolutional codes An improved upper bound on the error probability (first error event) of time-invariant convolutional codes, and the resulting error exponent, is derived ill this paper. The improved error bound depends on both the delay of the code K and its width (the number of symbols that enter the delay line in parallel) b. Determining the error exponent of time-invariant convolutional codes is an open problem. While the previously known bounds on the error probability of time-invariant codes led to the block-coding exponent, obtain a better error exponent (strictly better for b > 1). In the limit b --> infinity our error exponent equals the Yudkin-Viterbi exponent derived for time-variant convolutional codes. These results are also used to derive an improved error exponent for periodically time-variant codes.

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

convolutional codes
error exponent
error probability

periodically time-variant codes
time-invariant codes
yudkin-viterbi exponent


Online reputation management for improving marketing by using a hybrid MCDM model Online reputation management (ORM) has been considered as a significant tool of internet marketing. The purpose of this paper is to construct a decision model for evaluating performances and improving professional services of marketing. To investigate the interrelationship and influential weights among criteria, this study uses a hybrid MCDM model including decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), DEMATEL-based analytic network process (called DANP). The empirical findings reveal that criteria have self-effect relationships based on DEMATEL technique. According to the network relation map (NRM), the dimension that professional services of marketing should improve first when carrying out ORM is online reputation. In the five criteria for evaluation, distributed reputation systems is the most important criterion impacting ORM, followed by employees and social responsibility.

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

professional services of marketing
dematel
danp
mcdm


feasibility of a primarily digital research library This position paper explores the issues related to the feasibility of having a primarily digital research library support the teaching and research needs of a university. The Asian University for Women (AUW), a new university in Chittagong, Bangladesh, will open in September 2009. It must make a decision regarding the investment to be made in research resources to support the university. Mass digitization efforts now make it possible to consider establishing a research library that consists primarily of digital resources rather than print. There are, however, many issues that make this consideration quite complex and far from certain. In this paper we explore the issues at a preliminary level. We focus on four broad perspectives in order to begin addressing the complex interactions that must be considered in transitioning to a primarily digital research environment: technical, economic, policy and social issues. The purpose of this paper is to begin to explore a research agenda for transitioning from a model for libraries where resources are primarily print to one that is predominantly digital. Our research in this area is just beginning, so our purpose is to raise the issues rather than offer firm conclusions.

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

libraries
digital research
mass digitization


Targeting Multiple Myeloma Cells and Their Bone Marrow Microenvironment Although multiple myeloma (MM) is sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, long-term disease-free survival is rare, and MM remains incurable despite conventional and high-dose therapies. Direct (cell-cell contact) and soluble (via cytokines) forms of interactions between MM cells and bone marrow stroma regulate growth, survival, and homing of MM cells. These interactions also play a critical role in angiogenesis and in myeloma bone disease. In recent years, several studies have established the biologic significance of cytokines in MM pathogenesis and delineated signaling cascades mediating their effects, providing the framework for related novel therapies targeting not only the MM cell, but also the bone marrow microenvironment.

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

multiple myeloma
bone marrow microenvironment
novel therapies


a network service curve approach for the stochastic analysis of networks The stochastic network calculus is an evolving new methodology for backlog and delay analysis of networks that can account for statistical multiplexing gain. This paper advances the stochastic network calculus by deriving a network service curve, which expresses the service given to a flow by the network as a whole in terms of a probabilistic bound. The presented network service curve permits the calculation of statistical end-to-end delay and backlog bounds for broad classes of arrival and service distributions. The benefits of the derived service curve are illustrated for the exponentially bounded burstiness (EBB) traffic model. It is shown that end-to-end performance measures computed with a network service curve are bounded by O ( H log H ), where H is the number of nodes traversed by a flow. Using currently available techniques that compute end-to-end bounds by adding single node results, the corresponding performance measures are bounded by O ( H 3 ).

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

network service curve
stochastic network calculus


Mitigating kinematic locking in the material point method The material point method exhibits kinematic locking when traditional linear shape functions are used with a rectangular grid. The locking affects both the strain and the stress fields, which can lead to inaccurate results and nonphysical behavior. This paper presents a new anti-locking approach that mitigates the accumulation of fictitious strains and stresses, significantly improving the kinematic response and the quality of all field variables. The technique relies on the HuWashizu multi-field variational principle, with separate approximations for the volumetric and the deviatoric portions of the strain and stress fields. The proposed approach is validated using a series of benchmark examples from both solid and fluid mechanics, demonstrating the broad range of modeling possibilities within the MPM framework when combined with appropriate anti-locking techniques and algorithms.

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


Computational dialectic and rhetorical invention This paper has three dimensions, historical, theoretical and social. The historical dimension is to show how the Ciceronian system of dialectical argumentation served as a precursor to computational models of argumentation schemes such as Araucaria and Carneades. The theoretical dimension is to show concretely how these argumentation schemes reveal the interdependency of rhetoric and logic, and so the interdependency of the normative with the empirical. It does this by identifying points of disagreement in a dialectical format through using argumentation schemes and critical questions. The social dimension is to show how the Ciceronian dialectical viewpoint integrates with the use of computational tools that can be used to support the principle of reason-based deliberation and facilitate deliberative democracy.

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

argumentation schemes
deliberative democracy

informal logic
ciceronian rhetoric
carneades model
fallacies
persuasion


The Roadmaker's Algorithm for the Discrete Pulse Transform The discrete pulse transform (DPT) is a decomposition of an observed signal into a sum of pulses, i.e., signals that are constant on a connected set and zero elsewhere. Originally developed for 1-D signal processing, the DPT has recently been generalized to more dimensions. Applications in image processing are currently being investigated. The time required to compute the DPT as originally defined via the successive application of LULU operators (members of a class of minimax filters studied by Rohwer) has been a severe drawback to its applicability. This paper introduces a fast method for obtaining such a decomposition, called the Roadmaker's algorithm because it involves filling pits and razing bumps. It acts selectively only on those features actually present in the signal, flattening them in order of increasing size by sub-tracing an appropriate positive or negative pulse, which is then appended to the decomposition. The implementation described here covers 1-D signal as well as two and 3-D image processing in a single framework. This is achieved by considering the signal or image as a function defined on a graph, with the geometry specified by the edges of the graph. Whenever a feature is flattened, nodes in the graph are merged, until eventually only one node remains. At that stage, a new set of edges for the same nodes as the graph, forming a tree structure, defines the obtained decomposition. The Roadmaker's algorithm is shown to be equivalent to the DPT in the sense of obtaining the same decomposition. However, its simpler operators are not in general equivalent to the LULU operators in situations where those operators are not applied successively. A by-product of the Roadmaker's algorithm is that it yields a proof of the so-called Highlight Conjecture, stated as an open problem in 2006. We pay particular attention to algorithmic details and complexity, including a demonstration that in the 1-D case, and also in the case of a complete graph, the Roadmaker's algorithm has optimal complexity: it runs in time O(m), where m is the number of arcs in the graph.

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

clustering algorithms
digital filters
digital signal processing
discrete transforms
multidimensional signal processing
nonlinear filters
signal analysis
tree graphs


Implementation relations and test generation for systems with distributed interfaces Some systems interact with their environment at physically distributed interfaces called ports and we separately observe sequences of inputs and outputs at each port. As a result we cannot reconstruct the global sequence that occurred and this reduces our ability to distinguish different systems in testing or in use. In this paper we explore notions of conformance for an input output transition system that has multiple ports, adapting the widely used ioco implementation relation to this situation. We consider two different scenarios. In the first scenario the agents at the different ports are entirely independent. Alternatively, it may be feasible for some external agent to receive information from more than one of the agents at the ports of the system, these local behaviours potentially being brought together and here we require a stronger implementation relation. We define implementation relations for these scenarios and prove that in the case of a single-port system the new implementation relations are equivalent to ioco. In addition, we define what it means for a test case to be controllable and give an algorithm that decides whether this condition holds. We give a test generation algorithm to produce sound and complete test suites. Finally, we study two implementation relations to deal with partially specified 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

formal methodologies to develop distributed software systems


Dual-centers type-2 fuzzy clustering framework and its verification and validation indices The clustering model considers dual-centers rather than single centers. The dual-centers type-2 clustering model and algorithm are proposed. The relations among parameters of the proposed model are explained. The degrees of belonging to the clusters are defined by type-2 fuzzy numbers. The verification and verification indices are developed for model evaluation.

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

dual-centers clustering
interval type-2 fuzzy clustering
pcm
cluster center uncertainty
validation index
verification index


Generalized sharing in survivable optical networks Shared path protection has been demonstrated to be a very efficient survivability scheme for optical networking. In this scheme, multiple backup paths can share a given optical channel if their corresponding primary routes are not expected to fail simultaneously. The focus in this area has been the optimization of the total channels (i.e., bandwidth) provisioned in the network through the intelligent routing of primary and backup routes. In this work, we extend the current path protection sharing scheme and introduce the Generalized Sharing Concept. In this concept, we allow for additional sharing of important node devices. These node devices (e.g., optical-electronic-optical regenerators (OEOs), pure all-optical converters, etc.) constitute the dominant cost factor in an optical backbone network and the reduction of their number is of paramount importance. For demonstration purposes, we extend the concept of 1:N shared path protection to allow for the sharing of electronic regenerators needed for coping with optical transmission impairments. Both design and control plane issues are discussed through numerical examples. Considerable cost reductions in electronic budget are demonstrated.

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


On the usefulness of knowledge of error variances in the consistent estimation of an unreplicated ultrastructural model This article considers an unreplicated ultrastructural model and discusses the asymptotic properties of three consistent estimators of slope parameter arising from the knowledge of measurement error variances. Conditions are deduced when knowing the error variances associated with both the study and the explanatory variables is more/less beneficial than using a single error variance in the formulation of slope estimators.

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


Exact solution of the heat equation with boundary condition of the fourth kind by Hes variational iteration method In this paper, solutions of the heat equation with the boundary condition of the fourth kind are presented. The proposed solution is based on Hes variational iteration method, after the application of which the exact solution of the problem is obtained.

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

heat equation
variational iteration method


Efficient neighborhood search for the one-machine earlinesstardiness scheduling problem ? This paper addresses the one-machine scheduling problem where the objective is to minimize a sum of costs such as earlinesstardiness costs. Since the sequencing problem is NP-hard, local search is very useful for finding good solutions. Unlike scheduling problems with regular cost functions, the scheduling (or timing) problem is not trivial when the sequence is fixed. Therefore, the local search approaches must deal with both job interchanges in the sequence and the timing of the sequenced jobs. We present a new approach that efficiently searches in a large neighborhood and always returns a solution for which the timing is optimal.

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

single machine
earlinesstardiness cost
neighborhoods
search method