Applying stack simulation for branch target buffers Branch target buffer (BTB) is widely used in modern microprocessor designs to reduce the penalties caused by branches. To evaluate the performance of a BTB, trace-driven simulation is often used. However, as the trace of a typical program is very large, the simulation time is often too long. To reduce the simulation time, we developed a stack simulation technique for BTB to evaluate many sets of design parameters in one simulation pass. Due to the fact that the prediction information in the BTB does not have the inclusion property - a property which makes the stack simulation work, we propose a state vector method to enumerate the prediction information for different sets of BTB design parameters to mimic the inclusion property. Simulation results show that the state vector method greatly reduces the simulation time. The speedup of the stack simulation for BTB proposed in this paper over the traditional BTB simulation is 4.68 in terms of simulation time when 13 sets of BTB design parameters are simulated in one simulation pass. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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

branch prediction
trace-driven simulation
single-pass simulation


Online maintenance of life domains: Uses of social network sites during graduate education among the US and international students Geographic origin was a significant predictor of number of friends. International students had significantly fewer social network site friends. Geographic origin was not a significant predictor of social network site use for socializing.

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

online maintenance
graduate education
social network sites


Autonomic Provisioning with Self-Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Control for Percentile-Based Delay Guarantee Autonomic server provisioning for performance assurance is a critical issue in Internet services. It is challenging to guarantee that requests flowing through a multi-tier system will experience an acceptable distribution of delays. The difficulty is mainly due to highly dynamic workloads, the complexity of underlying computer systems, and the lack of accurate performance models. We propose a novel autonomic server provisioning approach based on a model-independent self-adaptive Neural Fuzzy Control (NFC). Existing model-independent fuzzy controllers are designed manually on a trial-and-error basis, and are often ineffective in the face of highly dynamic workloads. NFC is a hybrid of control-theoretical and machine learning techniques. It is capable of self-constructing its structure and adapting its parameters through fast online learning. We further enhance NFC to compensate for the effect of server switching delays. Extensive simulations demonstrate that, compared to a rule-based fuzzy controller and a Proportional-Integral controller, the NFC-based approach delivers superior performance assurance in the face of highly dynamic workloads. It is robust to variation in workload intensity, characteristics, delay target, and server switching delays. We demonstrate the feasibility and performance of the NFC-based approach with a testbed implementation in virtualized blade servers hosting a multi-tier online auction benchmark.

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

design
experimentation
resource allocation
multi-tier internet services
percentile-based delay guarantee
self-adaptation
server virtualization


Bringing chatbots into education: Towards natural language negotiation of open learner models There is an extensive body of work on Intelligent Tutoring Systems: computer environments for education, teaching and training that adapt to the needs of the individual learner. Work on personalisation and adaptivity has included research into allowing the student user to enhance the systems adaptivity by improving the accuracy of the underlying learner model. Open Learner Modelling, where the systems model of the users knowledge is revealed to the user, has been proposed to support student reflection on their learning. Increased accuracy of the learner model can be obtained by the student and system jointly negotiating the learner model. We present the initial investigations into a system to allow people to negotiate the model of their understanding of a topic in natural language. This paper discusses the development and capabilities of both conversational agents (or chatbots) and Intelligent Tutoring Systems, in particular Open Learner Modelling. We describe a Wizard-of-Oz experiment to investigate the feasibility of using a chatbot to support negotiation, and conclude that a fusion of the two fields can lead to developing negotiation techniques for chatbots and the enhancement of the Open Learner Model. This technology, if successful, could have widespread application in schools, universities and other training scenarios.

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

conversational agents
chatbots
learner modelling
negotiation
natural language


Stochastic pronunciation modelling from hand-labelled phonetic corpora In the early 1990s, the availability of the TIMIT read-speech phonetically transcribed corpus led to work at AT&T on the automatic inference of pronunciation variation. This work, briefly summarized here, used stochastic decision trees trained on phonetic and linguistic features, and was applied to the DARPA North American Business News read-speech ASR task. More recently, the ICSI spontaneous-speech phonetically transcribed corpus was collected at the behest of the 1996 and 1997 LVCSR Summer Workshops held at Johns Hopkins University. A 1997 workshop (WS97) group focused on pronunciation inference from this corpus for application to the DoD Switchboard spontaneous telephone speech ASR task. We describe several approaches taken there. These include (1) one analogous to the AT&T approach, (2) one, inspired by work at WS96 and CMU, that involved adding pronunciation variants of a sequence of one or more words (`multiwords') in the corpus (with corpus-derived probabilities) into the ASR lexicon, and (1+2) a hybrid approach in which a decision-tree model was used to automatically phonetically transcribe a much larger speech corpus than ICSI and then the multiword approach was used to construct an ASR recognition pronunciation lexicon.

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


Pullout capacity of spatial anchors This paper discusses the pullout capacity of spatial anchors in soil under applied vertical force. In field tests, the pullout forces were gradually increased and the ground surface displacements measured in two profiles perpendicular to each other. The laboratory and field tests were performed for several embedment depths and anchor diameter ratios in the same sand and under the same conditions. The anchor pulling was also laboratory-tested so that the vertical anchor displacements were given and the corresponding force intensity measured The finite element method was used for the pullout force computation in test cases. The relations between displacements and pullout forces obtained by the laboratory tests, field tests and numerical computations were statistically analysed. Owing to gradual convergence of pullout forces towards the limit value, the exponential function was adopted as an approximation curve. The two obtained constants of the function represent the significant mechanical characteristics. The first is limit pullout force and the second gives the total stiffness of the soil mechanical system.

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

numerical analysis
finite element analysis
approximation theory
soil mechanics


microprocessor control of uninterruptible power supplies for responsible loads There is presented a microprocessor-controlled uninterruptible power system /UPS/, devoted for responsible consumers such as computer, communications and some special systems, working in online regime. They are achieved high technical performances: high efficiency coefficient, low coefficient of distortion of the output voltage under unsteady loads, possibility to be implemented different output powers including parallel working unified modules. It is described the conversion and coding of the input/output signals of the microprocessor unit. There are created a numerical model, an algorithm and software for real-time control of one-chip computer MC 68705 R3S.

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


Inventory models for breakable items with stock dependent demand and imprecise constraints This paper develops multi-item Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) inventory models for breakable units with stock dependent demand under imprecise constraints. The units are damaged due to the accumulated stress of the stocked items kept in stacked form and the damaged function, i.e. rate of breakability per unit time may be linear or non-linear function of current stock level. Here shortages are not allowed. Both the crisp and fuzzy models have been formulated as profit maximization problems with crisp/imprecise space and budget constraints and solved by using a gradient based non-linear programming technique, Generalised Reduced Gradient (GRG) Method. The models are illustrated with a numerical example and some sensitivity analyses have been presented. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

multi-item breakableunit possibility necessity


In silico identification and characterization of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase from Phytophthora sojae As part of an effort to obtain a fungal 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase encoding gene from Phytophthora sojae expressed sequence Tag database, we identify and characterize the ACCD from P. sojae using bioinformatics data mining tools and techniques. Computed structural model of P. sojae ACCD was found to consist of mixed alpha/beta motifs and probable loops. The predicted model resembles the structure of Pseudomonas ACCD (RMSD-0.44 ). The main differences observed between them are the presence of partial length of domain one, and longer helix alpha 4. Ramachandran plot analysis revealed that portion of all residues falling into the most favorable regions was 95.0%. The substrate - and geometrical- docking of developed structure postulated functional capability of ACCD to carry out ACC cleavage reaction. The catalytic site in homo-tetrameric structure open to opposite directions separated by 37.97 distance arranged around central axis. This study provides a comprehensive identification and characterization of the ACCD in P. sojae and it may be helpful in the transcriptional and expression based study of P. sojae pathogenesis.

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

active site
ests
homo-tetramer
modeller
phytopthora sojae


Panconnectivity and edge-pancyclicity of multidimensional torus networks ? In this paper, the (bi)panconnectivity and edge-(bi)pancyclicity of n n -dimensional torus networks are investigated. An n n -dimensional torus T=T(k1,k2,,kn) T = T ( k 1 , k 2 , , k n ) with diameter m 0 = ? i = 1 n ? k i / 2 ? , where ki?3 k i ? 3 for i=1,2,,n i = 1 , 2 , , n , is one of the most popular interconnection networks, the k k -ary n n -cube Q n k (=T(k,k,,k) = T ( k , k , , k ) ) is its special class. For any two vertices u u and v v in T T , we determine the set ?(u,v) ? ( u , v ) of all lengths of (u,v) ( u , v ) -paths in T T by using path-shortening technique that can be used efficiently to construct the (u,v) ( u , v ) -paths in the torus T T . In particular, the following results are obtained: (1) The torus T T is bipanconnected and edge-bipancyclic; (2) If some kj?3 k j ? 3 is odd and the other ki?4 k i ? 4 is even for every i?j i ? j , then the torus T T is m1 m 1 -panconnected, where m1=(kj?1)/2+m0 m 1 = ( k j ? 1 ) / 2 + m 0 , and the bound m1 m 1 is optimal; (3)If both ki?3 k i ? 3 and kj?3 k j ? 3 are odd, then the torus T T is m0 m 0 -panconnected, and the bound m0 m 0 is optimal. (4) If some kj k j is odd, let k k be the minimum over all odd ki k i , then T T is (k+1) ( k + 1 ) -edge pancyclic and the bound k+1 k + 1 is optimal if T ? Q n k , and T T is h h -edge-pancyclic and the bound h=max{k?1,3} h = max { k ? 1 , 3 } is optimal otherwise. Our results strengthen and generalize existing results.

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

k k -ary n n -cube k k k k k n n n n n
pancyclicity
interconnection network


Teaching visual impact assessment at a master level The purpose of this article is to describe a Master level subject on Visual Impact Assessment, presenting its most noteworthy contents, academic features, methodology, and technology. It also presents some practical results extracted from some outstanding final works submitted by the students during the academic year 20122013. These works can give a clear idea about the degree of achievement regarding competences and skills that students can achieve. As Visual Impact Assessment is a compulsory requirement in an Environmental Impact Assessment document, it needs to become incorporated in the professional curriculum and, therefore, needs to be taught in the classroom, for instance at an academic Master level. This paper describes a way to address it. 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput. Appl. Eng. Educ. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:703714, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21643

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

engineering education
environmental engineering
civil engineering


Algorithms for compact letter displays: Comparison and evaluation Multiple pairwise comparisons are one of the most frequent tasks in applied statistics. In this context, letter displays may be used for a compact presentation of results of multiple comparisons. A heuristic previously proposed for this task is compared with two new algorithmic approaches. The latter rely on the equivalence of computing compact letter displays to computing clique covers in graphs, a problem that is well-studied in theoretical computer science. A thorough discussion of the three approaches aims to give a comparison of the algorithms advantages and disadvantages. The three algorithms are compared in a series of experiments on simulated and real data, e.g., using data from wheat and triticale yield trials.

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

multiple pairwise comparison
line display
np-hard problem
graph problem
clique cover
efficient algorithm


Performance of the verification for binary memoryless channels We consider the verification problem when the verifier receives a pair of binary vectors (a, b) and makes the acceptance or the rejection decision. The acceptance decision has to be made if the vector b is the result of transmission of the vector a over a known memoryless channel. An attacker substitutes a vector b generated by a stationary Bernoulli source. We design the verification algorithm with the metric depending on the weight of the vector a. The attacker knows the weight of the vector a and the verification algorithm, but we can restrict his possibilities in such a way that the best strategy becomes the flipping of a fair coin. The performance of the algorithm is essentially better than the performance of the scheme, which is based on the maximum likelihood decision for the known channel. We also show that the algorithm is a special case of a general verification scheme for an arbitrary memoryless channel. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

authentication
decoding
hypotheses testing


The role played by the concept of presence in validating the efficacy of a cybertherapy treatment: a literature review The present paper considers the existing research in cybertherapy, which is a psychological therapy carried out with the use of a mediated environment, and examines the way in which the users sense of presence in the mediated environment can be of relevance for the validation of the intervention. With this purpose, a collection of 41 papers reporting the measurement of presence in the context of a cybertherapy treatment has been identified and examined. The general relevance of presence in cybertherapy and the measurement techniques adopted in the studies collected here are described and discussed. The way in which presence corresponds to establishing internal validity, convergent or predictive validity and external validity of a treatment is examined. In conclusion, a checklist to apply when planning a validation study is proposed, to improve the way in which presence is used.

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


Predicting problem-solving performance with concept maps: An information-theoretic approach An increasing number of researchers and educational practitioners have shown their interest in the use of concept mapping techniques to elicit and represent individuals' knowledge structures. By extending previous research on concept map assessment, this study aims to develop a new evaluation metric enabling the information uncertainty embedded in concept maps to be assessed so as to predict individuals' problem-solving performance. In particular, our novel metric EntropyAvg is underpinned by the notion of entropy in information theory. A controlled experiment is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed metric. Our experimental results demonstrate that the entropy values computed according to EntropyAvg strongly correlate to individuals' problem-solving performance and that the predictive power of EntropyAvg is significantly higher than that of existing widely used concept map evaluation metrics. Our research work opens the door to the application of concept mapping techniques in enterprise-wide knowledge management in general and enterprise-wide knowledge assessment in particular.

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

information theory
entropy
concept mapping
knowledge management


A lossless compression scheme for Bayer color filter array images In most digital cameras, Bayer color filter array (CIA) images are captured and demosaicing is generally carried out before compression. Recently, it was found that compression-first schemes outperform the conventional demosaicing-first schemes in terms of output image quality. An efficient prediction-based lossless compression scheme for Bayer CIA images is proposed in this paper. It exploits a context matching technique to rank the neighboring pixels when predicting a pixel, an adaptive color difference estimation scheme to remove the color spectral redundancy when handling red and blue samples, and an adaptive codeword generation technique to adjust the divisor of Rice code for encoding the prediction residues. Simulation results show that the proposed compression scheme can achieve a better compression performance than conventional lossless CIA image coding schemes.

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

bayer pattern
color filter array (cia)
digital camera
entropy coding
image compression


Antibodies in research of thymosin ?4: investigation of cross-reactivity and influence of fixatives Antibodies against thymosin ?4 are available from various sources and have been used in immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and Western blot analyses. None of these antibodies have been fully characterized for specificity and influence of fixation techniques. This presents a difficulty because many tissues express more than one member of the ?-thymosin family; in addition, highly homologous sequences are typical elements of ?-thymosins. It is also important to scrutinize the influence of fixatives on the antibody-binding capability. Fixatives such as formaldehyde are well known as cross-linking reagents. Chemical modifications within the thymosin ?4 molecule might change the putative epitope recognized by the antibody. These considerations suggest that investigations on thymosin ?4 antibodies available to the scientific community are important and necessary before any experiment can be performed to exclude cross-reactivity with other ?-thymosins that are coexistent in the examined tissue and to prove antibody binding after fixation steps.

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

thymosin ?4 antibody
cross-reactivity
cross-linking
fixative


A locally constrained watershed transform The watershed transform, from mathematical morphology, is a powerful and flexible tool for segmentation. However, it does not allow a priori knowledge relating to characteristics of region boundaries to be included in the way that other approaches do. This paper introduces the locally constrained watershed transform, which includes border constraints by modifying the underlying path definition upon which the watershed transform depends. This approach maintains many of the desirable properties of the watershed transform, such as well-defined stopping conditions and efficient implementation, while offering more stable segmentation in the presence of noisy or incomplete boundaries.

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

segmentation
constrained watershed transform

constrained region growing
covered cost
minkowski cost
seeded region growing.


Generalized fuzzy clustering for segmentation of multi-spectral magnetic resonance images An integrated approach for multi-spectral segmentation of MR images is presented. This method is based on the fuzzy c-means (FCM) and includes bias field correction and contextual constraints over spatial intensity distribution and accounts for the non-spherical cluster's shape in the feature space. The bias field is modeled as a linear combination of smooth polynomial basis functions for fast computation in the clustering iterations. Regularization terms for the neighborhood continuity of intensity are added into the FCM cost functions. To reduce the computational complexity, the contextual regularizations are separated from the clustering iterations. Since the feature space is not isotropic, distance measure adopted in GustafsonKessel (GK) algorithm is used instead of the Euclidean distance, to account for the non-spherical shape of the clusters in the feature space. These algorithms are quantitatively evaluated on MR brain images using the similarity measures.

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

contextual constraints
gk algorithm
similarity measures

adaptive fcm
inhomogeneity field
multi-spectral segmentation
mri


UAVs in urban operations: Target interception and containment In future urban warfare scenarios, the expectations placed on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in terms of autonomy, reliability and cooperation will be significantly increased. In this paper, a novel algorithm is developed which enables a swarm UAVs to contain and intercept multiple evading targets. In particular, the algorithm allows a swarm of UAVs to intercept significantly faster evading targets if there are more UAVs than targets. Several numerical experiments are conducted, in which four pursuers attempt to intercept one or two faster evaders. The algorithm is very effective at containing the targets; however, as the number of evading targets increases the speed of the evaders must be reduced to ensure capture. Finally, a scenario in which there are more evading targets than pursuers is considered, and, given that the evaders were slower than the pursers, containment and capture was successfully accomplished.

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

differential games theory
swarm coordination
time-optimal control


traceability and completeness checking for agent-oriented systems In this paper, we describe a rule-based approach to support traceability and completeness checking of design models and code specification of agent-oriented systems. The rules are specified in an extension of XQuery and allow the generation of traceability relations and checking of completeness of artifacts represented in Prometheus design models and JACK code specification. An example of an Electronic Bookstore agent oriented system is used to illustrate the work.

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

multi-agent systems
agent oriented software engineering


quantitative analysis of biochemical signalling pathways This paper gives a short introduction to some of the issues of modelling biochemical signalling pathways in the context of systems biology.

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

biochemical signalling pathways
systems biology


Extremal properties of reciprocal complementary Wiener number of trees The reciprocal complementary Wiener (RCW) number of a connected graph G G is defined in mathematical chemistry as the sum of the weights 1 d + 1 ? d G ( u , v ) of all unordered pairs of distinct vertices, where d d is the diameter and dG(u,v) d G ( u , v ) is the distance between vertices u u and v v in G G . Among others, we characterize the trees of fixed number of vertices and matching number with the smallest RCW number, and the trees that are not caterpillars on n?7 n ? 7 vertices with the smallest, the second-smallest and the third-smallest RCW numbers.

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

reciprocal complementary wiener number
tree
caterpillar


Nonlinear finite element modeling of FRP-wrapped UHPC columns The primary aim of this study is to develop a three dimensional finite element (FE) model to predict the axial stress-strain relationship and ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns by comparing experimental results. The reliability of four selected confinement models and three design codes such as ACI-440, CSA-S806-02, and ISIS CANADA is also evaluated in terms of agreement with the experimental results. Totally 6 unconfined and 36 different types of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns are tested under monotonic axial compression. The values of ultimate strengths of FRP-wrapped UHPC columns obtained from the experimental results are compared and verified with finite element (FE) analysis results and the design codes mentioned above. The concrete damage plasticity model (CDPM) in Abaqus is utilized to represent the confined behavior of the UHPC. The results indicate that agreement between the test results and the non-linear FE analysis results is highly satisfactory. The CSA-S806-02 design code is considered more reliable than the ACI-440 and the ISIS CANADA design codes to calculate the ultimate strength of the FRP-wrapped UHPC columns. None of the selected confinement models that are developed for FRP-wrapped low and normal strength concrete columns can safely predict the ultimate strength of FRP-wrapped UHPC columns.

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

ultra-high performance concrete
fiber reinforced polymer
finite element analysis


generation of webml web application models from business process specifications This short paper aims at demonstrating the integration of workflow specifications with conceptual models for Web application design. In particular, we propose a visual editor of business process diagrams (according to the BPMN notation), which seamlessly integrates into the commercial CASE tool called WebRatio, which allows the designer to model data-intensive and service-intensive Web applications based on WebML (Web Modeling Language) models. A set of model transformations from BPMN workflow diagrams to WebML hypertext diagrams allows fast generation of site skeletons implementing the specified business process. Such skeletons can be modified by the designer that is relieved from the time-consuming and error-prone task of specifying all the details of the workflow constraints.

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

b2b web application
model transformation


Supplier switching decisions In order to maximize profit, a buying firm should continuously search for and access sources which offer more favorable prices. While the literature is replete with works on the formation and development of buyersupplier relationships, there is surprisingly only scarce research on the termination of such relationships and supplier switching. Using the concept of switching costs in a principal-agent framework, we at first analyze whether a firm switches the entire or a partial quantity to an alternative supplier when there is either symmetric or asymmetric information about the alternative suppliers cost structure. Information asymmetry results in inert supplier switching decisions. Subsequently, we extend our model and take competitive reactions of the incumbent supplier and economies of scale effects into consideration. We find conditions under which no, partial and complete switching occurs, which depend on the buying firms beliefs about the alternative suppliers unit costs, switching costs, the price offered by the incumbent supplier, and refinements of the price offered by the incumbent supplier due to competitive reactions and economies of scale. Broader implications for supplier relationship management and sourcing strategy decisions are also provided.

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

supplier switching
information asymmetry


Trajectory control of a two DOF rigidflexible space robot by a virtual space vehicle Model based control schemes use inverse dynamics of the robot arm to produce the main torque component necessary for trajectory tracking. For a model-based controller one is required to know the model parameters accurately. This is a very difficult job especially if the manipulator is flexible. This paper presents a control scheme for trajectory control of the tip of a two arm rigidflexible space robot, with the help of a virtual space vehicle. The flexible link is modeled as an EulerBernoulli beam. The developed controller uses the inertial parameters of the base of the space robot only. Bond graph modeling is used to model the dynamics of the system and to devise the control strategy. The efficacy of the controller is shown through simulated and animation results.

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 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 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

bond graph modeling
virtual space vehicle

flexible space robots
eulerbernoulli beam model


Design principles of adaptive cellular immunity for artificial immune systems Artificial immune systems (AISs) have been proposed as a new computing paradigm. This paper reviews design principles of adaptive cellular immunity, based on the immunological literature rather than the simplified mathematical models which have thus far dominated the development of framework for design, interpretation, and application of AISs.

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

artificial immune systems
design principles


Big data challenge: a data management perspective There is a trend that, virtually everyone, ranging from big Web companies to traditional enterprisers to physical science researchers to social scientists, is either already experiencing or anticipating unprecedented growth in the amount of data available in their world, as well as new opportunities and great untapped value. This paper reviews big data challenges from a data management respective. In particular, we discuss big data diversity, big data reduction, big data integration and cleaning, big data indexing and query, and finally big data analysis and mining. Our survey gives a brief overview about big-data-oriented research and problems.

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


merging equivalent contexts for scalable heap-cloning-based context-sensitive points-to analysis A context-sensitive points-to analysis maintains separate points-to relationships for each possible (abstract) calling context of a method. Previous work has shown that a large number of equivalence classes exists in the representation of calling contexts. Such equivalent contexts provide opportunities for context-sensitive analyses based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs), in which BDDs automatically merge equivalent points-to relationships. However, the use of a BDD ``black box'' introduces additional overhead for analysis running time. Furthermore, with heap cloning (i.e., using context-sensitive object allocation sites), BDDs are not as effective because the number of equivalence classes increases significantly. A further step must be taken to look inside the BDD black box to investigate where the equivalence comes from, and what tradeoffs can be employed to enable practical large-scale heap cloning. This paper presents an analysis for Java that exploits equivalence classes in context representation. For a particular pointer variable or heap object, all abstract contexts within an equivalence class can be merged. This technique naturally results in a new non-BDD context-sensitive points-to analysis. Based on these equivalence classes,the analysis employs a last- k -substring merging approach to define scalability and precision tradeoffs. We show that small values for k can enable scalable heap cloning for large Java programs. The proposed analysis has been implemented and evaluated on a large set of Java programs. The experimental results show improvements over an existing 1-object-sensitive analysis with heap cloning, which is the most precise scalable analysis implemented in the state-of-the-art Paddle analysis framework. For computing a points-to solution for an entire program, our approach is an order of magnitude faster compared to this BDD-based analysis and to a related non-BDD refinement-based analysis.

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

context sensitivity
pointer analysis
points-to analysis


Exploiting synchronous and asynchronous DVS for feedback EDF scheduling on an embedded platform Contemporary processors support dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) to reduce power consumption by varying processor voltage/frequency dynamically. We develop power-aware feedback-DVS algorithms for hard real-time systems that adapt to dynamically changing workloads. The algorithms lower execution speed while guaranteeing timing constraints. We study energy consumption for synchronous and asynchronous DVS switching on a PowerPC board. Energy, measured via data acquisition, is reduced up to 70% over naive DVS for our feedback scheme with 24% peak savings over previous algorithms. These results, albeit differing in quantity, confirm trends observed under simulation. They are the first of their kind on an embedded board.

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

algorithms
scheduling
dynamic voltage scaling

experimentation
real-time systems
feedback control


Calculating transport of water from a conduit to the porous matrix by boundary distributed source method This study presents the development of a suitable numerical method for porous media flow with free and moving boundary (Stefan) problems arising in systems with wetted and unwetted regions of porous media. A non-singular version of the method of fundamental solutions (MFS), termed the boundary distributed source method (BDS), is applied. Darcy flow and homogenous isotropic porous media is assumed. The solution is represented in terms of the fundamental solution of the Laplace equation in two-dimensional Cartesian coordinates. The desingularisation is achieved through boundary distributed sources of the fundamental solution and indirect calculation of the derivatives of the fundamental solution. Respectively, the artificial boundary, characteristic for the classical, singular MFS is not present. The novel BDS is compared with the MFS and the analytical solutions for several numerical examples with excellent agreement. A sensitivity study of the solution, regarding the discretization and the free parameters is performed. The main contributions of the study are the application of the BDS to free and moving boundary problems and the comparison of BDS with MFS for these types of problems. The developed model can be applied to various geohydrological problems.

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

darcy flow
method of fundamental solutions
boundary distributed source method

karst aquifer
stefan problem
moving and free boundary problems


Another viewpoint on evaluating web software reliability based on workload and failure data extracted from server logs An approach of determining a websites reliability is evaluated in this paper. This technique extracts workload measures and error codes from the servers data logs. This information is then used to calculate the reliability for a particular website. This study follows on from a previous study, and hence, can be regarded as a partial replication (technically, as both studies are case studies not formal experiments, this description is inaccurate. Unfortunately, no corresponding definition exists for case studies, and hence the term is used to convey a general sense of purpose) of the original study. Although the method proposed by the original study is feasible, the effectiveness of just using a specific error type and a specific workload to estimate the reliability of websites is questionable. In this study, different error types and their usefulness for reliability analysis are examined and discussed. After a thorough investigation, we believe that reliability analysis for websites must be based on more specific error definitions as they can provide a superior reliability estimate for todays highly dynamic websites.

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

empirical evaluation
case study
www reliability
defect classification


Stability of additive mappings in non-Archimedean fuzzy normed spaces In this paper we introduce a notion of a non-Archimedean fuzzy norm and study the stability of the Cauchy equation in the context of non-Archimedean fuzzy spaces in the spirit of Hyers-Ulam-Rassias-Gavruta. As a corollary, the stability of the Jensen equation is established. We indeed present an interdisciplinary relation between the theory of fuzzy spaces, the theory of non-Archimedean spaces and the theory of functional equations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

cauchy equation
jensen equation
fuzzy norm

fuzzy stability
non-archimedean fuzzy normed space


On the FE modeling of soilblade interaction in tillage operations Finite element investigation of tillage tools and soil interaction. 3D nonlinear finite element analysis model behavior of moving blade in soil. Contact elements to model connection between soilblade and soilsoil surfaces. Deformation of soil in front of the blade during soilblade interaction. Comparing the FEA results with analytical soil mechanics results.

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


Geometric Alignment of 2D Gel Electrophoresis Images Objectives: 2D gel electrophoresis (2-DE) is the method of choice for analyzing protein expression in the field of proteomics, for example, comparing a reference with a test population. However, due to complex physical and chemical processes the locations of proteins generally vary in different 2-DE images. To cope with these variations, accurate geometric alignment of 2-DE images is important. Methods: We introduce a new elastic registration approach for 2-DE images, which is based on an analytic solution of the Navier equation using Gaussian elastic body splines (GEBS). With this approach cross-effects in elastic deformations can be handled, which is important for the registration of 2-DE images. in addition, landmark correspondences can be included to aid the registration in regions which are difficult to register using intensity information alone. Results:We have successfully applied our approach to register 2-DE gel images of different levels of complexity. In each case, gel images from a reference group are compared with a test group. To analyze the performance of our approach, we have carried out a quantitative evaluation of the registration results. More over, we have performed an experimental comparison with a previous elastic registration scheme. Conclusions: From the results we found that our approach is well-suited for the registration of 2-DE gel images of different levels of complexity and it turned out that the approach is superior to a previous hybrid scheme. Moreover, our approach is well-suited in a fully automatic setting and the performance can further be improved when landmark correspondences are available.

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

gel electrophoresis images
elastic registration
gaussian elastic body splines
navier equation


Generalized essential matrix: Properties of the singular value decomposition ? When considering non-central imaging devices, the computation of the relative pose requires the estimation of the rotation and translation that transform the 3D lines from one coordinate system to the second. In most of the state-of-the-art methods, this transformation is estimated by the computing a 66 matrix, known as the generalized essential matrix. To allow a better understanding of this matrix, we derive some properties associated with its singular value decomposition.

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

relative pose
singular value decomposition

generalized epipolar geometry
rigid transformation of lines


audio presentation of auto-suggest lists One of the most significant advances behind World Wide Web (Web) 2.0 is the ability to allow parts of a Web page to be updated independently. This can provide an exciting, interactive experience for sighted users, who are used to dealing with complex visual information. For visually impaired users, however, these pages may be confusing: updates are sometimes not recognised by screen readers, while in other cases they may interrupt the user inappropriately. The SASWAT project aims to develop a model of how sighted users interact with dynamic updates, and use this to identify the most effective ways of presenting updates through an audio information stream. Here, we describe a 'thin slice' through this project, focusing on one form of update --- the auto-suggest list. These provide the user with suggestions for entry into an input text field, updating with each character typed. Experiments with sighted users suggest that the suggestions receive considerable attention, and appear to offer reassurance that the input is reasonable. Suggestions that are further down the list are less likely to be viewed, and receive fewer and shorter fixations than those at the top. We therefore propose an implementation which presents the first 3 suggestions immediately and allows browsing of the rest.

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

ajax
visual disability
web 2.0
eye-tracking


A self-stabilizing algorithm which finds a 2-center of a tree In this paper, we design a self-stabilizing algorithm which finds a a-center for a distributed system with a tree topology. Our algorithm is based on the algorithm in [1-3]. The latter enables us to find the center (or centers) for the tree. If we sever the tree at the center (or centers), we obtain two subtrees. One of the major works in this paper is to show that if we pick a center from each subtree, the two picked centers will constitute a a-center for the original tree. With this in mind, we design our algorithm so that it is equipped with the ability of "sensing" the two subtrees and then finding a center in each of them. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

distributed systems
self-stabilizing algorithms
2-centers
trees


A New Fuzzy Connectivity Measure for Fuzzy Sets Fuzzy set theory constitutes a powerful representation framework that can lead to more robustness in problems such as image segmentation and recognition. This robustness results to some extent from the partial recovery of the continuity that is lost during digitization. In this paper we deal with connectivity measures on fuzzy sets. We show that usual fuzzy connectivity definitions have some drawbacks, and we propose a new definition that exhibits better properties, in particular in terms of continuity. This definition leads to a nested family of hyperconnections associated with a tolerance parameter. We show that corresponding connected components can be efficiently extracted using simple operations on a max-tree representation. Then we define attribute openings based on crisp or fuzzy criteria. We illustrate a potential use of these filters in a brain segmentation and recognition process.

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

connected filters
mathematical morphology
hyperconnection
max-tree
fuzzy attribute opening


k-Space spatial low-pass filters can increase signal loss artifacts in echo-planar imaging ? Effective transverse relaxation rate ( T 2 * )-weighted echo-planar imaging (EPI) is extensively used for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), because of its high speed and good sensitivity to the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal. Nevertheless, its use is limited in areas with severe static magnetic field inhomogeneities that cause frequency shifts and T 2 * relaxation-related distortions of the MR signal along the time-domain (k-space) trajectory, resulting in disperse time-domain signals and generating susceptibility-induced signal losses. Echo planar images are commonly smoothed with k-space spatial low-pass filters to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and reduce reconstruction artifacts. Here, we show that when such filters are applied to the dispersed echo-signals (not perfectly centered in k-space), part of the image information from the object is removed, thereby enhancing signal-loss artifacts in the images. To avoid this artifact, the dispersed echo signal has to be refocused before k-space filtering.

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


A novel FDTD formulation based on fractional derivatives for dispersive HavriliakNegami media FDTD modeling for electromagnetic pulse propagation in complex media. Evaluation of the transmittance and reflectance in slab of dispersive materials. Approximations of fractional derivatives using finite differences.

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

dispersive media
finite-difference time-domain (fdtd)
biological tissues


Packet delay analysis for multichannel communication systems with MSW-ARQ ? In this paper, we perform modeling and analysis of the packet delay for a multichannel stop-and-wait automatic-repeat-request protocol (MSW-ARQ). In this protocol, the transmitter retransmits an erroneously received packet as well as all transmitted packets with larger sequence numbers than that associated with the erroneously received one. For this protocol, under the assumption that all parallel channels have the same transmission rate but possibly different error rates, we propose a method of analyzing the steady-state probability distribution function of the end-to-end delay, referred to as the packet delay, of an arbitrary packet. To demonstrate the generality of the proposed method, we further apply it to the packet delay analysis for a revised multichannel stop-and-wait ARQ protocol, referred to as MSW-ARQ-inS, in which only the erroneously received packets will be retransmitted. From expressions obtained through the analysis, numerical results are presented for chosen values of the number of channels and the error rates, based on which we conclude that MSW-ARQ-inS outperforms MSW-ARQ in terms of the mean packet delay performance. We also identify the performance trends of the mean packet delay with respect to system parameters. It is observed that the greater the variance in the error rates, the smaller the mean packet delay in both MSW-ARQ and MSW-ARQ-inS. Meanwhile, the number of parallel channels has only an insignificant impact on the mean packet delay, from which we conclude that the use of parallel channels is a favorable option to significantly increase the data transmission rate while keeping the mean packet delay at an acceptable level.

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

communication networks
multichannel data transmission
automatic-repeat-request (arq)


Data dissemination with ring-based index for wireless sensor networks In wireless sensor networks, sensor nodes are capable of not only measuring real world phenomena, but also storing, processing, and transferring these measurements. Many techniques have been proposed for disseminating sensing data. However, most of them are not efficient in the scenarios where a huge amount of sensing data are generated, but only a small portion of them are queried. In this paper, we first propose an index-based data dissemination scheme to address the problem. With this scheme, sensing data are collected, processed, and stored at the nodes close to the detecting nodes, and the location information of these storing nodes is pushed to some index nodes, which act as the rendezvous points for sinks and sources. To address the issues of fault tolerance and load balance, we extend the scheme with an adaptive ring-based index (ARI) technique in which the index nodes for one event type form a ring surrounding the location which is determined by the event type, and the ring can be dynamically reconfigured. Considering that frequently updating or querying index nodes may cause high overhead, we also propose a lazy index updating (LIU) mechanism and a lazy index querying (LIQ) mechanism to reduce the overhead. Analysis and simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. The results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the external storage-based scheme, the DCS scheme, and the local storage-based schemes with flood-response style. The results also show that using ARI can tolerate clustering failures and achieve load balance and using LIU (LIQ) can further improve the system performance.

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

wireless sensor networks
data dissemination


WorSE: A Workbench for Model-based Security Engineering We propose a tool-supported approach to enhance the quality of security policies. For this goal, a Workbench for Model-based Security Engineering has been developed. It implements a uniform method to engineer policy-specific security models. It allows for detailed model analysis based on this uniform calculus. It implements a novel method for heuristic safety analysis of access control models.

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

security policy engineering
model safety analysis
information flow analysis
security model checking


Using a web-based system for the continuous distance education in cytopathology The evolution of information technologies and telecommunications has made the World Wide Web a low cost and easily accessible tool for the dissemination of information and knowledge. Continuous Medical Education (CME) sites dedicated in cytopathology field are rather poor, they do not succeed in following the constant changes and lack the ability of providing cytopathologists with a dynamic learning environment, adaptable to the development of cytopathology. Learning methods including skills such as decision making, reasoning and problem solving are critical in the development of such a learning environment. The objectives of this study are (1) to demonstrate on the basis of a web-based training system the successful application of traditional learning theories and methods and (2) to effectively evaluate users perception towards the educational program, using a combination of observers, theories and methods. Trainees are given the opportunity to browse through the educational material, collaborate in synchronous and asynchronous mode, practice their skills through problems and tasks and test their knowledge using the self-evaluation tool. On the other hand, the trainers are responsible for editing learning material, attending students progress and organizing the problem-based and task-based scenarios. The implementation of the web-based training system is based on the three-tier architecture and uses an Apache Tomcat web server and a MySQL database server. By December 2008, CytoTrainer's learning environment contains two courses in cytopathology: Gynaecological Cytology and Thyroid Cytology offering about 2000 digital images and 20 case sessions. Our evaluation method is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore how the various parts of the system and students attitudes work together. Trainees approved of the course's content, methodology and learning activities. The triangulation of evaluation methods revealed that the training program is suitable for the continuous distance education in cytopathology and that it has improved the trainees skills in diagnostic cytopathology. The web-based training system can be successfully involved in the continuous distance education in cytopathology. It provides the opportunity to access learning material from any place at any time and supports the acquisition of diagnostic knowledge.

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

internet
continuing medical education
education theory
quantitative evaluation
qualitative evaluation


A new fractional time-stepping method for variable density incompressible flows ? This paper describes a new method for solving variable density incompressible viscous flows. We have dealt with the momentum equation and the divergence free constraint in a new manner by rewriting the original equations. The originality of the proposed approach is that we have used different numerical methods to evaluate the evolution of the velocity and pressure. Compared with some established methods, the proposed approach is parameter-free, more flexible and can avoid the difficulties caused by the original equations. The stability analysis of the method is performed to show that our method is stable. Finally, numerical experiments are given to show the accuracy, efficiency and validness of this method for variable density incompressible flows.

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

naiverstokes equations
finite element
fractional time-stepping method


Scalable, accurate image annotation with joint SVMs and output kernels This paper studies how joint training of multiple support vector machines (SVMs) can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of automatic image annotation. We cast image annotation as an output-related multi-task learning framework, with the prediction of each tag?s presence as one individual task. Evidently, these tasks are related via dependencies between tags. The proposed joint learning framework, which we call joint SVM, is superior to other related models in its impressive and flexible mechanisms in exploiting the dependencies between tags: first, a linear output kernel can be implicitly learned when we train a joint SVM; or, a pre-designed kernel can be explicitly applied by users when prior knowledge is available. Also, a practical merit of joint SVM is that it shares the same computational complexity as one single conventional SVM, although multiple tasks are solved simultaneously. Although derived from the perspective of multi-task learning, the proposed joint SVM is highly related to structured-output learning techniques, e.g. max-margin regression (Szedmak and Shawe-taylor [1]), structural SVM (Tsochantaridis [2]). According to our empirical results on several image-annotation benchmark databases, our joint training strategy of SVMs can yield substantial improvements, in terms of both accuracy and efficiency, over training them independently. In particular, it compares favorably with many other state-of-the-art algorithms. We also develop a perceptron-like online learning scheme for joint SVM to enable it to scale up better to huge data in real-world practice.

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


an integrated nonlinear placement framework with congestion and porosity aware buffer planning Due to skewed scaling of interconnect versus cell delay in deep submicron CMOS, modern VLSI timing closure requires extensive buffer insertion. Inserting a large number of buffers may cause not only dramatic cell migration but also routing hotspots. If buffering is not controlled well, it may fail to close a design. Placement with buffer porosity (i.e., cell density) awareness can allocate space for inserting these buffers, and buffering with congestion awareness can improve the routability. Therefore, there is essential need for a placement framework with explicit porosity and congestion control. In this paper, we propose the first integrated nonlinear placement framework with porosity and congestion aware buffer planning. We demonstrate the integration of increasingly refined cell porosity and routing congestion aware buffer planning and insertion methodology in a high quality nonlinear placer. Our experiments show the improvement of average routing overflow by 69\%, average wirelength by 28\% and average buffer count by 40\%, compared with the traditional placement framework without buffer planning.

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


A Tauberian theorem for (A)(C,?) ( A ) ( C , ? ) summability In this paper we prove a Tauberian theorem for (A)(C,?) ( A ) ( C , ? ) summability method, which extends the well-known classical Tauberian theorem due to Tauber [A. Tauber, Ein satz der Theorie der unendlichen Reihen, Monatsh. f. Math. 8 (1897) 273277].

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

abel summability
cesro summability
(c
?) ( c
? ) summability (c
? ) (c
? ) ( c
? )
(a)(c
?) ( a ) ( c
? ) summability (a)(c
? ) (a)(c
? ) ( a ) ( c
tauberian conditions
tauberian theorems


an algorithmic game theory framework for bilateral bargaining with uncertainty Bilateral bargaining is the most common economic transaction. Customarily, it is formulated as a non-cooperative game with uncertain-information and infinite actions (offers are real-value). Its automation is a long-standing open problem in artificial intelligence and no algorithmic methodology employable regardless of the kind of uncertainty is provided. In this paper, we provide the first step (with one-sided uncertainty) of an algorithmic game theory framework to solve bargaining with any kind of uncertainty. The idea behind our framework is to reduce, by analytical tools, a bargaining problem to a finite game and then to compute, by algorithmic tools, an equilibrium in this game.

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


memory consistency and event ordering in scalable shared-memory multiprocessors Scalable shared-memory multiprocessors distribute memory among the processors and use scalable interconnection networks to provide high bandwidth and low latency communication. In addition, memory accesses are cached, buffered, and pipelined to bridge the gap between the slow shared memory and the fast processors. Unless carefully controlled, such architectural optimizations can cause memory accesses to be executed in an order different from what the programmer expects. The set of allowable memory access orderings forms the memory consistency model or event ordering model for an architecture. This paper introduces a new model of memory consistency, called release consistency , that allows for more buffering and pipelining than previously proposed models. A framework for classifying shared accesses and reasoning about event ordering is developed. The release consistency model is shown to be equivalent to the sequential consistency model for parallel programs with sufficient synchronization. Possible performance gains from the less strict constraints of the release consistency model are explored. Finally, practical implementation issues are discussed, concentrating on issues relevant to scalable architectures.

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

communication
framework
order
use
synchronization
event
performance
access
model
paper
practical
sequential consistency
shared memory
reasoning
latency
architecture
implementation
bandwidth
consistency
programmer

scalability
pipeline
relevance
constraint
buffers
processor
sharing
optimality
shared memory multiprocessors
parallel programming
memorialized
classifiation
interconnection network


sensitivity of neuromorphic circuits using nanoelectronic resistive switches to pulse synchronization This paper describes a neuromorphic circuit based on resistive switches arranged in a crossbar architecture. Using pulses as general signal representation the circuit in particular is sensitive to the degree of synchronization of the input pulses. In order to examine different effects of pulse synchronization on the input/output characteristics of the circuit, an architecture for the implementation of a filter is presented which is selective to oriented edges and lines. By theoretical analysis as well as simulative verification effects of attenuation and distortion are described which are related to statistical properties of input pulses. The results prepare the ground for new signal processing schemes in pulse coded neural networks.

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

resistive switches
synchronization
neuromorphic circuits
pulse coded
nanoelectronic
crossbar

simple cells
neural network
coincidence
feature detector
memristor


Robust scheduling and robustness measures for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem Projects are often subject to various sources of uncertainties that have a negative impact on activity durations and costs. Therefore, it is crucial to develop effective approaches to generate robust project schedules that are less vulnerable to disruptions caused by uncontrollable factors. In this paper, we investigate the robust discrete time/cost trade-off problem, which is a multi-mode project scheduling problem with important practical relevance. We introduce surrogate measures that aim at providing an accurate estimate of the schedule robustness. The pertinence of each proposed measure is assessed through computational experiments. Using the insights revealed by the computational study, we propose a two-stage robust scheduling algorithm. Finally, we provide evidence that the proposed approach can be extended to solve a complex robust problem with tardiness penalties and earliness revenues.

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


researching your institution's computer past The history of computing in educational institutions is relatively young, but quickly forgotten as computing students today have no concept of what it was like to use a computer back in the 1950-1990 time period. However, preserving one's own institution's computer past should be more than just a history lesson. It can be a way to connect present day students with their institution's own achievements and it can be a mechanism for recruiting young people into your institution. In any case telling the story of the people whose achievements may only be known by a few or even forgotten is something that needs to be preserved. This project spans both academic and administrative computing as well as the people involved including alumni, faculty, and staff. It is both an oral history and a documented history as it covers university events and the university's own internal use of computing. Presented in this paper are the methods of research used as well as ideas on how one might go about such a task at their institution. The final goals of this research are to produce a book with a companion website and host a computing history symposium. specific permission and/or a fee.

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


Towards an evidence-based decision making healthcare system management: Modelling patient pathways to improve clinical outcomes The concept of patient flow modelling has attracted managers, commissioners and clinicians to better understand the operational and clinical functions of the healthcare system. In this context, the current study has two objectives: First, to introduce a random effects continuation-ratio logit model, suitable for detecting stage wise transitions, to patient pathways modelling. Second, we aim at advancing our knowledge with regard to the application of modelling techniques to patient pathways. We study individual clinical pathways of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, a source of concern for major stakeholders. Data on COPD patients were extracted from the national English Hospital Episodes Statistics dataset. Individual patient pathways from initial admission through to more than four readmissions are captured. We notice that as patients are frequently readmitted, males are more likely to be in the higher risk group than females. Furthermore, the number of previous readmissions has a direct impact on the propensity of experiencing a further readmission. This model is very useful in detecting the most critical threshold at which multiple readmissions are more probable. Clinicians should note that a first readmission signifies a problem in the process of care and if care is not taken this may be the beginning of many subsequent readmissions. Our method could easily be implemented as a decision support tool to determine disease specific probabilities of multiple readmissions. Therefore, this could be a valuable tool for clinicians, health care managers, and policy makers for informed decision making in the management of diseases, which ultimately contributes to improved measures for hospital performance management.

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

random effects modelling
emergency readmissions


Almost Desarguesian maximal partial spreads Constructions are given of various classes of maximal partial spreads in PG(3, 2(r)) whose partial spreads consist of q/2 reguli sharing a line. Further, characterization results are given for the main classes of constructed maximal partial spreads.

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


Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to design and evaluate an educational game in science education The aim of this paper is to describe a methodology for using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) at the initial stages of the design process of an educational game, by exploring how the theory can be used as a framework for producing not only usable but also useful computer tools. The research also aimed to investigate how the theory could be used for designing computer tools for learning science. Although CHAT and specifically the concepts of activity system and contradictions were used as the basis for the design and development of the educational game, subsidiary design guidelines also contributed significantly to this process. These derived from the research fields of Human Computer Interaction and Science Education and from students' everyday experiences when playing video games at home. The educational game produced was concerned with the teaching and learning of Expansion and Contraction of Air in primary science, a subject that existing research suggests is conceptually difficult for students. As far as the main outcomes of the study are concerned, it was revealed through the implementation of the game that contradictions could be adequately resolved, while stakeholders' needs and motives could be appropriately addressed.

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

activity system
contradictions
educational game
expansion and contraction of air
science education


Modeling and simulating Poisson processes having trends or nontrigonometric cyclic effects We formulate a nonparametric technique for estimating the (cumulative) mean-value function of a nonhomogeneous Poisson process having a long-term trend or some cyclic effect(s) that may lack familiar trigonometric characteristics such as symmetry over the corresponding cycle(s). This multiresolution procedure begins at the lowest level of resolution by estimating any long-term trend in the target counting process; then at progressively higher levels of resolution, the procedure yields estimates of the cyclic behavior associated with progressively smaller cycle lengths. We also formulate an efficient algorithm for generating realizations of such counting processes.

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

simulation
stochastic processes
multiresolution estimation procedure


Contextual hypotheses and semantics of logic programs Logic programming has developed as a rich field, built over a logical substratum whose main constituent is a nonclassical form of negation, sometimes coexisting with classical negation. The field has seen the advent of a number of alternative semantics, with Kripke-Kleene semantics, the well-founded semantics, the stable model semantics, and the answer-set semantics standing out as the most successful. We show that all aforementioned semantics are particular cases of a generic semantics, in a framework where classical negation is the unique form of negation and where the literals in the bodies of the rules can be 'marked' to indicate that they can be the targets of hypotheses. A particular semantics then amounts to choosing a particular marking scheme and choosing a particular set of hypotheses. When a literal belongs to the chosen set of hypotheses, all marked occurrences of that literal in the body of a rule are assumed to be true, whereas the occurrences of that literal that have not been marked in the body of the rule are to be derived in order to contribute to the firing of the rule. Hence the notion of hypothetical reasoning that is presented in this framework is not based on making global assumptions, but more subtly on making local, contextual assumptions, taking effect as indicated by the chosen marking scheme on the basis of the chosen set of hypotheses. Our approach offers a unified view on the various semantics proposed in logic programming, classical in that only classical negation is used, and links the semantics of logic programs to mechanisms that endow rule-based systems with the power to harness hypothetical reasoning.

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

stable model semantics
classical negation
contextual hypotheses
hypothetical reasoning

kripke-kleene semantics
answer-set semantics
well-founded semantics


The impact of statistical design on the area of high performance CMOS current-steering D/A converters In this paper the design procedure is described to determine the dimensions of the unit current source transistor of a current-steering D/A converter in such a way as to minimize the total chip area and to maximize the circuit yield. Furthermore, the technology dependence of the current source area has been investigated. It can be concluded that going to deeper submicron technologies will not necessarily have a beneficial effect on the area of the current source array.

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


Randomized algorithms and complexity theory In this paper we give an introduction to the connection between complexity theory and the study of randomized algorithms. In particular, we will de. ne and study probabilistic complexity classes, survey the basic results, and show how they relate to the notion of randomized algorithms.

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


a clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks based on density of sensors Wireless sensor network is a key technology for new ways of interaction between computers and the physical environment. However, the energy constrained and limited computing resources of the sensor nodes present major challenges in gathering data. Since sensor nodes are densely deployed, redundant data may occur. While cluster-based data gathering is efficient at energy and bandwidth, it is difficult to cluster network efficiently. In this work, a new distributed clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks is presented. The proposed algorithm learns the previous experiences and makes the clusters based on the density of sensors and the number of cluster members calculated so far. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm balances the energy dissipation over the whole network thus increases the amount of data delivery to the sink.

O B 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 B 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


Estimation for discrete-time systems with multiple packet dropouts using covariance information The problem is considered of estimating a signal based on measurements with multiple packet dropouts when the probability of data arrival at a processing unit is known. Assuming that the equation which describes the signal is unknown, we derive recursive algorithms for the prediction, filtering and smoothing problems using the information provided by the covariance functions of the processes involved in the measurement equation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Control of the minimum action reasoning: Soft computing by multi dimension optic geometry In this paper I change the title and I study more deeply the metric of the parameters. I increase the number of the example.

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

geodesic
soft-computing
extension of linear regression
projection operator
geometry of fuzzy reasoning


A least-squares/finite element method for the numerical solution of the NavierStokes-CahnHilliard system modeling the motion of the contact line In this article we discuss the numerical solution of the NavierStokes-CahnHilliard system modeling the motion of the contact line separating two immiscible incompressible viscous fluids near a solid wall. The method we employ combines a finite element space approximation with a time discretization by operator-splitting. To solve the CahnHilliard part of the problem, we use a least-squares/conjugate gradient method. We also show that the scheme has the total energy decaying in time property under certain conditions. Our numerical experiments indicate that the method discussed here is accurate, stable and efficient.

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

navierstokes
operator-splitting
least squares
conjugate gradient


Iterative learning from texts and counterexamples using additional information A variant of iterative learning in the limit (cf. Lange and Zeugmann 1996) is studied when a learner gets negative examples refuting conjectures containing data in excess of the target language and uses additional information of the following four types: (a) memorizing up to n input elements seen so far; (b) up to n feedback memberships queries (testing if an item is a member of the input seen so far); (c) the number of input elements seen so far; (d) the maximal element of the input seen so far. We explore how additional information available to such learners (defined and studied in Jain and Kinber 2007) may help. In particular, we show that adding the maximal element or the number of elements seen so far helps such learners to infer any indexed class of languages class-preservingly (using a descriptive numbering defining the class)-as it is proved in Jain and Kinber (2007), this is not possible without using additional information. We also study how, in the given context, different types of additional information fare against each other, and establish hierarchies of learners memorizing n+1 versus n input elements seen and n+1 versus n feedback membership queries.

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


Design and evaluation of dynamic optimizations for a Java Just-In-Time compiler The high performance implementation of Java Virtual Machines (JVM) and Just-In-Time (JIT)compilers is directed toward employing a dynamic compilation system on the basis of online runtime profile information. The trade-off between the compilation overhead and performance benefit is a crucial issue for such a system. This article describes the design and implementation of a dynamic optimization framework in a production-level Java JIT compiler, together with two techniques for profile-directed optimizations: method inlining and code specialization. Our approach is to employ a mixed mode interpreter and a three-level optimizing compiler, supporting level-1 to level-3 optimizations, each of which has a different set of trade-offs between compilation overhead and execution speed. A lightweight sampling profiler operates continuously during the entire period while applications are running to monitor the programs' hot spots. Detailed information on runtime behavior can be collected by dynamically generating instrumentation code that is installed to and uninstalled from the specified recompilation target code. Value profiling with this instrumentation mechanism allows fully automatic profile-directed method inlining and code specialization to be performed on the basis of call site information or specific parameter values at the higher optimization levels. The experimental results show that our approach offers high performance and low compilation overhead in both program startup and steady state measurements in comparison to the previous systems. The two profile-directed optimization techniques contribute significant portions of the improvements.

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

performance
design
recompilation
dynamic compilation
jit compiler
code specialization

languages
adaptive optimization
profile-directed method inlining


Hammers, nails, sealing wax, string and gunpowder! Starting from experience of working with Japanese Quality Gurus, and decades of industrial consultancy, this article addresses the fundamental principles of the Quality Movement and suggests ways forward for Quality as empowerment, led from education. Quality Circles, empowering workers, and Students Quality Circles, empowering students, provide a starting point for educational, economic and social innovation.

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

expert
inspection
professional
scientific management
standardisation
tools


A variant of the parallel model for sample surveys with sensitive characteristics A new non-randomized response (NRR) model (called a variant of the parallel model) is proposed. The survey design and corresponding statistical inferences including likelihood-based methods, Bayesian methods and bootstrap methods are provided. Theoretical and numerical comparisons showed that the proposed variant of the parallel model over-performs two existing NRR crosswise and triangular models for most of the possible parameter ranges. An outline for handling the possible non-compliance behavior in the proposed model is provided. An illustrative example from an existing survey on sexual practices in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Portland is used to demonstrate the proposed statistical analysis methods. Two real surveys on the cheating behavior in examinations at the University of Hong Kong are conducted and are used to illustrate the proposed design and analysis methods.

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

asymptotic properties
non-compliance behavior
non-randomized response technique
unmatched count technique


Designing focused libraries using MoSELECT When designing a combinatorial library it is usually desirable to optimise multiple properties of the library simultaneously and often the properties are in competition with one another. For example, a library that is designed to be focused around a given target molecule should ideally have minimum cost and also contain molecules that are bioavailable. In this paper, we describe the program MoSELECT for multiobjective library design that is based on a multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA). MoSELECT searches the product-space of a virtual combinatorial library to generate a family of equivalent solutions where each solution represents a combinatorial subset of the virtual library optimised over multiple objectives. The family of solutions allows the relationships between the objectives to be explored and thus enables the library designer to make an informed choice on an appropriate compromise solution. Experiments are reported where MoSELECT has been applied to the design of various focused libraries.

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

combinatorial library design
multiobjective optimisation