dynamic indexability and lower bounds for dynamic one-dimensional range query indexes The B-tree is a fundamental external index structure that is widely used for answering one-dimensional range reporting queries. Given a set of N keys, a range query can be answered in O (log B N over M + K over B ) I/Os, where B is the disk block size, K the output size, and M the size of the main memory buffer. When keys are inserted or deleted, the B-tree is updated in O (log B N ) I/Os, if we require the resulting changes to be committed to disk right away. Otherwise, the memory buffer can be used to buffer the recent updates, and changes can be written to disk in batches, which significantly lowers the amortized update cost. A systematic way of batching up updates is to use the logarithmic method, combined with fractional cascading, resulting in a dynamic B-tree that supports insertions in O (1over B log N over M ) I/Os and queries in O (log N over M + K over B ) I/Os. Such bounds have also been matched by several known dynamic B-tree variants in the database literature. Note that, however, the query cost of these dynamic B-trees is substantially worse than the O (log B N over M + K over B ) bound of the static B-tree by a factor of ?(log B ). In this paper, we prove that for any dynamic one dimensional range query index structure with query cost O ( q + K over B ) and amortized insertion cost O ( u / B ), the tradeoff q log( u / q ) = (log B ) must hold if q = O (log B ). For most reasonable values of the parameters, we have N over M = B O (1) , in which case our query-insertion tradeoff implies that the bounds mentioned above are already optimal. We also prove a lower bound of u log q = (log B ), which is relevant for larger values of q . Our lower bounds hold in a dynamic version of the indexability model , which is of independent interests. Dynamic indexability is a clean yet powerful model for studying dynamic indexing problems, and can potentially lead to more interesting complexity results.

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


Variability in flower development of Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb.): model and decision-support system A model to predict the distribution of harvest dates in an Easter lily crop was validated using data from several locations. Plants were individually harvested (i.e. removed from the greenhouse for shipping) when flowers on a plant reached a minimum flower bud length. A computer decision-support system called LilyDate was developed to allow the model to be used to optimize greenhouse temperature settings to ensure that the majority of a crop is ready to harvest by a target date. To implement LilyDate, the user measures the length of the largest flower bud per plant on a sample of plants in the greenhouse, and enters the frequency of plants at each flower bud length (to the nearest cm) into the program. Based on the expected temperature and sample growth data, the software predicts a cumulative and daily distribution of when plants will be in flower. Model predictions were not biased, and the model predicted the number of days until 50 or 95% of plants were in flower with a precision of 2 and 3 days, respectively. The general approach to the computer system could be adapted to predict the harvest distribution for other crop species that require a consistent quantity of thermal time to harvest, and that are grown for a target harvest date.

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

floriculture
decision-support
degree day


A time optimized scheme for top-k list maintenance over incomplete data streams A large number of contemporary research efforts focus on incomplete data streams handling. These efforts, usually, focus on the creation and maintenance of top-k lists useful to provide efficient responses to top-k queries. In case of large volumes of data accumulated at high rates the problem becomes more intense as an efficient method for maintaining the top-k list is considered imperative. In this paper, we focus on the behavior of an Observer Entity (OE) responsible to observe the incoming data and initiate the maintenance process of the top-k list. The maintenance process involves the calculation of a score for each object and the update of the top-k list. We adopt the principles of Optimal Stopping Theory (OST) and introduce a scheme that determines, in the appropriate time, when the OE decides to initiate the maintenance process. Due to the incomplete data setting, the high rate of the incoming data and the large volume of data, the maintenance process is initiated only when the OE has the appropriate amount of information for providing a top-k list. In contrast to other research approaches, we do not maintain any additional sets of objects. Instead, we attempt to minimize the number of the necessary processing tasks over the list of objects. We present a mathematical analysis for our scheme and an extensive experimental evaluation. The comparison with other models shows that the proposed model provides efficiency in the list management and minimizes the required time to result the final top-k list.

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


Application of neural network and ANFIS model for earthquake occurrence in Iran This study examined the spatial-temporal variations in seismicity parameters for the September 10th, 2008 Qeshm earthquake in south Iran. To this aim, artificial neural networks and Adaptive Neural Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were applied. The supervised Radial Basis Function (RBF) network and ANFIS model were implemented because they have shown the efficiency in classification and prediction problems. The eight seismicity parameters were calculated to analyze spatial and temporal seismicity pattern. The data preprocessing that included normalization and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) techniques was led before the data was fed into the RBF network and ANFIS model. Although the accuracy of RBF network and ANFIS model could be evaluated rather similar, the RBF exhibited a higher performance than the ANFIS for prediction of the epicenter area and time of occurrence of the 2008 Qeshm main shock. A proper training on the basis of RBF network and ANFIS model might adopt the physical understanding between seismic data and generate more effective results than conventional prediction approaches. The results of the present study indicated that the RBF neural networks and the ANFIS models could be suitable tools for accurate prediction of epicenteral area as well as time of occurrence of forthcoming strong earthquakes in active seismogenic areas.

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

seismicity parameters
earthquake occurrence
qeshm earthquake
rbf network
anfis model
pca


An evaluation of backpack harness systems in non-neutral torso postures Much of the research on backpack design has been focused on spinal loading/biomechanics while the wearer is in a neutral/upright trunk posture, such as those employed by outdoor enthusiasts and schoolchildren. This research has led to some important harness design improvements that reduce trunk muscle exertions, fatigue and improve overall comfort. There are number of occupations, however, wherein workers wear back-mounted packs/devices (e.g. air tanks) while working in non-neutral trunk postures. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effects of these non-neutral postures on biomechanical loading and then reconsider the backpack system design recommendations. Fifteen participants were asked to support a 18.2kg load on their back while assuming static forward flexed postures of the torso (15, 30, 45, and 60 of sagittal bend). The mass on the back was attached to the participant through two different harness mechanisms: a basic harness design (as seen on college student backpacks) and a more advanced design containing lateral stiffness rods and a weight-bearing hip belt (as seen on backpacks for hikers). While performing these static, posture maintenance tasks, the activation levels of the bilateral trapezius, erector spinae, and rectus abdominis were collected. Participants also provided subjective ratings of comfort. The results showed that there was a significant interaction between harness type and forward flexion angle for the trapezius and the erector spinae muscles. The normalized EMG for the trapezius muscles showed a 14% and 11% reduction in muscle activity at 15 and 30, respectively, with the advanced design but these positive effects of the advanced design were not found at the greater flexion angles. Likewise the erector spinae muscles showed a 24% and 14% reduction in muscle activity at 15 and 30, respectively, with the advanced design harness but these effects of the advanced design were not found at the greater forward flexion angles. The level of forward flexion angle affected the rectus abdominis muscle activity, but neither the harness type main effect nor the interaction of harness type and forward flexion angle was significant. The subjective survey results agreed with the EMG results and showed the advanced design harness was generally more comfortable with respect to the shoulder and low back areas. Collectively, the subjective and objective results show a significant improvement with the advanced harness system but also note an interesting interaction with degree of sagittal flexion, indicating a diminished effectiveness of the design improvements at forward flexed postures. Design criteria for harness systems in these forward flexed postures are discussed.

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


Selecting a cost-effective test case prioritization technique Regression testing is an expensive testing process used to validate modified software and detect whether new faults have been introduced into previously tested code. To reduce the cost of regression testing, software testers may prioritize their test cases so that those which are more important, by some measure, are run earlier in the regression testing process. One goal of prioritization is to increase a test suite's rate of fault detection. Previous empirical studies have shown that several prioritization techniques can significantly improve rate of fault detection, but these studies have also shown that the effectiveness of these techniques varies considerably across various attributes of the program, test suites, and modifications being considered. This variation makes it difficult for a practitioner to choose an appropriate prioritization technique for a given testing scenario. To address this problem, we analyze the fault detection rates that result from applying several different prioritization techniques to several programs and modified versions. The results of our analyses provide insights into which types of prioritization techniques are and are not appropriate under specific testing scenarios, and the conditions under which they are or are not appropriate. Our analysis approach can also be used by other researchers or practitioners to determine the prioritization techniques appropriate to other workloads.

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

test case prioritization
regression testing
empirical studies


MULTICHANNEL COCHLEAR PROSTHESIS ADAPTED TO HEBREW - A CASE-STUDY The purpose of this work was to investigate the speech comprehension of four deaf Hebrew-speaking patients implanted with a cochlear prosthesis, the Nucleus 22-channels (N-22) system. Experiments were performed under two conditions: The speech tests (isolated vowels, bisyllabic words and fluent speech in closed and open sets) were first conducted using the Default Frequency Boundaries (DFBs) of the cochlear implant's speech processor. The Default Frequency Boundaries of each electrode which are specified by the computer program of the system, are assumed to be selected on the basis of English. Different sets of frequency boundaries were then established by altering the frequency-to-electrode mapping, taking into account the formant patterns of the modern Hebrew vowels and the number of active electrodes implanted in each patient. These changes yielded what we called Modified Frequency Boundaries (MFBs). The patients were then retested using the same speech material, and the results were compared with those previously obtained. As a result of the Modified Frequency Boundaries, improvements in the patients' comprehension of the speech elements were noted. The differences in performance between the two sets of frequency boundary distributions suggest that better speech comprehension could be achieved by implanted patients, at least partly, by adjusting the frequency-to-electrode mapping of the N-22 speech processor on a language basis.

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

multichannel cochlear implant
hebrew vowel formants
hebrew comprehension


Lessons from the scrapyard: creative uses of found materials within a workshop setting This paper focuses on a spectrum of workshops developed by the authors, collectively referred to as Scrapyard Challenges. These workshops ask participants to create a computationally designed object within a fixed time frame using cast-off materials and junk. Depending on the focus on the workshop, participants develop musical controllers, fashion-oriented wearables, or street interventions. Though operating in diverse application domains, each workshop introduces a third place where creative appropriation of materials and playful experimentation is the primary reward. The end results have been remarkable, with both the novice and advanced participant producing highly creative prototypes. Each variation of the workshop and selected results are shared and detailed. Future work, as well as the implications of this approach within a singular workshop setting and a classroom is discussed. The Scrapyard Challenge workshops have been deployed in six different countries and have contributed to curriculum development for a graduate-level class which utilizes the workshop principles at the MSc. Multimedia Systems course at Trinity College Dublin.

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

diy computing
sustainable design
fashion
artistic applications
education


Rough relation algebras revisited Rough relation algebras arise from Pawlak's information systems by considering as object ordered pairs on a fixed set X. Thus, the subsets to be approximated are binary relations over X, and hence, we have at our disposal not only the set theoretic operations, but also the relational operators;,(boolean OR), and the identity relation 1'. In the present paper, which is a continuation of [6], we further investigate the structure of abstract rough relation algebras.

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


Attribute reduction: A dimension incremental strategy Many real data sets in databases may vary dynamically. With the rapid development of data processing tools, databases increase quickly not only in rows (objects) but also in columns (attributes) nowadays. This phenomena occurs in several fields including image processing, gene sequencing and risk prediction in management. Rough set theory has been conceived as a valid mathematical tool to analyze various types of data. A key problem in rough set theory is executing attribute reduction for a data set. This paper focuses on attribute reduction for data sets with dynamically-increasing attributes. Information entropy is a common measure of uncertainty and has been widely used to construct attribute reduction algorithms. Based on three representative entropies, this paper develops a dimension incremental strategy for redcut computation. When an attribute set is added to a decision table, the developed algorithm can find a new reduct in a much shorter time. Experiments on six data sets downloaded from UCI show that, compared with the traditional non-incremental reduction algorithm, the developed algorithm is effective and efficient.

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

dynamic data sets
expansion of attributes
rough sets


A conceptual schema-based temporal meta database schemas generation technique for 3D objects In this paper, a temporal meta database for three-dimensional (3D) objects whose properties and relationships are supported by valid time is introduced. Based on our proposed temporal object-oriented conceptual schema model, a conceptual schema of the temporal meta database can be generated from a 3D graphical data source and other particular application requirements. Based on our proposed temporal object relational data model with attribute timestamping, logical schemas of the temporal meta database can be systematically and automatically generated from the conceptual schema. From the temporal meta database, non-temporal/temporal metadata about temporal 3D objects are available for temporal information system users. Convenient access using database languages such as SQL can be performed. Queries over 3D objects using a temporal object relational SQL are demonstrated.

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

metadata
conceptual schema model
temporal object relational data model


VR-based education system for inspection of concrete bridges In this study, a novel education system for inspection of concrete bridges is presented. The new education approach uses virtual reality (VIZ) and three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) in training engineers to become bridge inspection specialists. The slow time-dependent deterioration of concrete bridges can be reproduced oil the computer screen in any chosen time frame, thus providing the trainees With Illustrative and educative insight into the deterioration problem. In the proposed VR/3DCG approach a three-dimensional model of concrete bridge, including surfaces, viewpoints and walkthrough paths is created. With the help of this Virtual bridge model, an experienced bridge inspection specialist teaches the different deterioration phenomena of concrete bridges to the trainees. The new system was tested, and the inspection results from the case bridge showed that in comparison with the traditional Japanese bridge inspection education system, the new system gives better results. In addition to the improvement of quality of bridge inspections, the new VR/3DCG system-based education brings along some other, more intangible benefits.

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

virtual reality (vr)
inspection education
bridge management
high quality
civil engineering


Massive pneumatosis intestinalis: CT diagnosis Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis is a rare condition characterized by multiple subserosal or submucosal gas filled cysts within the wall of a segment of bowel. It is associated with numerous conditions, both intra and extraabdominal in nature. The condition may be asymptomatic or may present clinically as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or other signs of intestinal obstruction. With rupture of the cysts, pneumoperitoneum may be a finding. In a patient with vague clinical presentation, this finding radiographically may lead to a clinical dilemma as many of these patients have comorbid conditions which are also associated with intestinal perforation. The authors present the case of a 47-year-old obese black female found to have massive pneumatosis intestinalis of the tranverse colon with a small amount of free intraperitoneal air. This case highlights the importance of recognizing pneumatosis intestinalis as a possible mimic of free intraabdominal air as well as a possible cause of benign pneumoperitoneum.

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

pneumatosis intestinalis
cysts
colon
ct
pneumoperitoneum


Two-way fuzzy adaptive identification and control of a flexible-joint robot arm The objective in this paper is to apply our proposed two-way fuzzy adaptive system that makes use of intuitionistic fuzzy sets to the identification and model-based control of a flexible-joint robot arm. Uncertainty and inconsistency are modelled in the proposed system such as uncertainty is the width of the interval introduced by the independent assignment of membership and nonmembership functions of the intuitionistic fuzzy sets; and inconsistency is the violation of the consistency inequality in this assignment. We reduce uncertainty and inconsistency through a two phase training. The first phase is to reduce inconsistency introduced by the inconsistent assignment of membership and nonmembership functions. The resultant system is an almost consistent two-way fuzzy adaptive system. Thus, an evaluation of the degree of reduction of inconsistency is needed and is carried out at the end of this phase by forming the shadowed set patterns of the membership and nonmembership functions after first phase of training. The system is further trained for a second phase in order to reduce uncertainty. The system performance has shown that this second phase of training renders the system totally one-way fuzzy adaptive.

O O O O O O 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 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

fuzzy adaptive identification for control


Reflected Brownian motion in the quadrant: tail behavior of the stationary distribution Let Z be a two-dimensional Brownian motion confined to the non-negative quadrant by oblique reflection at the boundary. Such processes arise in applied probability as diffusion approximations for two-station queueing networks. The parameters of Z are a drift vector, a covariance matrix, and a "direction of reflection" for each of the quadrant's two boundary rays. Necessary and sufficient conditions are known for Z to be a positive recurrent semimartingale, and they are the only restrictions imposed on the process data in our study. Under those assumptions, a large deviations principle (LDP) is conjectured for the stationary distribution of Z, and we recapitulate the cases for which it has been rigorously justified. For sufficiently regular sets B, the LDP says that the stationary probability of xB decays exponentially as x -> az, and the asymptotic decay rate is the minimum value achieved by a certain function I(a <...) over the set B. Avram, Dai and Hasenbein (Queueing Syst.: Theory Appl. 37, 259-289, 2001) provided a complete and explicit solution for the large deviations rate function I(a <...). In this paper we re-express their solution in a simplified form, showing along the way that the computation of I(a <...) reduces to a relatively simple problem of least-cost travel between a point and a line.

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

variational problems
reflected brownian motions


An approximation algorithm for maximum P-3-packing in subcubic graphs We give a linear time 4/3-approximation algorithm for the problem of finding the maximum number of vertex-disjoint paths of order 3 in subcubic graphs without pendant vertices, which improves previously known results [K. Kawarabayashi, H. Matsuda., Y. Oda, K. Ota, Path factors in cubic graphs, Journal of Graph Theory 39 (2002) 188-193; A. Kelmans, D. Mubayi, How many disjoint 2-edge paths must a cubic graph have?, Journal of Graph Theory 45 (2004) 57-79]. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

approximation algorithms
path factor
subcubic graph


From Images to Shape Models for Object Detection We present an object class detection approach which fully integrates the complementary strengths offered by shape matchers. Like an object detector, it can learn class models directly from images, and can localize novel instances in the presence of intra-class variations, clutter, and scale changes. Like a shape matcher, it finds the boundaries of objects, rather than just their bounding-boxes. This is achieved by a novel technique for learning a shape model of an object class given images of example instances. Furthermore, we also integrate Hough-style voting with a non-rigid point matching algorithm to localize the model in cluttered images. As demonstrated by an extensive evaluation, our method can localize object boundaries accurately and does not need segmented examples for training (only bounding-boxes).

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

learning category models
local contour features
shape matching


On exploiting social relationship and personal background for content discovery in P2P networks Conduct extensive studies on social information from 384,494 Facebook users. A social P2P network model: associate the P2P nodes with social information. A content discovery mechanism on the social P2P model extracts latent friendships. The content discovery mechanism relies on friends Similarity and Knowledge. The proposed mechanism is especially effective for personal interests search.

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

social p2p
content discovery
similarity
knowledge


Regional development in South Korea: accounting for research area in centrality and networks This paper provides a first-ever look at differences of centrality scores (i.e., networks) over time and across research specializations in Korea. This is a much needed development, given the variance which is effectively ignored when Science Citation Index (SCI) publications are aggregated. Three quantitative tests are providedOLS, two sample t-tests, and unit-root teststo establish the patterns of centrality scores across Korea over time. The unit-root test is particularly important, as it helps identify patterns of convergence in each regions centrality scores. For all other geographic regions besides Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Daejeon, there appears to be little promiseat least in the immediate futureof being network hubs. For these top three regions, though, there is a pattern of convergence in three-quarters of all research specializations, which we attribute in part to policies in the mid- and late-1990s.

O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 phase FIR filter design using particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms In this paper, a linear phase FIR filter is designed using particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithms (GA). Two design cases are considered. In the first case, the filter length, passband and stopband frequencies, and the ratio of the passband and stopband ripples size are specified. In the second case, a feasible passband and stopband ripples size in addition to the other three filter specifications are specified. The later situation is not explicitly considered by the ParksMcClellan (PM) algorithm. Furthermore, the PSO and the GA are used to design optimum FIR filters for which the filter coefficients are represented using finite word length. In all cases, the design goal is successfully achieved using the PSO and compared with that obtained using the GA. For the problem at hand, it is found that the PSO outperforms the GA in some of the presented design cases.

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

digital filters design
parksmcclellan algorithm


2-D Laplace-z transformation Based on recent results for 2-D continuous-discrete Systems, this paper develops 2-D Laplace-z transform, which can be used to analyze 2-D continuous-discrete signals and system in Laplace-z hybrid domain. Current 1-D Laplace transformation and z transform can be combined into the new 2-D s-z transform. However, 2-D s-z transformation is not a simple extension of 1-D transform, in 2-D case, we need consider the 2-D boundary conditions which don't occur in 1-D case. The hybrid 2-D definitions and theorems are given in the paper. To verify the results of this paper, we also derived a numerical inverse 2-D Laplace-z transform, applying it to show the 2-D pulse response of a stable 2-D continuous-discrete system.

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

2-d laplace-z transform
2-d continuous-discrete signals
2-d continuous-discrete systems


Representation theory on the open Bruhat cell The action of a connected reductive algebraic group G on G/P _, where P _ is a parabolic subgroup, differentiates to a representation of the Lie algebra g of G by vector fields on U(+), the unipotent radical of a parabolic opposite to P_ The classical instances of this setting that we study in detail are the actions of GL(n) on the Grassmannian of k-planes (1 <= k <= n), of SO(n), on the quadric of isotropic lines, and of SO(2), or SP(2n) on their respective Grassmannians of maximal isotropic spaces; in each instance, U(+) is one of the usual affine charts. We show that both the polynomials on U(+) and the polynomial vector fields on U(+) form g-modules dual to parabolically induced modules, construct an explicit composition chain of the former module in the case where G is classical simple and U(+) is Abelian-these are exactly the cases above-and indicate how this chain can be used to analyse the module of vector fields, as well. We present two proofs of our main theorems: one uses the results of Enright and Shelton on classical Hermitian pairs, and the other is independent of their work. The latter proof mixes classical (and briefly reviewed) facts of representation theory with combinatorial and computational arguments, and is accessible to readers unfamiliar with the vast modem literature on category Omicron. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


ON THE GEOMETRY OF TENSOR NETWORK STATES We answer a question of L. Grasedyck that arose in quantum information theory, showing that the limit of tensors in a space of tensor network states need not be a tensor network state. We also give geometric descriptions of spaces of tensor networks states corresponding to trees and loops. Grasedyck's question has a surprising connection to the area of Geometric Complexity Theory, in that the result is equivalent to the statement that the boundary of the Mulmuley-Sohoni type variety associated to matrix multiplication is strictly larger than the projections of matrix multiplication (and re-expressions of matrix multiplication and its projections after changes of bases). Tensor Network States are also related to graphical models in algebraic statistics.

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

tensor
geometric complexity theory
matrix multiplication

finitely correlated states
valence bond solids
matrix product states


Joint photometric and geometric image registration in the total least square sense This paper presents a novel robust image alignment technique that performs joint geometric and photometric registration in the total least square (TLS) sense. Therefore, we employ the total least square metric instead of the ordinary least square (OLS) metric, which is commonly used in the literature. While the OLS model is sufficient to tackle geometric registration problems, it gives no mutually consistent estimates when dealing with photometric deformations. By introducing a new TLS model, we obtain mutually consistent parameters. Experimental results show that our method is indeed more consistent and accurate in presence of noise compared to existing joint registration algorithms.

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


Reduced-order modeling of the upper tropical Pacific Ocean model using proper orthogonal decomposition The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is shown to be an efficient model reduction technique for simulating physical processes governed by partial differential equations. In this paper, we make an initial effort to investigate problems related to POD reduced modeling of a large-scale upper ocean circulation in the tropic Pacific domain. We construct different POD models with different choices of snapshots and different number of POD basis functions. The results from these different POD models are compared with that of the original model. The main findings are: (1) the large-scale seasonal variability of the tropic Pacific obtained by the original model is well captured by a low dimensional system of order 22, which is constructed using 20 snapshots and 7 leading POD basis functions. (2) the RMS errors for the upper ocean layer thickness of the POD model of order 22 are less than 1m that is less than 1% of the average thickness and the correlation between the upper ocean layer thickness with that from the POD model is around 0.99. (3) Retaining modes that capture 99% energy is necessary in order to construct POD models yielding a high accuracy. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

reduced order model
pde
galerkin methods
ode


Executing Java programs with transactional memory Parallel programming is difficult due to the complexity of dealing with conventional lock-based synchronization. To simplify parallel programming, there have been a number of proposals to support transactions directly in hardware and eliminate locks completely. Although hardware support for transactions has the potential to completely change the way parallel programs are written, initially transactions will be used to execute existing parallel programs. In this paper we investigate the implications of using transactions to execute existing parallel Java programs. Our results show that transactions can be used to support all aspects of Java multithreaded programs, and once Java virtual machine issues have been addressed, the conversion of a lock-based application into transactions is largely straightforward. The performance that these converted applications achieve is equal to or sometimes better than the original lock-based implementation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

feedback optimization
multiprocessor architecture


Distributed mechanism in detecting and defending against the low-rate TCP attack In this paper, we consider a distributed mechanism to detect and to defend against the low-rate TCP attack. The low-rate TCP attack is a recently discovered attack. In essence, it is a periodic short burst that exploits the homogeneity of the minimum retransmission timeout (RTO) of TCP flows and forces all affected TCP flows to backoff and enter the retransmission timeout state. When these affected TCP flows timeout and retransmit their packets, the low-rate attack will again send a short burst to force these affected TCP flows to enter RTO again. Therefore these affected TCP flows may be entitled to zero or very low transmission bandwidth. This sort of attack is difficult to identify due to a large family of attack patterns. We propose a distributed detection mechanism to identify the low-rate attack. In particular, we use the dynamic time warping approach to robustly and accurately identify the existence of the low-rate attack. Once the attack is detected, we use a fair resource allocation mechanism to schedule all packets so that (1) the number of affected TCP flows is minimized and, (2) provide sufficient resource protection to those affected TCP flows. Experiments are carried out to quantify the robustness and accuracy of the proposed distributed detection mechanism. In particular, one can achieve a very low false positive/negative when compare to legitimate Internet traffic. Our experiments also illustrate the the efficiency of the defense mechanism across different attack patterns and network topologies. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

network security
dos attack
low-rate attack


A reflexive busy beaver problem A search problem inspired by Rado's busy beaver game for Turing machines is proposed for a system of labeled directed graph Structures upon which a simple read/write rule is applied locally. In the formulation employed, explicit separation of passive (information carrying) and active (information processing) structures, imposed by mandate of rules or physics in other computational formalisms, emerges instead as a result of a structure-function dynamic that is reflexive: objects may operate directly on their own structure. In contrast to the original busy beaver problem, in which topology of the tape is fixed and only machines are varied, in the reflexive problem it is the entire space of structures that is searched: solutions are those systems that maximize the number of steps taken in computation on their own structure. Solutions are presented for finite (hence computable) systems of between four and twelve "parts". Certain revealing results are highlighted and discussed.

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

turing machine
reflexivity
structure-function


Relative spike timing in stochastic oscillator networks of the Hermissenda eye The role of relative spike timing on sensory coding and stochastic dynamics of small pulse-coupled oscillator networks is investigated physiologically and mathematically, based on the small biological eye network of the marine invertebrate Hermissenda. Without network interactions, the five inhibitory photoreceptors of the eye network exhibit quasi-regular rhythmic spiking; in contrast, within the active network, they display more irregular spiking but collective network rhythmicity. We investigate the source of this emergent network behavior first analyzing the role of relative input to spike-timing relationships in individual cells. We use a stochastic phase oscillator equation to model photoreceptor spike sequences in response to sequences of inhibitory current pulses. Although spike sequences can be complex and irregular in response to inputs, we show that spike timing is better predicted if relative timing of spikes to inputs is accounted for in the model. Further, we establish that greater noise levels in the model serve to destroy network phase-locked states that induce non-monotonic stimulus rate-coding, as predicted in Butson and Clark (J Neurophysiol 99:146-154, 2008a; J Neurophysiol 99:155-165, 2008b). Hence, rate-coding can function better in noisy spiking cells relative to non-noisy cells. We then study how relative input to spike-timing dynamics of single oscillators contribute to network-level dynamics. Relative timing interactions in the network sharpen the stimulus window that can trigger a spike, affecting stimulus encoding. Also, we derive analytical inter-spike interval distributions of cells in the model network, revealing that irregular Poisson-like spike emission and collective network rhythmicity are emergent properties of network dynamics, consistent with experimental observations. Our theoretical results generate experimental predictions about the nature of spike patterns in the Hermissenda eye.

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

sensory network
stochastic network
network encoding


The roles that artefacts play: technical, social and aesthetic functions The concept of function is often employed and sometimes defined in such a way that it only relates to how artefacts can be used to satisfy physical goals (e.g. transportation). Using artefacts to satisfy non-physical goals (e.g. social recognition) is typically described without reference to an artefacts function. By drawing on the various disciplines that are concerned with function, this article demonstrates that there are many different kinds of function, some of which will account for non-physical uses. By referring to these different kinds of function we can reduce the conceptual distance between physical and non-physical uses. Furthermore, by applying the concept of function to non-physical uses our understanding of such uses can benefit from prior work on function.

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

industrial design
interdisciplinarity
philosophy of design
styling
user behaviour


siRNA Produced by Recombinant Dicer Mediates Efficient Gene Silencing in Islet Cells Abstract: RNA interference (RNAi) is emerging as a powerful and convenient tool for studying gene function and genetic variation. RNAi is mediated by 21- to 23-nucleotide-long, small interfering RNAs (siRNA) produced from larger double-stranded RNAs in vivo by the RNase III family enzyme Dicer. To overcome the problems associated with the use of predesigned synthetic siRNA molecules, a novel method utilizing the in vitro activity of recombinant Dicer has been developed recently. In nonislet cells, it has been demonstrated that a pool of siRNA, generated by Dicer from in vitro transcribed dsRNA (d-siRNA), mediates convenient, efficient, and reproducible gene silencing in various cell types. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of d-siRNA to silence endogenous gene expression in pancreatic islet cells. We observed that liposomal transfection mediates efficient transport of siRNA in up to 90% of dispersed islet cells and that d-siRNA mediates almost complete and nontoxic silencing of an endogenous mRNA, the messenger coding for the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c-Abl. The approach described here using d-siRNA provides an important tool for elucidating gene function in further studies of pancreatic islets and diabetes pathophysiology.

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

rnai
sirna
recombinant dicer
gene silencing
islet cells

c-abl
lipofection
d-sirna
posttranscriptional gene silencing


automatic exploration of vliw processor architectures from a designer's experience based specification This paper presents a new synthesis approach for dedicated systems. The aim of our synthesis scheme is to achieve an automatic exploration of VLIW processor architectures from a pure C description of the input system. The innovation consists in the fact that unit allocation must manage the fact that a function may be realized either by dedicated functional units or by a set of lower-level efficiently controlled functional units. For example, execution of a square root function can be accomplished by two ways: either by a dedicated functional unit or by an oriented software implementation of Newton's iterations. The aim is to find the best global trade-off between all the candidate architectures. In order to illustrate this synthesis scheme, we give an example issued from a sonar application.

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

processor software order systems input functional implementation experience synthesis paper exploration global scheme allocation

applications innovating examples architecture design iter management


Classification of breast cancer malignancy using cytological images of fine needle aspiration biopsies According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breast cancer (BC) is one of the most deadly cancers diagnosed among middle-aged women. Precise diagnosis and prognosis are crucial to reduce the high death rate. In this paper we present a framework for automatic malignancy grading of fine needle aspiration biopsy tissue. The malignancy grade is one of the most important factors taken into consideration during the prediction of cancer behavior after the treatment. Our framework is based on a classification using Support Vector Machines (SVM). The SVMs presented here are able to assign a malignancy grade based on preextracted features with the accuracy up to 94.24%. We also show that SVMs performed best out of four tested classifiers.

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

automated malignancy grading
fna grading
breast cancer grading
bloom-richardson


Resolving stereo matching errors due to repetitive structures using model information This study regards the problem of incorrect stereo matches due to the occurrence of repetitive structures in the scene. In stereo vision, repetitive structures may lead to phantom objects in front of or behind the true scene which cause severe problems in scenarios involving mobile robot navigation or humanrobot interaction. To alleviate this problem, we propose a model-based method which is independent of the specific stereo algorithm used. The basic idea is the feedback of application dependent model information into the correspondence analysis procedure without loosing the ability to reconstruct scene parts not described by the model. The employed scene models may either consist of a single plane or (for modelling more complex objects) of several connected planes. An FFT-based detection stage allows the extraction of scene parts displaying repetitive structures and yields the orientation of the model plane, while the plane distance is inferred with a robust optimisation technique based on a model-free stereo analysis. Alternatively, motion-based segmentation can be applied. Our experimental evaluation performed on manually labelled real-world scenes showing objects in front of repetitive structures shows that the proposed method reduces the fraction of false correspondences on the repetitive structures by factors of up to 30 while only moderately decreasing the fraction of 3D points correctly assigned to the object.

O O O O O O O O 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 differential evolution proposal for estimating the maximum power delivered by CPV modules under real outdoor conditions Multivariable model to calculate the maximum power given by concentrating modules. Spectrum additional indexes in the equation proposed by the standard methodology. Calculation of regression coefficients by a differential evolution algorithm. Applicability to the forecasting of the energy produced by big power plants.

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

concentrating photovoltaic technology
soft computing


The Effect of Extremely Low-Frequency Magnetic Field on Motor Activity of Rats in the Open Field Abstract: Exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF, 50 Hz, 0.5 mT) for seven days did not change spontaneous motor activity of rats in the open field compared to sham-exposed animals. Pre-exposure to ELF-MF decreased locomotor and stereotypic activity induced by amphetamine (1.5 mg/kg body weight) and accordingly increased the resting time compared to sham-exposed and amphetamine-treated rats. Vertical activity (rearing) of these two groups was similar. Our results indicate that ELF-MF has different effects on some parameters of amphetamine-induced motor activity, probably due to brain region-specific effects on catecholaminergic systems responsible for movement control.

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


Molecular dynamics simulation of temperature induced unfolding of animal prion protein To elucidate the structural stability and the unfolding dynamics of the animal prion protein, the temperature induced structural evolution of turtle prion protein (tPrPc) and bank vole prion protein (bvPrPc) have been performed with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The unfolding behaviors of secondary structures showed that the alpha-helix was more stable than beta-sheet. Extension and disruption of beta-sheet commonly appeared in the temperature induced unfolding process. The conversion of alpha-helix to pi-helix occurred more readily at the elevating temperature. Furthermore, it was suggested in this work that the unfolding of prion protein could be regulated by the temperature.

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

elevated temperature
molecular dynamics (md) simulation


SMOTE-RSB*: a hybrid preprocessing approach based on oversampling and undersampling for high imbalanced data-sets using SMOTE and rough sets theory Imbalanced data is a common problem in classification. This phenomenon is growing in importance since it appears in most real domains. It has special relevance to highly imbalanced data-sets (when the ratio between classes is high). Many techniques have been developed to tackle the problem of imbalanced training sets in supervised learning. Such techniques have been divided into two large groups: those at the algorithm level and those at the data level. Data level groups that have been emphasized are those that try to balance the training sets by reducing the larger class through the elimination of samples or increasing the smaller one by constructing new samples, known as undersampling and oversampling, respectively. This paper proposes a new hybrid method for preprocessing imbalanced data-sets through the construction of new samples, using the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique together with the application of an editing technique based on the Rough Set Theory and the lower approximation of a subset. The proposed method has been validated by an experimental study showing good results using C4.5 as the learning algorithm.

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

classification
oversampling
undersampling
rough sets theory


extensible pattern matching in snobol4 Although the string pattern-matching facilities of SNOBOL4 are the most powerful of those of any widely used programming language, they suffer both from complexity and lack of a mechanism for defining new scanning procedures. This paper describes a definitional mechanism that provides extensibility for the existing facilities in which programmer-defined scanning procedures are written as co-routines at the source-language level. The result provides a substantial increase in power as well as the potential for simplifying the existing language. The relationship of this new facility to the present language is discussed, as are implications for more extensive language changes.

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

language extensibility power complexity paper

relationships
procedure
pattern match
scan
strings
change
programmer
programming language


Utility-based Multi-agent System with Spatial Interactions: The Case of Virtual Estate Development A multi-agent system is presented here. Agent decisions are based on economic partial utilities. Its a new computational tool using cellular and agent-based models. Decision processes are represented through computational agents. Land-use and land cover changes are represented through a cellular model. It belongs to kind of models called Multi-Agent Systems model of Land-Use Cover Change. Decisions concern the estate development in the neighborhood of the agents. Space is discretized in heterogeneous cells where heterogeneous agents interact together (directly or via space). Based on partial utility probabilities, several stochastic simulations are achieved. These simulations are then summarized, replicated and a parameter sensitivity analysis provided. The main parameters influencing the decisions of an agent depend on his type (ecologist, etc.) and on the expected economic activities in his neighborhood. Little information is assumed to be known about the mechanisms determining the parameter values guiding the decisions of the agents, except their type. The whole system constitutes a general virtual model, mostly independent from initial conditions and real data. Sensitivity analysis are used to explore behavioral paths and influencing parameters. In summary, the main contribution of this paper consists in: (i) defining a simulation-based framework for modeling the decisions of many heterogeneous economic agents involved in spatial interactions; (ii) capturing the decision process using general utility-based equations; (iii) providing a sensitivity analysis of initial parameter values. An example of possible application investigating strategies of various categories of agents (institutions, landowners, homeowners, etc.) facing an intense residential development is provided. The framework consists of abstracting institutional characteristics of actual local Urbanism Plan procedures in France. This model constitutes a first step to be further specified.

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

environmental externalities
spatial heterogeneity
mas/lucc


an exact analysis of the distribution of cycle times in a class of queueing networks Prediction of detailed characteristics of the time delays experienced by customers in queueing networks is of great importance in various modelling and performance evaluation activities: operations research, computer systems and communication networks. Their statistical properties have been investigated predominantly by simulation techniques with the exception of mean value analyses for which Little's Law is applied. Theoretical studies of the probability distributions of time delays tend to be based on their Laplace transforms, which are of limited use, can be inverted analytically only in very simple cases and present substantial computation problems for numerical inversion. An exact derivation is presented for the distribution of cycle times in so called tree-like queueing networks. The analysis is performed for a network structure which is such that it is not necessary to mark a special customer, so avoiding expansion of the state space. Cycle time distribution is derived initially in the form of its Laplace Transform, from which its moments follow. A recurrence relation for a uniformly convergent discrete representation of the distribution then follows by a similar argument. Finally, the numerical results obtained for some simple test networks are presented and compared with those corresponding to an approximate method, hence indicating the accuracy of the latter.

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

modelling
performance evaluation
time delays
queueing networks

response time
probability theory
markov processes
queueing theory


Savvy searching - Clustering search results. Part I: web-wide search engines Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine clustering search results. Traditionally, search results from professional online information services presented the results in reverse chronological order. Later, relevance ranking was introduced for ordering the display of the hits on the result list to separate the wheat from the chaff. Design/methodology/approach - The need for better presentation of search results retrieved from millions, then billions, of highly unstructured and untagged Web pages became obvious. Clustering became a popular software tool to enhance relevance ranking by grouping items in the typically very large result list. The clusters of items with common semantic and/or other characteristics can guide the users in refining their original queries, to zoom in on smaller clusters and drill down through sub-groups within the cluster. Findings - Despite its proven efficiency, clustering is not available, except for Ask, in the primary Web-wide search engines (Windows Live, Yahoo and Google). Originality/value - Smaller, secondary Web-wide search engines (WiseNut, Gigablast, and especially Exalead) offer good clustering options.

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


Generalized XML security views We investigate a generalization of the notion of XML security view introduced by Stoica and Farkas (Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Data and Applications Security (IFIP'02). IFIP Conference Proceedings, vol. 256, pp. 133-146. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2002) and later refined by Fan et al. (Proceedings of the ACM SIG- MOD International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD'04), pp. 587-598. ACM Press, New York, 2004). The model consists of access control policies specified over DTDs with XPath expressions for data-dependent access control. We provide the notion of security views characterizing information accessible to authorized users. This is a trans- formed DTD schema that can be used by users for query formulation. We develop an algorithm to materialize an authorized version of the document from the view and an algorithm to construct the view from an access control specification. We show that our view construction combined with materialization produces the same result as the direct application of the DTD access specification on the document. We also propose a number of generalizations of possible security policies and show how they affect view construction algorithm. Finally, we provide an evaluation of our system.

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


MRI and PET image fusion by combining IHS and retina-inspired models linage fusion has become a widely used tool for increasing the interpretation quality of images in medical applications. The acquired data might exhibit either good functional characteristic (such as PET) or high spatial resolution (such as MRI). The MRI image shows the brain tissue anatomy and contains no functional information The PET image indicates the brain function and has a low spatial resolution. Hence, the image fusion task is carried out to enhance the spatial resolution of the functional images by combining them with a high-resolution anatomic image. A perfect fusion process preserves the original functional characteristics and adds spatial characteristics to the image with no spatial distortion. The intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) algorithm and the retina-inspired model (RIM) fusion technique can preserve more spatial feature and more functional information content, respectively. The presented algorithm integrates the advantages of both IHS and RIM fusion methods to improve the functional and spatial information content. Visual and statistical analyses show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the fusion quality in terms of: entropy. mutual information, discrepancy, and average gradient: compared to fusion methods including, IHS, Brovey, discrete wavelet transform (DWT), a-trous wavelet and RIM. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

ihs (intensity-hue-saturation)
retina-inspired model (rim)
mri (magnetic resonance imaging)
pet (positron emission tomography)


A new look at CMRH and its relation to GMRES CMRH is a Krylov subspace method which uses the Hessenberg process to produce a basis of a Krylov method, and minimizes a quasiresidual. This method produces convergence curves which are very close to those of GMRES, but using fewer operations and storage. In this paper we present new analysis which explains why CMRH has this good convergence behavior. Numerical examples illustrate the new bounds.

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


Dynamic impedances of piles and groups of piles in saturated soils A three-dimensional boundary element model is presented for the computation of time-harmonic dynamic stiffness coefficients of piles and pile groups embedded in two-phase poroelastic soils. Piles are modelled as continuum elastic solids and soil as a fluid-filled poroelastic half-space governed by Biots theory. Piles are bonded to the surrounding medium along the contact surface where rigorous pilesoil interaction conditions are imposed. The technique has been applied to the calculation of vertical and horizontal dynamic impedance functions of piles and 22 pile groups. Selected numerical results are presented to portray the influence of excitation frequency, pile stiffness, porous medium properties and kind of pilesoil contact conditions.

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

piles
pilesoil interaction
dynamic impedance

poroelastic soil
pile-groups
boundary elements


Use of equivalent beam models for the dynamic analyses of beamplates under moving forces For convenience, a rectangular plate with its two opposite shorter edges supported and the other two opposite longer edges free is called a beamplate in this paper. The dynamic analyses of either the beamplates or the general plates subjected to external moving loads are usually solved with the two-dimensional (2-D) plate model in the existing literature. The purpose of this paper is to present a one-dimensional (1-D) equivalent beam model to replace the last conventional 2-D plate model so that one may predict the dynamic behaviour of a 2-D beamplate due to a moving line loadPi=P (i=1k), with that of a 1-D equivalent beam due to a moving single load, , where the magnitude of the single load, , is not necessarily equal to the summation of the line-load components, ?i=1kPi. First of all, the requirements for the availability of the equivalent beam theory were presented. Next, the shape function method was used to calculate the equivalent nodal forces (and moments) so that the existing computer package may be used to tackle the present problem. Some factors having something to do with the feasibility of the presented theory, such as Poissons ratio, aspect ratio and eccentricity, were studied. Because the total number of finite elements (and nodal points) based on the 1-D equivalent beam model is much smaller than that based on the conventional 2-D plate model, one may achieve satisfactory results with much lower discretization and computational effort. Furthermore, although the presented theory is developed based on the single-span beamplate subjected to a moving line load, numerical examples reveal that it is also available for the cases of the multi-span beamplate (with multiple intermediate transverse line supports) subjected to a centric (or eccentric) moving single load.

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

dynamic analysis
1-d equivalent beam model
2-d plate model


click chain model in web search Given a terabyte click log, can we build an efficient and effective click model? It is commonly believed that web search click logs are a gold mine for search business, because they reflect users' preference over web documents presented by the search engine. Click models provide a principled approach to inferring user-perceived relevance of web documents, which can be leveraged in numerous applications in search businesses. Due to the huge volume of click data, scalability is a must. We present the click chain model (CCM), which is based on a solid, Bayesian framework. It is both scalable and incremental, perfectly meeting the computational challenges imposed by the voluminous click logs that constantly grow. We conduct an extensive experimental study on a data set containing 8.8 million query sessions obtained in July 2008 from a commercial search engine. CCM consistently outperforms two state-of-the-art competitors in a number of metrics, with over 9.7\% better log-likelihood, over 6.2\% better click perplexity and much more robust (up to 30\%) prediction of the first and the last clicked position.

O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 a hybrid similarity measure for image retrieval Hybrid similarity learning for preserving both visual and semantic resemblance. Using unlabeled images for similarity learning through an asymmetric mechanism. Incremental visual similarity learning to address the real-time requirement.

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

image retrieval
hybrid similarity measure

relevance feedback
short-term learning
long-term learning


Automatic Single-Image-Based Rain Streaks Removal via Image Decomposition Rain removal from a video is a challenging problem and has been recently investigated extensively. Nevertheless, the problem of rain removal from a single image was rarely studied in the literature, where no temporal information among successive images can be exploited, making the problem very challenging. In this paper, we propose a single-image-based rain removal framework via properly formulating rain removal as an image decomposition problem based on morphological component analysis. Instead of directly applying a conventional image decomposition technique, the proposed method first decomposes an image into the low- and high-frequency (HF) parts using a bilateral filter. The HF part is then decomposed into a "rain component" and a "nonrain component" by performing dictionary learning and sparse coding. As a result, the rain component can be successfully removed from the image while preserving most original image details. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

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

dictionary learning
image decomposition
rain removal

morphological component analysis (mca)
sparse representation


BRIDGING VITAL SIGNS AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS FOR RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED EPIDEMIC CONTROL This paper proposes a new approach that uses people's social interaction behavior collected by mobile phones and vital signs collected by wireless body area networks (WBAN) for epidemic control. By this approach, infectious people who are socially active can be quickly identified to be quarantined. To realize this approach, we introduce a notion of critical network and critical node identification algorithm. Observing some resource constraints such as quarantine cost and hardware limitation, we focus on optimizing the proposed approach such that high epidemic control effectiveness is achieved while the corresponding overhead is minimized. Our simulation results demonstrate that our approach can effectively control the spread of epidemic diseases in various situations.

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

epidemic modeling
cost-effective epidemic control
wireless body area networks (wban)
social networks
critical networks


On the state complexity of combined operations and their estimation We consider the state complexity of several combined operations. Those results show that the state complexity of a combined operation is in general very different from the composition of the state complexities of the participating individual operations. We also consider general estimation methods for the state complexity of combined operations. In particular, estimation through nondeterministic state complexity is studied. It is shown that the method is very promising for a large class of combined operations.

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

state complexity
combined operations
estimation methods

regular languages
nondeterministic state complexity


Assessing Accelerator-Based HPC Reverse Time Migration Oil and gas companies trust Reverse Time Migration (RTM), the most advanced seismic imaging technique, with crucial decisions on drilling investments. The economic value of the oil reserves that require RTM to be localized is in the order of 10(13) dollars. But RTM requires vast computational power, which somewhat hindered its practical success. Although, accelerator-based architectures deliver enormous computational power, little attention has been devoted to assess the RTM implementations effort. The aim of this paper is to identify the major limitations imposed by different accelerators during RTM implementations, and potential bottlenecks regarding architecture features. Moreover, we suggest a wish list, that from our experience, should be included as features in the next generation of accelerators, to cope with the requirements of applications like RTM. We present an RTM algorithm mapping to the IBM Cell/B.E., NVIDIA Tesla and an FPGA platform modeled after the Convey HC-1. All three implementations outperform a traditional processor (Intel Harpertown) in terms of performance (10x), but at the cost of huge development effort, mainly due to immature development frameworks and lack of well-suited programming models. These results show that accelerators are well positioned platforms for this kind of workload. Due to the fact that our RTM implementation is based on an explicit high order finite difference scheme, some of the conclusions of this work can be extrapolated to applications with similar numerical scheme, for instance, magneto-hydrodynamics or atmospheric flow simulations.

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

reverse time migration
accelerators
fpga


On well-covered triangulations: Part II A graph G G is said to be well-covered if every maximal independent set of vertices has the same cardinality. A planar (simple) graph in which each face is a triangle is called a triangulation. It was proved in an earlier paper [A. Finbow, B. Hartnell, R. Nowakowski, M. Plummer, On well-covered triangulations: Part I, Discrete Appl. Math., 132, 2004, 97108] that there are no 5-connected planar well-covered triangulations. It is the aim of the present paper to completely determine the 4-connected well-covered triangulations containing two adjacent vertices of degree 4. In a subsequent paper [A. Finbow, B. Hartnell, R. Nowakowski, M. Plummer, On well-covered triangulations: Part III (submitted for publication)], we show that every 4-connected well-covered triangulation contains two adjacent vertices of degree 4 and hence complete the task of characterizing all 4-connected well-covered planar triangulations. There turn out to be only four such graphs. This stands in stark contrast to the fact that there are infinitely many 3-connected well-covered planar triangulations.

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

well-covered graph
independent domination
planar triangulation


Half a century of programming and a spark of light In this issue JOHN BARNES continues with a summary of a few programming languages that he has had the pleasure or misfortune to use and generally concludes that their design has been a series of missed opportunities. The paper concludes, however, with a glimmer of hope that, in one small corner of England, something good is emerging. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

software programming languages
object orientation


A spatio-temporal probabilistic model of hazard- and crowd dynamics for evacuation planning in disasters Managing the uncertainties that arise in disasters such as a ship or building fire can be extremely challenging. Previous work has typically focused either on modeling crowd behavior, hazard dynamics, or targeting fully known environments. However, when a disaster strikes, uncertainties about the nature, extent and further development of the hazard is the rule rather than the exception. Additionally, crowds and hazard dynamics are both intertwined and uncertain, making evacuation planning extremely difficult. To address this challenge, we propose a novel spatio-temporal probabilistic model that integrates crowd and hazard dynamics, using ship- and building fire as proof-of-concept scenarios. The model is realized as a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), supporting distinct kinds of crowd evacuation behavior, being based on studies of physical fire models, crowd psychology models, and corresponding flow models. Simulation results demonstrate that the DBN model allows us to track and forecast the movement of people until they escape, as the hazard develops from time step to time step. Our scheme thus opens up for novel in situ threat mapping and evacuation planning under uncertainty, with applications to emergency response.

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

dynamic bayesian networks
crowd modeling
hazard modeling


Ant colony optimization on a limited budget of evaluations Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a successful method for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. Following Ant System, the first ACO algorithm, a large number of algorithmic variants have been developed that showed significantly better performance on a wide range of optimization problems. Typically, performance was measured according to the solution quality achieved for a given computation time limit, which usually allowed the evaluation of a very large number of candidate solutions, often in the range of millions. However, there are practical applications where the number of evaluations that can be done is very restricted due to tight real-time constraints or to the high computational cost of evaluating a solution. Since these situations are quite different from those for which ACO algorithms were initially designed, current knowledge on good parameter settings or the most promising search strategies may not be directly applicable. In this paper, we examine the performance of different ACO algorithms under a strongly limited budget of 1000 evaluations. We do so using default parameter settings from the literature and parameter settings tuned for the limited-budget scenario. In addition, we compare the performance of the ACO algorithms to algorithms that make use of surrogate modeling of the search landscapes. We show that tuning algorithms for the limited-budget case is of uttermost importance, that direct search through the ACO algorithms keeps an edge over techniques using surrogate modeling, and that the ACO variants proposed as improvements over Ant System remain preferable.

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

ant colony optimization
surrogate modeling

expensive optimization problems
parameter tuning
automatic configuration


Adaptive dual control in one biomedical problem In this paper, the following biomedical problem is considered. People are subjected to a certain chemotherapeutic treatment. The optimal dosage is the maximal dose for which an individual patient will have toxicity level that does not cross the allowable limit. We discuss sequential procedures for searching the optimal dosage, which are based on the concept of dual control and the principle of optimality. According to the dual control theory, the control has two purposes that might be conflicting: one is to help learning about unknown parameters and/or the state of the system (estimation); the other is to achieve the control objective. Thus the resulting control sequence exhibits the closed-loop property, i.e. it anticipates how future learning will be accomplished and how it can be fully utilized. Thus, in addition to being adaptive, this control also plans its future learning according to the control objective. Results are obtained for a priori uniform distribution of the unknown dosage. Because answers can be obtained analytically without approximation, the optimum policy can be compared with the non-optimum policy of optimizing stage by stage. An illustrative example is given.

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


on the relevance of utterances in formal inter-agent dialogues Work on argumentation-based dialogue has defined frameworks within which dialogues can be carried out, established protocols that govern dialogues, and studied different properties of dialogues. This work has established the space in which agents are permitted to interact through dialogues. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the mechanisms agents might use to choose how to act --- the rhetorical manoeuvring that they use to navigate through the space defined by the rules of the dialogue. Key in such considerations is the idea of relevance, since a usual requirement is that agents stay focussed on the subject of the dialogue and only make relevant remarks. Here we study several notions of relevance, showing how they can be related to both the rules for carrying out dialogues and to rhetorical manoeuvring.

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


generalizing

preference

elicitation

in

combinatorial

auctions

Combinatorial

auctions

where

agents

can

bid

on

bundles

of

items

are

desirable

because

they

allow

the

agents

to

express

complementarity

and

substitutability

between

the

items.

However,

expressing

one's

preferences

can

require

bidding

on

all

bundles.

Selective

incremental

preference

elicitation

by

the

auctioneer

was

recently

proposed

to

address

this

problem

but

the

idea

was

not

experimentally

validated.

This

paper

evaluates

several

approaches

and

finds

that

in

many

cases,

automated

elicitation

is

in

fact

beneficial:

as

the

number

of

items

for

sale

increases,

the

amount

of

information

elicited

is

a

small

and

diminishing

fraction

of

the

information

collected

in

traditional

"direct

revelation

mechanisms"

where

bidders

reveal

all

their

valuation

information.

In

forward

auctions,

the

benefit

is

slightly

reduced

by

increasing

the

number

of

agents,

while

in

reverse

auctions

the

benefit

increases

with

both

agents

and

items.

The

exception

is

with

rank-based

elicitors,

which

limit

themselves

to

eliciting

the

next-best

bundle:

these

do

not

scale

as

the

number

of

agents

grows.A

full-length

version

of

this

paper

is

on-line

at:

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

preference elicitation
combinatorial auctions


Square integrability of Gaussian bells on time scales We will consider a generalization E(x) of the continuum Gaussian bell e(-x2/2) on a time scale T. A crucial question is whether this Gaussian bell is square integrable on the corresponding time scale. We will see that this is not the case in general. We establish sufficient and necessary conditions for the time scale T to satisfy E is an element of L-2(T). (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

gaussian bell
time scale
square integrable


Efficient root-finding algorithm with application to list decoding of algebraic-geometric codes A list decoding for an error-correcting code is a decoding algorithm that generates a list of codewords within a Hamming distance t from the received vector, where t can be greater than the error-correction bound. In [18], a list-decoding procedure for Reed-Solomon codes [19] was generalized to algebraic-geometric codes. A recent work [8] gives improved list decodings for Reed-Solomon codes and algebraic-geometric codes that work for all rates and have many applications. However, these list-decoding algorithms are rather complicated. In [17], Roth and Ruckenstein proposed an efficient implementation of the list decoding of Reed-Solomon codes. In this correspondence, extending Roth and Ruckenstein's fast algorithm for finding roots of univariate polynomials over polynomial rings, i.e., the Reconstruct Algorithm, we will present an efficient algorithm for finding the roots of univariate polynomials over function fields. Based on the extended algorithm, we give an efficient list-decoding algorithm for algebraic-geometric codes.

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

algebraic-geometric codes
root-finding algorithm


One global optimization method in network flow model for multiple object tracking Proposing a new integrated observation model. Proposing an improved approximate greedy algorithm. Proposing a simple and effective linear hypothesis method.

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

multiple object tracking
network flow model
observation model


on the complexity of distributed graph coloring Coloring the nodes of a graph with a small number of colors is one of the most fundamental problems in theoretical computer science. In this paper, we study graph coloring in a distributed setting. Processors of a distributed system are nodes of an undirected graph G . There is an edge between two nodes whenever the corresponding processors can directly communicate with each other. We assume that distributed coloring algorithms start with an initial m -coloring of G . In the paper, we prove new strong lower bounds for two special kinds of coloring algorithms. For algorithms which run for a single communication round---i.e., every node of the network can only send its initial color to all its neighbors---, we show that the number of colors of the computed coloring has to be at least ?(? 2 /log 2 ?+ log log m ). If such one-round algorithms are iteratively applied to reduce the number of colors step-by-step, we prove a time lower bound of ?(?/log 2 ?+ log* m ) to obtain an O (?)-coloring. The best previous lower bounds for the two types of algorithms are ?(log log m ) and ?(log* m ), respectively.

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

locality
distributed algorithms
chromatic number
neighborhood graph
symmetry breaking


rigorous statistical analysis of internet loss measurements In this paper we present a rigorous technique for estimating confidence intervals of packet loss measurements. Our approach is motivated by simple observations that the loss process can be modelled as an alternating renewal process. We use this structure to build a Hidden Semi-Markov Model (HSMM) for the measurement process, and from this estimate both loss rates, and their confidence intervals. We use both simulations and a set of more than 18000 hours of real Internet measurements (between dedicated measurement hosts, PlanetLab hosts, web and DNS servers) to cross-validate our estimates, and show that they are significantly more accurate than any current alternative.

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

performance measurement
accuracy
loss rate