Decomposing relationship types by pivoting and schema equivalence In the relational data model, the problem of data redundancy has been successfully tackled via decomposition. In advanced data models, decomposition by pivoting provides a similar concept. Pivoting has been introduced by Biskup, Menzel and Polle, and used for decomposing relationship types according to a unary non-key functional dependency. Our objective is to study pivoting in the presence of cardinality constraints which are commonly used in semantic data models. For this, we generalize the notion of pivoting such that decomposing relationship types does no longer require the existence of a given unary functional dependency. In order to ensure the equivalence of the given schema and its image under pivoting, the original application-dependent constraints have to be preserved. We discuss this problem for sets of participation and co-occurrence constraints. In particular, we prove the necessity of path cardinality constraints, and give an appropriate foundation for this concept.

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

pivoting
decomposition
schema equivalence
cardinality constraints

schema transformation
constraint preservation


A modular framework for the automatic classification of chromosomes in Q-band images The manual analysis of the karyogram is a complex and time-consuming operation, as it requires meticulous attention to details and well-trained personnel. Routine Q-band laboratory images show chromosomes that are randomly rotated, blurred or corrupted by overlapping and dye stains. We address here the problem of robust automatic classification, which is still an open issue. The proposed method starts with an improved estimation of the chromosome medial axis, along which an established set of features is then extracted. The following novel polarization stage estimates the chromosome orientation and makes this feature set independent on the reading direction along the axis. Feature rescaling and normalizing techniques take full advantage of the results of the polarization step, reducing the intra-class and increasing the inter-class variances. After a standard neural network based classification, a novel class reassignment algorithm is employed to maximize the probability of correct classification, by exploiting the constrained composition of the human karyotype. An average 94% of correct classification was achieved by the proposed method on 5474 chromosomes, whose images were acquired during laboratory routine and comprise karyotypes belonging to slightly different prometaphase stages. In order to provide the scientific community with a public dataset, all the data we used are publicly available for download. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

alternating decision trees
artificial neural networks
automatic karyotyping
chromosome classification
chromosome polarization
image classification


crosslanguage blog mining and trend visualisation People use weblogs to express thoughts, present ideas and share knowledge, therefore weblogs are extraordinarily valuable resources, amongs others, for trend analysis. Trends are derived from the chronological sequence of blog post count per topic. The comparison with a reference corpus allows qualitative statements over identified trends. We propose a crosslanguage blog mining and trend visualisation system to analyse blogs across languages and topics. The trend visualisation facilitates the identification of trends and the comparison with the reference news article corpus. To prove the correctness of our system we computed the correlation between trends in blogs and news articles for a subset of blogs and topics. The evaluation corroborated our hypothesis of a high correlation coefficient for these subsets and therefore the correctness of our system for different languages and topics is proven.

B 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 B B I 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

trend visualisation
crosslanguage
blog mining


Identification of beta-barrel membrane proteins based on amino acid composition properties and predicted secondary structure Unlike all-helices membrane proteins, beta-barrel membrane proteins can not be successfully discriminated from other proteins, especially from all-beta soluble proteins. This paper performs an analysis on the amino acid composition in membrane parts of 12 beta-barrel membrane proteins versus beta-strands of 79 all-beta soluble proteins. The average and variance of the amino acid composition in these two classes are calculated. Amino acids such as Gly, Asn, Val that are most likely associated with classification are selected based on Fishers discriminant ratio. A linear classifier built with these selected amino acids composition in observed beta-strands achieves 100% classification accuracy for 12 membrane proteins and 79 soluble proteins in a four-fold cross-validation experiment. Since at present the accuracy of secondary structure prediction is quite high, a promising method to identify beta-barrel membrane proteins is presented based on the linear classifier coupled with predicted secondary structure. Applied to 241 beta-barrel membrane proteins and 3855 soluble proteins with various structures, the method achieves 85.48% (206/241) sensitivity and 92.53% specificity (3567/3855). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

amino acid composition
linear classifier
predicted secondary structure


A knowledge-based approach to manage information systems interoperability Interoperability is a key property of enterprise applications, which is hard to achieve due to the large number of interoperating components and semantic heterogeneity. The inherent complexity of interoperability problems implies that there exists no silver bullet to solve them. Rather, the knowledge about how to solve wicked interoperability problems is hidden in the application cases that expose those problems. The paper addresses the question of how to organise and use method knowledge to resolve interoperability problems. We propose the structure of a knowledge-based system that can deliver situation-specific solutions, called method chunks. Situational Method Engineering promotes modularisation and formalisation of method knowledge in the form of reusable method chunks, which can be combined to compose a situation-specific method. The method chunks are stored in a method chunk repository. In order to cater for management and retrieval, we introduce an Interoperability Classification Framework, which is used to classify and tag method chunks and to assess the project situation in which they are to be used. The classification framework incorporates technical as well as business and organisational aspects of interoperability. This is an important feature as interoperability problems typically are multifaceted spanning multiple aspects. We have applied the approach to analyse an industry case from the insurance sector to identify and classify a set of method chunks.

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

interoperability
situational method engineering
method chunk


Nanoelectronic SET-based core for network-on-chip architectures Nanoelectronics is a very promising step the world of electronics is taking. It is proved to be more efficient than the microelectronic approaches currently in use, mainly in terms of area and energy management. A Single-Electron Transistor (SET) is capable of confining electrons to sufficiently small dimensions, so that the quantization of both their charge and their energy is easily observable, making the SET's quantum mechanical devices. These features should allow building chips with a number of devices orders of magnitude greater than indicated by the roadmap still respecting area and power consumption restrictions. In this sense, Tera Scale Integrated (TSI) systems can be feasible in the future. A digital module, such as an arithmetic logic unit, completely implemented with SETs has already been proposed and validated by simulation. In this work a completely SET based network-on-chip (NoC) nanoelectronic core is proposed. Furthermore, a simple NoC architecture based on that nanoelectronic core is also evaluated. It is shown that the SET-based NoC has a promising performance considering parameters such as power consumption, area and clock frequency. A simple comparison of mesh NoC chip prototypes is shown.

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


A fast and reliable system for 3D surface acquisition and reconstruction A prototype 3D scanning system is presented together with a novel surface reconstruction algorithm to obtain an explicit 3D reconstruction of both open and closed surfaces, with particular attention to anatomical parts for biomedical applications. The whole system is based on acquisition of unorganized range data by laser scanning and successive image processing, by expanding and fitting a regular geometrical model within the range data, for surface reconstruction. The prototype system proved to be working finely, with an estimated resolution <10?m, a repeatability <50?m, and an acquisition noise of ?170?m (rms value). Simulations with a synthetic test surface are described to provide quantitative figures on the robustness to noise of the proposed reconstruction algorithm. Reconstruction of 3D models of human organs are presented as well.

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

3d laser scanner
unorganized data
geometrical deformable model


Correlation analysis of non-probabilistic convex model and corresponding structural reliability technique Compared with the probability approach, the non-probabilistic convex model only requires a small amount of samples to obtain the variation bounds of the imprecise parameters, and whereby makes the reliability analysis very convenient and economical. In this paper, we attempt to propose and create a correlation analysis technique mathematically for the non-probabilistic convex model, and based on it develop an effective method to construct the multidimensional ellipsoids on the uncertainty. A marginal convex model is defined to describe the variation range of each uncertain parameter, and a covariance is defined to represent the correlation degree of two uncertain parameters. For a multidimensional problem, the covariance matrix and correlation matrix can be created through all marginal convex models and covariances, based on which the required ellipsoid on the uncertainty can be conveniently achieved. By combining the correlation analysis technique and the reliability index approach, a non-probabilistic reliability analysis method is also developed for uncertain structures. Six numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method.

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

convex model
correlation analysis
reliability analysis
uncertain structures


Midpoints and Exact Points of Some Algebraic Functions in Floating-Point Arithmetic When implementing a function f in floating-point arithmetic, if we wish correct rounding and good performance, it is important to know if there are input floating-point values x such that f(x) is either the middle of two consecutive floating-point numbers (assuming rounded-to-nearest arithmetic), or a floating-point number (assuming rounded toward +/- infinity or toward 0 arithmetic). In the first case, we say that f(x) is a midpoint, and in the second case, we say that f(x) is an exact point. For some usual algebraic functions and various floating-point formats, we prove whether or not there exist midpoints or exact points. When there exist midpoints or exact points, we characterize them or list all of them (if there are not too many). The results and the techniques presented in this paper can be used in particular to deal with both the binary and the decimal formats defined in the IEEE 754-2008 standard for floating-point arithmetic.

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

floating-point arithmetic
algebraic function


On-line signature verification using vertical signature partitioning We propose a new dynamic signature verification system using vertical partitioning. In our algorithm partitions represent moments of signing process. Our algorithm takes advantage of fuzzy sets and systems theory. Our algorithm allows to extract knowledge about the signature verification. Our algorithm takes into account hierarchy of partitions individually for each user.

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

biometrics
on-line signature
fuzzy sets theory
neuro-fuzzy systems
interpretability


Robust Guaranteed Cost Decentralized Stabilization for Uncertain Discrete Large-Scale Systems with Delays via State Feedback and Output Feedback The problem of robust guaranteed cost decentralized stabilization for uncertain discrete large-scale systems with delays is investigated in this paper. Sufficient conditions for the existence of the robust guaranteed cost decentralized controllers via memoryless state feedback and static output feedback are expressed as BMIs. Furthermore, alternate iterative algorithms are proposed to solve the feasible problems with BMI constrains. Numerical examples are given to illustrate effectiveness of the proposed methods.

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

decentralized
state feedback
output feedback


Performance Alignment Work: How software developers experience the continuous adaptation of team performance in Lean and Agile environments Companies increasingly strive to adapt to market and ecosystem changes in real time. Gauging and understanding team performance in such changing environments present a major challenge. This paper aims to understand how software developers experience the continuous adaptation of performance in a modern, highly volatile environment using Lean and Agile software development methodology. This understanding can be used as a basis for guiding formation and maintenance of high-performing teams, to inform performance improvement initiatives, and to improve working conditions for software developers. A qualitative multiple-case study using thematic interviews was conducted with 16 experienced practitioners in five organisations. We generated a grounded theory, Performance Alignment Work, showing how software developers experience performance. We found 33 major categories of performance factors and relationships between the factors. A cross-case comparison revealed similarities and differences between different kinds and different sizes of organisations. Based on our study, software teams are engaged in a constant cycle of interpreting their own performance and negotiating its alignment with other stakeholders. While differences across organisational sizes exist, a common set of performance experiences is present despite differences in context variables. Enhancing performance experiences requires integration of soft factors, such as communication, team spirit, team identity, and values, into the overall development process. Our findings suggest a view of software development and software team performance that centres around behavioural and social sciences.

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

team performance
agile software development

developer experience
case study
human factors
lean software development


Content-aware copying and pasting in images We present a content-aware image copy-and-paste technique which combines ideas from both matting and gradient-based methods. We modify the diffusion process used in the gradient-based approach to use the alpha matte for the cloned area as a weight function to control intensity interpolation. This ensures that the color style of the significant parts of the selected region is preserved when pasting. We use a framework based on mean-value coordinates to implement our approach, allowing us to provide a parallel implementation suitable for use on a GPU. Experimental results show the advantages of our method.

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

image pasting
image cloning
gradient domain
laplace equation


Graphing Kendall's tau Correlation is an important and widely used concept, and it is usually taught through word explanation or graphic description accompanied with a numeric measure if such a measure exists. In this note, we explore graphing one of the commonly used correlation measures, Kendall's tau, in such a way that we display how Kendall's tau is calculated and see how Kendall's tau is influenced by data features. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O 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 use of automated feature extraction for diagnosing double inter-tropical convergence zones ? We develop an automated and user-trained algorithm that spatially analyzes satellite data and detects the presence of double inter-tropical convergence zones (DITCZ) and apply it to 30 years worth of satellite collected outgoing long-wave radiation data. The analysis of the data via vertical wavelet transform identifies DITCZ occurrences over the Indian Ocean in the last three decades.

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


Limit results on finite-dimensional Gaussian random fields In this paper, we establish some limit results on Csorgo-Revesz-type increments combined with moduli of continuity for finite-dimensional Gaussian random fields under explicit conditions, via estimating upper bounds of large deviation probabilities on suprema of the finite-dimensional Gaussian random fields. (c) 2006 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

csorgo-revesz increment
gaussian random field
modulus of continuity
regularly varying function
large deviation probability


Traffic and energy consumption of an IEEE 802.15.4 network in the presence of authenticated, ECC Diffie-Hellman ephemeral key exchange in this paper we have modeled traffic and energy consumption in a secured, power managed wireless sensor network implemented using IEEE 802.15.4 technology. The network is secured through a variant of the secure socket layer protocol, with ephemeral Diffie-Hellman key exchange using elliptic curve cryptography. Our traffic and energy model allows calculations of cluster populations under the simultaneous constraints of prescribed secure event sensing reliability and lifetime of the whole network. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

wireless sensor networks
security in wireless sensor networks
key exchange algorithms
ieee 802.15.4


A GRASP-based metaheuristic for the Berth Allocation Problem and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem by managing vessel cargo holds Container terminals are open systems that generally serve as a transshipment zone between vessels and land vehicles. These terminals carry out a large number of planning and scheduling tasks. In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling a number of incoming vessels by assigning a berthing position, a berthing time, and a number of Quay Cranes to each vessel. This problem is known as the Berth Allocation Problem and the Quay Crane Assignment Problem. Holds of vessels are also managed in order to obtain a more realistic approach. Our aim is to minimize the total waiting time elapsed to serve all these vessels. In this paper, we deal with the above problems and propose an innovative metaheuristic approach. The results are compared against other allocation methods.

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


Sociality-Aware Access Point Selection in Enterprise Wireless LANs Well-balanced workload among wireless access points (APs) in a wireless local-area network (WLAN) can improve the user experience for accessing the Internet. Most load balancing solutions in WLANs focuses on the optimization of AP operations, assuming that the arrivals and departures of users are independent. However, through the analysis of AP usage based on a real WLAN trace of one-month collected at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), we find that such an assumption does not hold. In fact, due to users' social activities which is particularly time for enterprise environments, they tend to arrive or leave in unison, which would disruptively affect the load balance among APs. In this paper, we propose a novel AP allocation scheme to tackle the load balancing problem in WLANs, taking into account the social relationships of users. In this scheme, users with intense social relationships are assigned to different APs so that jointly departure of those users would have minor impact on the load balance of APs. Given that the problem of allocating an AP for each user so that the average of the sums of social relation intensity between any pair of users in each AP is NP-complete, we propose an online greedy algorithm. Extensive trace-driven simulations demonstrate the efficacy of our scheme. Comparing to the state-of-the-art method, we can achieve about 64.7 percent balancing performance gain on average during peak hours in workdays.

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


Application of He's methods to nonlinear chemistry problems In this paper, He's variational iteration method (VIM) and homotopy perturbation method (HPM) are implemented for solving analytically two systems of ordinary differential equations that often appear in chemical applications. In both methods, the initial approximations can be freely chosen with possible unknown constants which can be determined by imposing the boundary and initial conditions. The solution procedure is of utter simplicity, and the obtained solution is of high accuracy. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

variational iteration method (vim)
homotopy perturbation method (hpm)
adomian decomposition method (adm)
kinetic problems


A new bidirectional heuristic for the assembly line balancing problem Assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) is one of the well-known NP-hard layout planning problems for mass production systems. Many exact solution approaches have been developed, including 0-1 integer programming model, branch and bound algorithm, dynamic programming model, etc.; however, all optimal approaches are computationally inefficient in solving large-scale problems, which makes heuristic approaches a necessity in practice. In this paper we propose a new efficient heuristic, based on a recent bidirectional approach and the famous critical path method (CPM) widely used in project management, to resolve the issue of task assignment for ALBP. An example is given for illustration, and numerical results of sample problems selected from the literature are also given to show the effectiveness of the proposed heuristic. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

assembly line balancing problem
heuristic
bidirectional
critical path method


Can the interactive whiteboard support young childrens collaborative communication and thinking in classroom science activities? Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have been widely introduced to English primary schools (511years) in the last decade and this has generated much research interest. In the past, research has focused on IWB-use in teacher-led sessions, attending particularly to the nature of teacher-pupil interaction at the IWB and the apparent motivational advantages for children. In contrast, this study focuses on childrens communication and thinking during their semi-autonomous use of the IWB during collaborative groupwork in primary school science lessons, aiming in part to see if the IWB is suited to this type of use. Over the course of one school year, twelve primary teachers of Years 4 and 5 (810years) took part in a professional development and research programme which involved them in devising a sequence of three science lessons incorporating small-group activity at the IWB. The functionality of the IWB is analysed here as means for supporting the childrens joint communication and thinking, using embedded cues and the availability of certain features in the IWB technology. Our observational analysis of two examples of childrens collaborative activity in different classrooms, together with subsequent group interviews, suggests that the IWB can make some identifiable contributions to childrens productive communication and thinking. However the IWB is not seen to be an entirely distinctive or pedagogically transformative learning resource in the primary classroom. In our developing conceptual framework, the childrens knowledge building is closely related to their active engagement in using IWB affordances and their productive dialogue, essentially supported by the teachers scaffolding strategies, the establishment and use of talk rules in conversation, and the opportunities and constraints applying in classroom participation structures. These conditions help the children to deal with interconnected social, cognitive, and technical problems arising over time. Certain aspects of this form of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) are discussed. These relate to the integration of the IWB with other classroom learning systems and resources, and to the nature of progression in childrens activity and learning with this new type of highly integrated system of CSCL.

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

collaborative groupwork
interactive whiteboard

classroom communication
collective thinking
primary/elementary education
science learning
teacher development


Using a cluster graph representation of products for application in the disassembly planning process In this paper a method for product representation from the disassembly planning viewpoint is presented. The basis of this product representation technique is a product model referred to as the cluster graph. The details of the products' structure are reflected directly in the cluster graph in such a fashion that by mapping component end-use options and disassembly costs all potentially clusterable groups of parts within the product can be identified and analysed. Similarly by mapping facility requirements for product disassembly to the cluster graph then all disassembly sequencing options can be clearly identified. The cluster graph is a 2-dimensional connected node based model of the product.

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

disassembly planning
product representation
cluster graph


Fundamental groups of unbounded digital images Recent papers have discussed homotopy properties of digital images. Most of the papers concerned with this topic restrict their attention to bounded digital images, and there are significant errors in some of the literature concerned with unbounded digital images. In this paper, we examine fundamental groups of unbounded digital images.

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

digital image
digitally continuous
fundamental group
digital topology


QUANTUM SIMULATION OF SIMPLE MANY-BODY DYNAMICS We describe a general quantum computational algorithm that simulates the time evolution of an arbitrary nonrelativistic, Coulombic many-body system in three dimensions, considering only spatial degrees of freedom. We use a simple discretized model of Schrodinger evolution in the coordinate representation and discuss detailed constructions of the operators necessary to realize the scheme of Wiesner and Zalka. The algorithm is simulated numerically for small test cases, and its outputs are found to be in good agreement with analytical solutions.

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


Selective block-wise reordering technique for very low bit-rate wavelet video coding In this paper, we present a novel energy compaction method, called the selective block-wise reordering, which is used with SPIHT (SBR-SPIHT) coding for low rate video coding to enhance the coding efficiency for motion-compensated residuals. In the proposed coding system, the motion estimation and motion compensation schemes of H.263 are used to reduce the temporal redundancy. The residuals are then wavelet transformed. The block-mapping reorganization utilizes the wavelet zerotree relationship that jointly presents the wavelet coefficients from the lowest subband to high frequency subbands at the same spatial location, and allocates each wavelet tree with all descendents to form a wavelet block. The selective multi-layer block-wise reordering technique is then applied to those wavelet blocks that have energy higher than a threshold to enhance the energy compaction by rearranging the significant pixels in a block to the upper left corner based on the magnitude of energy. An improved SPIHT coding is then applied to each wavelet block, either re-ordered or not. The high energy compaction resulting from the block reordering can reduce the number of redundant bits in the sorting pass and improve the quantization efficiency in the refinement pass of SPIHT coding. Simulation results demonstrate that SBR-SPIHT outperforms H.263 by 1.28-0.69 dB on average for various video sequences at very low bit-rates, ranging from 48 to 10 kbps.

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

energy compaction
spiht
wavelet video coding


Fast alternating-direction finite difference methods for three-dimensional space-fractional diffusion equations Fractional diffusion equations model phenomena exhibiting anomalous diffusion that cannot be modeled accurately by second-order diffusion equations. Because of the nonlocal property of fractional differential operators, numerical methods for space-fractional diffusion equations generate dense or even full coefficient matrices with complicated structures. Traditionally, these methods were solved via Gaussian elimination, which requires computational work of O(N3) O ( N 3 ) per time step and O(N2) O ( N 2 ) of memory to store where N is the number of spatial grid points in the discretization. The significant computational work and memory requirement of these methods makes a numerical simulation of three-dimensional space-fractional diffusion equations computationally prohibitively expensive. We present an alternating-direction implicit (ADI) finite difference formulation for space-fractional diffusion equations in three space dimensions and prove its unconditional stability and convergence rate provided that the fractional partial difference operators along x-,?y-,?z -directions commute. We base on the ADI formulation to develop a fast iterative ADI finite difference method, which has a computational work count of O ( N log N ) per iteration at each time step and a memory requirement of O(N) O ( N ) . We also develop a fast multistep ADI finite difference method, which has a computational work count of O ( N log 2 N ) per time step and a memory requirement of O ( N log N ) . Numerical experiments of a three-dimensional space-fractional diffusion equation show that these both fast methods retain the same accuracy as the regular three-dimensional implicit finite difference method, but have significantly improved computational cost and memory requirement. These numerical experiments show the utility of the fast method.

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

alternating-direction method
circulant matrix
conjugate gradient method
fast fourier transform
space-fractional diffusion equation
toeplitz matrix


A virtual centrifugal force based navigation algorithm for explorative robotic tasks in unknown environments In many robotic tasks, there is no a priori knowledge of the environment. This makes it necessary for robots to explore the environment. Navigation algorithms for robots to map the environment completely in a short time play a very important role in the robotic task completion. A navigation algorithm based on virtual centrifugal force is proposed to complete the robotic exploration of the unknown environment using rang sensors in this paper. Collisions between a robot and an obstacle or between robots can be avoided with the application of the proposed navigation rules. The kinematics and dynamics equations of robots adopting the algorithm are also given. The simulation experiments demonstrate the operation of the algorithm. Several simulation experiments of various representative robotic tasks are carried out, based on the explorative navigation algorithm, which successfully validate the virtual centrifugal force based navigation algorithm.

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

navigation algorithm
virtual centrifugal force

environment exploration
multi-robotic task


Modeling of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell based on the hybrid particle swarm optimization with LevenbergMarquardt neural network This paper presents a nonlinear modeling approach of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based on the hybrid particle swarm optimization with LevenbergMarquardt algorithm neural network (PSO-LM NN). The PSO algorithm converges rapidly during the initial stages of a global search, while it becomes extremely slow around the global optimum. On the contrary, the LM algorithm can achieve faster convergent speed around the global optimum, while it is prone to being trapped in the local minimum. Therefore the hybrid algorithm with a transition from PSO search to LM training is proposed to train the weights and thresholds of neural network, which aims to exploit the advantage of the both algorithms. An accurate mathematical model is an extremely useful tool for the fuel cell design, and neural network is an excellent optional tool for complex nonlinear dynamic system modeling such as PEMFC. In the paper, firstly a highly reduced PEMFC dynamic physical model is established to generate the data for the PSO-LM NN model training and validation, and then the neural network nonlinear autoregressive model based on the PSO-LM algorithm is applied in modeling PEMFC voltage and temperature model, and finally the validation test result demonstrates that the trained PSO-LM NN model can efficiently approach the dynamic behavior of a PEMFC.

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

hybrid particle swarm optimization with levenbergmarquardt neural network


Diagnosis of liver disease by using CMAC neural network approach Liver performs several numbers of metabolic functions that are essential to human life. These functions make the liver one of the most important organs in the human body. There are diseases that occur in the liver in short time (acute) and long time (chronic). These diseases could occur because of medications, alcohol, viruses, or excessive fat accumulation or deposit in the liver. Some of these diseases are the inflammation of the liver, insufficient liver performance, Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and liver cirrhosis. If the liver malfunctions in anyway, people know that they are putting their life at risk. For this reason, diagnosing any disease in the liver is important and sometimes difficult. It is also important to notice the diagnosis of the patient at an early stage as the symptoms arise so that the patient might be able to carry on a normal life. The objective of this article is to diagnose the liver disease using an application of the CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) neural network so that it can shorten the medical diagnostic process and help the physician in the complex cases which are otherwise difficult to perceive.

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

childs classification
liver enzymes
cmac neural networks
medical diagnosis
clinical laboratory values


One-dimensional capacitative micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays for echographic probes In this paper we report the design and the fabrication process for a 64-element capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) array, for application in medical imaging. The element size and separation between adjacent elements are chosen for operation at 7 MHz, a frequency typically used in tissue imaging. The fabrication process is based on surface micromachining techniques and is compatible with standard CMOS process, due to the materials used and the low-temperature deposition steps (PECVD silicon nitride for structural layer, evaporated chromium as sacrificial layer and sputtered aluminum for metallization). Electrical tests in air show typical resonance behaviour and no significant degradation during operation. Tests in water show wide bandwidth and pulse-echo operation.

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

capacitative transducer array
echographic imaging


Routing in mobile wireless sensor network: a survey The Mobile Wireless Sensor Network (MWSN) is an emerging technology with significant applications. The MWSN allows the sensor nodes to move freely and they are able to communicate with each other without the need for a fixed infrastructure. These networks are capable of out-performing static wireless sensor networks as they tend to increase the network lifetime, reduce the power consumption, provide more channel capacity and perform better targeting. Usually routing process in a mobile network is very complex and it becomes even more complicated in MWSN as the sensor nodes are low power, cost effective mobile devices with minimum resources. Recent research works have led to the design of many efficient routing protocols for MWSN but still there are many unresolved problems like retaining the network connectivity, reducing the energy cost, maintaining adequate sensing coverage etc. This paper addresses the various issues in routing and presents the state of the art routing protocols in MWSN. The routing protocols are categorized based on their network structure, state of information, energy efficiency and mobility. The classification presented here summarizes the main features of many published proposals in the literature for efficient routing in MWSN and also gives an insight into the enhancements that can be done to improve the existing routing protocols.

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

survey
mobile wireless sensor network
routing


continuations and concurrency Continuations have proven to be useful for implementing a variety of control structures, including exception handling facilities and breadth-first searching algorithms. However, traditional continuations are not useful in the presence of concurrency, because the notion of the rest of the computation represented by a continuation does not in general make sense. This paper presents a new type of continuation, called a process continuation , that may be used to control tree-structured concurrency. Just as a traditional continuation represents the rest of a computation from a given point in the computation, a process continuation represents the rest of a subcomputation , or process , from a given point in the subcomputation . Process continuations allow nonlocal exits to arbitrary points in the process tree and allow the capture of a subtree of a computation as a composable continuation for later use. Even in the absence of multiple processes, the precise control achievable with process continuations makes them more useful than traditional continuations.

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

precise
tree
point
use
exception handling
computation
concurrency
presence
process
proven
general
paper
continuation
control


CSi(2)Ga(2): a neutral planar tetracoordinate carbon (ptC) building block Ever being a large curiosity, the "anti-van't Hoff/Le Bel" realm that is associated with tetracoordinate or hypercoordinate planar centers has made rapid progress. In particular, it has been disclosed that silicon and gallium can be embedded in various planar species. However, to our best knowledge, assembly of silicon- and gallium-embedded planar units has never been reported, though such assembled species might be used as potential nanoscale devices. Here we report the first attempt on how to design assembled molecular compounds featuring silicon- and gallium-embedded planar tetracoordinate carbon (ptC) units. Taking the special silicon- and gallium-embedded ptC unit CSi(2)Ga(2) as an example, we performed density functional calculations on a series of model compounds [DM(CSi(2)Ga(2))](q+) as well as the saturated compounds (Cl(-))(q)[CpM(CSi(2)Ga(2))](q+) (D = CSi(2)Ga(2), Cp(-)(C(5)H(5)(-)); M = Li, Na, K, Be, Mg, Ca) and the more extended sandwich-like species. For the six metals, CSi(2)Ga(2) can only be assembled in the "hetero-decked sandwich" scheme (e.g., [CpM(CSi(2)Ga(2))](q+)) so as to avoid cluster fusion. Interestingly, among all the designed sandwich species, CSi(2)Ga(2) generally prefers to interact with the partner deck at the corner (Ga atoms) or face (CSi(2)Ga(2) planes) sites. Such interaction types serve as an interesting growth pattern that might be applicable to the assembly of Si- and Ga-embedded ptC unit CSi(2)Ga(2) into highly extended sandwich-like complexes. Our results for the first time showed that the Si- and Ga-embedded ptC unit CSi(2)Ga can act as a new type of building block. The present results are expected to enrich planar tetracoordinate carbon chemistry and metallocenes.

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

cluster-assembled compounds
hetero-decked sandwich scheme
sandwich-type compounds


Querying and Repairing Inconsistent Numerical Databases The problem of extracting consistent information from relational databases violating integrity constraints on numerical data is addressed. In particular, aggregate constraints defined as linear inequalities on aggregate-sum queries on input data are considered. The notion of repair as consistent set of updates at attribute-value level is exploited, and the characterization of several data-complexity issues related to repairing data and computing consistent query answers is provided. Moreover, a method for computing "reasonable" repairs of inconsistent numerical databases is provided, for a restricted but expressive class of aggregate constraints. Several experiments are presented which assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach in real-life application scenarios.

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

theory
inconsistent databases
consistent query answer


3D orbit selection for regional observation GEO SAR Although Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radar (GEO SAR) has the advantages of large footprint and short revisit time, the problem of pseudo coverage, which means visible but not imageable, should be investigated due to the side-looking imaging requirement of SAR. Therefore, how to learn an optimized 3D orbit is an important task. In this article, we propose the concept of pseudo coverage for the first time. Besides, we address the 3D orbit selection for regional observation GEO SAR and deliver the mathematic model of imageable area considering pseudo coverage. The GEO SAR coverage performance is analyzed using numerical simulation and 3D orbit traversal. Finally, considering the constraints of coverage performance, system design, and project reliability, the GEO SAR 3D orbit is selected and the coverage performance of four typical orbits is evaluated.

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

geo sar
regional observation
coverage
3d orbit selection


DNS performance and the effectiveness of caching This paper presents a detailed analysis of traces of domain name system (DNS) and associated TCP traffic collected on the Internet links of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The first part of the analysis details how clients at these institutions interact with the wide-area domain name system, focusing on client-perceived performance and the prevalence of failures and errors. The second part evaluates the effectiveness of DNS caching. In the most recent MIT trace, 23% of lookups receive no answer; these lookups account for more than half of all traced DNS packets since query packets are retransmitted overly persistently. About 13% of all lookups result in an answer that indicates an error condition. Many of these errors appear to be caused by missing inverse (IP-to-name) mappings or NS records that point to nonexistent or inappropriate hosts. 27% of the queries sent to the root name servers result in such errors. The paper also presents the results of trace-driven simulations that explore the effect of varying TTLs and varying degrees of cache sharing on DNS cache hit rates. Due to the heavy-tailed nature of name accesses, reducing the TTLs of address (A) records to as low as a few hundred seconds has little adverse effect on hit rates, and little benefit is obtained from sharing a forwarding DNS cache among more than 10 or 20 clients. These results suggest that client latency is not as dependent on aggressive caching as is commonly believed, and that the widespread use of dynamic low-TTL A-record bindings should not greatly increase DNS related wide-area network traffic.

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


Footprint: Detecting Sybil Attacks in Urban Vehicular Networks In urban vehicular networks, where privacy, especially the location privacy of anonymous vehicles is highly concerned, anonymous verification of vehicles is indispensable. Consequently, an attacker who succeeds in forging multiple hostile identifies can easily launch a Sybil attack, gaining a disproportionately large influence. In this paper, we propose a novel Sybil attack detection mechanism, Footprint, using the trajectories of vehicles for identification while still preserving their location privacy. More specifically, when a vehicle approaches a road-side unit (RSU), it actively demands an authorized message from the RSU as the proof of the appearance time at this RSU. We design a location-hidden authorized message generation scheme for two objectives: first, RSU signatures on messages are signer ambiguous so that the RSU location information is concealed from the resulted authorized message; second, two authorized messages signed by the same RSU within the same given period of time (temporarily linkable) are recognizable so that they can be used for identification. With the temporal limitation on the linkability of two authorized messages, authorized messages used for long-term identification are prohibited. With this scheme, vehicles can generate a location-hidden trajectory for location-privacy-preserved identification by collecting a consecutive series of authorized messages. Utilizing social relationship among trajectories according to the similarity definition of two trajectories, Footprint can recognize and therefore dismiss "communities" of Sybil trajectories. Rigorous security analysis and extensive trace-driven simulations demonstrate the efficacy of Footprint.

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

sybil attack
location privacy
urban vehicular networks

signer-ambiguous signature
location-hidden trajectory


Development of a genetic algorithm for component placement sequence optimization in printed circuit board assembly This paper describes the development and evaluation of a custom application exploring the use of genetic algorithms (GA) to solve a component placement sequencing problem for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. In the assembly of PCB's, the component placement process is often the bottleneck, and the equipment to complete component placement is often the largest capital investment. The number of components placed on a PCB can range from few to hundreds. As a result, developing an application to determine an optimal or near-optimal placement sequence can translate into reduced cycle times for the overall assembly process and reduced assembly costs. A custom application was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of using GA's to solve the component placement sequencing problem. A designed experiment was used to determine the best representation and crossover type, crossover rate, and mutation rate to use in solving a component sequencing problem for a PCB consisting of 10 components being placed on a single-headed placement machine. Three different representations (path, ordinal, and adjacency) and six appropriate crossover types (partially mapped, ordered, cycle, classical, alternating edges, and heuristic) were evaluated at three different mutation rates and at 11 crossover rates. Two algorithm response variables, the total distance traveled by the placement head and the algorithm solution efficiency (measured as number of generations and algorithm solution time) were used to evaluate the different GA applications. The combination of representation and crossover type along with mutation rate were found to be the most significant parameters in the algorithm design. In particular, path representation with order crossover was found to produce the best solution as measured by the total distance traveled as well as the solution generation efficiency. Increasing the mutation rate led to slightly improved solutions in terms of head travel, but also resulted in increased solution time. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

sequencing
component placement
genetic algorithm


On the relation between probabilistic inference and fuzzy sets in visual scene analysis Strict probabilistic inference is a difficult and costly procedure, and generally unfeasible in practice for interesting cases. It requires knowledge, storage, and computational handling of usually very complicated probability-density functions of the data. Independence assumptions commonly made to alleviate these problems are often wrong and may lead to unsatisfactory results. By contrast, working with fuzzy sets in data space is simple, while the underlying assumptions have remained largely obscure. Here I derive from probabilistic principles a fuzzy-set-type formulation of visual scene interpretation. The argument is focused on making explicit the conditions for reasoning with fuzzy sets and how their membership function should be constructed. It turns out that the conditions may be fulfilled to a good approximation in some cases of visual scene analysis.

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

segmentation
bayesian inference
fuzzy set


Electromagnetic fields diffracted by two horizontal edges with arbitrary angle for different and same heights In order to have an effective utilization of the radio wave resources, it is important to estimate propagation path in Me urban area In our previous work, WO have examined the directed ileitis by two edges with an arbitrary angle in a plane In this paper, the diffracted fields by two horizontal edges with an arbitrary angle which are in different and same heights are analyzed The numerical calculation is carried out for two wedges and a building-like double-wedge on perfect conductor, concrete and earth wedges The Jesuits show that when the angle between two edges increases, relatively strong orthogonal polarized Wave components appear to the incident wave

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

electromagnetic wave propagation in urban areas


Estimation of synchronous machine parameters by standstill tests In this paper we present the results of a time-domain identification procedure to estimate the linear parameters of a salient-pole synchronous machine at standstill. A new approach is proposed for the estimation of synchronous machine coupled to DC-chopper and Pseudo Random Binary Sequences excitations; using data recorded during steady-state operation of the chopper-machine unit. This procedure consists of defining and conducting the standstill tests, identifying the model structure, estimating the corresponding parameters, and validating the resulting model. The signals used for identification are the different excitation voltages at standstill and the flowing current in different windings. We estimate the parameters of operational impedances, or in other terms, the reactances and the time constants. The results are presented from tests on a synchronous machine of 3 kVA/220 V/1500 rpm. (C) 2010 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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 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


Online algorithms for 1-space bounded 2-dimensional bin packing and square packing In this paper, we study 1-space bounded 2-dimensional bin packing and square packing. A sequence of rectangular items (square items) arrive one by one, each item must be packed into a square bin of unit size on its arrival without any information about future items. When packing items, 90-rotation is allowed. 1-space bounded means there is only one active bin. If the active bin cannot accommodate the coming item, it will be closed and a new bin will be opened. The objective is to minimize the total number of bins used for packing all items in the sequence. Our contributions are as follows: For 1-space bounded 2-dimensional bin packing, we propose an online packing algorithm with a tight competitive ratio of 5.06. A lower bound of 3.17 on the competitive ratio is proven. Moreover, we study 1-space bounded square packing, where each item is a square with side length no more than 1. A 4.3-competitive algorithm is achieved, and a lower bound of 2.94 on the competitive ratio is given. All these bounds surpass the previously best known results.

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

competitive analysis
two dimensional bin packing


Distribution system service restoration using fuzzy Petri Net models This paper proposes a new fuzzy Petri Net (FPN) modeling technique to achieve the on-line service-restoration plan of the distribution system. Service restoration is a complicated combinatorial optimization problem that often has a great number of candidate solutions to be selected by the dispatchers. According to practical guidelines and experiences of the dispatchers on the service restoration of distribution systems, an FPN model is built to represent the related knowledge and inference scheme about the task of restoration. The proposed FPN model has been practically tested on a typical distribution system of Taiwan Power Company (TPC). Flexibility and effectiveness of the FPN model have been validated as a decision support for restoration scheduling of distribution systems.

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

service restoration
distribution systems


New strategies to improve offset and the speed-accuracy-power tradeoff in CMOS amplifiers Four continuous-time strategies to improve the speed-accuracy-power tradeoff in CMOS amplifiers by using low-power offset-compensation circuits are presented. The offset contribution at the output voltage is extracted and used to modify the DC component of the input voltage or the value of the active load, through low frequency feedback loops, which are realized using two transistors operating in weak inversion and a small capacitor. Because these circuits do not affect the bandwidth and allow using small transistors, the power consumption is greatly reduced with respect to an uncompensated amplifier of the same speed and offset behavior. The proposed strategies present reduced costs in area, power consumption and complexity, and a decrease in the low frequency noise contributions. MonteCarlo, HSPICE simulations results of common source, class AB and fully differential amplifiers, and experimental results of a class AB amplifier, all implemented in a 0.5-mu m CMOS technology are shown. Statistical analyses of these strategies are also presented. Improvements up to 99.74% and 398.6% in the offset and the power consumption are respectively observed.

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

floating gate transistors
mismatch
offset compensation


A truncated primal-infeasible dual-feasible network interior point method In this paper, we introduce the truncated primal-infeasible dual-feasible interior point algorithm for linear programming and describe an implementation of this algorithm for solving the minimum-cost network flow problem. In each iteration, the linear system that determines the search direction is computed inexactly, and the norm of the resulting residual vector is used in the stopping criteria of the iterative solver employed for the solution of the system. In the implementation, a preconditioned conjugate gradient method is used as the iterative solver. The details of the implementation are described and the code PDNET is tested on a large set of standard minimum-cost network flow test problems. Computational results indicate that the implementation is competitive with state-of-the-art network flow codes. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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 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

interior point method
linear programming
conjugate gradient

network flows
primal-infeasible dual-feasible
truncated newton method
maximum flow
experimental testing of algorithms


Soft-Start Method With Small Capacitor Charged by Pulse Current and Gain-Degeneration Error Amplifier for On-Chip DC-DC Power Converters This paper proposes a soft-start method with the features of a small on-chip capacitor and start stability for dc-dc converters. During the soft-start process, a slowly and linearly ramped-up voltage reference is generated based on the principle of the small on-chip capacitor charged by an oscillator-controlled pulse current to replace the normal reference. Meanwhile, the switching frequency is also reduced so that the inductor current has more time to decay and massive inrush current can be avoided. However, in this way, the system may be unstable in that the bandwidth could not keep less than 1/7 of the reduced switching frequency. In this paper, an error amplifier (EA) with gain-degeneration is proposed to solve this problem. When the switching frequency is reduced, the gain of the EA is also reduced and the bandwidth becomes narrower accordingly. A dc-dc converter using the proposed soft-start method has been implemented with a 0.5-mu m CMOS process. Experimental results show that a soft-start period of 600 mu s is achieved with an on-chip capacitor of 15 pF. Furthermore, both the output voltage and inductor current rise smoothly without oscillation and overshoot during the startup process.

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

amplifiers
circuit stability
dc-dc power converter
oscillators
soft-start


A lot-sizing and scheduling model for multi-stage flow lines with zero lead times We present a new model formulation for lot-sizing and scheduling of multi-stage flow lines which works without a fixed lead-time offset and still guarantees a feasible material flow. In the literature, multi-stage lot-sizing model formulations often use a fixed lead time offset of one period leading to increased planned lead times. Computational tests have shown that the total costs resulting from our new model formulation are at least 10% lower. Furthermore, we present a solution approach based on Fix-and-Relax and Fix-and-Optimize. Numerical results show that this solution approach generates high-quality solutions in moderate computational time.

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

lot-sizing
zero lead time offset
fix-and-optimize


a semantic-based mobile registry for dynamic rfid-based logistics support In this paper we propose an extended version of the open source jUDDI implementation by the Apache Software Foundation, adapted to pervasive RFID contexts. The registry adopts an OWL-S 1.1 Profile instance annotation of mobile services and resources. Ontology-based metadata are exploited in order to perform a semantic-based service discovery w.r.t. a given request. The proposed framework has been devised for pervasive RFID-based logistics environments. A case study is presented along with experimental results on a prototype implementation.

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

matchmaking
semantic web
ubiquitous computing


Model checking LTL with regular valuations for pushdown systems Recent works have proposed pushdown systems as a tool for analyzing programs with (recursive) procedures, and the model-checking problem for LTL has received special attention. However, all these works impose a strong restriction on the possible valuations of atomic propositions: whether a configuration of the pushdown system satisfies an atomic proposition or not can only depend on the current control state of the pushdown automaton and on its topmost stack symbol. In this paper we consider LTL with regular valuations: the set of configurations satisfying an atomic proposition can be an arbitrary regular language. The model-checking problem is solved via two different techniques, with an eye on efficiency. The resulting algorithms are polynomial in certain measures of the problem which are usually small, but can be exponential in the size of the problem instance. However, we show that this exponential blowup is inevitable. The extension to regular valuations allows to model problems in different areas; for instance, we show an application to the analysis of systems with checkpoints. We claim that our model-checking algorithms provide a general, unifying and efficient framework for solving them. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

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


Reasoning with large ontologies stored in relational databases: The OntoMinD approach A major obstacle to the development of ontologies in support of the Semantic Web is the poor capability of current ontology techniques to handle very large ontologies, in particular regarding scalability of reasoners. This paper builds on the assumption that very large ontologies can be efficiently handled using database management systems (DBMS), designed to provide best performance in storing, updating, and managing large volumes of data. To enhance DBMS with the reasoning functionality that characterizes ontology management, we propose to implement reasoning into the DBMS via a set of PL/SQL stored procedures. These procedures support all usual reasoning tasks: Class subsumption, property subsumption, class satisfiability, ABox consistency, and ABox realization. They perform these tasks at update time and materialize all inferred knowledge (facts and axioms) in the database. Contrarily to the inferencing at query time in most of existing works, our approach is designed to speed up ontology querying, which is supposed to represent the most frequent and therefore critical usage of ontologies. The paper discusses querying patterns and reports on benchmarking (with the LUBM benchmark) the performance of our prototype, called OntoMinD, compared to Oracle with Semantic Technologies. Benchmark results demonstrate the appropriateness of our approach.

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


discardable data adaptation in scalable video coding This paper proposes two encoding methods for discardable slices in scalable video coding. Discardable slices are not used for inter-layer prediction and can therefore be removed from a coded bitstream from layers below the decoded scalable layer. Consequently, discardable slices need not be transmitted when the layer that the receiver decodes is known by the sender. The potential bit rate saving compared with conventional scalable coding makes the use of discardable slices an attractive encoding strategy, e.g. for unicast streaming applications. Among the two proposed encoding algorithms, one is a two-pass encoding method and the other models the coding problem as a Knapsack Problem (KP). Performed simulations indicate improved rate-distortion performance.

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

discardable data adaptation
knapsack problem
scalable video coding


An approximation algorithm for scheduling trees of malleable tasks This work presents an approximation algorithm for scheduling the tasks of a parallel application. These tasks are considered as malleable tasks (MT in short), which means that they can be executed on several processors. This model receives recently a lot of attention, mainly due to their practical use for implementing actual parallel applications. Most of the works developed within this model deal with independent MT for which good approximation algorithms have been designed. This work is devoted to the case where MT are linked by precedence relations. We present a 4(1+?) approximation algorithm (for any fixed ?) for the specific structure of a tree. This preliminary result should open the way for further investigations concerning arbitrary precedence graphs of MT.

O O O O B B O B I O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 computing
precedence constraints


Modelling and inference with Conditional Gaussian Probabilistic Decision Graphs Probabilistic Decision Graphs (PDGs) are probabilistic graphical models that represent a factorisation of a discrete joint probability distribution using a "decision graph"-like structure over local marginal parameters. The structure of a PDG enables the model to capture some context specific independence relations that are not representable in the structure of more commonly used graphical models such as Bayesian networks and Markov networks. This sometimes makes operations in PDGs more efficient than in alternative models. PDGs have previously been defined only in the discrete case, assuming a multinomial joint distribution over the variables in the model. We extend PDGs to incorporate continuous variables, by assuming a Conditional Gaussian (CG) joint distribution. We also show how inference can be carried out in an efficient way. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

conditional gaussian distribution
hybrid graphical models


Technical efficiency and distance to a reverse convex set The problem of finding the distance to a reverse (or complement of a) convex subset in a normed vector space is considered. This nonconvex and, in general, nonsmooth optimization problem arises in quantitative economics in the theory of measuring the technical efficiency of production units. In this context, applying a suitable duality theorem similar to the Nirenberg's one known for the distance to a convex subset, the problem reduces to a finite number of independent linear programming problems.

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

duality
efficiency
linear programming
production
reverse convex


a web accessibility report card for top international university web sites University web pages play a central role in the activities of current and prospective postsecondary students. University sites that are not accessible may exclude people with disabilities from participation in educational, social and professional activities. In order to assess the current state of university web site accessibility, we performed a multi-method analysis of the home pages of 100 top international universities. Each site was analyzed for compliance with accessibility standards, image accessibility, alternate-language and text-only content, and quality of web accessibility statements. Results showed that many top universities continue to have accessibility problems. University web site accessibility also varies greatly across different countries and geographic regions. Remaining obstacles to universal accessibility for universities include low accessibility in non-English-speaking countries and absent or low-quality accessibility policies.

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


Generalized Nash Bargaining Solution for bandwidth allocation For over a decade, the Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS) concept from cooperative game theory has been used in networks to share resources fairly. Due to its many appealing properties, it has recently been used for assigning bandwidth in a general topology network between applications that have linear utility functions. In this paper, we use this concept for allocating the bandwidth between applications with general concave utilities. Our framework includes in fact several other fairness criteria, such as the max-min criteria. We study the impact of concavity on the allocation and present computational methods for obtaining fair allocations in a general topology, based on a dual Lagrangian approach and on Semi-Definite Programming. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O B I 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 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

nash bargaining
bandwidth allocation
fairness


Building effective online game websites with knowledge-based trust Knowledge-based trust is trust that is grounded in knowledge about another party developed through repeated interaction. Knowledge-based trust is especially important for online business environments where there are repeated transactions between fixed pairs of consumers and merchants. Building on previous studies of trust, this paper examines the proposition that players knowledge about website characteristics (i.e., security and interface design) and about website outputs (i.e., online game quality and service quality) has an effect on the development of trust in the context of online game websites. The impact of trust on building an effective online game website is also investigated. A conceptual model of knowledge-based trust is tested with questionnaire responses of 253 online game players. Overall, the results indicate that all of these four classes of knowledge engender trust and that trust helps develop effective online game websites.

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

e-commerce
knowledge-based trust
online games


Efficient route discovery in hybrid networks ? Hybrid networks are formed by a combination of access points and mobile nodes such that the mobile nodes can communicate both through the access points and using ad-hoc networking among themselves. This work deals with providing efficient routing between mobile devices in hybrid networks. Specifically, we assume the existence of a spanning tree from each access point to all mobile devices within the transitive transmission range of the access point. We utilize this spanning tree to design a family of efficient point-to-point routing protocols for communication between the mobile devices themselves. The protocols utilize the tree structure in order to avoid expensive flooding of the entire network. The paper includes a detailed simulation study of several representative communication patterns, which compares our approaches to DSR.

O B I O B I O B I 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 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

hybrid networks
access points
route discovery


New tectonics: a preliminary framework involving classic and digital thinking The digital tectonic studies noticed the dramatic change of traditional architectural construction in association with digital technology. A more systematic framework of new tectonics combining digital and classic elements and processes is needed to explore the digital theory in the architecture field. The first step of this case-study research is to determine both the analytical factors of classic tectonics and the digital cases. The next step discusses emergent digital factors of tectonics. The third step applies the four new factors to the tectonic processes of five digital projects by well-known architects who have actual building experience in both predigital and digital works. Some phenomena of digital tectonics have emerged to reveal the dynamic factors of motion, information, generation and fabrication. In a preliminary framework of new tectonics, seven classic and four digital factors form a whole and interact with each other.

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

design technology
design process
computer aided design
design theory


Energy-delay tradeoff in wireless multihop networks with unreliable links Energy efficiency and transmission delay are very important parameters for wireless multihop networks. Numerous works that study energy efficiency and delay are based on the assumption of reliable links. However, the unreliability of channels is inevitable in wireless multihop networks. In addition, most of works focus on self-organization protocol design while keeping non-protocol system parameters fixed. While, very few works reveal the relationship between the network performance and these physical parameters, in other words, the best networks performance could be obtained by the physical parameters. This paper investigates the tradeoff between the energy consumption and the latency of communications in a wireless multihop network using a realistic unreliable link model. It provides a closed-form expression of the lower bound of the energy-delay tradeoff and of energy efficiency for different channel models (additive white Gaussian noise, Rayleigh fast fading and Rayleigh block-fading) in a linear network. These analytical results are also verified in 2-dimensional Poisson networks using simulations. The closed-form expression provides a framework to evaluate the energy-delay performance and to optimize the parameters in physical layer, MAC layer and routing layer from the viewpoint of cross-layer design during the planning phase of a network. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

energy efficiency
delay
unreliable links
multihop networks

wireless sensor networks
cross-layer optimization


A Cyber Medical Center This paper describes the design and implementation of a Cyber Medical Center (CMC) using web technology. The intention is to overcome the inefficiency of the traditional filing system for patients' medical records, which are considered to be time and space consuming. Another objective is to enhance the interaction between the user-the patient in this case and the medical center personnel-the doctors and staff. This task is achieved by developing a cyber medical center interfaced with the Internet to provide direct public access. The traditional filing system is replaced by a database system for maintaining the electronic medical records of all patients in the medical center. The doctors or staff can either view the medical records or update them through the Intranet/Internet. This system has been successfully developed, implemented and tested on the Intranet platform. It will be available in a university medical center for practical use. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

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

e-medical records
e-health
e-clinic
web-based
patients' information system


adapting wlan mac parameters to enhance voip call capacity This work describes a detailed simulation-based study of the performance of an IEEE 802.11e Medium Access Control (MAC) layer over an IEEE 802.11g Physical (PHY) layer. The study focuses on the number of simultaneous bidirectional G.711 Voice over IP (VoIP) calls that can be supported by a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) using the Extended Rate PHY - Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (ERP-OFDM) mode of 802.11g.A new scheme for adapting the WLAN MAC parameters is proposed in this work. The new scheme dynamically adapts the Contention Window (CW) based on the retransmission rate of the system. In addition, an adaptive Transmission Opportunity (TXOP) mechanism aids in balancing the uplink and downlink traffic levels and so provides the equality in uplink and downlink performance that is required for bidirectional VoIP traffic. The proposed scheme can thus maintain acceptable levels of QoS for higher call capacities, increasing the overall VoIP capacity of the system.

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

wireless lan
quality of service
parameter adaptation


An interior point multiobjective programming approach for production planning with uncertain information This paper describes a conceptually simple but practical business planning method to cope with uncertain information. The model is constructed by a set of possible scenarios and divided into multiple objective functions. Although the resulting model is more complex than traditional stochastic programs, we propose an efficient algorithm in order to offset the difficulties pertaining to the stochastic and multiobjective programming problems. The method provides a wider range of possible solutions. Then the decision maker selects the least conflicting solution among scenarios by incorporating any additional information regarding the problem. An interactive multiobjective programming approach based on a circumscribed ellipsoid interior point algorithm is proposed as an efficient method to solve the problem. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

interior point methods
ellipsoid method
multiobjective optimization
stochastic optimization
robust optimization


The method of fundamental solutions and its combinations for exterior problems ? Most of the reports on the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) deal with bounded simply connected domains; only a few involve exterior problems. For exterior problems governed by Laplace's equation, there exist two kinds of infinity conditions, (1) |u|<C | u | < C and (2) u = O ( ln ? ) . For u = O ( ln ? ) , the traditional fundamental solutions can be used. However, for |u|?C | u | ? C , new fundamental solutions are explored. Numerical experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. The MFS and the method of particular solutions (MPS) are classified as Trefftz methods (TM) [30] using fundamental solutions (FS) and particular solutions (PS), respectively. The remarkable advantage of the MFS over the MPS is the uniform FS: ln r = ln | PQ | , where P and Q are the solution and the source points, respectively. Hence both algorithms and programming are simple. Moreover, a crack singularity in unbounded domains (i.e., exterior problem) is also studied. A combination of the TM using both PS and FS is also employed. The numerical results of the MPS and the combination of MFS and MPS coincide with each other. The study in this paper may greatly extend the application of the MFS from bounded simply connected domains to exterior domains.

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

method of fundamental solutions
method of particular solutions
fundamental solutions
exterior problem