a pedagogically targeted logic design and simulation tool JLS is a GUI-based digital logic simulation tool specifically designed for use in a wide range of digital logic and computer organization courses. It is comparable in features and functionality to commercial products, but includes many student and instructor-friendly aspects not found in those products such as state-machine and truth table editors, extensive error checking, and multiple simulation-result views. Students quickly become proficient in its use, enabling them to concentrate on circuit design and debugging issues. The circuit drawing interface is convenient enough to allow instructors to use it for classroom presentations, and circuits can be modified and tested so quickly that it promotes exploring alternatives not prepared for in advance. Its non-interractive (batch) execution capability, with parameter settings, configuration files and textual output simplifies the grading of large numbers of student projects.

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


Which reduces IT turnover intention the most: Workplace characteristics or job characteristics? ? Studies have shown that positive perceived job characteristics, such as job significance and task autonomy, tend to decrease IT personnel turnover intention. In addition, employee perception of their workplace characteristics may affect turnover. Few studies have examined this. We tested whether workplace characteristics structural fairness, trust in senior management, employee information sharing, and job security affected turnover intention as much as did job characteristics. We found that workplace characteristics out-predicted job characteristics. However, this was true only for programmer/analysts. The reverse was true for technical support personnel. Practical implications are discussed.

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

turnover
trust
fairness
security
information sharing
job characteristics


Missing data and the design of phylogenetic analyses Concerns about the deleterious effects of missing data may often determine which characters and taxa are included in phylogenetic analyses. For example, researchers may exclude taxa lacking data for some genes or exclude a gene lacking data in some taxa. Yet, there may be very little evidence to support these decisions. In this paper, I review the effects of missing data on phylogenetic analyses. Recent simulations suggest that highly incomplete taxa can be accurately placed in phylogenies, as long as many characters have been sampled overall. Furthermore, adding incomplete taxa can dramatically improve results in some cases by subdividing misleading long branches. Adding characters with missing data can also improve accuracy, although there is a risk of long-branch attraction in some cases. Consideration of how missing data does (or does not) affect phylogenetic analyses may allow researchers to design studies that can reconstruct large phylogenies quickly, economically, and accurately.

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

bayesian analysis
maximum likelihood
neighbor-joining
parsimony
phylogeny
phylogenetic method
systematics


Block meshes: Topologically robust shape modeling with graphs embedded on 3-manifolds Shape algebra describes structures in higher-dimensional manifolds with minimum operations. Our unified framework represents all topologically distinct shapes in 3D, from solids to surfaces and curves. The algebra models shapes via simpler, more powerful and topologically robust algorithms.

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


Quantum teleportation of an arbitrary N-qubit state via non-maximally entangled state We explicitly present two schemes for quantum teleportation of an arbitrary N-qubit entangled state using, respectively, non-maximally entangled Bell states and GHZ states as the quantum channels, and generalized Bell states as the measurement basis. The scheme succeeds with unit fidelity but less than unit probability. By introducing additional qubit and unitary operations, the success probability of these two schemes can be increased.

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


A decision support system for managing combinatorial problems in container terminals A container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles. We focus our attention on the transshipment between vessels and land vehicles, in which case the terminal is described as a maritime container terminal. In these container terminals, many combinatorial related problems appear and the solution of one of the problems may affect to the solution of other related problems. For instance, the berth allocation problem can affect to the crane assignment problem and both could also affect to the Container Stacking Problem. Thus, terminal operators normally demand all containers to be loaded into an incoming vessel should be ready and easily accessible in the yard before vessels arrival. Similarly, customers (i.e., vessel owners) expect prompt berthing of their vessels upon arrival. However the efficiency of the loading/unloading tasks of containers in a vessel depends on the number of assigned cranes and the efficiency of the container yard logistic. In this paper, we present a decision support system to guide the operators in the development of these typical tasks. Due to some of these problems are combinatorial, some analytical formulas are presented to estimate the behavior of the container terminal.

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

berth allocation problem
container stacking problem
decision support system

quay crane assignment problem
artificial intelligence
metaheuristic techniques


a preliminary exploration of augmented social landscapes The ubiquity of sensing devices, including location-aware, sensor-enabled mobile phones, creates an opportunity to design a novel digital layer of a city, which senses and shapes the experiences of urban inhabitants. This paper explores a possibility of ubiquitous sensing devices to generate alternative social landscapes of a city, and facilitate universal communication. Sensors have critical dual roles in this process: (1) analyzing existing social relations, and (2) providing resources for establishing new relations. Several examples are discussed in relation to the latter role of sensors in shaping social landscapes, suggesting the possibility to create various representations that could support novel communication and collaboration practices.

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

urban sensing
geo-social networking
context awareness
connectability


CONTENT-BASED IMAGE RETRIEVAL OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SYMBOLS BY INTERACTION OF VISUAL PERSPECTIVES Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been an active area of research for retrieving similar images from large repositories, without the prerequisite of manual labeling. Most current CBIR algorithms can faithfully return a list of images that matches the visual perspective of their inventors, who might decide to use a certain combination of image features like edges, colors and textures of regions as well as their spatial distribution during processing. In practice, however, the retrieved images rarely correspond exactly to the results expected by the users, a problem that has come to be known as the semantic gap. In this paper, we propose a novel and extensible multidimensional approach called matrix of visual perspectives as a solution for addressing this semantic gap. Our approach exploits the dynamic cross-interaction (in other words, mix-and-match) of image features and similarity metrics to produce results that attempt to mimic the mental visual picture of the user. Experimental results on retrieving similar Japanese cultural heritage symbols called kamons by a prototype system confirm that the interaction of visual perspectives in the user can be effectively captured and reflected. The benefits of this approach are broader. They can be equally applicable to the development of CBIR systems for other types of images, whether cultural or noncultural, by adapting to different sets of application specific image features.

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

cultural heritage
interaction of visual perspectives


A linear distinguishing attack on scream A linear distinguishing attack on the stream cipher Scream is proposed. When the keystream is of length 2(98) words, the distinguisher has a detectable advantage. When the keystream length is around 2(120) the advantage is very close to 1. This shows certain weaknesses of Scream. In the process, the paper introduces new general ideas on how to improve the performance of linear distinguishing attacks on stream ciphers.

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


indexing of 3d models based on graph of surfacic regions We present a search engine dedicated to 3D object databases. The originality of the method is to represent models by adjacency graphs of surfacic regions. After segmentation of the 3D surface of a model, regions are described by various shape descriptors. The similarity between graphs is computed by kernels on graphs computed from kernels on walks. These kernel functions take into account both the similarity between regions and their spatial relationship. The search engine performs interactive research in a database from a query object, by using semi-supervised classification. The system is applied to a database of 3D high resolution artwork models. We show that a graph representation outperforms a global description of the objects, when using the same descriptors.

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

kernel on graphs
artwork database
3d shape indexing
3d region graphs


THE USE OF WEAK ESTIMATORS TO ACHIEVE LANGUAGE DETECTION AND TRACKING IN MULTILINGUAL DOCUMENTS This paper deals with the problems of language detection and tracking in multilingual online short word-of-mouth (WoM) discussions. This problem is particularly unusual and difficult from a pattern recognition perspective because, in these discussions, the participants and content involve the opinions of users from all over the world. The nature of these discussions, consisting of multiple topics in different languages, presents us with a problem of finding training and classification strategies when the class-conditional distributions are nonstationary. The difficulties in solving the problem are many-fold. First of all, the analyst has no knowledge of when one language stops and when the next starts. Further, the features which one uses for any one language (for example, the n-grams) will not be valid to recognize another. Finally, and most importantly, in most real-life applications, such as in WoM, the fragments of text available before the switching, are so small that it renders any meaningful classification using traditional estimation methods almost futile. Earlier, the authors [B. J. Oommen and L. Rueda, Patt. Recogn. 39(1) (2006) 328-341.] had recommended that for a variety of problems, the use of strong estimators (i.e. estimators that converge with probability 1) is sub-optimal. In this vein, we propose to solve the current problem using novel estimators that are pertinent for nonstationary environments. The classification results obtained for various data sets which involve as many as eight languages demonstrates that our proposed methodology is both powerful and efficient.

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

language detection
tracking in multilingual documents
weak estimators


An exact solution approach for the interdiction median problem with fortification Systematic approaches to security investment decisions are crucial for improved homeland security. We present an optimization modeling approach for allocating protection resources among a system of facilities so that the disruptive effects of possible intentional attacks to the system are minimized. This paper is based upon the p-median service protocol for an operating set of p facilities. The primary objective is to identify the subset of q facilities which, when fortified, provides the best protection against the worst-case loss of r non-fortified facilities. This problem, known as the r-interdiction median problem with fortification (IMF), was first formulated as a mixed-integer program by Church and Scaparra [R.L. Church, M.P. Scaparra, Protecting critical assets: The r-interdiction median problem with fortification, Geographical Analysis 39 (2007) 129146]. In this paper, we reformulate the IMF as a maximal covering problem with precedence constraints, which is amenable to a new solution approach. This new approach produces good approximations to the best fortification strategies. Furthermore, it provides upper and lower bounds that can be used to reduce the size of the original model. The reduced model can readily be solved to optimality by general-purpose MIP solvers. Computational results on two geographical data sets with different structural characteristics show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology for solving IMF instances of considerable size.

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

logistics
protection models
integer programming


The virtual distortion method - a versatile reanalysis tool for structures and systems For 20 years of development, the virtual distortion method (VDM) has proved to be a versatile reanalysis tool in various applications, including structures and truss-like systems. This article presents a summary of principal achievements, demonstrating the capabilities of the VDM both in statics and dynamics, in linear and nonlinear analysis. The major advantage of VDM is its exactness and no need for matrix inversion in the reanalysis algorithm. The influence matrix-numerical core of the VDM-contains the whole mechanical knowledge about a structure, by looking at all global responses due to local disturbances. The strength of the method is demonstrated for truss structures.

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

exact structural reanalysis
sherman-morrison-woodbury formulas
nonlinear statics and dynamics
system analysis


How to construct a product of a-frames It is shown how, under certain circumstances and within Bishop-style constructive mathematics, one can construct a product of two a-frames (the structures underlying the constructive theory of apartness on frames).

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

a-frame
product lattice
decent. msc (2010) 03f60
06d22


Effect of nitrogen concentration on electronic energy bands of Ga1?xInxNyAs1?y alloys Using the pseudopotential scheme under the virtual crystal approximation, the effect of nitrogen content on electronic energy bands of Ga1?xInxNyAs1?y alloys lattice matched to GaAs in the zinc-blend structure has been investigated. In agreement with recent experiments, we find that the presence of nitrogen in the alloy of interest reduces the fundamental band gap energy. The behaviour of the important energy band gaps indicates that the alloys are direct-gap semiconductors for all nitrogen fractions y (0?y?0.35). Moreover, these band gaps exhibit large bowing parameters for the ?? and ?X transitions. The large value of the bowing parameter of the ?? transition is consistent with the experimental results and agrees with the prediction of the Van Vechten model.

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

electronic structure
nitrides
zinkblende structure
quaternary alloys


Axiomatic characterization of a general utility function and its particular cases in terms of conjoint measurement and rough-set decision rules Utility or value functions play an important role of preference models in multiple-criteria decision making. We investigate the relationships between these models and the decision-rule preference model obtained from the Dominance-based Rough Set Approach. The relationships are established by means of special cancellation properties used in conjoint measurement as axioms for representation of aggregation procedures. We are considering a general utility function and three of its important special cases: associative operator, Sugeno integral and ordered weighted maximum. For each of these aggregation functions we give a representation theorem establishing equivalence between a very weak cancellation property, the specific utility function and a set of rough-set decision rules. Each result is illustrated by a simple example of multiple-criteria decision making. The results show that the decision rule model we propose has clear advantages over a general utility function and its particular cases.

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

utility function
conjoint measurement
decision rules

multiple-criteria decision making
preference modeling
axiomatization


GUARDS: A generic upgradable architecture for real-time dependable systems The development and validation of fault-tolerant computers for critical real-time applications are currently both costly and time consuming. Often, the underlying technology is out-of-date by the time the computers are ready for deployment. Obsolescence can become a chronic problem when the systems in which they are embedded have lifetimes of several decades. This paper gives an overview of the work carried-out in a project that is tackling the issues of cost and rapid obsolescence by defining a generic fault-tolerant computer architecture based essentially on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components (both processor hardware boards and real-time operating systems). The architecture uses a limited number of specific, but generic, hardware and software components to implement an architecture that can be configured along three dimensions: redundant channels, redundant lanes, and integrity levels. The two dimensions-of physical redundancy allow the definition of a wide variety of instances with different fault tolerance strategies. The integrity level dimension allows application components of different levels of criticality to coexist in the same instance. The paper describes the main concepts of the architecture, the supporting environments for development and validation, and the prototypes currently being implemented.

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

computer architecture
fault tolerance
integrity levels

generic architecture
embedded systems
real-time


Transgenetic algorithm for the Traveling Purchaser Problem In this paper an evolutionary algorithm is presented for the Traveling Purchaser Problem, an important variation of the Traveling Salesman Problem. The evolutionary approach proposed in this paper is called transgenetic algorithm. It is inspired on two significant evolutionary driving forces: horizontal gene transfer and endosymbiosis. The performance of the algorithm proposed for the investigated problem is compared with other recent works presented in the literature. Computational experiments show that the proposed approach is very effective for the investigated problem with 17 and 9 new best solutions reported for capacitated and uncapacitated instances, respectively.

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

traveling purchaser problem
evolutionary algorithm
transgenetic algorithm


A parallel algorithm for viewshed analysis in three-dimensional Digital Earth A parallel and GPU-based algorithm for viewshed analysis is proposed. This method can improve performance by 35.3% compared with CPU-based viewshed algorithm. The performance remains stable when the viewpoint is changed in our method. The mechanism can be analysed in a complicated 3D scene and dont rely on data structure.

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

gpu
visualization
vertex shader
pixel shader


On octahedral fulleroids ? The discovery of the first fullerene has raised an interest in the study of other candidates for modelling of carbon molecules. As a generalization of the fullerenes, fulleroids are defined as cubic convex polyhedra with all the faces of size five or greater. In this paper, we give necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of fulleroids with only pentagonal and n n -gonal faces and with the symmetry group isomorphic to the full symmetry group of the regular octahedron. The existence is proved by finding infinite series of examples. The nonexistence is proved using symmetry invariants.

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

fulleroid
octahedral group
convex polyhedron
cubic plane graph


Achieving IP routing stability with optical bypass The phenomenal growth of the Internet coupled with the emergence of new QoS-aware services in the network has put an enormous strain on current networks. Research efforts towards optimizing the performance of IP networks have been focused on increasing the utilization of the network while minimizing additional resources used. Many such paradigms developed under the umbrella of Traffic and Network Engineering can lead to frequent and significant routing changes in the network when used to tackle short-lived traffic churns, and are therefore not commonly used by network providers. In this work, we present a new network engineering paradigm targeted towards handling short-lived traffic bursts which ensures that IP routing remains unchanged at the cost of marginally higher overall resource usage. We present an ideal Integer Linear Programming (ILP) based optimization problem and present its adaptations to real networks where the actual end-to-end traffic is not known. The latter is of significant practical interest as determination of the IP traffic matrix is non-trivial. Our results are promising and show that the proposed model for IP-optical interoperability model can ensure stable IP operation at a marginally higher resource cost, even when the IP traffic matrix is not known. (C) 2010 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Identification of structural determinants of ligand selectivity in 5-HT2 receptor subtypes on the basis of protein-ligand interactions Drug selectivity is one of the most critical improvement steps in drug development. The 5-hydroxytryptamine 2 (5-HT2) receptor has 3 subtypes that exhibit different pharmacological functions. Because of their high amino acid sequence similarity, designing small molecules that selectively activate only 1 receptor among the 3 subtypes is difficult. We performed homology modeling of the 5-HT2 receptor subtypes using the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor as a template to identify differences in active sites that may influence 5-HT2 receptor agonist selectivity. A subset of selective 5-HT2 agonists was docked into the modeled protein structures to investigate their interactions with each receptor. Subtype-specific active site residues at positions xl2.54, 5.39, and 5.46 interacted differently with each ligand. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that position 5.46 of the 5-HT2A receptor interacted more favorably with selective 5-HT2A agonists than with selective 5-HT2A agonists. These computationally obtained insights provided clues to improving agonist selectivity for specific pharmacological action at 5-HT2 receptors. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

5-ht2 receptor
subtype selectivity
protein-ligand docking
molecular dynamic simulation


Survey on model-based manipulation planning of deformable objects A systematic overview on the subject of model-based manipulation planning of deformable objects is presented. Existing modeling techniques of volumetric, planar and linear deformable objects are described, emphasizing the different types of deformation. Planning strategies are categorized according to the type of manipulation goal: path planning, folding/unfolding, topology modifications and assembly. Most current contributions fit naturally into these categories, and thus the presented algorithms constitute an adequate basis for future developments.

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

manipulation planning
deformable objects


Experience inclusion in iterative learning controllers: Fuzzy model based approaches Iterative learning control (ILC) is a new domain in control system that motivates, whether mechanical robots can learn a prescribed ideal motion by themselves using information represented by the measured data gathered in the previous practice. For each new desired trajectory task, the conventional ILC methods have to start its learning with zero initial input assumption. Instead of such zero initial input assumption, in this paper, the idea of using the past trajectory tracking experiences on the initial input selection for tracking new trajectory-tracking tasks have been highlighted. Certain methods of experience inclusion in iterative learning controllers (ILC) are proposed. Approximate fuzzy data model (AFDM) and type-1 fuzzy logic system (FLS) techniques have been adopted for the process of initial input selection. Performance of the proposed fuzzy rule based model-based ILC approaches on initial error reduction and in error convergence issues are proved. Numerical experimentation on a two-link manipulator model with the inclusion of actuator dynamics verifies the performance of the proposed fuzzy model-based ILC approaches. Comparison with existing local learning technique on the selection of initial input for ILC algorithm proves the efficacy of the proposed AFDM and type-1 FLS-based methods.

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

intelligence
robot control
fuzzy curves
back propagation


Rapid reswitching of induction machine from current source inverter on the supply net The contribution deals with the dynamics of induction machine during reswitching process from the main feeder on the stand-by one. The main feeder may be a current source inverter in which case the machine, before switching off, may be operated with lower frequency than the frequency of the stand-by supply net. It causes that the electromotive force on the opened machine terminals is no longer a measure of the magnitude of the rotor currents. The analysis was carried out with recognition for the magnetic saturation of the main flux.

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


Cooperation and game-theoretic cost allocation in stochastic inventory models with continuous review We model two companies that continuously review inventories and face Poisson demand. Two cooperation strategies for joint replenishment are studied. Replenish when a company reaches its reorder level, has the lowest cost, numerically. The Shapley value and the distribution rule are stable cost allocations. These results also hold for three companies.

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 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

joint replenishment
cost allocation
continuous review

stochastic demand
game theory
inventory model


Strong mobility in Mobile Haskell In a mobile language, computations can move between locations in a network to better utilise resources, e.g., as in a computational GRID. Mobile Haskell, or mHaskell, is a small extension of Concurrent Haskell that enables the construction of distributed mobile software by introducing higher order communication channels called Mobile Channels (MChannels). mHaskell only provides weak mobility, i.e. the ability to start new computations on remote locations. This paper shows how strong mobility, i.e. the ability to migrate running threads between locations, can be implemented in a language like mHaskell with weak mobility, higher-order channels and first-class continuations. Using Haskell's high level features, such as higher-order functions, type classes and support for monadic programming, strong mobility is achieved without any changes to the runtime system, or built-in support for continuations. Strong mobility is illustrated with examples and a mobile agent case study.

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

mobile computation
functional programming


Adaptive modulation for spacefrequency block coded OFDM systems The growing popularity of both multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems has created the need for adaptive modulation to integrate temporal, spatial and spectral components together. In this article, an overview of some adaptive modulation schemes for OFDM is presented. Then a new scheme consisting of a combination of adaptive modulation, OFDM, high-order space-frequency block codes (SFBC), and antenna selection is presented. The proposed scheme exploits the benefits of spacefrequency block codes, OFDM, adaptive modulation and antenna selection to provide high-quality transmission for broadband wireless communications. The spectral efficiency advantage of the proposed system is examined. It is shown that antenna selection with adaptive modulation can greatly improve the performance of the conventional SFBCOFDM systems.

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


A new approach for predicting and collaborative evaluating the cutting force in face milling based on gene expression programming A new approach to predict the cutting force in face milling based on Gene Expression Programming (GEP) is proposed. At the basis of defining a GEP environment for the cutting force prediction, an explicit predictive model has been constructed. The comparisons are given and show that the constructed predictive model fits very well with the experiment data. A collaborative model evaluation method is proposed to evaluate the constructed predictive model.

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

gene expression programming
face milling
collaborative model evaluation


Bayesian and behavior networks for context-adaptive user interface in a ubiquitous home environment Modern home theater systems require users to control various devices simultaneously including a TV, audio equipment, DVD and video players, and a receiver. To perform the requested user functions in this situation, the user is required to know the functions and positions of the buttons on several remote controls. Users will become more confused if a ubiquitous home environment, which contains many mobile and stationary control devices, is realized. Therefore, the user interface should be adaptable for requested user functions and to fit a specific control device. This paper presents a context-adaptive user interface for the control of devices in ubiquitous home environment. First, we modeled the ubiquitous home environment in order to implement the context-adaptive user interface. We used a Bayesian network to predict the necessary devices in each situation and used a behavior network to select the functions that constitute an adaptive user interface in several conditions. The selected functions were used to generate an adaptive interface for each controller using a presentation template. In this paper, we implemented a ubiquitous home environment and generated a controller usage log for this environment. We confirmed that the Bayesian network effectively predicted the user requirements by evaluating the inferred results of the necessary devices based on several scenarios. Finally, we compared the adaptive user interface with the fixed user interface by surveying fourteen subjects. We confirmed that the generated adaptive user interface was more comfortable for use with typical tasks than was the fixed user interface.

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

adaptive user interface
bayesian network
behavior network


Organizational learning and the complexity of strategic human resource management Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the complicated characteristics of the environment, the relationship between complicated organization and organizational transformation, and the coupling domino effect between the complication of external environment and organizational complexity by making conceptual systematic analysis. Design/methodology/approach - The relative stability and certainty of the organizational structure are being replaced by uncertainty and complexity. Organizational learning and its reform are becoming all the more important to gain organizational competitive advantage. This paper designs the system analysis method to discuss the complexity of organizational environment, the relationship between organizational complexity and organizational structure reform, and also the coupling effect of the complexity of external environment and that of the organization. Findings - It is found that organizational learning, the ways of strategic reform, and the focal point must remain consistent under the complicated environment. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation is how to construct the mathematical models describing complicated characteristics of the environment. Practical implications - The paper contains very useful advice for human resource managers. Originality/value - The paper focuses on the selection of learning patterns and strategic management of different organizational learning and the reform of organizational structure.

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

human resource management
organizational learning
complexity

learning organizations
corporate strategy
strategy management


A multi-period game theoretic model of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs This study examines the relationship between a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur and follows it from its inception to the exit stage. The model we use is a multi-period game theoretic model with moral hazard where the contract is set in the first period. The contribution of the study lies in the insights it provides on optimal contracts and its characterization of an endogenous exit point. Specifically, the paper shows that the optimal incentive scheme should backload all incentive payments to the entrepreneur as much as possible. Consequently, a straight debt contract would be optimal in venture financing.

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

venture capitalists
entrepreneurs
optimal contracts


Optimization of power management in an hybrid electric vehicle using dynamic programming Hybrid electric vehicles are those powered from two different sources. Typically, they are equipped with an internal combustion engine, and also with an electrical storage system, such as a bank of batteries or ultra-capacitors. WHe braking, these vehicles may convert kinetic energy to electrical energy and send it back to the electrical storage system (regenerative braking). The whole vehicle system may be abstracted to one consisting of two energy sources, one of them rechargeable and the other consumable, that feed or receive energy from an energy consumer. A centralized control strategy is required to define the instantaneous power flows among these three main components. In this work, we derive the power split between the two sources such that fuel consumption is minimized, while the vehicle performs a given velocity cycle. Bounds on the power flows from both sources are considered. There is also a constraint of an integral nature that arises from the fact that the energy of the electrical storage system must remain between proper limits, in order to avoid physical damage. The problem is posed as a finite horizon dynamical optimization problem with constraints and solved by a dynamic programming (DP) approach. The hybrid electrical vehicle being developed in the University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina is taken as the case study. (c) 2006 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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

cost optimal control
road vehicle control


Locating factors of the infinite Fibonacci word Let tau = (root 5 - 1)/2. Let a, b be two distinct letters. The infinite Fibonacci word is the infinite word G = babbababbabbababbababbabba... whose nth letter is a (resp., b) if [(n + 1)tau] - [n tau] = 0 (resp., 1). For a factor w of G, the location of w is the set of all positions in G at which w occurs. Only the locations of the following factors of G are already known: squares, singular words and those factors of G whose lengths are Fibonacci numbers. The purpose of this paper is to determine the locations of all factors of G. Our results contain all the known ones as consequences. Moreover, using our results, we are able to identify any factor of G whenever its starting position and length are given; also we are able to tell whether two suffixes of G have a common prefix of a certain length. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


A framework for recognizing the simultaneous aspects of American sign language The major challenge that faces American Sign Language (ASL) recognition now is developing methods that will scale well with increasing vocabulary size. Unlike in spoken languages, phonemes can occur simultaneously in ASL. The number of possible combinations of phonemes is approximately 1.5 x 10(9), which cannot be tackled by conventional hidden Markov model-based methods. Gesture recognition, which is less constrained than ASL recognition. suffers from the same problem. In this paper we present a novel framework to ASL recognition that aspires to being a solution to the scalability problems. It is based on breaking down the signs into their phonemes and modeling them with parallel hidden Markov models. These model the simultaneous aspects of ASL independently. Thus, they can be trained independently, and do not require consideration of the different combinations at training time. We show in experiments with a 22-sign-vocabulary how to apply this framework in practice. We also show that parallel hidden Markov models outperform conventional hidden Markov models. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

gesture recognition
hidden markov models

sign language recognition
human motion modeling


A common framework and taxonomy for multicriteria scheduling problems with interfering and competing jobs: Multi-agent scheduling problems We review multicriteria scheduling problems involving two or more set of jobs. We propose an unified framework for multicriteria scheduling problems with two or more set of jobs. We systematically review and classify existing contributions. We discuss the main advances, and point out future research lines in the topic.

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

interfering jobs
multi-customer
multi-agent scheduling problems
sets of jobs


Optimal search for rationals We present a Theta(log(2) M)-time algorithm that determines an unknown rational number x in Q(M) = {p/q: p, q is an element of{1, . . . , M}} by asking at most 2log(2) M + O(1) queries of the form "Is x less than or equal to y?". (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

combinatorial algorithms
binary search
rational numbers
algorithms


Metaheuristics for the traveling salesman problem with pickups, deliveries and handling costs This paper studies the Traveling Salesman Problem with Pickups, Deliveries, and Handling Costs. The subproblem of minimizing the handling cost for a fixed route is analyzed in detail. It is solved by means of an exact dynamic programming algorithm with quadratic complexity and by an approximate linear time algorithm. Three metaheuristics integrating these solution methods are developed. These are based on tabu search, iterated local search and iterated tabu search. The three heuristics are tested and compared on instances adapted from the related literature. The results show that the combination of tabu search and exact dynamic programming performs the best, but using the approximate linear time algorithm considerably decreases the CPU time at the cost of slightly worse solutions.

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

traveling salesman problem
handling cost
metaheuristics


A

comparative

study

of

AutoDock

and

PMF

scoring

performances,

and

SAR

of

pyrazolotriazolopyrimidines

and

pyrazolopyrimidines

as

potent

xanthine

oxidase

inhibitors

4-Alkylidenehydrazino-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines,

4-arylmethylidenehydrazino-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines,

and

7H-pyrazolo[4,3-e]-1,2,4-triazolo-[1,5-c]-pyrimidines

as

potential

xanthine

oxidase

inhibitors

were

docked

into

the

active

site

of

the

bovine

milk

xanthine

dehydrogenase

using

two

scoring

functions

involved

in

AutoDock

and

the

CAChe

The

correlation

coefficiency

obtained

between

the

AutoDock

binding

energy

and

of

the

inhibitors

was

better

than

that

obtained

by

the

CAChe-PMF

docking

score.

Many

ligands

exhibited

one

to

four

hydrogen

bonds

within

the

active

site,

where

the

detected

hydrogen

bonds

by

CAChe

was

identified

quantitatively

in

the

docked

conformation

by

using

MOPAC

These

ligands

were

docked

into

a

long,

narrow

channel

of

the

enzyme

leading

to

the

molybdopterin

active

moiety,

with

hydrogen

bonding

and

electrostatic

interaction

between

the

planar

aromatic

moiety

of

the

ligand

and

the

enzyme.

Furthermore,

SAR

among

inhibitors

was

investigated,

which

revealed

that

the

oxo

group

of

pyrazolopyrimidine

analogs

is

essential

for

its

activity

and

the

tricyclic

derivatives

are

shown

to

be

more

potent

than

bicyclic

ones.

The

mode

of

interaction

of

the

docked

inhibitors

was

described

in

details.

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

xanthine oxidase inhibitor
structure activity relationship


Mining search engine query logs for social filtering-based query recommendation This paper presents a simple and intuitive method for mining search engine query logs for fast social filtering, where searchers are provided with dynamic query recommendations on a large-scale industrial-strength search engine. We adopt a dynamic approach that is able to absorb new and recent trends in web usage trends on search engines, while forgetting outdated trends, thus adapting to dynamic changes in web user's interests. In order to get well-rounded recommendations, we combine two methods: first, we model search engine users' sequential search behavior, and interpret this consecutive search behavior as client-side query refinement, that should form the basis for the search engine's own query refinement process. This query refinement process is exploited to learn useful information that helps generate related queries. Second, we combine this method with a traditional text or content based similarity method to compensate for the shortness of query sessions and sparsity of real query log data. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

query log
social filtering
recommendation


Scheduling time-constrained instructions on pipelined processors In this work we investigate the problem of scheduling instructions on idealized microprocessors with multiple pipelines, in the presence of precedence constraints, release-times, deadlines, and latency constraints. A latency of l(ij) specifies that there must be at least lij time-steps between the completion time of instruction i and the start time of instruction j. A latency of l(ij) = -1 can be used to specify that j may be scheduled concurrently with i but not earlier. We present a generic algorithm that runs in O(n(2) log na(n) + ne) time, given n instructions and e edges in the precedence DAG, where cr(n) is the functional inverse of the Ackermann function. Our algorithm can be used to construct feasible schedules for various classes of instances, including instances with the following configurations: (1) one pipeline, with individual release-times and deadlines and where the latencies between instructions are restricted to 0 and 1; (2) in pipelines, with individual release-times and deadlines, and monotone-interval order precedences; (3) two pipelines with latencies of -1 or 0, and release-times and deadlines; (4) one pipeline, latencies of 0 or 1 and individual processing times that are at least one; (5) m pipelines, intree precedences, constant latencies, and deadlines; (6) m pipelines, outtree precedences, constant latencies, and release-times. For instances with deadlines, optimal schedules that minimize the maximal tardiness can be constructed using binary search, in O(log n) iterations of our algorithm. We obtain our results using backward scheduling, a very general relaxation method, which extends, unifies, and clarifies many previous results on instruction scheduling for pipelined and parallel machines.

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

deadlines
instruction scheduling
latency

algorithms
compiler optimization
np-complete
pipeline processor
precedence delay
real-time
release-times
risc machine scheduling
time lag


Interactive free-form shape modeling in cyberworlds When procedural models based on implicit functions are used for defining complex shapes, the final model may become slow for rendering. We propose an algorithm for accelerating such rendering for free-form shape modeling where some initial shape is gradually modified by other implicitly-defined shapes with relatively smaller sizes compared to the final shape. The algorithm then adds additional functions to the final function script, which makes the rendering of the whole shape faster. The resulting accelerated function scripts can be then rendered on any suitable rendering platform that we illustrate by using function-based extension of VRML/X3D and POV-Ray.

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


Intelligent search methods for nonlinear goal programming problems Three methods were developed to solve nonlinear goal programming (NLGP) problems by adapting and extending the Nelder-Mead method, the Complex search method, and the Hooke and Jeeves Pattern Search method to account for multiple criteria. These modifications were largely accomplished by using goal programming, lexicographic ordering, and partitioning concepts. The three resulting methods were the Lexicographic Nelder-Mead (LNM) method, the Partitioning Nelder-Mead-Complex (PNMC) method, and the Partitioning Pattern Search (PPS) method. Each method is analyzed based on results and compared with the other methods. Each of the methods appears to function effectively and generate a good solution. In general the PPS method did well in respect to computational time and number of iterations, however, none of the methods clearly outperformed or was outperformed by the other methods.

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

nonlinear goal programming
goal programming
search methods


state-based power analysis for systems-on-chip Early power analysis for systems-on-chip (SoC) is crucial for determining the appropriate packaging and cost. This early analysis commonly relies on evaluating power formulas for all cores for multiple configurations of voltage, frequency, technology and application parameters, which is a tedious and error-prone process. This work presents a methodology and algorithms for automating the power analysis of SoCs. Given the power state machines for individual cores, this work defines the product power state machine for the whole SoC and uses formal symbolic simulation algorithms for traversing and computing the minimum and maximum power dissipated by sets of power states in the SoC.

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


A proof environment for teaching mathematics The EPGY Theorem Proving Environment is a computer program used by students to write mathematical proofs in a selection of computer-based, proof-intensive mathematics courses at the high-school and university level. The system allows easy input of mathematical expressions, application of standard proof strategies and logical inference rules, application of mathematical rules, and verification of logical inference. Each course has its own language, database of theorems, and mathematical rules. The system uses a combination of automated reasoning and symbolic computation to verify individual proof steps. The proof environment has been used by over 170 students who have taken the EPGY high-school geometry course. In addition to providing a general overview of the system, we describe what we have learned from student use of the Theorem Proving Environment in the EPGY geometry course.

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

epgy theorem proving environment
automated reasoning


Supporting scientific discovery processes in discovery net The activity of e-Science involves making discoveries by analysing data to find new knowledge. Discoveries of value cannot be made by simply performing a pre-defined set of steps to produce a result. Rather, there is an original, creative aspect to the activity that by its nature cannot be automated. In addition to finding new knowledge, discovery therefore also concerns finding a process to find new knowledge. How discovery processes are modelled is therefore key to effectively practicing e-Science. We argue that since a discovery process instance serves a similar purpose to a mathematical proof it should have similar properties, namely it allows results to be deterministically reproduced when re-executed and that intermediate results can be viewed to aid examination and comprehension. We examine the issues involved for software environments used to make discoveries to preserve these properties, and show how they. are tackled in the Discovery Net system. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

workflow
e-science
preservation
provenance
audit
web services


On the Stability of Interdomain Routing Most routing protocols guarantee convergence to a stable routing state. That is, in the absence of topology or configuration changes, each router will eventually find a stable route to any destination. However, this is not the case for policy-based routing protocols, for example, the BGP protocol used as a de facto standard for interdomain routing. The interaction of not-so-complex BGP configurations can cause permanent oscillations of routing. Several models and algorithms have been proposed in the literature to study routing oscillations. This article surveys state-of-the-art contributions in this field, with a special emphasis on algorithmic and combinatorial aspects.

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

algorithms
bgp
interdomain routing
stability


ASIS&T 2014 award of merit acceptance speech EDITOR'S SUMMARY

information scientists
honors
information science history


monotonic static cmos tradeoffs in sub-100nm technologies This paper reviews the use of monotonic static CMOS logic gates in scaled technologies where gate leakage currents become significant. High-level tradeoffs are discussed, and some experiments are constructed to evaluate the gate-level performance tradeoffs in a hypothetical standard 65nm CMOS technology. At the gate level, significant improvements in static power consumption are possible without reduction in evaluation delays, but the tradeoffs vary as the conditions and the amount of skewing are changed. Noise tolerance is shown to fall as skewing is increased. The tradeoffs are studied both at the gate level and in a mixed static/monotonic static CMOS design.

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

static power
monotonic static cmos logic
noise tolerance


Network robot systems This article introduces the definition of Network Robot Systems (NRS) as is understood in Europe, USA and Japan. Moreover, it describes some of the NRS projects in Europe and Japan and presents a summary of the papers of this Special Issue.

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

ubiquitous robotics
cooperative robotics
mobile robots
wireless sensor network
tele-robotics


An empirical assessment and categorization of journals relevant to DSS research This paper reports on an objective empirical study of the decision support system literature for the purpose of assessing journals relevant to DSS research efforts. Here, we provide DSS researchers and those who evaluate them an up-to-date picture of the forums available for scholarly discourse and research. We conducted a citation analysis of the Decision Support Systems journal for the years 19851993 to obtain a citation base containing over 7,500 citations. The citation base is then used to (1) examine citation trends for books, proceedings, and journals; (2) determine a relative ranking of journals based on total citations, and (3) organize journals into categories. Guidelines are provided for utilizing the categorization.

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


Exact solutions of nonlinear diffusion equations by variational iteration method In this paper, Hes variational iteration method is applied to obtain exact solutions of some nonlinear diffusion equations. The variational iteration method is used to construct correction functionals using general Lagrange multipliers identified optimally via the variational theory, and the initial approximations can be freely chosen with unknown constants. The solutions obtained are compared with those obtained by the Adomian decomposition method and homotopy perturbation method, showing excellent agreement, but the variational iteration method is more effective. Hes variational iteration method can be introduced to overcome the difficulties arising in calculating Adomian polynomials.

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

nonlinear diffusion equations
variational iteration method
lagrange multipliers
adomian decomposition method


CONCOR: context-aware community-oriented routing for intermittently connected network Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are characterized by time-varying and partially connected network topology. In such networks, mobility of node may be by virtue of its carrier. Social beings such as humans may act as a carrier of mobile nodes, and therefore mobility pattern of node follows a social-based movement model. Due to intermittent connectivity, end-to-end path between source and destination is rare and therefore message delivery is a challenge in such networks. In this paper, we present a new routing approach, context-aware community-oriented routing (CONCOR) that exploits the community and the context awareness of nodes, for efficient message delivery. Nodes with a common point of interest form a dynamic community. We have identified a set of nodes attribute (context) and formulated a utility function to determine its capability to deliver a message. CONCOR is a multihop routing approach exploiting the nodes as message relays (store-carry-forward). Through simulation, we validated the effectiveness of nodes attributes in estimation of message delivery probability. The simulations were done for our approach using the social movement-based data set on Opportunistic Network Environment (ONE) simulator. We compared our approach with dynamic social grouping (DSG)-based routing and context-aware routing(CAR) on three metrics viz. message delivery ratio, message traffic ratio and average message delay. We found that the results of our approach outperforms the DSG and CAR on all the three metrics.

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

intermittent connectivity
context awareness


Modelling hot rolling manufacturing process using soft computing techniques Steel making industry is becoming more competitive due to the high demand. In order to protect the market share, automation of the manufacturing industrial process is vital and represents a challenge. Empirical mathematical modelling of the process was used to design mill equipment, ensure productivity and service quality. This modelling approach shows many problems associated to complexity and time consumption. Evolutionary computing techniques show significant modelling capabilities on handling complex non-linear systems modelling. In this research, symbolic regression modelling via genetic programming is used to develop relatively simple mathematical models for the hot rolling industrial non-linear process. Three models are proposed for the rolling force, torque and slab temperature. A set of simple mathematical functions which represents the dynamical relationship between the input and output of these models shall be presented. Moreover, the performance of the symbolic regression models is compared to the known empirical models for the hot rolling system. A comparison with experimental data collected from the Ere[gtilde]li Iron and Steel Factory in Turkey is conducted for the verification of the promising model performance. Genetic programming shows better performance results compared to other soft computing approaches, such as neural networks and fuzzy logic.

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


Optimal reconstruction of graphs under the additive model We study the problem of reconstructing unknown graphs under the additive combinatorial search model. The main result concerns the reconstruction of bounded degree graphs, i.e., graphs with the degree of all vertices bounded by a constant d. We show that such graphs can be reconstructed in O(dn) nonadaptive queries, which matches the information-theoretic lower bound. The proof is based on the technique of separating matrices. A central result here is a new upper bound for a general class of separating matrices. As a particular case, we obtain a tight upper bound for the class of d-separating matrices, which settles an open question stated by Lindstrom in [20]. Finally, we consider several particular classes of graphs. We show how an optimal nonadaptive solution of O(n(2)/log n) queries for general graphs can be obtained. We also prove that trees with unbounded vertex degree can be reconstructed in a linear number of queries by a nonadaptive algorithm.

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

nonadaptive algorithms
graph reconstruction
coin weighing


Parallel Training of An Improved Neural Network for Text Categorization This paper studies parallel training of an improved neural network for text categorization. With the explosive growth on the amount of digital information available on the Internet, text categorization problem has become more and more important, especially when millions of mobile devices are now connecting to the Internet. Improved back-propagation neural network (IBPNN) is an efficient approach for classification problems which overcomes the limitations of traditional BPNN. In this paper, we utilize parallel computing to speedup the neural network training process of IBPNN. The parallel IBNPP algorithm for text categorization is implemented on a Sun Cluster with 34 nodes (processors). The communication time and speedup for the parallel IBPNN versus various number of nodes are studied. Experiments are conducted on various data sets and the results show that the parallel IBPNN together with SVD technique achieves fast computational speed and high text categorization correctness.

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


functional matrix factorizations for cold-start recommendation A key challenge in recommender system research is how to effectively profile new users, a problem generally known as cold-start recommendation. Recently the idea of progressively querying user responses through an initial interview process has been proposed as a useful new user preference elicitation strategy. In this paper, we present functional matrix factorization (fMF), a novel cold-start recommendation method that solves the problem of initial interview construction within the context of learning user and item profiles. Specifically, fMF constructs a decision tree for the initial interview with each node being an interview question, enabling the recommender to query a user adaptively according to her prior responses. More importantly, we associate latent profiles for each node of the tree --- in effect restricting the latent profiles to be a function of possible answers to the interview questions --- which allows the profiles to be gradually refined through the interview process based on user responses. We develop an iterative optimization algorithm that alternates between decision tree construction and latent profiles extraction as well as a regularization scheme that takes into account of the tree structure. Experimental results on three benchmark recommendation data sets demonstrate that the proposed fMF algorithm significantly outperforms existing methods for cold-start recommendation.

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

functional matrix factorization
decision tree

collaborative filtering
recommender systems
cold-start problem


CoSBiLab LIME: A language interface for stochastic dynamical modelling in ecology We present a simple language tool, CoSBiLab LIME, for building ecosystem models for stochastic dynamic simulation. The LIME language allows the user to give a biologically intuitive model description in a narrative style. After performing static analysis on the model structure, the software tool translates the model description into the BlenX programming language for stochastic dynamical simulation. These features facilitate the analysis of parallel, multiple ecological interactions in metacommunities. The software tool thus allows ecologists with no programming background to perform quite complicated, process-algebra-based simulations.

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

stochastic dynamics
concurrency
metacommunity
process algebra


Positive Gordon-Wixom coordinates We introduce a new construction of transfinite barycentric coordinates for arbitrary closed sets in two dimensions. Our method extends weighted Gordon-Wixom interpolation to non-convex shapes and produces coordinates that are positive everywhere in the interior of the domain and that are smooth for shapes with smooth boundaries. We achieve these properties by using the distance to lines tangent to the boundary curve to define a weight function that is positive and smooth. We derive closed-form expressions for arbitrary polygons in two dimensions and compare the basis functions of our coordinates with several other types of barycentric coordinates. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Behavior of an oppositely charged oilwater interface This paper virtually presents induced behavior of an oppositely charged oilwater interface with the use of a high-speed camera. The elevation behavior of an oilwater interface is demonstrated experimentally, using a transparent acrylic cylindrical container (176mm in inner diameter, 450mm in height) with the bottom half (100mm) filled with deionized water and the top half (between 50 and 150mm) with an immiscible oil (viscosity 1 or 5cSt). Copper fragments are inserted into each liquid (at top and bottom) to serve as electrodes, i.e., the oil layer is negatively charged, and the water layer is positively charged. A high-DC-voltage power supply provides potential difference of the order between about 1 and 30kV. As a result, three kinds of behavior are observed, i.e.: (1) rotary motion on the interface in lower electric field supplied about E=0.013kV/mm; (2) fluctuation on the interface in medium electric field supplied about E = 0.021kV/mm; (3) elevation of the interface in higher electric field supplied between E = 0.04 and 0.65 kV/mm (which depends on the depth of the oil layer).

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 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

oppositely charged two liquids
visualization


Secure web services using two-way authentication and three-party key establishment for service delivery With the advance of web technologies, a large quantity of transactions have been processed through web services. Service Provider needs encryption via public communication channel in order that web services can be delivered to Service Requester. Such encryptions can be realized using secure session keys. Traditional approaches which can enable such transactions are based on peer-to-peer architecture or hierarchical group architecture. The former method resides on two-party communications while the latter resides on hierarchical group communications. In this paper, we will use three-party key establishment to enable secure communications for Service Requester and Service Provider. The proposed protocol supports Service Requester, Service Broker, and Service Provider with a shared secret key established among them. Compared with peer-to-peer architecture and hierarchical group architecture, our method aims at reducing communication and computation overheads.

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

key establishment
encryption
shared secret key
transactions
service requester
service provider
service delivery

web service
non-commutative monoid
security


Rough set approach to behavioral pattern identification The problem considered is how to model perception and identify behavioral patterns of objects changing over time in complex dynamical systems. An approach to solving this problem has been found in the context of rough set theory and methods. Rough set theory introduced by Zdzislaw Pawlak during the early 1980s provides the foundation for the construction of classifiers, relative to what are known as temporal pattern tables. Temporal patterns can be treated as features that make it possible to approximate complex concepts. This article introduces some rough set tools for perception modeling that are developed for a system for modeling networks of classifiers. Such networks make it possible to identify behavioral patterns of objects changing over time. They are constructed using an ontology of concepts delivered by experts that engage in approximate reasoning about concepts embedded in such an ontology. We also present a method that we call a method for on-line elimination of non-relevant parts (ENP). This method was developed for on-line elimination of complex object parts that are irrelevant for identifying a given behavioral pattern. The article includes results of experiments that have been performed on data from a vehicular traffic simulator and on medical data obtained from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Department of Pediatrics, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University. The contribution of this article is the introduction of a network of classifiers that make it possible to identify the behavioral patterns of objects that change over time.

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 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

rough sets
concept approximation
complex dynamical system
respiratory failure


Bin packing with controllable item sizes We consider a natural resource allocation problem in which we are given a set of items, where each item has a list of pairs associated with it. Each pair is a configuration of an allowed size for this item, together with a nonnegative penalty, and an item can be packed using any configuration in its list. The goal is to select a configuration for each item so that the number of unit bins needed to pack the sizes plus the sum of penalties is minimized. This problem has applications in operating systems, bandwidth allocation, and discrete time-cost tradeoff planning problems. For the offline version of the problem we design an augmented asymptotic PTAS. That is, an asymptotic approximation scheme that uses bins of size slightly larger than 1. We further consider the online bounded space variant, where only a constant number of bins can be open simultaneously. We design a sequence of algorithms, where the sequence of their competitive ratios tends to the best possible asymptotic competitive ratio. Finally, we study the bin covering problem, in which a bin is covered if the sum of sizes allocated to it is at least 1. In this setting, penalties are interpreted as profits and the goal is to maximize the sum of profits plus the number of covered bins. We design an algorithm of best possible competitive ratio, which is 2. We generalize our results for online algorithms and unit sized bins to the case of variable sized bins, where there may be several distinct sizes of bins available for packing or covering, and get that the competitive ratios are again the same as for the more standard online problems. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

approximation schemes
discrete time-cost tradeoff


From origins to implications: key aspects in the debate over the digital divide Defined as the differential extent to which rich countries and poor countries benefit from various forms of information technology ( IT), the global digital divide has been extensively measured and described in national as well as international debates. The problem, however, is that the topic is highly fragmented in the literature, with few attempts to put the parts into a coherent analytical framework. More precisely, there has been no specific attempt to pinpoint the main issues that influence one's view of the importance of the digital divide and the policies demanded by the different points of view. The goal of this paper, accordingly, is to fill this important gap in the literature in an analytical schema that recognizes the ways in which the impact of innovations depends heavily on how they are generated and diffused. At each stage of this sequential process are key issues that influence one's view of the digital divide. It matters a great deal for instance on whether the divide is in some sense unique, or just another manifestation of the general technological relationship between rich and poor countries. It is also the case that the size of the divide depends heavily on how it is measured. Yet another example is that the extent of the potential impact of IT will influence our view of the foregone opportunities associated with limited uptake of this technology in developing countries.

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

access to information technology
it and globalization
it and inequality


A fast direct method for block triangular Toeplitz-like with tri-diagonal block systems from time-fractional partial differential equations ? In this paper, we study the block lower triangular Toeplitz-like with tri-diagonal blocks system which arises from the time-fractional partial differential equation. Existing fast numerical solver (e.g., fast approximate inversion method) cannot handle such linear system as the main diagonal blocks are different. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a fast direct method for solving this linear system, and to illustrate that the proposed method is much faster than the classical block forward substitution method for solving this linear system. Our idea is based on the divide-and-conquer strategy and together with the fast Fourier transforms for calculating Toeplitz matrixvector multiplication. The complexity needs O(MNlog2?M) O ( M N log 2 ? M ) arithmetic operations, where M is the number of blocks (the number of time steps) in the system and N is the size (number of spatial grid points) of each block. Numerical examples from the finite difference discretization of time-fractional partial differential equations are also given to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

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


Forecasting and simulating mortality tables In this paper we suggest solutions to the actuaries, facing the problem of estimating future mortality tables, especially in cases where there is a lack of relevant data and where the tendencies are not easy to estimate directly. We propose the utilization of external sources of information in the form of other, published mortality tables and use formal statistical tests to decide among these possible candidates. The procedure can also be applied for checking e. g. the goodness of mortality selection factors. We suggest the use of parametric families in modelling; for example the simple 2-parameter Azbel model. We conclude the paper by a simulation study which allows for the quantification of the possible risks related to unforeseen changes in the mortality tables in the future. To calibrate the variances of these models, initial estimates are needed, which we get by the Lee-Carter method. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

azbel-model
hypothesis testing
mortality table


A human-phantom coupling experiment and a dispersive simulation model for investigating the variation of dielectric properties of biological tissues The effect of tissue dispersion was studied using current and voltage stimulations. A novel method was proposed to systematically change the dispersion of the tissues. Current needs to be increased to generate activation under decreased impedance. Voltage needs to be decreased to generate activation under decreased impedance. Optimal pulse duration also depends on the pulse stimulation.

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

electrical stimulation
human-equivalent phantom
motor threshold


Fuzzy Reliable Tracking Control for Flexible Air-breathing Hypersonic Vehicles In this paper, we present a fuzzy reliable tracking control design method for flexible air-breathing hypersonic vehicles (FAHVs) subject to disturbances and possible sensor/actuator failures. This problem is challenging due to the strong coupling effects, variable operating conditions and possible failures in FAHVs. First, Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is used to represent the longitudinal dynamics model of FAHVs. Then, by considering the disturbances and the faults, the fuzzy reliable tracking problem is proposed, and the tracking control problem is transformed into a stabilization problem. A fuzzy reliable state-feedback controller is designed to guarantee the asymptotic stability of the closed-system. By the Lyapunov approach, the existence conditions for such a controller are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities. With the designed controllers, the reference command can be tracked in spite of actuator/sensor faults. Simulation has demonstrated the proposed design scheme.

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

flexible air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicles (fahvs)


Predicting sea-level variations at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands with artificial neural networks Sea-level variations affect the construction and management of coastal structures, near-shore navigation, coastal rivers hydrological regime, and coastal tourism. Estimates of sea-level with hours-to-days warning times are especially important for low-lying regions, such as the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean. This study employs the technique of artificial neural networks to predict sea-level variations with warning times from 1h to 5 days on the basis of hourly tide gauge observations. The data from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands SEAFRAME tide station for the period from 1992 to 2003 were used here. Feed-forward three-layered artificial neural networks were implemented to simulate sea level. The proposed neural methodology demonstrated reliable results in terms of the correlation coefficient (0.850.95), root mean square error (80100mm), and scatter index (0.10.2) when compared with actual observations. Therefore, the proposed methodology could be successfully used for site-specific forecasts.

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

tide observations
forecast
size of training time series


Scheduling and Optimization of Fault-Tolerant Embedded Systems with Transparency/Performance Trade-Offs In this article, we propose a strategy for the synthesis of fault-tolerant schedules and for the mapping of fault-tolerant applications. Our techniques handle transparency/performance trade-offs and use the fault-occurrence information to reduce the overhead due to fault tolerance. Processes and messages are statically scheduled, and we use process reexecution for recovering from multiple transient faults. We propose a fine-grained transparent recovery, where the property of transparency can be selectively applied to processes and messages. Transparency hides the recovery actions in a selected part of the application so that they do not affect the schedule of other processes and messages. While leading to longer schedules, transparent recovery has the advantage of both improved debuggability and less memory needed to store the fault-tolerant schedules.

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

design
performance
reliability
fault-tolerant embedded systems
safety-critical applications
design optimization
intermittent faults
real-time scheduling
conditional scheduling
process mapping


Systematically incorporating domain-specific knowledge into evolutionary speciated checkers players The evolutionary approach for gaming is different from the traditional one that exploits knowledge of the opening, middle, and endgame stages. It is, therefore, sometimes inefficient to evolve simple heuristics that may be created easily by humans because it is based purely on a bottom-up style of construction. Incorporating domain knowledge into evolutionary computation can improve the performance of evolved strategies and accelerate the speed of evolution by reducing the search space. In this paper, we propose the systematic insertion of opening knowledge and an endgame database into the framework of evolutionary checkers. Also, the common knowledge that the combination of diverse strategies is better than a single best one is included in the middle stage and is implemented using crowding algorithm and a strategy combination scheme. Experimental results show that the proposed method is promising for generating better strategies.

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

checkers
combination
domain knowledge
endgame database
opening knowledge


A dynamic programming approach to missing data estimation using neural networks This paper develops and presents a novel technique for missing data estimation using a combination of dynamic programming, neural networks and genetic algorithms (GA) on suitable subsets of the input data. The method proposed here is well suited for decision making processes and uses the concept of optimality and the Bellmans equation to estimate the missing data. The proposed approach is applied to an HIV/AIDS database and the results shows that the proposed method significantly outperforms a similar method where dynamic programming is not used. This paper also suggests a different way of formulating a missing data problem such that the dynamic programming is applicable to estimate the missing data.

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

missing data
neural networks
dynamic programming
genetic algorithms


A spatiotemporal compression based approach for efficient big data processing on Cloud Spatial and temporal compression for big graph data storage and processing on Cloud. Temporal compression for reducing data from a single node in a graph. Spatial compression for reducing data from correlated nodes in a graph. Significant time performance gains achieved by a novel scheduling on Cloud. Trade off between data quality and processing efficiency being guaranteed.

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

big data
graph data
spatiotemporal compression
scheduling


Extending the theory of Bounded Generalized Reciprocity: An explanation of the social benefits of cooperative video game play Players had a helpful or unhelpful video game teammate or minimal in-group member. Players engaged in a simultaneous or sequential PDG with teammate and opposing team. Helpful teammates confirmed reciprocity expectations and increased pro-socialness. Unhelpful teammates had the opposite effect on pro-socialness between teammates. Playing with a helpful teammate increased pro-socialness toward out-group members.

O O O O B I I 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

cooperative video game play
bounded generalized reciprocity


Closed-loop control of switched reluctance generators Purpose - This paper deals with closed-loop control of a switched reluctance generator (SRG), Design/methodology/approach - The control objective when generating is to maintain the dc: link voltage at the required value while achieving maximum efficiency. Three possible control schemes are presented and their performance is examined by testing on an experimental 12/8 three-phase SRG. Findings - A very simple control scheme that requires no prior characterisation of the SRG, an approach based on the use of an inverse machine model and finally, a control scheme that is aimed at achieving optimal efficiency are described and experimental results for all three are presented. Research limitations/implications - The inverse machine model control scheme and the optimal efficiency control scheme require operation at a constant voltage reference for accurate operation (although this is the case for many generator applications). Possible future research might include the expansion of these control schemes to operation with a variable voltage reference. Practical implications - The importance of maximising efficiency is emphasised with a clear method of deriving the optimal efficiency firing angles described. Originality/value - This paper provides a good overview of SRG operation through the experimental implementation of three separate closed-loop voltage control schemes, each of which is described in detail.

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