a perceptually-supported sketch editor The human visual system makes a great deal more of images than the elemental marks on a surface. In the course of viewing, creating, or editing a picture, we actively construct a host of visual structures and relationships as components of sensible interpretations. This paper shows how some of these computational processes can be incorporated into perceptually-supported image editing tools, enabling machines to better engage users at the level of their own percepts. We focus on the domain of freehand sketch editors, such as an electronic whiteboard application for a pen-based computer. By using computer vision techniques to perform covert recognition of visual structure as it emerges during the course of a drawing/editing session, a perceptually supported image editor gives users access to visual objects as they are perceived by the human visual system. We present a flexible image interpretation architecture based on token grouping in a multiscale blackboard data structure. This organization supports multiple perceptual interpretations of line drawing data, domain-specific knowledge bases for interpretable visual structures, and gesture-based selection of visual objects. A system implementing these ideas, called PerSketch , begins to explore a new space of WYPIWYG (What You Perceive Is What You Get) image editing tools.

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

image editing
drawing
human
access
paper
computer vision
organization
token grouping
structure
persketch
relationships
users
space
recognition
interpretation
architecture
data
image
tools
surface

applications
interactive graphics
computation
data structures
object
flexibility
imaging
group
exploration
sketch tools
component
select
machine vision
scale space blackboard wysiwyg
perceptual grouping
perceptual organization
pen computing
visualization
drawing tools
systems
pen
gestures
graphics editing
edit
sketching
process
knowledge base


rank based dynamic voltage and frequency scaling fortiled graphics processors With increasing interest in sophisticated graphics capabilities in mobile systems, energy consumption of graphics hardware is becoming a major design concern in addition to the traditional performance enhancement criteria. Our study of various modern games substantiates the observation that the workload of games varies significantly with time and hence can benefit from dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). Since visual quality of graphics applications is highly dependent on the rate at which frames are processed, it is important to devise a DVFS scheme that minimizes deadline misses due to inaccuracies in workload prediction. In this paper, we demonstrate that tiled-graphics renderers exhibit substantial advantages over immediate-mode renderers in obtaining access to frame parameters that help in enhancing the workload estimation accuracy. We also show that, operating at a finer granularity of "tiles" as opposed to "frames" allows early detection and corrective action in case of a mis-prediction. We propose an accurate workload estimation technique and two DVFS schemes: (i) tile-history based DVFS and (ii) tile-rank based DVFS for tiled-rendering architectures. The proposed schemes are demonstrated to be more efficient in terms of power and performance than the frame level DVFS schemes proposed in recent literature. With a system with 8 DVFS levels, our tile-history based DVFS scheme results in 60\% improvement in quality (deadline misses) over the frame history based DVFS schemes and gives 58\% saving in energy. The more sophisticated tile-rank based scheme achieves 75\% improvement in quality over the frame history based DVFS scheme and results in 58\% saving in energy. We have also compared the efficiency of the proposed tile-level DVFS schemes with frame-level schemes for different number of DVFS levels, and found that while the frame-level schemes suffer from increasing deadline misses as the frequency levels increase, the impact on tile-level schemes is negligible. The Energy per Frame-rate for our scheme is the minimum, indicating that it delivers the best performance-energy results

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

dynamic voltage and frequency scaling
workload prediction


Immune response dynamics The consequences of regulatory T cell (Treg) inhibition of interleukine 2 secretion are examined by mathematical modelling. We determine the analytic formula that describes the fine balance between Regulatory T cells and T cells at controlled and immune response equilibrium states. We demonstrate that cytokine dependent growth exhibits a quorum T cell population threshold that determines if immune responses develop on activation. We determine the analytic formulas of T cell proliferation thresholds that allow us to study the sensibility of the quorum growth thresholds controlling immune responses. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

immunology
tregs
cytokines
secretion inhibition
growth model
ode model


Speedup and scalability analysis of Master-Slave applications on large heterogeneous clusters Although cluster environments have an enormous potential processing power, real applications that take advantage of this power remain an elusive goal. This is due, in part, to the lack of understanding about the characteristics of the applications best suited for these environments. This paper focuses on Master/Slave applications for large heterogeneous clusters. It defines application, cluster and execution models to derive an analytic expression for the execution time. It defines speedup and derives speedup bounds based on the inherent parallelism of the application and the aggregated computing power of the cluster. The paper derives an analytical expression for efficiency and uses it to define scalability of the algorithm-cluster combination based on the isoefficiency metric. Furthermore, the paper establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for an algorithm-cluster combination to be scalable which are easy to verify and use in practice. Finally, it covers the impact of network contention as the number of processors grow. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

parallel systems
distributed systems
modeling and prediction


Comments on "An effective hybrid optimization approach for multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problems" An effective hybrid optimization approach proposed by Xia and Wu [Xia, W.J., Wu, Z.M. (2005). An effective hybrid optimization approach for multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problems. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 48, 409-425] was recently published in Computers & Industrial Engineering journal to solve the multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problems. In this work, comments and suggestions are given to the recently published approach of Xia and Wu (2005). The comments like centralized the problem formulation and experimental comparison. The modification of the problem formulation is suggested in this work. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

flexible job-shop scheduling problem
earliest starting time


Congruential complements of ground term rewrite systems Let A and B be ground term rewrite systems over some ranked alphabet Sigma with (A)* subset of or equal to (B)*. We say that a ground term rewrite system C over Sigma is a congruential complement of A for B, if (A boolean OR C)* = (B)* and (A)*boolean AND (C)* is the identity relation over T-Sigma. We show that, given ground term rewrite systems A, B, C over some ranked alphabet Sigma with (A)* subset of or equal to (B)*, one can effectively decide if C is a congruential complement of A for B. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.

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

tree automaton
post correspondence problem


Comparison of Predictive Contract Mechanisms from an Information Theory Perspective Inconsistency arises across a Distributed Virtual Environment due to network latency induced by state changes communications. Predictive Contract Mechanisms (PCMs) combat this problem through reducing the amount of messages transmitted in return for perceptually tolerable inconsistency. To date there are no methods to quantify the efficiency of PCMs in communicating this reduced state information. This article presents an approach derived from concepts in information theory for a deeper understanding of PCMs. Through a comparison of representative PCMs, the worked analysis illustrates interesting aspects of PCMs operation and demonstrates how they can be interpreted as a form of lossy information compression.

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

measurements
performance
consistency
collaborative virtual environments
dead reckoning
distributed interactive applications
distributed interactive simulation
distributed virtual environments
networked multi-player computer games
networked virtual environments


Adaptive finite element computations of complex flows Recent efforts to develop and apply adaptive finite element techniques for solving complex flow problems are reviewed. The emphasis is not on new methods but on how to use existing methods to achieve accurate predictions. Various sources of errors, and means of detecting them, are discussed. The aim is to identify various sources of errors and their effects on adaptivity. For simplicity and clarity, examples are taken from steady state two-dimensional flow problems. The paper discusses the use of adaptive techniques for achieving grid-independent solutions. Wherever possible predictions are compared with measurements. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

complex flow
adaptive techniques
finite element


Use of substitute scalarizing functions to guide a local search based heuristic: The case of moTSP Solving the Tchebycheff program means optimizing a particular scalarizing function. When dealing with combinatorial problems, however, it is due to computational intractability often necessary to apply heuristics and settle for approximations to the optimal solution. The experiments in this paper suggest that for the multiobjective traveling salesman problem (moTSP) instances considered, heuristic optimization of the Tchebycheff program gives better results when using a substitute scalarizing function instead of the Tchebycheff based one to guide the local search path. Two families of substitute scalarizing functions are considered.

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

multiple objective combinatorial optimization


An evaluation of a configurable VLIW microarchitecture for embedded DSP applications The last decade has witnessed a significant increase in processor offerings geared towards embedded DSP applications. Such processors are commonly VLIW architectures with special ISA and/or microarchitecture features for speeding up signal processing functions and customization options to improve cost/performance. The Jazz Programmable System Architecture from Improv Systems is one such processor offering. Jazz employs a VLIW` architecture which is well-suited to the characteristics of embedded DSP applications such as voice over packet, media processing, and home connectivity. The microarchitecture incorporates overlaid datapaths, distributed register file and memory systems, code compression, and parallel computation and memory access. Jazz permits design-time configuration in an attempt to bridge the gap between the flexibility of a programmable processor and the cost-benefit of full customization. In this paper, we explore the cost/performance tradeoffs of the Jazz microarchitecture on various embedded multimedia applications using a detailed cycle-level simulator as well as area and power models. Through a comparison of the performance, power, and area of different hardware configurations running these applications, we demonstrate how the configurability of the architecture affords a cost-performance benefit over a fixed microarchitecture. Key features of the microarchitecture are quantitatively evaluated in terms of their influence on performance. The relationship between compiler optimizations and processor performance is also explored.

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


An adaptive split-and-merge method for binary image contour data compression The split-and-merge method is a well-known algorithm for polygonal approximation in computer vision applications such as feature extracting and pattern matching. Its accuracy depends on the tolerance, that is the error threshold value. This study presents a split-and-merge method with an adaptive tolerance value for compressing image contours. The tolerance value, which depends on the grid constant D and the line length of line L in a collinearity test, is adopted to reduce quantization error while keeping its original shape. A contour tracing method that achieves the right shape representation of binary images is also discussed. Experimental results for real binary contours show the method is effective for compression of a binary image. The proposed method allows a precise description of the original image and can smooth coarse contours. It is also computationally efficient.

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

data compression
polygonal approximation
tolerance


A Connectivity-Based Method for Enhancing Sampling in Probabilistic Roadmap Planners The motion planning is a difficult problem but nevertheless, a crucial part of robotics. The probabilistic roadmap planners have shown to be an efficient way to solve these planning problems. In this paper, we present a new algorithm that is based on the principles of the probabilistic roadmap planners. Our algorithm enhances the sampling by intelligently detecting which areas of the configuration space are easy and which parts are not. The algorithm then biases the sampling only to the difficult areas that may contain narrow passages. Our algorithm works by dividing the configuration space into regions at the beginning and then sampling configurations inside each region. Based on the connectivity of the roadmap inside each region, our algorithm aims to detect whether the region is easy or difficult. We tested our algorithm with three different simulated environments and compared it with two other planners. Our experiments showed that with our method it is possible to achieve significantly better results than with other tested planners. Our algorithm was also able to reduce the size of roadmaps.

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

probabilistic roadmaps
narrow passage problem


Computational intelligence for the Balanced Scorecard: Studying performance trends of hemodialysis clinics The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a general, widely employed instrument for enterprise performance monitoring based on the periodic assessment of strategic Key Performance Indicators that are scored against preset targets. The BSC is currently employed as an effective management support tool within Fresenius Medical Care (FME) and is routinely analyzed via standard statistical methods. More recently, the application of computational intelligence techniques (namely, self-organizing maps) to BSC data has been proposed as a way to enhance the quantity and quality of information that can be extracted from it. In this work, additional methods are presented to analyze the evolution of clinic performance over time. Performance evolution is studied at the single-clinic level by computing two complementary indexes that measure the proportion of time spent within performance clusters and improving/worsening trends. Self-organizing maps are used in conjunction with these indexes to identify the specific drivers of the observed performance. The performance evolution for groups of clinics is modeled under a probabilistic framework by resorting to Markov chain properties. These allow a study of the probability of transitioning between performance clusters as time progresses for the identification of the performance level that is expected to become dominant over time. We show the potential of the proposed methods through illustrative results derived from the analysis of BSC data of 109 FME clinics in three countries. We were able to identify the performance drivers for specific groups of clinics and to distinguish between countries whose performances are likely to improve from those where a decline in performance might be expected. According to the stationary distribution of the Markov chain, the expected trend is best in Turkey (where the highest performance cluster has the highest probability, P=0.46), followed by Portugal (where the second best performance cluster dominates, with P=0.50), and finally Italy (where the second best performance cluster has P=0.34). These results highlight the ability of the proposed methods to extract insights about performance trends that cannot be easily extrapolated using standard analyses and that are valuable in directing management strategies within a continuous quality improvement policy.

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

self-organizing maps
clustering
markov chains
dialysis
health care performance


Facing the traffic explosion in metro transport networks with energy-sustainable architectures The continuous growth of traffic volumes is making the consumed energy, in telecommunication networks, a critical issue. In this context, the implementation of new content distribution solutions will speed up this traffic increase. In particular, these solutions will significantly impact the traffic profile in metro networks. The current centralized traffic scenario will move toward a scenario in which the traffic exchanges would be distributed among all the nodes of the metro network. In this work, starting from a real traffic scenario, we estimate a possible traffic evolution, and we design the metro networks, according to different architectures, using integer linear programming formulations. The aim was to understand which architecture can better face the considered traffic evolution. The comparison is performed considering the energy consumption, the network setup and management, and the quality of service ensured by the architectures.

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

metro network architecture
optical switching technologies
energy efficiency


FPGA implementation of a stereo matching processor based on window-parallel-and-pixel-parallel architecture This paper presents a processor architecture for highspeed and reliable stereo matching based on adaptive window-size control of SAD (Sum of Absolute Differences) computation. To reduce its computational complexity, SADs are computed using images divided into non-overlapping regions, and the matching result is iteratively refined by reducing a window size. Window-parallel-and-pixel-parallel architecture is also proposed to achieve to fully exploit the potential parallelism of the algorithm. The architecture also reduces the complexity of an interconnection network between memory and functional units based on the regularity of reference pixels. The stereo matching processor is implemented on an FPGA. Its performance is 80 times higher than that of a microprocessor (Pentium4@2GHz), and is enough to generate a 3-D depth image at the video rate of 33 MHz.

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 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


Defining the lines between virtual and real world purchases: Second Life sells, but whos buying? ? The present study examines the virtual spending habits of Residents in Second Life, a unique Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) with a thriving economy where virtual goods and services are purchased with real money. Large corporations are entering the virtual worlds of MMORPGs through advertising; yet, few studies have examined the relationship between virtual identities, virtual consumption and real world consumption. This study formulates a preliminary taxonomy of user motivations for playing Second Life and addresses how these diverse reasons impact both virtual and real world consumer behaviors. A total of 209 participants completed a Web-based questionnaire. The independent variable in the study was motivation for using Second Life, and respondents completed measures of frequency of purchasing different products, motivations for using Second Life, and demographic characteristics. Results are consistent with the expectation that not all Second Life users are the same in their motivations or behaviors, despite popular media coverage of the phenomenon.

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


Process systems knowledge sharing between higher education and industrial practice Five students from the TU Delft and TU Eindhoven were assigned with an M.Sc. research project on implementing knowledge management in different chemical processing companies. The student research projects were set up as a knowledge transfer experiment in itself, encouraging knowledge sharing between the students, between the universities and between the companies involved. In addition. the student projects provided the authors with an excellent opportunity to test the curriculum contents of the process systems engineering specialization in the Department of Technology, Policy and Management in a 'hard core' chemical engineering environment. The multidisciplinary TPM graduates proved to fulfill a need, or at least a niche, in the process industry. This has triggered the development of integrated courses, combining education in process design and operation with organization and (knowledge) management in the department of TPM. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

knowledge management
education
management


Higher-order asymptotic solutions in fluids of various configurations Applying perturbation methods, symbolic computation, and generalizing the solution method, higher-order asymptotic solutions are constructed in Lagrangian variables for several models describing 2D standing wave motions in fluids of various configurations. Three main parameters of the fluid configuration, depth, capillarity, and stratification layer, are considered. The frequency-amplitude dependences are obtained and compared with those known in the literature in Eulerian and Lagrangian variables. The comparison shows that the analytical frequency-amplitude dependences are in complete agreement with previous results known in the literature and with the results obtained for other models. Ageneralization allows us to investigate critical phenomena for standing waves in fluids of various configurations. Namely, special attention is focused on critical values of one parameter, the fluid depth. The frequency-amplitude dependences are analyzed from the point of view of critical values: critical points and critical curves are determined for several models describing standing waves in fluids of various configurations.

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

lagrangian variables
perturbation methods
critical phenomena


Stability of the human upright stance depending on the frequency of external disturbances During an upright stance of humans, it is usually assumed that a stiffer ankle joint contributes to stabilize the stance. To show that under certain conditions a stiffer ankle joint can reduce the stability, the frequency responses of the moment and the angle of the ankle joint against external disturbances caused by random horizontal translations of the support surface were evaluated in ten healthy adult subjects by varying the difficulty of the task at four levels. When it was difficult to keep the upright stance, the subject tended to make the ankle joint stiffer. The transfer function relating the external disturbance moment to the ankle joint moment showed a larger gain in the high frequency range (>0.3Hz) compared with the gains obtained under easier conditions. A simulation analysis based on a simple inverted pendulum model also reproduced this tendency. These results indicate that the stiffer ankle joint and the resulting higher ankle moment for high frequency external disturbances enhance the possibility that the center of pressure exceeds the limit arising from the size of the feet and can make the upright stance unstable.

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

upright stance
external disturbance
transfer function


Numerical modelling of degradation of cement-based materials under leaching and external sulfate attack A modified PoissonNernstPlanck model is proposed to simulate ionic diffusion. An alternative method of simulating decalcification of CSH is proposed. The proposed cracking suction effect governs ionic diffusion in the degraded area. The proposed models can acquire accurate hydrate composition in damaged materials. It is found that the contribution from chemical activity is limited for diffusion.

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

cement-based material
chemical reaction
damage quantification
finite element model


An OVAL-based active vulnerability assessment system for enterprise computer networks Many security problems are caused by vulnerabilities hidden in enterprise computer networks. It is very important for system administrators to have knowledge about the security vulnerabilities. However, current vulnerability assessment methods may encounter the issues of high false positive rates, long computational time, and requirement of developing attack codes. Moreover, they are only capable of locating individual vulnerabilities on a single host without considering correlated effect of these vulnerabilities on a host or a section of network with the vulnerabilities possibly distributed among different hosts. To address these issues, an active vulnerability assessment system NetScope with C/S architecture is developed for evaluating computer network security based on open vulnerability assessment language instead of simulating attacks. The vulnerabilities and known attacks with their prerequisites and consequences are modeled based on predicate logic theory and are correlated so as to automatically construct potential attack paths with strong operation power of relational database management system. The testing results from a series of experiments show that this system has the advantages of a low false positive rate, short running periods, and little impact on the performance of audited systems and good scalability. The security vulnerabilities, undetectable if assessed individually in a network, are discovered without the need to simulate attacks. It is shown that the NetScope system is well suited for vulnerability assessment of large-scale computer networks such as campus networks and enterprise networks. Moreover, it can also be easily integrated with other security tools based on relational databases.

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

network security
open vulnerability assessment language
predicate logic
relational database management system


A pegging approach to the precedence-constrained knapsack problem The knapsack problem (KP) is generalized to the case where items are partially ordered through a set of precedence relations. As in ordinary KPs, each item is associated with profit and weight, the knapsack has a fixed capacity, and the problem is to determine the set of items to be packed in the knapsack. However, each item can be accepted only when all the preceding items have been included in the knapsack. The knapsack problem with these additional constraints is referred to as the precedence-constrained knapsack problem (PCKP). To solve PCKP exactly, we present a pegging approach, where the size of the original problem is reduced by applying the Lagrangian relaxation followed by a pegging test. Through this approach, we are able to solve PCKPs with thousands of items within a few minutes on an ordinary workstation.

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

combinational optimization
precedence constraints


Human interaction with policy flight simulators One of few human factors descriptions of modeling policy setting. Contribution to understanding of truly complex systems. Explanation of policy (flight) simulators.

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

computational modeling
interactive visualization


an abstract machine for lambda-terms normalization Two abstract machines reducing terms to their full normal form are presented in this paper. They are based on Krivine's abstract machine [Kri85] which uses an environment to store arguments of function calls. A proof of their correctness is then stated in the abstract framework of &lgr; &sgr; -calculus [Cur89].

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

framework paper normalization correctness

environments abstraction abstract-machine argument functional


Exploiting scale-free information from expression data for cancer classification Most studies concerning expression data analyses usually exploit information on the variability of gene intensity across samples. This information is sensitive to initial data processing, which affects the final conclusions. However expression data contains scale-free information, which is directly comparable between different samples. We propose to use the pairwise ratio of gene expression values rather than their absolute intensities for a classification of expression data. This information is stable to data processing and thus more attractive for classification analyses. In proposed schema of data analyses only information on relative gene expression levels in each sample is exploited. Testing on publicly available datasets leads to superior classification results.

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

microarray data
scale-free schema
genes pairwise ratio


AN INTENSIONAL SEMANTICS FOR A HYBRID LANGUAGE One of the major assumptions in designing knowledge representation formalisms in the KL-One family, was the so-called 'intensional representation'. An intensional representation is required when two descriptions have to be compared, or when they are interpreted by qualitative processes; in other words, many processes can be activated by using the global structure of a concept, and by interpreting its properties and the relationships between these properties. In this perspective, an intensional semantics for a typical terminological language has been designed, which is quite different from the extensional models proposed so far. The semantics of the language is similar to that of data types in programming languages. Primitive concepts are denoted bby a set of values. Defined concepts are denoted by their properties. A denotation thus contains the minimum number of properties which are required for an individual to be an instance of a generic concept. More precisely, the denotation is the Cartesian product of the sets denoting the properties of the generic concept (deduced from its syntax). A role is denoted by a function which, given a tuple, returns the values of the property which individuates the role. An individual is created by instantiating the properties of the relative generic concept, used as a guide. As a result, this process creates a tuple whose elements are the instantiating properties. The instantiation chain terminates by instantiating primitive concepts on the basis of their denotation. A deeper integration between the entire system and any programming language can be reached, which implicitly gives rise to an object-oriented system. In other words, it is possible to introduce an individual concept into a programming language, like any other data type. For instance, an individual concept is passed to a function as a parameter; once it has been verified that this individual is an instance of a generic concept, or of one of its subconcepts, the function will be executed. Furthermore, an increase in the expressive power is obtained, since it makes it possible to give a formal meaning to all kinds of recursive definitions of individual and generic concepts.

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

knowledge representation
intensional semantics


Implementation of the notch Filters using subband decomposition The design of the finite impulse response (FIR) notch filter with controlled null width is expressed as a derivatively contrained quadratic optimization problem. The problem is transformed into an unconstrained one by choosing a null matrix orthogonal to the derivative constraint matrix. In this paper, subband decomposition using wavelet filters is employed to construct the null matrix. Taking advantage of the vanishing moment property of the wavelet filters, the proposed method can adjust the null width of the notch filter for eliminating the intractable iterference by controlling the regularity of the wavelet filters. Simulation results show that the new method can offer comparable performance as those of the existing full-rank-based ones and thus provides a promising alternative to the existing works.

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


A Shape Representation with Elastic Quadratic Polynomials-Preservation of High Curvature Points under Noisy Conditions We present a new shape representation technique for a planar shape using overlapping quadratic splines. The technique refines the shape by iteratively updating each spline to reduce the cost associated with C (1) discontinuity. It consists of a series of affine commutative linear operators, producing a smooth bandpass frequency response. The primary purpose of the technique is to remove minute high-curvature points while preserving salient ones. We compare the performance of the technique against those that are based on either linear splines, cubic splines, or wavelets. We consider three criteria: sensitivity of detecting salient high-curvature points, Hausdorff distance between the representation and the original shape, and computation time. The results show that the proposed technique is highly effective in preserving salient high curvature points with a relatively small Hausdorff distance and a computational cost.

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

key-point detection
interpolation
restoration


The energy generation and transmission in compound elastic cylindrical shells with heavy internal fluid loading - from parametric studies to optimization The methodology of boundary integral equations is applied for analysis and optimization of the power flows in elastic compound cylindrical shells with heavy internal fluid loading. Two generic model problems are solved and the roles of various physical parameters involved in the problem formulation are assessed. It is shown that the efficiency of an optimization procedure heavily relies on a careful parametric study of wave propagation and correct physical interpretation of its results.

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

wave propagation
boundary integral equations
optimization

fluid-filled compound elastic shell
energy flow
trapped modes
stop and pass bands


Learner excellence biased by data set selection: A case for data characterisation and artificial data sets The excellence of a given learner is usually claimed through a performance comparison with other learners over a collection of data sets. Too often, researchers are not aware of the impact of their data selection on the results. Their test beds are small, and the selection of the data sets is not supported by any previous data analysis. Conclusions drawn on such test beds cannot be generalised, because particular data characteristics may favour certain learners unnoticeably. This work raises these issues and proposes the characterisation of data sets using complexity measures, which can be helpful for both guiding experimental design and explaining the behaviour of learners.

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

supervised learning
learner assessment
data complexity


personalized recommender system based on item taxonomy and folksonomy Item folksonomy or tag information is popularly available on the web now. However, since tags are arbitrary words given by users, they contain a lot of noise such as tag synonyms, semantic ambiguities and personal tags. Such noise brings difficulties to improve the accuracy of item recommendations. In this paper, we propose to combine item taxonomy and folksonomy to reduce the noise of tags and make personalized item recommendations. The experiments conducted on the dataset collected from Amazon.com demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The results suggested that the recommendation accuracy can be further improved if we consider the viewpoints and the vocabularies of both experts and users.

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

personalization
recommender systems
web 2.0


Modeling RPS and Evaluating Video Repair With VQM Reference Picture Selection (RPS) is a promising repair technique in lossy networks for delay-sensitive video, whereby the video encoder uses one of several previous frames as a reference frame for predictive encoding. RPS can operate in two different modes: an optimistic policy that uses negative acknowledgements (NACKs) and a more conservative policy that relies upon positive acknowledgements (ACKs). This paper compares RPS NACK and RPS ACK under various network conditions and video contents using two analytical models. The two models characterize RPS NACK and RPS ACK by incorporating the impact of reference distance on video quality, prediction dependency among video frames and Group of Pictures (GOP) length. Given packet-loss rate, round-trip time and capacity constraints, the models predict average video quality for videos with RPS ACK and RPS NACK using the Video Quality Metric (VQM). Using these two models, a series of experiments are conducted to investigate RPS performance under various conditions. The insights derived from our models can help determine appropriate choices for RPS NACK and RPS ACK under various network conditions and video contents.

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


Adoption of Open Source Software: The role of social identification While the benefits of incorporating Open Source Software (OSS) into personal and organizational systems have been widely touted, OSS must be adopted and used by end users before these benefits can be realized. Drawing on research in information systems and sociology, this study develops and evaluates an integrated model for the acceptance of OSS. In addition to the traditional technology adoption variables the findings stress the importance of social identification as a key driver of OSS adoption. The proposed model provides a useful decision support tool for assessing and proactively designing interventions targeted at successful OSS adoption and diffusion.

O O B I I O O O B I 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 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

open source software
social identification

personal innovativeness
adoption decisions


high-performance carry chains for fpgas Carry chains are an important consideration for most computations, including FPGAs. Current FPGAs dedicate a portion of their logic to support these demands via a simple ripple carry scheme. In this paper we demonstrate how more advanced carry constructs can be embedded into FPGAs, providing significantly higher performance carry computations. We redesign the standard ripple carry chain to reduce the number of logic levels in each cell. We also develop entirely new carry structures based on high performance adders such as Carry Select, Carry Lookahead, and Brent-Kung. Overall, these optimizations achieve a speedup in carry performance of 3.8 times over current architectures.

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

select fpgas speedup performance support demonstrate logic paper scheme

optimality architecture high-performance standardization embedding


A new combined method based on curvelet transform and morphological operators for automatic detection of foveal avascular zone In order to achieve early detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) for the sake of preventing from blindness, regular screening using retinal photography is necessary. Abnormalities of DR do not have uniform distribution over the retina. Certain types of abnormalities usually occur in specific areas on the retina. The distance between lesions, such as micro-aneurysms, and the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) is a useful feature for later analysis and grading of DR. In this paper, a new fully automatic system is presented to find the location of FAZ in fundus fluorescein angiogram photographs. The method is based on two procedures: digital curvelet transform (DCUT) and morphological operations. Firstly, end points of vessels are detected based on vessel segmentation using DCUT. By connecting these points in the selected region of interest, FAZ region is extracted. Secondly, vessels are subtracted from the retinal image, and morphological dilatation and erosion are applied on the resulted image. By choosing an appropriate threshold, FAZ region is detected. The final FAZ region is extracted by performing logical AND between two segmented FAZ. Our experiments show that the system achieves, respectively, the specificity and sensitivity of (>98 and >96%) for normal stage, for mild/moderate non-proliferative DR (NPDR) (>98, and >95%) and for Sever NPDR+PDR (>97 and >93%).

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

fundus fluorescein angiogram
morphological operations

diabetic retinopathy (dr)
foveal avascular zone (faz )
digital curvelet transform (dcut)


A variable elimination method to improve the parsimony of MLR models using the successive projections algorithm The successive projections algorithm (SPA) is a variable selection technique designed to minimize collinearity problems in multiple linear regression (MLR). This paper proposes a modification to the basic SPA formulation aimed at further improving the parsimony of the resulting MLR model. For this purpose, an elimination procedure is incorporated to the algorithm in order to remove variables that do not effectively contribute towards the prediction ability of the model as indicated by an F-test. The utility of the proposed modification is illustrated in a simulation study, as well as in two application examples involving the analysis of diesel and com samples by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that the number of variables selected by SPA can be reduced without significantly compromising prediction performance. In addition, SPA is favourably compared with classic Stepwise Regression and full-spectrum PLS. A graphical user interface for SPA is available at www.ele.ita.br/similar to kawakami/spa/. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multiple linear regression
variable selection
successive projections algorithm

near-infrared spectrometry
diesel analysis
com analysis


Social recommendation model combining trust propagation and sequential behaviors All types of recommender systems have been thoroughly explored and developed in industry and academia with the advent of online social networks. However, current studies ignore the trust relationships among users and the time sequence among items, which may affect the quality of recommendations. Three crucial challenges of recommender system are prediction quality, scalability, and data sparsity. In this paper, we explore a model-based approach for recommendation in social networks which employs matrix factorization techniques. Advancing previous work, we incorporate the mechanism of temporal information and trust relations into the model. Specifically, our method utilizes shared latent feature space to constrain the objective function, as well as considers the influence of time and user trust relations simultaneously. Experimental results on the public domain dataset show that our approach performs better than state-of-the-art methods, particularly for cold-start users. Moreover, the complexity analysis indicates that our approach can be easily extended to large datasets.

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

recommender system
temporal information
social recommendation

social network
trust relation
probability matrix factorization


Seamless Integration: Standardisation across Multiple Local Settings The pressure towards tighter or seamless integration of health information systems is a recurring issue with both practical and analytical relevance. It taps into a discourse in the IS literature in general and organisation and management science in particular. Unfortunately, the prevailing perception of integration in the IS literature is as a predominantly technical issue. The CSCW literature, however, is attentive to the socio-technical aspects of integration. Building on this but supplemented with recent elaborations in science studies we aim at exploring the unintended consequences of information systems integration. A user-led perspective implies emphasising the tailoring to local needs based on in-depth studies of the micro practices. We argue, however, that the condition for such an approach is radically undermined by politically motivated, regional changes towards integration with implicated standardisation. Enforcing order in the form of standards across multiple local settings, seemingly a prerequisite for tight integration, simultaneously produces disorder or additional work in other locations for other users. Empirically, our study is based on a large, ongoing integration effort at the University hospital of Northern Norway, specifically studying work practices and perceptions across multiple laboratories.

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

integration
standardisation
unintended consequences
work practices


effective typestate verification in the presence of aliasing This paper addresses the challenge of sound typestate verification, with acceptable precision, for real-world Java programs. We present a novel framework for verification of typestate properties, including several new techniques to precisely treat aliases without undue performance costs. In particular, we present a flowsensitive, context-sensitive, integrated verifier that utilizes a parametric abstract domain combining typestate and aliasing information.To scale to real programs without compromising precision, we present a staged verification system in which faster verifiers run as early stages which reduce the workload for later, more precise, stages.We have evaluated our framework on a number of real Java programs, checking correct API usage for various Java standard libraries. The results show that our approach scales to hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and verifies correctness for 93\% of the potential points of failure.

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

precise challenge framework typestate scale performance presence libraries failure aliasing sound workload code correctness parametric verification

sensitive
point
context-sensitivity
standardization
informal
combinational
program
alias analysis
systems
abstraction
flow
program verification
effect
integrability


Dynamic rough clustering and its applications Dynamic data mining has gained increasing attention in the last decade. It addresses changing data structures which can be observed in many real-life applications, e.g. buying behavior of customers. As opposed to classical, i.e. static data mining where the challenge is to discover pattern inherent in given data sets, in dynamic data mining the challenge is to understand and in some cases even predict how such pattern will change over time. Since changes in general lead to uncertainty, the appropriate approaches for uncertainty modeling are needed in order to capture, model, and predict the respective phenomena considered in dynamic environments. As a consequence, the combination of dynamic data mining and soft computing is a very promising research area. The proposed algorithm consists of a dynamic clustering cycle when the data set will be refreshed from time to time. Within this cycle criteria check if the newly arrived data have structurally changed in comparison to the data already analyzed. If yes, appropriate actions are triggered, in particular an update of the initial settings of the cluster algorithm. As we will show, rough clustering offers strong tools to detect such changing data structures. To evaluate the proposed dynamic rough clustering algorithm it has been applied to synthetic as well as to real-world data sets where it provides new insights regarding the underlying dynamic phenomena.

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

dynamic data mining
changing data structures


Modeling the fate of down-the-drain chemicals in rivers: An improved software for GREAT-ER GREAT-ER (Geography-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers) is a model system for predicting chemical fate and exposure in surface waters. The GREAT-ER approach combines a series of well-studied models (for sewers, waste water treatment plants and rivers) with spatial information managed by a GIS. A new version of GREAT-ER (version 2) has been developed which has a number of improved features compared to its predecessor. All components are now implemented as Free Software and make use of Free Software where possible. This simplifies the distribution, use and extension of the system and its components for scientific applications. In addition, two new platform-independent user interfaces have been developed. The first is a simplified web-based interface for easy access without installation and the second is a full-featured desktop version. The model system has been re-designed to increase its flexibility for the modification and extension of its component models. In addition, the file-based data storage system used in version 1 has been replaced by a database management system with a flexible Application Programming Interface (API). This makes it easier for users to share their results, using a new repository (also with web-based and desktop versions) serving as a central communication tool. The output from the new system has been successfully tested against the field-validated models in GREAT-ER 1.0.

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


The Lagrange-Galerkin method for the two-dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive grids The weak Lagrange-Galerkin finite element method for the two-dimensional shallow water equations on adaptive unstructured grids is presented. The equations are written in conservation form and the domains are discretized using triangular elements. Lagrangian methods integrate the governing equations along the characteristic curves, thus being well suited for resolving the non-linearities introduced by the advection operator of the fluid dynamics equations. An additional fortuitous consequence of using Lagrangian methods is that the resulting spatial operator is self-adjoint, thereby justifying the use of a Galerkin formulation; this formulation has been proven to be optimal for such differential operators. The weak Lagrange-Galerkin method automatically takes into account the dilation of the control volume, thereby resulting in a conservative scheme. The use of linear triangular elements permits the construction of accurate (by virtue of the second-order spatial and temporal accuracies of the scheme) and efficient (by virtue of the less stringent Courant-Friedrich-Lewy (CFL) condition of Lagrangian methods) schemes on adaptive unstructured triangular grids. Lagrangian methods are natural candidates for use with adaptive unstructured grids because the resolution of the grid can be increased without having to decrease the time step in order to satisfy stability. An advancing front adaptive unstructured triangular mesh generator is presented. The highlight of this algorithm is that the weak Lagrange-Galerkin method is used to project the conservation variables from the old mesh onto the newly adapted mesh. In addition, two new schemes for computing the characteristic curves are presented: a composite mid-point rule and a general family of Runge-Kutta schemes. Results for the two-dimensional advection equation with and without time-dependent velocity fields are illustrated to confirm the accuracy of the particle trajectories. Results for the two-dimensional shallow water equations on a non-linear soliton wave are presented to illustrate the power and flexibility of this strategy. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

characteristic-based
eluerian-lagrangian
semi-lagrangian
unstructured grid


Clock Buffer Polarity Assignment for Power Noise Reduction Power/ground noise is a major source of VLSI circuit timing variations. This work aims to reduce clock network induced power noise by assigning different signal polarities (opposite switchings) to clock buffers in an existing buffered clock tree. Three assignment algorithms are proposed: 1) partitioning; 2) 2-coloring on minimum spanning tree; and 3) recursive min-matching. A post-processing of clock buffer sizing is performed to achieve desired clock skew. SPICE based experimental results indicate that our techniques could reduce the average peak current and average delay variations by 50% and 51%, respectively.

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 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


Methodologies for the analysis and classification of PET neuroimages Neuroimaging analysis aims to support clinicians in the diagnosis of neurological diseases by using radiological images. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging technique used to produce three-dimensional images of the human brain for neurological studies. Due to the large number of generated images, there is a lot of effort in defining computer based tools to analyze and classify brain images. Such analyses are used to identify cerebral regions of interest (ROI) related to specific neurodegenerative diseases. Statistical tools, such as SPM (for Statistical Parametric Mapping) and its MarsBar plugin, are largely used by physicians for ROIs identification and for image analysis. Nevertheless, large datasets analysis (e.g. studying pathologies for many patients and for large sets of PET images) requires repetitive SPM procedures for each patients image, mainly due to the lack of (i) automatic procedures for analysing set of patients, and (ii) validation of using SPM versus patient magnetic resonance as reference brain templates. Finally, SPM analysis requires human intervention, and there is no automatic system guiding physicians for pathologies identification. As a contribution for the latter issue, we defined an automatic classification tool using topological relations among ROIs to support physicians while studying a new patient. Starting from a set of known pathologies associated to medical annotated PET images (i.e. associated to neurological pathologies), we used SPM and MarsBaR tools to define a reference PET images dataset; ROIs extracted from input PET images have been compared with known dataset and classified, suggesting physicians with (a subset of) pathologies associated to those PET images. Experiments showed that the classifier performs well. Moreover, in order to improve the repeatability of experiments with large datasets, we use an SPM plugin called AutoSPET, which allows to perform SPM analysis on a large PET images dataset, using different SPM plugins within a unified user interface, and allowing to simply run statistical analyses. AutoSPET is available on our server and also as an SPM plugin on the SPM website. Finally we report experiments to validate the use of the standard T1 SPM template versus the magnetic resonance ones.

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

pet images analysis
region of interest
statistical analysis
automatic procedure
systems integration


On hash functions using checksums We analyse the security of iterated hash functions that compute an input dependent checksum which is processed as part of the hash computation. We show that a large class of such schemes, including those using non-linear or even one-way checksum functions, is not secure against the second preimage attack of Kelsey and Schneier, the herding attack of Kelsey and Kohno and the multicollision attack of Joux. Our attacks also apply to a large class of cascaded hash functions. Our second preimage attacks on the cascaded hash functions improve the results of Joux presented at Crypto'04. We also apply our attacks to the MD2 and GOST hash functions. Our second preimage attacks on the MD2 and GOST hash functions improve the previous best known short-cut second preimage attacks on these hash functions by factors of at least 2(26) and 2(54), respectively. Our herding and multicollision attacks on the hash functions based on generic checksum functions (e.g., one-way) are a special case of the attacks on the cascaded iterated hash functions previously analysed by Dunkelman and Preneel and are not better than their attacks. On hash functions with easily invertible checksums, our multicollision and herding attacks (if the hash value is short as in MD2) are more efficient than those of Dunkelman and Preneel.

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


the philosophy of nothing and everything Perhaps inspired by the IEEE floating point arithmetic standard's introduction of a representation for aberrant numbers, such as the reciprocal of zero, the J interpreter overtly deals with infinites and indeterminacies. This step got rid of some domain error messages, but brought in a few new difficulties, and exposed inconsistencies in the behaviour of elementary arithmetic functions presumably as delivered by the C compilers used for the J interpreters. This paper proposes notation that would allow the J interpreter better to deal with failures of arithmetic. The discussion should assist development of arithmetic for other interpreters and compilers.

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

comparison indeterminate infinity tolerance


Density-based multiscale data condensation A problem gaining interest in pattern recognition applied to data mining is that of selecting a small representative subset from a very large data set. In this article, a nonparametric data reduction scheme is suggested. It attempts to represent the density underlying the data. The algorithm selects representative points in a multiscale fashion which is novel from existing density-based approaches, The accuracy of representation by the condensed set is measured in terms of the error in density estimates of the original and reduced sets. Experimental studies on several real life data sets show that the multiscale approach is superior to several related condensation methods both in terms of condensation ratio and estimation error. The condensed set obtained was also experimentally shown to be effective for some important data mining tasks like classification, clustering, and rule generation on large data sets. Moreover, it is empirically found that the algorithm is efficient in terms of sample complexity.

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 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

multiscale condensation
scalability
density estimation
convergence in probability
instance learning


Autonomous virtual mobile robot for three-dimensional medical image exploration: Application to micro-CT cochlear images In this paper, we present an autonomous virtual mobile robot (AVMR) for three-dimensional (3D) exploration of unknown tubular-like structures in 3D images. The trajectory planning for 3D central navigation is achieved by combining two neuro-fuzzy controllers, and is based on 3D sensory information; a Hough transform is used to locally fit a cylinder during the exploration, estimating the local radius of the tube. Nonholonomic constraints are applied to assure a smooth, continuous and unique final path. When applied to 3D medical images, the AVMR operates as a virtual endoscope, directly providing anatomical measurements of the organ. After a thorough validation on challenging synthetic environments, we applied our method to eight micro-CT datasets of cochleae. Validation on synthetic environments proved the robustness of our method, and highlighted key parameters for the design of the AVMR. When applied to the micro-CT datasets, the AVMR automatically estimated length and radius of the cochleae: results were compared to manual delineations, proving the accuracy of our approach. The AVMR presents several advantages when used as a virtual endoscope: the nonholonomic constraint guarantees a unique and smooth central path, which can be reliably used both for qualitative and quantitative investigation of 3D medical datasets. Results on the micro-CT cochleae are a significant step towards the validation of more clinical computed tomography (CT) studies.

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

neurofuzzy controller
central line detection
virtual endoscopy
micro-ct cochlear images


semi-automatic model integration using matching transformations and weaving models Model transformations are at the heart of model driven engineering (MDE) and can be used in many different application scenarios. For instance, model transformations are used to integrate very large models. As a consequence, they are becoming more and more complex. However, these transformations are still developed manually. Several code patterns are implemented repetitively, increasing the probability of programming errors and reducing code reusability. There is not yet a complete solution that automates the development of model transformations. In this paper we propose a novel approach that uses matching transformations and weaving models to semi-automate the development of transformations. Matching transformations are a special kind of transformations that implement heuristics and algorithms to create weaving models. Weaving models are models that capture different kinds of relationships between models. Our solution enables to rapidly implement and to customize these heuristics. We combine different heuristics, and we propose a new metamodel-based heuristic that exploits metamodel data to automatically produce weaving models. The weaving models are derived into model integration transformations.

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 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


On the role of complete lattices in mathematical morphology: From tool to uncertainty model Mathematical morphology has a rich history. Originally introduced for binary images, it was quite soon extended to grayscale images, leading to grayscale morphology with the threshold approach and the umbra approach. Later on, different models based on fuzzy set theory were introduced. These models were based on the observation that, from a formal point of view, grayscale images and fuzzy sets are modeled in the same way. Consequently, techniques from fuzzy set theory could be applied in the context of mathematical morphology, and fuzzy mathematical morphology was born. In that framework, fuzzy set theory was only a tool to construct morphological models, and was not employed to model any fuzziness or uncertainty. Quite recently however, new extensions have led to the construction of fuzzy interval-valued and fuzzy intuitionistic mathematical morphologies. Here, extensions of fuzzy set theory actually take into account the uncertainty that comes along with image capture, specifically regarding the grayscale values, which in some cases is also related to the uncertainty regarding the spatial position of an object in an image. In this framework, (extended) fuzzy set theory not only serves as a tool to deal with grayscale images, but also as a model for uncertainty. This paper sketches this evolution of fuzzy set theory in the field of mathematical morphology, and also points out some directions for future research.

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

modeling uncertainty in image processing


the informal informing the formal to form new models of learning Media Lab Europe's Everyday Learning group and initiatives associated with the Empowering Minds project are developing new strategies for broad access to technologies and appropriation of the ideas they engender. Here we include examples of sensor-equipped portable devices for registering environmental conditions, a form and forum for developing public opinion, materials enabling personal engagement with computational ideas, and a model of professional development that sustains Constructionist uses of technologies in schools.

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

computational materials
sensors
mobile computing
multimodal representations
constructionist learning


using simulated annealing for producing software architectures Automatic design of software architecture by use of genetic algorithms has already been shown to be feasible. A natural problem is to augment -- if not replace -- genetic algorithms with some other search method in the process of searching good architectures. The present paper studies the possibilities of simulated annealing in designing software architecture. We start from functional requirements given as a graph of functional responsibilities and consider two quality attributes, modifiability and efficiency. It is concluded that simulated annealing as such does not produce "natural" architectures, but it is useful as a method of producing initial populations for genetic algorithms.

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


Analog simulation of aortic and of mitral regurgitation By using an equivalent electronic circuit either mitral or aortic regurgitation was simulated. Simulation allowed not only a measurement of various pressures within the cardiovascular system and cardiac output, but also mitral and aortic flow. In normal conditions mitral and aortic flows were monophasic, anterograde. In valve regurgitation mitral and aortic flows were, as expected, biphasic. In mitral regurgitation, during systole and diastole the valve flow was retrograde and anterograde, respectively. In aortic regurgitation, during systole and diastole the valve flow was anterograde and retrograde, respectively. The magnitude of the regurgitant valve flow was measured by time-integration and compared to the net flow, i.e. cardiac output. Valve flow was determined not only by the magnitude of valve dysfunction, but also by the resistive/capacitive characteristics of the falsely attached regurgitant circuit. If the regurgitant valve flow was large enough, it in turn affected the function of the left ventricle. The present investigation suggests that many features observed in patients with mitral or aortic regurgitation can be qualitatively satisfactorily simulated. In some respects even quantitative simulation is possible. However, for simulation of chronic mitral or aortic regurgitation, in the analog electronic circuit additional adjustmentsin capacitance of the left ventricle and pulmonary systemwould be required.

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

mitral regurgitation
aortic regurgitation

computer simulation
cardiovascular physiology


A new approach for energy and delay trade-off intra-clustering routing in WSNs In this article, we present a routing protocol through intra-clustering. Most hierarchical protocols use direct intra-cluster routing, so that all the cluster member nodes forward their data to the cluster head node directly. Considered parameters are cluster lifetime and end to end delay between cluster member nodes and cluster head node. Also, rules related to queue theory have been used to determine end to end delay. At last, simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed protocol.

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

wireless sensor networks (wsns)
hierarchical routing protocol


the predictive power of online chatter An increasing fraction of the global discourse is migrating online in the form of blogs, bulletin boards, web pages, wikis, editorials, and a dizzying array of new collaborative technologies. The migration has now proceeded to the point that topics reflecting certain individual products are sufficiently popular to allow targeted online tracking of the ebb and flow of chatter around these topics. Based on an analysis of around half a million sales rank values for 2,340 books over a period of four months, and correlating postings in blogs, media, and web pages, we are able to draw several interesting conclusions.First, carefully hand-crafted queries produce matching postings whose volume predicts sales ranks. Second, these queries can be automatically generated in many cases. And third, even though sales rank motion might be difficult to predict in general, algorithmic predictors can use online postings to successfully predict spikes in sales rank.

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

media
point
use
wikis
analysis
discourse
general
motion
online
sales rank
blogs
technologies
values
matching
flow
queries
power
tracking
global

drawing
arrays
time-series analysis
prediction
collaboration
product
web page
ranking


Comparison of electrical characteristics for SiONx and HfZrOx gate dielectrics of MOSFETs with decoupled plasma nitridation treatment The gate leakage with oxynitride dielectric around 1.5nm thickness was sensed. The gate leakage with HfZrOx dielectric around 1.5nm thickness was extracted. The ON currents for both devices were measured and compared. The difference of leakage mechanisms for both was illustrated. We probe the discrepancy for both devices in electrical characterization.

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

high-k
sion
mosfet
metal-gate
drive current


Mozart or metallica, who makes you more attractive? A mediated moderation test of music, gender, personality, and attractiveness in cyberspace Background music of a website affects the website owners perceived personality. Background music of a website affects the website owners perceived attractiveness. Website background music influences impression formation. Music stereotypes exist not only offline, but also online. Males and females are attached to different music stereotypes, even in cyberspace.

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

personal website
online identity
music stereotype
gender bias
lens model


Recognition of multi axis milling features: Part I - Topological and geometric characteristics Most of the work in machining feature recognition has been limited to 2-1/2 and 3 axis milling features. The major impediment to recognition of complex features has been the difficulty in generalizing the characteristics of their shape. This two-part paper describes general purpose methods for recognizing both simple and complex features; the latter may have freeform surfaces and may require 4 or 5 axis machining. Part I of this paper attempts to describe features in terms of geometric and topological characteristics. Part II of the paper uses the characterization and classification developed in Part I for designing feature recognition algorithms. Part I proposes five basic categories and several sub-classifications of features derived both from machining considerations and computational methods for NC toolpath generation. Rather than using topologically rigid features, such as slots and steps, etc., machining features are classified as "Cut-Thru," "Cut-Around" and "Cut-on" and further classified into sub-categories. Each feature class is described by a list of properties. Apart from the obvious use in feature recognition, this feature classification and characterization may have potential use in developing future data exchange standards for complex features.

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


Relative subjective count and assessment of interruptive technologies applied to mobile monitoring of stress A variety of technologiesfrom agents designed to assist or encourage you, to context-based messaging serviceshave the opportunity to interrupt you many times throughout the day. One of the challenges with designing new highly interruptive technologies is how to objectively assess their influence on human experience. This paper presents an assessment of a new mobile system that interrupts the wearer to support self-monitoring of stress. We utilize a diverse set of assessment techniques, including a newly proposed measure, relative subjective count, which compares the difference in perceived number of interruptions to actual number of interruptions. This measure, together with direct and indirect subjective reports, and a behavioral choice, is used to evaluate an empathetic version of the mobile system vs. a non-empathetic version. We found that post-experience direct questionnaire assessments such as how stressful has using the system been? do not significantly distinguish user experiences with the two systems; however, the new measure of relative subjective count, the behavioral choice, and another indirect questioning strategy, do point toward a preference for the empathetic system.

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

affective assessment
relative subjective duration
frustration measures
relational computing
wearable and mobile computing
ubiquitous computing
physiological monitoring
stress monitoring


Managing irrelevant knowledge in CBR models for unsolicited e-mail classification The problem of unsolicited e-mail has been increasing during recent years. Fortunately, some advanced technologies have been successfully applied to spam filtering, achieving promising results. Recently, we have introduced SPAMHUNTING, a successful spam filter able to address the concept drift problem by combining it relevant term identification technique with all evolving sliding window strategy. Several successful spam filtering techniques use continuous learning strategies to achieve better adaptation capabilities and address concept drift issues. Nevertheless, due to the presence of concept drift and hidden changes in the environment, the presence of obsolete and irrelevant knowledge becomes it serious drawback. Soon after the launch of the filter, many decisions are made based oil irrelevant and/or obsolete knowledge. Therefore, in such a situation, the use of forgetting strategies is as important as the implementation of continuous learning approaches. In this paper we introduce a novel technique designed for identifying and removing the obsolete and irrelevant knowledge that hits accumulated over to the passage of time. We have carried out several experiments to test for the suitability of our proposal showing the results obtained and its applicability. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

anti-spam filtering
eirn viewer
cbr system


Modifications of phonetic labial targets in emotive speech: effects of the co-production of speech and emotions This paper describes how the visual characteristics of some Italian phones (/a/, /b/, /v/) are modified in emotive speech by the expression of the big six emotions: joy, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and fear. In this research we specifically analyze the interaction between the articulatory lip targets of the Italian vowel /a/ and consonants /b/ and /v/, defined by phonetic-phonological rules, and the labial configurations, peculiar to each emotion. This interaction was quantified on the basis of the variations of the following parameters: lip opening, upper and lower lip vertical displacements, lip rounding, anterior/posterior movements (protrusion) of upper lip and lower lip, left and right lip corner horizontal displacements, left and right corner vertical displacements, and two asymmetry parameters, calculated as the difference between right and left corner position along the horizontal and the vertical axes. The first aim of this research is to quantify the modifications of the lip articulatory parameters due to the emotions; the second aim is to analyze the parameters which are subject to phonetic-phonological constraints and are consequently less influenced by emotions. The results are useful to define the emotive speech production models and are presently employed in researches concerning audiovisual speech synthesis (Talking Heads).

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

phonetic-phonological modifications induced by emotions


Thermally activated analysis of LaSiOx/Si and GdSiOx/Si structures at cryogenic temperatures Shallow electron traps associated with La and Gd ions have been identified. Shallow traps are located in transition layer between silicate and semiconductor. Activation energy of emission processes have been determined.

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

high-k dielectric
rare earth silicate
thermally stimulated charge release


Open access: the ideal and the real Open access would allow ISPs to use a cable operator's broadband connection under regulated terms and conditions. Advocates stress the desirability of an end-to-end architecture for the Internet and the danger that cable operators will use their control over the last mile to limit consumer choice and stifle innovation. Opponents contend that wholesale price controls and other regulatory burdens under what they term forced access would in fact slow down the deployment of broadband, stifle innovation and harm consumers. The fears of open access advocates seem largely speculative at this point. Evidence from related policies also favors the opponents. Closed cable systems are beating their open DSL competitors in the market place; analogous regulation of cable TV did not serve consumers well; and forced unbundling of local service has been controversial and largely ineffective. In addition, relevant technology stocks declined in price with political and legal victories for open access and increased when it suffered setbacks.

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


Near optimal routing and capacity management for PWCE-based survivable WDM networks Protected Working Capacity Envelope (PWCE) has been proposed to simplify resource management and traffic control for survivable WDM networks. In a PWCE-based network, part of the link capacity is reserved for accommodating working routes, and the remaining capacity is reserved for backup routes. The shortest path routing is applied in PWCE-based networks. An arrival call is accepted only when each link along the shortest path has a free working channel. Such a working path routing scheme greatly simplifies the call admission control process for dynamic traffic, and it is especially suitable for implementation in a distributed manner among network nodes. In this article, we investigate two protection strategies: Bundle Protection (BP) and Individual Protection (IDP). In BP, only one backup path can be used to protect a failure component, whereas multiple backup paths can be used in IDP. We formulate four mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problems using BP and IDP strategies for single link and single node failure protection. Each model is designed to determine link metrics for shortest working path routing, working and backup channel assignments, and backup path planning. Our objective is to minimize call-blocking probability on the bottleneck link. Since these models are highly non-linear and non-convex, it is difficult to obtain exact global optimal solutions. We propose a Simulated Annealing-based Heuristic (SAH) algorithm to obtain near optimal solutions. This SAH adopts the concepts of simulated annealing as well as the bi-section technique to minimize call-blocking probabilities. To evaluate the performance, we made simulation comparisons between SAH and the unity link weight assignment scheme. The results indicate that SAH can greatly reduce call-blocking probabilities on benchmark and the randomly generated networks.

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


an efficient technique for analysis of minimal buffer requirements of synchronous dataflow graphs with model checking Synchronous Dataflow (SDF) is a widely-used model of computation for digital signal processing and multimedia applications, which are typically implemented on memory constrained hardware platforms. SDF can be statically analyzed and scheduled, and the memory requirement for correct execution can be predicted at compile time. In this paper, we present an efficient technique based on model-checking for exact analysis of minimal buffer requirement of an SDF graph to guarantee deadlock-free execution. Performance evaluation shows that our approach can achieve significant performance improvements compared to related work.

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

memory management
optimization
scheduling