Dynamic weather forecaster: results of the testing of a collaborative, on-line educational platform for weather forecasting The online Dynamic Weather Forecaster is an open, collaborative application available now to high-school and college instructors across the United States who would like to easily incorporate weather forecasting in their instruction. The application consists of a set of 13 questions that allow students to submit forecasts that cover most of the parameters used by professional weather forecasters. Submissions are automatically validated against weather parameters and graded. We tested the impact of the application on the learning of 199 undergraduate students in an introductory meteorology course in spring 2008. Students who begin forecasting early in the semester and continue to do so throughout the semester are statistically significantly more successful in the course than students who start late or complete a low number of forecasts. College, year in school, and gender were not significant predictors of success. Students found the application easy to use, and 92.3% of them found it at least somewhat helpful as they learned about the weather. Through the use of the DWF, students also experience first-hand that uncertainty is a critical part of weather forecasting and of scientific studies in general. With sufficient interest from potential users outside the USA, the DWF platform could easily be expanded to include global weather data.

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

collaborative platform
education
introductory science learning


Combined neurostimulation and neuroimaging in cognitive neuroscience: past, present, and future Modern neurostimulation approaches in humans provide controlled inputs into the operations of cortical regions, with highly specific behavioral consequences. This enables causal structurefunction inferences, and in combination with neuroimaging, has provided novel insights into the basic mechanisms of action of neurostimulation on distributed networks. For example, more recent work has established the capacity of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to probe causal interregional influences, and their interaction with cognitive state changes. Combinations of neurostimulation and neuroimaging now face the challenge of integrating the known physiological effects of neurostimulation with theoretical and biological models of cognition, for example, when theoretical stalemates between opposing cognitive theories need to be resolved. This will be driven by novel developments, including biologically informed computational network analyses for predicting the impact of neurostimulation on brain networks, as well as novel neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques. Such future developments may offer an expanded set of tools with which to investigate structurefunction relationships, and to formulate and reconceptualize testable hypotheses about complex neural network interactions and their causal roles in cognition.

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

state-dependence
effective connectivity
causal inference
eeg
fmri
mrs
computational neurostimulation


Self-healing reconfigurable logic using autonomous group testing ? A group-testing-based fault resolution is incorporated into SRAM-based reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to provide an evolvable hardware system with self-healing and self-organizing properties. The proposed approach employs adaptive group testing techniques to autonomously maintain FPGA resource viability information as an organic means of transient and permanent fault resolution. Reconfigurability of the SRAM-based FPGA is leveraged to locate faulty logic resources which are successively excluded by group testing using alternate device configurations. This simplifies the system architects role to definition of functionality using a high-level Hardware Description Language (HDL) and system-level performance vs. availability operating point. System availability, throughput, and mean time to isolate faults are monitored and maintained using an observercontroller model. The proposed group testing method operates on the output response produced for real-time operational inputs, which eliminates the need for dedicated test vectors. The proposed system was demonstrated using a Data Encryption Standard (DES) core on 4-input and 6-input LUT-based Xilinx FPGA models. With a single simulated stuck-at fault, the system identifies a completely validated replacement configuration within a few test stages. Results also include approaches for optimizing group size, resource redundancy, and availability. The approach demonstrates a readily-implemented yet robust organic hardware application that features a high degree of autonomous self-control.

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

autonomous systems
reconfigurable architectures
reliable systems
organic computing


Integrating recurrent SOM with wavelet-based kernel partial least square regressions for financial forecasting This study implements a novel expert system for financial forecasting. In the first stage, wavelet analysis transforms the input space of raw data to a time-scale feature space suitable for financial forecasting, and then a Recurrent Self-Organizing Map (RSOM) algorithm is used for partitioning and storing temporal context of the feature space. In the second stage, multiple kernel partial least square regressors (as local models) that best fit partitioned regions are constructed for final forecasting. Compared with neural networks, pure SVMs or traditional GARCH models, the proposed model performs best. The root-mean-squared forecasting errors are significantly reduced.

O O O O 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

kernel method
recurrent self-organizing map
support vector machine
hybrid model


Spatio-temporal data mining for typhoon image collection Our research aims at discovering useful knowledge from the large collection of satellite images of typhoons using data mining approaches. We first introduce the creation of the typhoon image collection that consists of around 34,000 typhoon images for the northern and southern hemisphere, providing the medium-sized, richly-variational and quality-controlled data collection suitable for spatio-temporal data mining research. Next we apply several data mining approaches for this image collection. We start with spatial data mining, where principal component analysis is used for extracting basic components and reducing dimensionality, and it revealed that the major principal components describe latitudinal structures and spiral bands. Moreover, clustering procedures give the "birds-eye-view" visualization of typhoon cloud patterns. We then turn to temporal data mining, including state transition rules, but we demonstrate that it involves intrinsic difficulty associated with the nonlinear dynamics of the atmosphere, or chaos. Finally we briefly introduce our system IMET (Image Mining Environment for Typhoon analysis and prediction), which is designed for the intelligent and efficient searching and browsing of the typhoon image collection.

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

typhoon image collection
principal component analysis
state transition rules

typhoon data mining
spatio-temporal data mining
self-organizing map


Lagrangian Relaxation and Enumeration for Solving Constrained Shortest-Path Problems The constrained shortest-path problem (CSPP) generalizes the standard shortest-path problem by adding one or more path-weight side constraints. We present a new algorithm for CSPP that Lagrangianizes those constraints, optimizes the resulting Lagrangian function, identifies a feasible solution, and then closes any optimality gap by enumerating near-shortest paths, measured with respect to the Lagrangianized length. "Near-shortest" implies epsilon-optimal, with a varying c that equals the current optimality gap. The algorithm exploits a variety of techniques: a new path-enumeration method; aggregated constraints; preprocessing to eliminate edges that cannot form part of an optimal solution; "reprocessing" that reapplies preprocessing steps as improved solutions are found; and, when needed, a "phase-I procedure" to identify a feasible solution before searching for an optimal one. The new algorithm is often an order of magnitude faster than a state-of-the-art label-setting algorithm on singly constrained randomly generated grid networks. On multiconstrained grid networks, road networks, and networks for aircraft routing the advantage varies but, overall, the new algorithm is competitive with the label-setting algorithm. 0 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.* NETWORKS, Vol. 52(4), 256-270 2008

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

constrained shortest paths
near-shortest paths
path enumeration
label-setting algorithm


Adaptive bolus chasing computed tomography angiography: Control scheme and experimental results In this paper, a new adaptive bolus-chasing control scheme is proposed to synchronize the bolus peak in a patient's vascular system and the imaging aperture of a computed tomography (CT) scanner. The proposed control scheme is theoretically evaluated and experimentally tested on a modified Siemens SOMATOM Volume Zoom CT scanner. The first set of experimental results is reported on bolus-chasing CT angiography using realistic bolus dynamics, real-time CT imaging and adaptive table control with physical vasculature phantoms. The data demonstrate that the proposed control approach tracks the bolus propagation well, and clearly outperforms the constant-speed scheme that is the current clinical standard.

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

adaptive bolus chasing
computed tomography angiography


Effect of magnetic Reynolds number on the two-dimensional hydromagnetic flow around a cylinder Numerical experiments have been conducted to study the effect of magnetic Reynolds number on the steady, two-dimensional, viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting flow around a circular cylinder. Besides usual Reynolds number Re, the flow is governed by the magnetic Reynolds number R(m), and Alfven number beta. The flow and magnetic field are uniform and parallel at large distances from the cylinder. The pressure Poisson equation is solved to find the pressure fields in the entire flow region. The effects of the magnetic field and electrical conductivity on the recirculation bubble, drag coefficient, standing vortex and pressure are presented and discussed. For low interaction parameter (N < 1), the suppression of the flow-separation is nearly independent of the conductivity of the fluid, whereas for large interaction parameters, the conductivity of the fluid strongly influences the control of flow-separation. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

magnetic reynolds number
drag coefficient

flow-separation
flow control
magnetohydrodynamics
full mhd


Semantic-aware multi-tenancy authorization system for cloud architectures Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm to offer on-demand IT services to customers. The access control to resources located in the cloud is one of the critical aspects to enable business to shift into the cloud. Some recent works provide access control models suitable for the cloud; however there are important shortages that need to be addressed in this field. This work presents a step forward in the state-of-the-art of access control for cloud computing. We describe a high expressive authorization model that enables the management of advanced features such as role-based access control (RBAC), hierarchical RBAC (hRBAC), conditional RBAC (cRBAC) and hierarchical objects (HO). The access control model takes advantage of the logic formalism provided by the Semantic Web technologies to describe both the underlying infrastructure and the authorization model, as well as the rules employed to protect the access to resources in the cloud. The access control model has been specially designed taking into account the multi-tenancy nature of this kind of environment. Moreover, a trust model that allows a fine-grained definition of what information is available for each particular tenant has been described. This enables the establishment of business alliances among cloud tenants resulting in federation and coalition agreements. The proposed model has been validated by means of a proof of concept implementation of the access control system for OpenStack with promising performance results.

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

authorization system
cloud computing
trust model
semantic web


Managing a strategic source of innovation: Online users The study provides insights of complementarities between external sourcing of knowledge and necessary internal competences. Three types of online innovation tools are identified. Disclosure competence, appropriation competence, and integration competence effectively implement online innovation tools. A framework and a case study aligns online innovation tools with the three management competences and relevant practices.

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

management competence
online innovation tool
implementation


Iterative Interstream Interference Cancellation for MIMO HSPA plus System In this paper, we propose an iterative interstream interference cancellation technique for system with frequency selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel. Our method is inspired by the fact that the cancellation of the interstream interference can be regarded as a reduction in the magnitude of the interfering channel. We show that, as iteration goes on, the channel experienced by the equalizer gets close to the single input multiple output (SIMO) channel and, therefore, the proposed SIMO-like equalizer achieves improved equalization performance in terms of normalized mean square error. From simulations on downlink communications of 2 x 2 MIMO systems in high speed packet access universal mobile telecommunications system standard, we show that the proposed method provides substantial performance gain over the conventional receiver algorithms.

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

linear minimum mean square error (lmmse) equalization


An improved configuration for radio over fiber transmission with remote local-oscillator delivery by using two dual-Mach-Zehnder modulators in parallel A simple configuration for millimeter-wave fiber-wireless transmission, with remote local-oscillator (LO) delivery from the central office, both for the uplink and for the downlink, and a simple, cost-effective, base-station solution is proposed. Under the assumption of using commercially available components and a conventional single-mode fiber (with dispersion of 17 ps/nm/km at 1.55 mum), our numerical results show that, with a laser linewidth of 150 MHz, a laser power of 0 dBm and an optical gain of only 6 dB, it is possible to transmit, without repeaters, data rates of 622 Mbit/s across about 18 km at a bit-error-rate of 10(-9). By increasing the optical gain to 24 dB, the link length can be increased to approximately 67 km for a laser linewidth of 75 MHz and to 78 km for a laser linewidth 1 MHz.

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

optical single-side-band modulation with carrier


Modeling dialogue with mixed initiative in design space exploration Exploration with a generative formalism must necessarily account for the nature of interaction between humans and the design space explorer. Established accounts of design interaction are made complicated by two propositions in Woodbury and Burrow's Keynote on design space exploration. First, the emphasis on the primacy of the design space as an ordered collection of partial designs (version, alternatives, extensions). Few studies exist in the design interaction literature on working with multiple threads simultaneously. Second, the need to situate, aid, and amplify human design intentions using computational tools. Although specific research and practice tools on amplification (sketching, generation, variation) have had success, there is a lack of generic, flexible, interoperable, and extensible representation to support amplification. This paper addresses the above, working with design threads and computer-assisted design amplification through a theoretical model of dialogue based on Grice's model of rational conversation. Using the concept of mixed initiative, the paper presents a visual notation for representing dialogue between designer and design space formalism through abstract examples of exploration tasks and dialogue integration.

O O O B I 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 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 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 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


Simultaneous topology and sizing optimization of a water distribution network using a hybrid multiobjective evolutionary algorithm Numerical scheme for multiobjective simultaneous topology and sizing design of pipe networks. Network repairing technique for dealing with an illegitimate network topology. New hybrid multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. Performance comparison based on a hypervolume indicator.

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

hybrid differential evolution
pipe network
population-based incremental learning
topology optimization
water distribution systems


Critical infrastructure protection using secrecy A discrete simultaneous game Present a simultaneous game model for critical infrastructure protection. Optimally allocate limited resources to protect critical infrastructures. Prove pure-strategy Nash equilibrium solution does not exist. Describe approach for identifying a mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium solution. Used IEEE RTS 96 test system as illustration of approach.

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

critical infrastructure protection
simultaneous game
secrecy


A mixture of HMM, GA, and Elman network for load prediction in cloud-oriented data centers The rapid growth of computational power demand from scientific, business, and Web applications has led to the emergence of cloud-oriented data centers. These centers use pay-as-you-go execution environments that scale transparently to the user. Load prediction is a significant cost-optimal resource allocation and energy saving approach for a cloud computing environment. Traditional linear or nonlinear prediction models that forecast future load directly from historical information appear less effective. Load classification before prediction is necessary to improve prediction accuracy. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to forecast the future load for cloud-oriented data centers. First, a hidden Markov model (HMM) based data clustering method is adopted to classify the cloud load. The Bayesian information criterion and Akaike information criterion are employed to automatically determine the optimal HMM model size and cluster numbers. Trained HMMs are then used to identify the most appropriate cluster that possesses the maximum likelihood for current load. With the data from this cluster, a genetic algorithm optimized Elman network is used to forecast future load. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms other approaches reported in previous works.

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

cloud computing
load prediction
hidden markov model
genetic algorithm
elman network


Automating the Analysis of Problem-solving Activities in Learning Environments: the Co-Lab Case Study The analysis of problem-solving activities carried out by students in learning settings involves studying the students' actions and assessing the solutions they have created. This analysis constitutes an ideal starting point to support an automatic intervention in the student activity by means of feedback or other means to help students build their own knowledge. In this paper, we present a model-driven framework to facilitate the automation of this problem-solving analysis and of providing feedback. This framework includes a set of authoring tools that enable software developers to specify the analysis process and its intervention mechanisms by means of visual languages. The models specified in this way are computed by the framework in order to create technological support to automate the problem-solving analysis. The use of the framework is illustrated thanks to a case study in the field of System Dynamics where problem-solving practices are analysed.

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


ON LINEAR BALANCING SETS Let n be an even positive integer and F be the field GF(2). A word in F(n) is called balanced if its Hamming weight is n/2. A subset C subset of F(n) is called a balancing set if for every word y is an element of F(n) there is a word x is an element of C such that y + x is balanced. It is shown that most linear subspaces of Fn of dimension slightly larger than 3/2 log(2)n are balancing sets. A generalization of this result to linear subspaces that are "almost balancing" is also presented. On the other hand, it is shown that the problem of deciding whether a given set of vectors in F(n) spans a balancing set, is NP-hard. An application of linear balancing sets is presented for designing efficient error-correcting coding schemes in which the codewords are balanced.

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

balanced codewords
linear codes
covering of hamming space


An adaptive audio watermarking based on the singular value decomposition in the wavelet domain This paper presents a secure, robust, and blind adaptive audio watermarking algorithm based on singular value decomposition (SVD) in the discrete wavelet transform domain using synchronization code. In our algorithm, a watermark is embedded by applying a quantization-index-modulation process on the singular values in the SVD of the wavelet domain blocks. The watermarked signal is perceptually similar to the original audio signal and gives high quality output. Experimental results show that the hidden watermark data is robust to additive noise, resampling, low-pass filtering, requantization, MP3 compression, cropping, echo addition, and denoising. Performance analysis of the proposed scheme shows low error probability rates. The data embedding rate of the proposed scheme is 45.9 bps. The proposed scheme has high payload and superior performance against MP3 compression compared to the earlier audio watermarking schemes.

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

discrete wavelet transform (dwt)
quantization index modulation (qim)
singular value decomposition (svd)


Modelling the semivariograms and cross-semivariograms required in downscaling cokriging by numerical convolutiondeconvolution A practical problem of interest in remote sensing is to increase the spatial resolution of a coarse spatial resolution image by fusing the information of that image with another fine spatial resolution image (from the same sensor or from sensors on different satellites). Thus, the problem is how to introduce spatial detail into a coarse spatial resolution image (decrease the pixel size) such that it is coherent with the spectral information of the image. Cokriging provides a geostatistical solution to the problem and has several interesting advantages: it is a sound statistical method by being unbiased and minimizing a prediction variance (c.f. ad hoc procedures), it takes into account the effect of pixel size, and also autocorrelation in each image as well as the cross-correlation between images, it may be extended to incorporate extra information from other sources and it provides an estimation of the uncertainty of the final predictions. When formulating the cokriging system, semivariograms and cross-semivariograms (or covariances and cross-covariances) appear, some of which cannot be estimated from data directly. Cross-variograms between different variables as well as cross-semivariograms between different supports for the same variable are required. The problem is solved by using linear systems theory in which any variable for any pixel size is seen as the output of a linear system when the input is the same variable on a point support. In remote-sensing applications, the linear system is specified by the point-spread function (or impulse response) of the sensor. Linear systems theory provides the theoretical relations between the different semivariograms and cross-semivariograms. Overall, one must ensure that the whole set of covariances and cross-covariances is positive-definite and models must be estimated for non-observed semivariograms and cross-semivariograms. The models must also be realistic, taking into account, for example, the parabolic behaviour close to the origin presented in regularized semivariograms and cross-semivariograms. The solution proposed is to find by numerical deconvolution a positive-definite set of point covariances and cross-covariances and then any required model may be obtained by numerical convolution of the corresponding point model. The first step implies several numerical deconvolutions where some model parameters are fixed, while others are estimated using the available experimental semivariograms and cross-semivariograms, and some goodness-of-fit measure. The details of the proposed procedure are presented and illustrated with an example from remote sensing.

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

area-to-point prediction
change of support
image fusion


Bond graph modelling and simulation of multidisciplinary systems - An introduction This paper introduces a graphical, computer aided modelling methodology that is particularly suited for the concurrent design of multidisciplinary systems, viz. of engineering systems with mechanical, electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic components, including interactions of physical effects from various energy domains. Following the introduction, bond graph modelling of multibody systems, as an example of an advanced topic, is briefly addressed in order to demonstrate the potential of this powerful approach to modelling multidisciplinary systems. It is shown how models of multibody systems including flexible bodies can be built in a systematic manner. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

bond graph modelling
multidisciplinary systems
multibody systems

object-oriented physical systems modelling


Wave hierarchies in continua with scalar microstructure in the plane and spherical symmetry In this paper, we consider the balance equations for a continuum with scalar microstructure and propose a general approach to investigate nonlinear wave propagation by means of an asymptotic approach within the theoretical context of wave hierarchies. The evolution equations that are obtained for the leading terms of the asymptotics allow for the description of various levels of wave motion in agreement with the different scales involved in the modelling of continua with microstructure. Both the one-dimensional planar and the axisymmetric spherical cases are considered in a unified way, and various examples (immiscible mixtures of perfect fluids, granular materials, liquid with bubbles) are discussed in order to illustrate the procedure.

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

continua with microstructure
wave hierarchies
evolution equations


A distributed and interoperable object-oriented support for safe e-commerce transactions Business via Internet is becoming popular. A number of organizations doing business in the traditional way are extending themselves to do business over the Web. Most business-to-business dealings are done through Value Added Networks but for general consumer-to-business dealings, the Internet provides a powerful base. However, customer confidence in Internet commerce needs to be further strengthened before large scale Internet purchasing and selling becomes a reality. While security standards have been established through efficient cryptographic techniques to ensure that network communications are not intercepted, the lack of trust between the endpoint parties involved in an e-commerce transaction remains an obstacle for a smooth completion of the transaction. This is because transacting parties need to trust each other before making any commitment. In this paper, we show how trust can be provided automatically through a network of Trust Service Providers (TSP). The solution we propose allows both customers and merchants to deal with each other confidently through trusted intermediaries which role is to guarantee the goods delivery to the customer and the payment to the merchant for issuing those goods. The transactions are conducted atomically and transparently. That is, a transaction process does not experience any off-line transition delay at the intermediaries and the transacting parties deal virtually directly with each other. This solution requires building a trust web based on a network of TSPs, which we implemented in the form of distributed CORBA objects.

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

electronic-commerce
distributed computing
search
java


Probabilistic Multi-Task Learning for Visual Saliency Estimation in Video In this paper, we present a probabilistic multi-task learning approach for visual saliency estimation in video. In our approach, the problem of visual saliency estimation is modeled by simultaneously considering the stimulus-driven and task-related factors in a probabilistic framework. In this framework, a stimulus-driven component simulates the low-level processes in human vision system using multi-scale wavelet decomposition and unbiased feature competition; while a task-related component simulates the high-level processes to bias the competition of the input features. Different from existing approaches, we propose a multi-task learning algorithm to learn the task-related "stimulus-saliency" mapping functions for each scene. The algorithm also learns various fusion strategies, which are used to integrate the stimulus-driven and task-related components to obtain the visual saliency. Extensive experiments were carried out on two public eye-fixation datasets and one regional saliency dataset. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms eight state-of-the-art approaches remarkably.

O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O 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 WebQuest framework to improve the study of deadlock and process synchronization The impact of the Internet on Society also affects learning at University. Students use not only printed books and their own notes, but also the information available on the Net. WebQuests are learning tools that help the students use the Internet, but under the supervision of the lecturer, who has previously selected the most interesting sites to visit. An experience of using WebQuests with first year Computer Science students is shown, as well as the good results obtained both in the improvement of examination results and in the positive attitude of the students when using WebQuests.

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


Implementation and evaluation of a statistical framework for nerve conduction study reference range calculation Nerve conduction studies (NCS) play a central role in the clinical evaluation of neuropathies. Their clinical utilization depends on reference ranges that define the expected parameter values in disease-free individuals. In this paper, a statistical framework is proposed and described in detail for deriving NCS parameter reference ranges. The bootstrap technique is used to identify demographic and physiologic covariates that influence the NCS measurements. Multi-variate linear regression is used to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of NCS interpretation by reducing parameter variance. Non-linear mappings are used to transform parameters into a Gaussian distribution in order to minimize the influence of outliers. Modeling of heteroscedasticity observed in this and other studies leads to more sensible normal limits for several parameters. The proposed reference range method is automated using the MATLAB programming language. Data from a large sample of healthy subjects are used to establish reference ranges for 24 commonly measured NCS parameters. All but three parameters follow Gaussian distributions in their respective transformed domains. Excluding the distal motor latency difference between median and ulnar nerves, the reduction of the parameter variance as a result of regression in the transform domain is greater than 50% for all F-wave latency parameters and at least 10% for all other NCS parameters. Subject age is found to influence normal limits of all but one parameter and height has a statistically significant impact on all but three parameters. These reference range specifications provide clinicians with an alternative to developing their own reference ranges as long as their NCS techniques are consistent with those described in this paper. The proposed method should also be applicable to reference range development for other NCS techniques and physiological measurements. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Triage: A practical solution or admission of failure An experienced investigator, digital forensic examiner, and academic reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of the use of triage. The author argues that the current practice, while a practical necessity, is a failure of the forensic process and software. It is suggested that triage be re-imagined as a formal process that can be measured for efficiency and efficacy.

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

forensic triage
backlog
information security
ediscovery
digital forensic process


Hybrid BFOAPSO algorithm for automatic generation control of linear and nonlinear interconnected power systems Suitable objective function selection is very important for controller design. An objective function using ITAE, damping ratio and settling times is proposed. The concept is applied to design an hBFOAPSO based PI controller for AGC system. Linear and nonlinear interconnected power system models are considered. Simulation results show better performance than PSO, BFOA, GA, CRAZYPSO and ANFIS approaches.

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

bacteria foraging optimization algorithm (bfoa)


H? H ? state feedback controller design for continuous-time TS fuzzy systems in finite frequency domain This paper is concerned with finite frequency H? H ? state feedback controller designs for continuous-time TakagiSugeno (TS) fuzzy systems. A parallel distributed compensation (PDC) controller is designed in finite frequency domain. With the aid of the generalized KalmanYakubovichPopov (GKYP) lemma, the design problem is formulated as solving a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Simulation examples illustrate that the finite frequency design approach proposed in this paper receives better results than those of existing full frequency approaches.

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

h? h ? state feedback controller h? h ? h? h ? h ?


Neurocomputing strategies for solving reliability-robust design optimization problems Purpose - This paper, by taking randomness and uncertainty of structural systems into account aims to implement a combined reliability-based robust design optimization (RRDO) formulation. The random variables to be considered include the cross section dimensions, modulus of elasticity, yield stress, and applied loading. The RRDO problem is to be formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem where the construction cost and the standard deviation of the structural response are the objectives to be minimized. Design/methodology/approach - The solution of the optimization problem is performed with the non-dominant cascade evolutionary algorithm with the weighted Tchebycheff metric, while the probabilistic analysis required is carried out with the Monte Carlo simulation method. Despite the computational advances, the solution of a RRDO problem for real-world structures is extremely computationally demanding and for this reason neurocomputing estimations are implemented. Findings - The obtained estimates with the neural network predictions are shown to be very satisfactory in terms of accuracy for performing this type of computation. Furthermore, the present numerical results manage to achieve a reduction in computational time up to four orders of magnitude, for low probabilities of violation, compared to the conventional procedure making thus feasible the reliability-robust design optimization of realistic structures under probabilistic constraints. Originality/value - The novel parts of the present work include the implementation of neurocomputing strategies in RRDO problems for reducing the computational cost and the comparison of the results given by RRDO and robust design optimization formulations, where the significance of taking into account probabilistic constraints is emphasized.

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

neural nets
optimization techniques
structural design
structural engineering


The power of amnesia: Learning probabilistic automata with variable memory length We propose and analyze a distribution learning algorithm for variable memory length Markov processes. These processes can be described by a subclass of probabilistic finite automata which we name Probabilistic Suffix Automata (PSA). Though hardness results are known for learning distributions generated by general probabilistic automata, we prove that the algorithm we present can efficiently learn distributions generated by PSAs. In particular, we show that for any target PSA, the KL-divergence between the distribution generated by the target and the distribution generated by the hypothesis the learning algorithm outputs, can be made small with high confidence in polynomial time and sample complexity. The learning algorithm is motivated by applications in human-machine interaction. Here we present two applications of the algorithm. In the first one we apply the algorithm in order to construct a model of the English language, and use this model to correct corrupted text. In the second application we construct a simple stochastic model for E. coli DNA.

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

learning distributions
probabilistic automata

markov models
suffix trees
text correction


Organization of invalidation reports for energy-efficient cache invalidation in mobile environments In a wireless environment, mobile clients often cache frequently accessed data to reduce contention on the limited wireless bandwidth. However, it is difficult for clients to ascertain the validity of their cache content because of their frequent disconnection. One promising cache invalidation approach is the Bit-Sequences scheme that organizes invalidation reports as a set of binary bit sequences with an associated set of timestamps. The report is periodically broadcast by the server to clients listening to the communication channel. While the approach has been shown to be effective, it is not energy efficient as clients are expected to examine the entire invalidation report. In this paper, we reexamine the Bit-Sequences method and study different organizations of the invalidation report to facilitate clients to selectively tune to the portion of the report that are of interest to them. This allows the clients to minimize the power consumption when invalidating their cache content. We conducted extensive studies based on a simulation model. Our study shows that, compared to the Bit-Sequences approach, the proposed schemes are not only equally effective in salvaging the cache content but are more efficient in energy utilization.

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

mobile computing
bit-sequences
access time
energy consumption


Prediction of heterogeneous differential genes by detecting outliers to a Gaussian tight cluster Heterogeneously and differentially expressed genes (hDEG) are a common phenomenon due to bio-logical diversity. A hDEG is often observed in gene expression experiments (with two experimental conditions) where it is highly expressed in a few experimental samples, or in drug trial experiments for cancer studies with drug resistance heterogeneity among the disease group. These highly expressed samples are called outliers. Accurate detection of outliers among hDEGs is then desirable for dis- ease diagnosis and effective drug design. The standard approach for detecting hDEGs is to choose the appropriate subset of outliers to represent the experimental group. However, existing methods typically overlook hDEGs with very few outliers.

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 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


The use of CART and multivariate regression trees for supervised and unsupervised feature selection Feature selection is a valuable technique in data analysis for information-preserving data reduction. This paper describes Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Multivariate Regression Trees (MRT)-based approaches for both supervised and unsupervised feature selection. The well-known CART method allows to perform supervised feature selection by modeling one response variable (y) by some explanatory variables (x). The recently proposed CART extension, MRT can handle more than one response variable (y). This allows to perform a supervised feature selection in the presence of more than one response variable. For unsupervised feature selection, where no response variables are available, we propose Auto-Associative Multivariate Regression Trees (AAMRT) where the original variables (x) are not only used as explanatory variables (x), but also as response variables (y=x). Since (AA)MRT is grouping the objects into groups with similar response values by using explanatory variables, this means that the variables are found which are most responsible for the cluster structure in the data. We will demonstrate how these approaches can improve (the detection of) the cluster structure in data and bow they can be used for knowledge discovery. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

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

supervised
unsupervised
feature selection
cart
mrt
aamrt
multivariate regression trees


Investigating business-IT alignment through multi-disciplinary goal concepts The alignment of information technology (IT) with business strategies is optimal when harmony exists between organizational and system goals. Empirical evidence reveals that effective strategic alignment leads to superior financial performance for organizations. This observation has spurred extensive research into business-IT alignment. Yet, the issue of alignment remains a top concern for CIOs. We argue that the parochial view undertaken by past research into business-IT alignment is a probable cause for continuing system failures. Furthermore, strategic alignment research is limited and devoid within the requirements engineering discipline. In this paper, we highlight existing shortfalls of research in business-IT alignment, and bring to light insights that may be offered by other disciplines to augment this field. Subscribing to a multi-disciplinary perspective, we develop a goal-based framework that incorporates goals from various literatures in investigating business-IT alignment. One of the novelties of our proposed framework lies in its delineation between goals that have been originally assigned to stakeholders versus those interpreted by stakeholders. Additionally, the framework includes constructs at the strategic level for supporting the rationale of strategic level goals. We tested the usefulness and usability of this methodology in an organization with a newly developed information system founded on strategic business goals and reported lessons learnt from both researchers and practitioners perspectives.

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

goal-based frameworks
business-it alignment


Proportional fair scheduling with superposition coding in a cellular cooperative relay system Many works have tackled on the problem of throughput and fairness optimization in cellular cooperative relaying systems. Considering firstly a two-user relay broadcast channel, we design a scheme based on superposition coding (SC) which maximizes the achievable sum-rate under a proportional fairness constraint. Unlike most relaying schemes where users are allocated orthogonally, our scheme serves the two users simultaneously on the same time-frequency resource unit by superposing their messages into three SC layers. The optimal power allocation parameters of each SC layer are derived by analysis. Next, we consider the general multi-user case in a cellular relay system, for which we design resource allocation algorithms based on proportional fair scheduling exploiting the proposed SC-based scheme. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithms allowing simultaneous user allocation outperform conventional schedulers based on orthogonal user allocation, both in terms of throughput and proportional fairness. These results indicate promising new directions for the design of future radio resource allocation and scheduling algorithms.

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

cellular relay system
superposition coding
proportional fair scheduling


Privacy-preserving computation of Bayesian networks on vertically partitioned data Traditionally, many data mining techniques have been designed in the centralized model in which all data is collected and available in one central site. However, as more and more activities are carried out using computers and computer networks, the amount of potentially sensitive data stored by business, governments, and other parties increases. Different parties often wish to benefit from cooperative use of their data, but privacy regulations and other privacy concerns may prevent the parties from sharing their data. Privacy-preserving data mining provides a solution by creating distributed data mining algorithms in which the underlying data need not be revealed. In this paper, we present privacy-preserving protocols for a particular data mining task: learning a Bayesian network from a database vertically partitioned among two parties. In this setting, two parties owning confidential databases wish to learn the Bayesian network on the combination of their databases without revealing anything else about their data to each other. We present an efficient and privacy-preserving protocol to construct a Bayesian network on the parties' joint data.

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

data privacy
privacy-preserving data mining


ontology localization International organizations (e.g., FAO, WHO, etc.) are increasingly expressing the need for multilingual ontologies for different purposes, e.g., ontology-based multilingual machine translation, multilingual information retrieval. However, most of the ontologies built so far have mainly English or another natural language as basis. Since multilingual ontology building is a very expensive and time-consuming undertaking, we propose methods for guiding users in the localization of ontologies, and provide tools for supporting the process. The main contributions of this paper are: i) the description of a generic Ontology Localization Activity and a methodology for guiding in the localization of ontologies; ii) the description of a tool built according to the guidelines proposed for an automatic localization of ontologies; and iii) a set of experiments used to evaluate the methodological and technological aspects of the Ontology Localization Activity.

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

ontology localization
multilingual ontologies


Supports for transparent object-migration in PDES systems It is well known that Parallel Discrete Event Simulation systems may suffer, in terms of delivered performance, from imbalance of the computational load. In case of conservative synchronization we may experience CPU under-utilization and/or excessive communication overhead. On the other hand, for the optimistic paradigm we may even have rollback thrashing effects, with a consequent reduction of the percentage of productive (ie not rolled back) work carried out. This paper presents the design of a global memory management architecture supporting application-transparent migration of simulation objects whose state is scattered across dynamically allocated memory chunks. Our approach is based on a non-intrusive background protocol that provides each instance of the simulation kernel with information on the current mapping of the virtual address space of all the other instances. Dynamic memory requests by the application layer are then locally mapped onto virtual-address ranges that maximize the likelihood of being portable onto the address space of a remote kernel instance. In this way, independently of the load-balancing trigger (or policy), we maximize the likelihood that a desirable migration across a specific couple of kernels can actually take place due to compliance of the corresponding source/destination address spaces. We have integrated the global memory manager within the ROme OpTimistic Simulator (ROOT-Sim), namely a run-time environment based on the optimistic synchronization paradigm which automatically and transparently parallelizes the execution of event-handler-based simulation programs conforming to ANSI-C. Further, we provide a contribution in the direction of widening load-balancing schemes for optimistic simulation systems by defining migration triggers and selection policies for the objects to be migrated on the basis of memory usage patterns. An experimental assessment of the architecture and of memory-oriented load balancing is also provided. Journal of Simulation (2012) 6, 279-293. doi:10.1057/jos.2012.13; published online 20 July 2012

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

discrete event simulation
load balancing
memory management
optimistic synchronization

parallel simulation
performance optimization


experiences in building and operating epost, a reliable peer-to-peer application Peer-to-peer (p2p) technology can potentially be used to build highly reliable applications without a single point of failure. However, most of the existing applications, such as file sharing or web caching, have only moderate reliability demands. Without a challenging proving ground, it remains unclear whether the full potential of p2p systems can be realized.To provide such a proving ground, we have designed, deployed and operated a p2p-based email system. We chose email because users depend on it for their daily work and therefore place high demands on the availability and reliability of the service, as well as the durability, integrity, authenticity and privacy of their email. Our system, ePOST, has been actively used by a small group of participants for over two years.In this paper, we report the problems and pitfalls we encountered in this process. We were able to address some of them by applying known principles of system design, while others turned out to be novel and fundamental, requiring us to devise new solutions. Our findings can be used to guide the design of future reliable p2p systems and provide interesting new directions for future research.

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

point
applications
design
group
paper
email
failure
place
availability
research
systems
users
file sharing
reliability
process
privacy
future

electronic mail
authentication
addressing
direct
experience
participant
technologies
system design
peer-to-peer
operability
web caches
decentralized systems
integrability


Simulation-verification: Biting at the state explosion problem Simulation and verification are the two conventional techniques for the analysis of specifications of real-time systems. While simulation is relatively inexpensive in terms of execution time, it only validates the behavior of a system for one particular computation path. On the other hand, verification provides guarantees over the entire set of computation paths of a system. but is, in general. very expensive due to the state-space explosion problem. In this paper, we introduce a new technique: Simulation-verification combines the best of both worlds by synthesizing an intermediate analysis method. This method uses simulation to limit the generation of a computation graph to that set of computations consistent with the simulation. This limited computation graph, called a simulation-verification graph, can be one or more orders of magnitude smaller than the full computation graph. A tool, XSVT, is described which implements simulation-verification graphs. Three paradigms for using the new technique are proposed. The paper illustrates the application of the proposed technique via an example of a robot controller for a manufacturing assembly line.

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

real-time systems
formal methods
specification
timing constraints
modechart
requirements analysis


Process flowsheet superstructures: Structural multiplicity and redundancy part I: Basic GDP and MINLP representations Structural multiplicity has a significant effect on the solution of an MINLP model for process synthesis problems. The optimization model may also have built-in redundancy that cannot always be directly derived from the multiplicity of the superstructure. A basic GDP representation (BGR) involving logical relations is defined, and can be constructed by applying a standard natural representation of the process. Basic MINLP representation (BMR) is defined by transforming the logical relations to algebraic ones. MINLP representation (MR) is defined through a fixed form of BMR. Equivalency and representativeness of MR-s in general form can be analyzed by reducing them to their BMRs. BMR can be automatically generated, and can serve as a reference representation. Binary and continuous multiplicity of MR are defined. If the supergraph, i.e. the graph representing the superstructure, is structurally redundant (i.e. there are isomorphic graphs amongst their subgraphs) then BMR has binary multiplicity. Conversely, the structural redundancy of the graph does not follow from the binary multiplicity of its BMR. Different kinds of multiplicity and redundancy measures of the MINLP representation will be defined in Part 11 of this series in order to help inventing tools for decreasing their detrimental effect. Alternative MINLP representations will there be defined, constructed, and compared from the viewpoint of ideality, minimality, and solution properties. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

multiplicity
superstructure
redundancy
minlp
representation
process synthesis


Developing compact course timetables with optimized student flows A course timetable has an impact on the student flows between consecutive lectures. Large flows lead to congestion and large travel times between lectures. Therefore, we look at minimizing the travel time between consecutive lectures. Flows are modeled in a detailed way, using insights from pedestrian traffic models. Using a decomposition approach, our model can be solved with a standard IP solver.

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

scheduling
timetabling
university course timetabling problem
student flow
integer programming


\(\mathfrak{sl}(2)\) operators and Markov processes on branching graphs We present a unified approach to various examples of Markov dynamics on partitions studied by Borodin, Olshanski, Fulman, and the author. Our technique generalizes Kerovs operators which first appeared in Okounkov (Random Matrix Models and Their Applications, pp.407420, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001), and also stems from the study of duality of graded graphs in Fomin (J. Algebr. Comb., 3(4):357404, 1994).

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

linear operators on graphs
young graph
z-measures on partitions
meixner symmetric functions
ewenspitmans partition structures


Adaptive fuzzy backstepping approach for temperature control of continuous stirred tank reactors In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy controller, based on backstepping technique, has been proposed for temperature control of a general class of continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTRs), Using the observability concept, an adaptive fuzzy controller using temperature measurement has been designed. A fuzzy logic system is used to estimate the concentration dependent terms and other unknown system parameters appearing in the control law. It is shown that the closed loop system is asymptotically stable and influences of minimum approximation error and external disturbance on the L(2) norm of the output tracking error can be attenuated arbitrarily. The performance of the proposed controller has been examined for temperature control of an unstable reactor and its effectiveness has been demonstrated through computer simulation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

adaptive control
fuzzy inference systems
process control


Security versus convenience? An experimental study of user misperceptions of wireless internet service quality This paper demonstrates that consumers make incorrect inferences about security/convenience tradeoff. We find the evidence that consumers tend to infer unobservable security quality from observable convenience and that their inferences are not always correct. In four studies, we examine user perceptions of wireless Internet service quality, with an aim to understand consumers' irrational choice of a dominated product over a dominant option. Our results indicate that consumers make inference in security from convenience using a zero-sum heuristic and that they believe in improving security in return for losing convenience. In a choice setting, we empirically show that security perception, as well as convenience, influences consumers' product choices, contradicting the common view of existing literature that convenience is the sole driver of consumer choice. Our findings show that spontaneous and extensive education of consumers about security makes a modest impact on their inference making.

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

information security
security/convenience tradeoff
security engineering


MPEG video encryption algorithms Multimedia data security is important for multimedia commerce. Previous cryptography studies have focused on text data. The encryption algorithms developed to secure text data may not be suitable to multimedia applications because of the large data size and real time constraint. For multimedia applications, light weight encryption algorithms are attractive. We present four fast MPEG video encryption algorithms. These algorithms use a secret key to randomly change the sign bits of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients and/or the sign bits of motion vectors. The encryption is accomplished by the inverse DCT (IDCT) during the MPEG video decompression processing. These algorithms add a small overhead to MPEG codec. Software implementations are fast enough to meet the real time requirement of MPEG video applications. The experimental results show that these algorithms achieve satisfactory results. They can be used to secure video-on-demand, video conferencing, and video email applications.

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

multimedia data security
mpeg video encryption
mpeg codec


A nonlinear shooting method for two-point boundary value problems We study a new nonlinear shooting method for solving two-point boundary value problems and show numerical experiments with various initial velocity conditions. We discuss and analyze the numerical solutions which are obtained by the shooting method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

self-adjoint
critical value
generalized newton's method


Field emission properties of ZnO nanosheets grown on a Si substrate Vertical ZnO nanosheets are synthesized on a Si substrate. ZnO nanosheet-based field emission devices were fabricated. The FE performance of a ZnO nanosheet device is attributable to the unique surface morphology of the nanosheets.

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


IDSOLVER:

A

general

purpose

solver

for

n

n

th-order

integro-differential

equations

Many

mathematical

models

of

complex

processes

may

be

posed

as

integro-differential

equations

(IDE).

Many

numerical

methods

have

been

proposed

for

solving

those

equations,

but

most

of

them

are

ad

hoc

thus

new

equations

have

to

be

solved

from

scratch

for

translating

the

IDE

into

the

framework

of

the

specific

method

chosen.

Furthermore,

there

is

a

paucity

of

general-purpose

numerical

solvers

that

free

the

user

from

additional

tasks.

Here

we

present

a

general-purpose

MATLAB

solver

that

has

the

above

features.

We

have

chosen

to

use

a

numerical

quadrature

algorithm

combined

with

an

accurate

and

efficient

ODE

solverboth

within

a

MATLAB

environmentto

construct

a

routine

(idsolver)

capable

of

solving

a

wide

variety

of

IDE

of

arbitrary

order,

including

the

Volterra

and

Fredholm

IDE,

variable

limits

on

the

integral,

and

non-linear

IDE.

The

solver

performs

successive

relaxation

iterations

until

convergence

is

achieved.

The

user

has

to

define

a

kernel,

limits

of

integration

and

a

forcing

function,

then

launch

the

routine

and

get

accurate

results

by

tuning

in

a

single

tolerance

parameter,

as

described

below

for

several

numerical

examples.

We

have

found,

by

solving

several

numerical

examples

from

the

literature,

that

the

method

is

robust,

fast

and

accurate.

Program

title:

idsolver

Catalogue

identifier:

Program

summary

Program

obtainable

from:

CPC

Program

Library,

Queens

University,

Belfast,

N.

Ireland

Licensing

provisions:

GNU

General

Public

License

No.

of

lines

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

No.

of

bytes

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

Distribution

format:

tar.gz

Programming

language:

MATLAB

Computer:

PC,

Macintosh.

Operating

system:

Windows,

OSX,

Linux.

RAM:

bytes).

Classification:

Nature

of

problem:

To

solve

a

wide

variety

of

integro-differential

equations

(IDE)

of

arbitrary

order,

including

the

Volterra

and

Fredholm

IDE,

variable

limits

on

the

integral,

and

non-linear

IDE.

Solution

method:

An

efficient

Lobatto

quadrature,

a

robust

and

accurate

IVP

MATLABs

solver

routine,

and

a

recipe

for

combining

old

and

new

estimates

that

is

equivalent

to

a

successive

relaxation

method.

Running

time:

The

solver

may

take

several

seconds

to

execute.

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

integro-differential equation
iterative method


Modelling spatio-temporal movement of tourists using finite Markov chains This paper presents a novel method for modelling the spatio-temporal movements of tourists at the macro-level using Markov chains methodology. Markov chains are used extensively in modelling random phenomena which results in a sequence of events linked together under the assumption of first-order dependence. In this paper, we utilise Markov chains to analyse the outcome and trend of events associated with spatio-temporal movement patterns. A case study was conducted on Phillip Island, which is situated in the state of Victoria, Australia, to test whether a stationary discrete absorbing Markov chain could be effectively used to model the spatio-temporal movements of tourists. The results obtained showed that this methodology can indeed be effectively used to provide information on tourist movement patterns. One significant outcome of this research is that it will assist park managers in developing better packages for tourists, and will also assist in tracking tourists' movements using simulation based on the model used. (C) 2008 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All tights reserved.

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

modelling
finite markov chains
movements
tourists


WET PAPER CODES AND THE DUAL DISTANCE IN STEGANOGRAPHY In 1998 Crandall introduced a method based on coding theory to secretly embed a message in a digital support such as an image. Later, in 2005, Fridrich et al. improved this method to minimize the distortion introduced by the embedding; a process called wet paper. However, as previously emphasized in the literature, this method can fail during the embedding step. Here we find sufficient and necessary conditions to guarantee a successful embedding, by studying the dual distance of a linear code. Since these results are essentially of combinatorial nature, they can be generalized to systematic codes, a large family containing all linear codes. We also compute the exact number of embedding solutions and point out the relationship between wet paper codes and orthogonal arrays.

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


Boundary element method homogenization of the periodic linear elastic fiber composites The paper presented is devoted to the Boundary Element Method based homogenization of the periodic transversely isotropic linear elastic fiber-reinforced composites. The composite material under consideration has deterministically defined elastic properties while its components are perfectly bonded. To have a good comparison with the FEM-based computational techniques used previously, the additional Finite Element discretization is presented and compared numerically against BEM homogenization implementation on the example of engineering glassepoxy composite. The homogenization method proposed has rather general characteristics and, as it is shown, can be easily extended on n-component composites. On the contrary, we can consider and homogenize the heterogeneous media with randomly defined material properties using Monte-Carlo simulation technique or second order perturbation second probabilistic moment approach.

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

effective modules method
finite element method
periodic composite materials
stochastic perturbation approach


LSM: A layer subdivision method for deformable object matching A deformation technique is a method to deform any part of, or an entire object, into a desired shape. Existing deformation methods take a lot of computational cost to represent smoothness correctly due to the constraints caused by differential coefficients of high degree. Thus, it is very difficult to find a general solution. In this paper we propose a LSM (layered subdivision method) that integrates a controlling mechanism, surface deformation, and mesh refinement processing 3D modeling and free-form deformable object matching. The proposed method is considerably more efficient and robust when compared to the existing method of free-form surface, because of the computation of the reference points of deformation edge using geometry of free-form surface. This approach can be applied to automatic inspection of NURBS models and object recognition.

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 B 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

free-form deformation
geometric modeling


Minimum phase noise of an LC oscillator: Determination of the optimal operating point of the active part In this paper, we describe an original method for determining the optimal operating point of the active part (transistor) of an LC oscillator leading to the minimum phase noise for given specifications in terms of power consumption, oscillation frequency and for given devices (i.e., transistor and resonator). The key point of the proposed method is based on the use of a proper LC oscillator architecture providing a fixed loaded quality factor for different operating points of the active part within the oscillator. The feedback network of this architecture is made of an LC resonator with coupling transformers. In these conditions, we show that it is possible to easily change the operating point of the amplifier, through the determination of the turns ratio of those transformers, and observe its effect on phase noise without modifying the loaded quality factor of the resonator. The optimal operating point for minimum phase noise is then extracted from nonlinear simulations. Once this optimal behavior of the active part is known and by associating the previous LC resonator, a design of an LC oscillator or VCO with an optimal phase noise becomes possible. The conclusions of the presented simulation results have been widely used to design and implement a fully integrated LC differential VCO on a 0.35 ? m BiCMOS SiGe process.

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

class-c
cyclostationary noise
power added
oscillators


geographical recommendation method using user's interest model based on map operation and category selection Digital map services and search services for geographical information are widely available on the Internet. Users can retrieve suitable geographical information using these digital maps through certain map operations and category selections. However, when a map region includes a large amount of information, it can be difficult for users to find specific geographical information. In addition, a user's interest in a region or a category may change. Therefore, we propose a method for recommending geographical information to users on the basis of their map operation or category selection history. We develop a model for determining a user's interest and use it to recommend suitable regions and categories.

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


evaluation of hierarchical clustering algorithms for document datasets Fast and high-quality document clustering algorithms play an important role in providing intuitive navigation and browsing mechanisms by organizing large amounts of information into a small number of meaningful clusters. In particular, hierarchical clustering solutions provide a view of the data at different levels of granularity, making them ideal for people to visualize and interactively explore large document collections.In this paper we evaluate different partitional and agglomerative approaches for hierarchical clustering. Our experimental evaluation showed that partitional algorithms always lead to better clustering solutions than agglomerative algorithms, which suggests that partitional clustering algorithms are well-suited for clustering large document datasets due to not only their relatively low computational requirements, but also comparable or even better clustering performance. We present a new class of clustering algorithms called constrained agglomerative algorithms that combine the features of both partitional and agglomerative algorithms. Our experimental results showed that they consistently lead to better hierarchical solutions than agglomerative or partitional algorithms alone.

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

requirements
performance
paper
navigation
evaluation
role
document clustering
play
partitional clustering
hierarchical clustering
data
class

quality
collect
computation
browse
informal
exploration
hierarchic
organization
visualization
experimentation
experimental evaluation
agglomerative clustering
algorithm
feature
documentation
cluster


Artificial intelligence as a discursive practice: the case of embodied software agent systems In this paper, I explore some of the ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) is mediated discursively. I assume that AI is informed by an ancestral dream to reproduce nature by artificial means. This dream drives the production of cyborg discourse, which hinges on the belief that human nature (especially intelligence) can be reduced to symbol manipulation and hence replicated in a machine. Cyborg discourse, I suggest, produces AI systems by rhetorical means; it does not merely describe AI systems or reflect a set of prevailing attitudes about technology. To support this argument, I analyse a set of research articles about an embodied conversational agent called the Real Estate Agent (REA). The articles about REA mobilise a set of rhetorical strategies that systematically downplay the systems artificiality and bolster its humanlike qualities. Within the context of the dream of AI to produce humanlike machines, and given our strong bias for human-human interaction, the designers claim to REAs humanness in their research articles, as I argue in the final section of this paper, needs little justification.

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

embodiment
metaphor
rhetoric
software agents


MAGAD-BFS: A learning method for Beta fuzzy systems based on a multi-agent genetic algorithm This paper proposes a learning method for Beta fuzzy systems (BFS) based on a multiagent genetic algorithm. This method, called Multi-Agent Genetic Algorithm for the Design of BFS has two advantages. First, thanks to genetic algorithms (GA) efficiency, it allows to design a suitable and precise model for BFS. Second, it improves the GA convergence by reducing rule complexity thanks to the distributed implementation by multi-agent approach. Dynamic agents interact to provide an optimal solution in order to obtain the best BFS reaching the balance interpretability-precision. The performance of the method is tested on a simulated example.

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

beta fuzzy systems
learning
genetic algorithms

multi-agent systems
distributed genetic algorithms


Minimax reference point approach and its application for multiobjective optimisation In multiobjective optimisation, one of the most common ways of describing the decision makers preferences is to assign targeted values (goals) to conflicting objectives as well as relative weights and priority levels for attaining the goals. In linear and convex decision situations, traditional goal programming provides a pragmatic and flexible manner to cater for the above preferences. In certain real world decision situations, however, multiobjective optimisation problems are non-convex. In this paper, a minimax reference point approach is developed which is capable of handling the above preferences in non-convex cases. The approach is based on ?-norm formulation and can accommodate both preemptive and non-preemptive goal programming. A strongly non-linear multiobjective ship design model is presented and fully examined using the new approach. This simulation study is aimed to illustrate the implementation procedures of the approach and to demonstrate its potential application to general multiobjective optimisation problems.

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

multiobjective optimisation
reference point approach
goal programming

minimax formulation
computer aided design


Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Traceroute Data Workshop Report On Monday, 22 August 2011, CAIDA hosted a one-day workshop to discuss scalable measurement and analysis of BGP and traceroute topology data, and practical applications of such data analysis including tracking of macroscopic censorship and filtering activities on the Internet. Discussion topics included: the surprisingly stability in the number of BGP updates over time; techniques for improving measurement and analysis of inter-domain routing policies; an update on Colorado State's BGPM on instrumentation; using BGP data to improve the interpretation of traceroute data, both for real-time diagnostics (e.g., AS traceroute) and for large-scale topology mapping; using both BGP and traceroute data to support detection and mapping infrastructure integrity, including different types of of filtering and censorship; and use of BGP data to analyze existing and proposed approaches to securing the interdomain routing system. This report briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions that followed.

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routing
topology
data analysis
censorship
filtering

internet measurement techniques
validation


interactive content presentation based on expressed emotion and physiological feedback In this technical demonstration, we showcase an interactive content presentation (ICP) system that integrates media-expressed-emotion-based composition, user-perceived preference feedback, and interactive digital art creation. ICP harmonizes the browsing of multimedia contents by presenting them in the form of music videos (photos, blog articles with accompanied music) based on their expressed emotion similarity. ICP facilitates content browsing by automatically and dynamically selecting the media to be played next in real time, responding to user's preference feedback measured from physiological signals. In addition, ICP enhances the enjoyments of content browsing by incorporating interactive digital art creation. ICP achieves these goals by properly integrating recent researches on media-expressed emotion classification,cross-media composition, and physiological signal processing.

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cross-media composition
media-expressed emotion
user-perceived preference feedback


The effect of speech melody on voice quality This paper explores whether a speaker's voice quality, defined as the perceived timbre of someone's speech, changes as a function of variation in speech melody. Analyses are based on several productions of the vowel `a', provided with different intonation patterns. It appears that in general fundamental frequency covaries with the `strength relationship' between the first two harmonics (H1H2). That relationship determines the voice quality to some extent, and is often claimed to reflect open quotient. However, correlating the H1H2 measure to parameters of the LF-model reveals that both the open quotient and the skewness of the glottal pulse have an impact on the lower part of the harmonic spectrum.

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

voice quality
intonation
h1h2
glottal pulse


Recognition of communication signal types using genetic algorithm and support vector machines based on the higher order statistics Automatic recognition of communication signal type plays an important role in various applications. Most of the existing recognizers can only identify a few types of communication signal. This paper presents a novel intelligent technique that identifies a variety of digital signal types. Here, a hierarchical support vector machine based structure is proposed as the multiclass classifier. A proper set of the higher order moments (up to eighth) and higher order cumulants (up to eighth) are proposed as the effective features for recognizing of the digital communication signal. A genetic algorithm is used for selecting the suitable parameters of support vector machines. This idea improves the performance of the recognizer, efficiently. Simulation results show that the proposed recognizer has a high success rate for recognition of the different modulations even at very low SNRs.

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

support vector machine
higher order statistics

communication signal type recognition
pattern recognition
artificial intelligence
model selection


Joint learning and weighting of visual vocabulary for bag-of-feature based tissue classification Automated classification of tissue types of Region of Interest (ROI) in medical images has been an important application in Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD). Recently, bag-of-feature methods which treat each ROI as a set of local features have shown their power in this field. Two important issues of bag-of-feature strategy for tissue classification are investigated in this paper: the visual vocabulary learning and weighting, which are always considered independently in traditional methods by neglecting the inner relationship between the visual words and their weights. To overcome this problem, we develop a novel algorithm, Joint-ViVo, which learns the vocabulary and visual word weights jointly. A unified objective function based on large margin is defined for learning of both visual vocabulary and visual word weights, and optimized alternately in the iterative algorithm. We test our algorithm on three tissue classification tasks: classifying breast tissue density in mammograms, classifying lung tissue in High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) images, and identifying brain tissue type in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The results show that Joint-ViVo outperforms the state-of-art methods on tissue classification problems.

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