B-Rep model simplification by automatic fillet/round suppressing for efficient automatic feature recognition The CAD models of real-world mechanical parts usually have many fillets and rounds that are essentially important to ensure the manufacturability and assembability. In feature-based modeling, fillets and rounds are often referred as secondary features that are used to modify the local details of the primary features such as holes, slots and pockets. Although the major shape of the primary features may not be affected, fillets and rounds can greatly change the geometric and topological patterns of the primary features. The geometric and topological variations can result in inefficient feature semantics classification in feature recognition. When feature interactions occur, it may become even worse to identify the regular patterns of the primary features. In addition, the fillets and rounds consist of no-linear surfaces such as cylindrical surfaces, spherical surfaces and toroidal surfaces, which bring the difficulties in volumetric feature extraction by half-space partition. In order to facilitate volumetric feature extraction and feature semantics classification, we pre-process the input B-Rep models by suppressing fillets and rounds before the feature recognition. Thus the input B-Rep models can be simplified without altering the major shapes of primary features, the targets of the feature recognition. The B-Rep simplification can be viewed as the reverse process of the edge blending in feature-based design. In this paper, several issues on fillet/round suppressing are discussed and a relatively general and robust approach is proposed to suppress blendings in B-Rep models of mechanical parts before the surface feature recognition and volumetric feature extraction.

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 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 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


scheduling jobs with varying parallelizability to reduce variance We give a (2+?)-speed O (1)-competitive algorithm for scheduling jobs with arbitrary speed-up curves for the l 2 norm of flow. We give a similar result for the broadcast setting with varying page sizes.

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


An endotracheal intubation confirmation system based on carina image detection: a proof of concept In this paper, a novel system for automatic confirmation of endotracheal intubation is proposed. The system comprises a miniature CMOS sensor and electric wires attached to a rigid stylet. Video signals are continuously acquired and processed by the algorithm implemented on a PC/DSP. The system is based on detection of the carina image as an anatomical landmark of correct tube positioning and it thus utilizes direct visual cues. Detection of the carina is performed based on unsupervised clustering, using a greedy-Gaussian mixture framework. The performance of the proposed system was initially evaluated using a mannequin model. A scientific prototype was assembled and used to perform repeated intubations on the model and collect a database of video signals which were processed off-line. The videos were categoried by a medical professional into carina, upper-trachea, and esophagus. An accuracy of 100% was achieved in discriminating between the carina and other anatomical structures including esophagus and upper-trachea. As an additional validation, the system was tested using a dataset of 231 video images recorded from five human subjects during intubation. The system correctly classified 120 out of 125 non-carina images (i.e. a sensitivity of 96.0%), and 100 out of 106 carina images (i.e. a specificity 94.3%). Using a 10th-order median filter, applied on the frame-based classification results, a 100% accuracy rate was obtained.

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

endotracheal intubation confirmation
unsupervised clustering

airway management
esophageal intubation detection
greedy-gmm
one-lung intubation


Applications of Machine Learning and High-Dimensional Visualization in Cancer Detection, Diagnosis, and Management Recent technical advances in combinatorial chemistry, genomics, and proteomics have made available large databases of biological and chemical information that have the potential to dramatically improve our understanding of cancer biology at the molecular level. Such an understanding of cancer biology could have a substantial impact on how we detect, diagnose, and manage cancer cases in the clinical setting. One of the biggest challenges facing clinical oncologists is how to extract clinically useful knowledge from the overwhelming amount of raw molecular data that are currently available. In this paper, we discuss how the exploratory data analysis techniques of machine learning and high-dimensional visualization can be applied to extract clinically useful knowledge from a heterogeneous assortment of molecular data. After an introductory overview of machine learning and visualization techniques, we describe two proprietary algorithms (PURS and RadViz) that we have found to be useful in the exploratory analysis of large biological data sets. We next illustrate, by way of three examples, the applicability of these techniques to cancer detection, diagnosis, and management using three very different types of molecular data. We first discuss the use of our exploratory analysis techniques on proteomic mass spectroscopy data for the detection of ovarian cancer. Next, we discuss the diagnostic use of these techniques on gene expression data to differentiate between squamous and adenocarcinoma of the lung. Finally, we illustrate the use of such techniques in selecting from a database of chemical compounds those most effective in managing patients with melanoma versus leukemia.

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

exploratory data analysis
machine learning
visualization
genomics
proteomics
cancer

data mining
bioinformatics
biomedical informatics
cheminformatics
molecular medicine


Comments on paratrooper-separation modeling with the DSD/SST formulation and FOIST We provide a brief chronological background on the deforming-spatial-domain/stabilized space-time (DSD/SST) formulation, its use in aerodynamic modeling of a paratrooper separating from an aircraft, and the fluid-object interactions subcomputation technique (FOIST). Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

dsd/sst formulation
mesh moving techniques
paratrooper separation
cargo aircraft


Mind your Ps and Qs! How polite instructions affect learning with multimedia Research on politeness in learning processes is enhanced by new theories. Polite instructions foster retention and transfer learning performances. The influence of politeness on motivation and cognitive load is investigated. Cultural cues are introduced to explain the politeness effect.

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

multimedia learning
social and cultural cues
modality
personalization effect


Statistical full-chip total power estimation considering spatially correlated process variations ? In this paper, we propose an efficient statistical full-chip total power estimation method considering process variations with spatial correlation. Traditionally, dynamic power and leakage power were computed separately as leakage power is more susceptible to process variations. But in the end, it is total power that designers will be concerned with. We propose a new method to compute the statistical total power via circuit level simulation under realistic input testing vectors. To consider the process variations with spatial correlation, we first apply principle factor analysis method (PFA) or its weighted version (wPFA) to transform the correlated variables into uncorrelated ones and meanwhile reduce the number of resulting random variables. Afterwards, Hermite orthogonal polynomials and sparse grid techniques are used to estimate total power distribution in a sampling way. The proposed method has no restrictions on models of statistical distributions for total powers. The method works well when strong spatial correlation exists among random variables in the chip. Experimental results show that the proposed method has 100X times speedup than the Monte Carlo method under fixed input vector and 20X times speedup than the Monte Carlo method considering both random input vectors and process variations with spatial correlation.

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

process variation
variable reduction
hermite orthogonal polynomial


Small margin ensembles can be robust to class-label noise Subsampling is used to generate bagging ensembles that are accurate and robust to class-label noise. The effect of using smaller bootstrap samples to train the base learners is to make the ensemble more diverse. As a result, the classification margins tend to decrease. In spite of having small margins, these ensembles can be robust to class-label noise. The validity of these observations is illustrated in a wide range of synthetic and real-world classification tasks. In the problems investigated, subsampling significantly outperforms standard bagging for different amounts of class-label noise. By contrast, the effectiveness of subsampling in random forest is problem dependent. In these types of ensembles the best overall accuracy is obtained when the random trees are built on bootstrap samples of the same size as the original training data. Nevertheless, subsampling becomes more effective as the amount of class-label noise increases.

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 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

label noise
small margin classifiers
bootstrap sampling


Adaptive neural network visual servo control for dynamic positioning of underwater vehicles Dynamic positioning is an important technique to ensure the capability of a next generation underwater vehicle to fulfill complex intervention and observation tasks. This work proposes an adaptive neural network image-based visual servo (IBVS) controller for positioning an underwater vehicle with respect to a fixed target in camera-in-hand configuration. The visual servoing error is defined by projecting the image error to the vehicle space using a pseudo inverse of the estimated Jacobian matrix. In the proposed dual-loop system architecture, the velocity command is designed to stabilize the visual servoing error in the kinematic loop, and the desired acceleration is derived to track the velocity command in the dynamic loop. A single hidden layer (SHL) feedforward neural network, in conjunction with a conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller, is applied to the cascaded systems to compensate for the uncertainties in both the Jacobian matrix and the vehicle dynamics. The thruster control signals are obtained by using the approximate dynamic inversion (ADI) of the vehicle. The uniform ultimate boundedness of the visual servoing error and the neural network weight matrices are proved by Lyapunov theory. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the controller with two candidate methods of estimating the image Jacobian matrix.

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

underwater vehicles
dynamic positioning
visual servoing

adaptive neural network control
dual-loop control


Optimization with non-homogeneous failure criteria like Tsai-Wu for composite laminates In designing composite laminates, minimization of a suitable failure criterion is sometimes selected as the objective function. However, for non-homogeneous criteria, e. g., the Tsai-Wu criterion, this objective function will not maximize the failure load, when it is carried at a load which is different from the failure load. We suggest that the use of a safety factor for the objective function is more appropriate for maximizing for the faiure load. In fact we show losses of more than 40% in the load carrying capacity even when the load carrying capacity of the optimal laminate is 75% of the applied load.

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


Positive solutions of nonlinear functional difference equations In this paper, we apply a cone theoretic fixed-point theorem and obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions to some boundary value problems for a class of functional difference equations. We consider analogues of sublinear or superlinear growth in the nonlinear terms. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

functional difference equation
nonlinear eigenvalue problem
fixed points


Structural optimization of PtPd alloy nanoparticles using an improved discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm PtPd alloy nanoparticles, as potential catalyst candidates for new-energy resources such as fuel cells and lithium ion batteries owing to their excellent reactivity and selectivity, have aroused growing attention in the past years. Since structure determines physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles, the development of a reliable method for searching the stable structures of PtPd alloy nanoparticles has become of increasing importance to exploring the origination of their properties. In this article, we have employed the particle swarm optimization algorithm to investigate the stable structures of alloy nanoparticles with fixed shape and atomic proportion. An improved discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm has been proposed and the corresponding scheme has been presented. Subsequently, the swap operator and swap sequence have been applied to reduce the probability of premature convergence to the local optima. Furthermore, the parameters of the exchange probability and the particle size have also been considered in this article. Finally, tetrahexahedral PtPd alloy nanoparticles has been used to test the effectiveness of the proposed method. The calculated results verify that the improved particle swarm optimization algorithm has superior convergence and stability compared with the traditional one.

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


synthesis techniques for digital systems design Several techniques that can be used for the synthesis of structures from behavioural level descriptions are discussed. Data flow analysis, graph grammars, 'direct' compilation and 'knowledge-based' systems among others are reviewed and their applicability to synthesis is investigated. Both the specification at the behavioural level and the resulting structure are defined formally by directed graphs. Synthesis is then a transformation between these graphs. It is shown that algorithmic techniques can yield efficient designs, specially if several of them are combined.

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

yield
data flow analysis
structure
design
direct
graph
compilation
synthesis

digitize
applications
efficiency
system design
directed graph
knowledge based system
grammar


On Finding a Fixed Point in a Boolean Network with Maximum Indegree 2 Finding fixed points in discrete dynamical systems is important because fixed points correspond to steady-states. The Boolean network is considered as one of the simplest discrete dynamical systems and is often used as a model of genetic networks. It is known that detection of a fixed point in a Boolean network with n nodes and maximum indegree K can be polynomially transformed into (K + 1)-SAT with n variables. In this paper, we focus on the case of K = 2 and present an O(1.3171(n)) expected time algorithm, which is faster than the naive algorithm based on a reduction to 3-SAT. where we assume that nodes with indegree 2 do not contain self-loops. We also show an algorithm for the general case of K = 2 that is slightly faster than the naive algorithm.

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

genetic network
attractor
boolean satisfiability problem


Channel assignment and weighted coloring In cellular telephone networks, sets of radio channels (colors) must be assigned to transmitters (vertices) while avoiding interference. Often, the transmitters are laid out like vertices of a triangular lattice in the plane. We investigated the corresponding weighted coloring problem of assigning sets of colors to vertices of the triangular lattice so that the sets of colors assigned to adjacent vertices are disjoint. We present a hardness result and an efficient algorithm yielding an approximate solution. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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 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

radio channel assignment
cellular communication system
hexagonal cells
approximation algorithm


Continuance acceptance of computer based assessment through the integration of user's expectations and perceptions The Information Systems (IS) community has put considerable effort on identifying constructs that may explain the initial/continuance use of computer based learning or assessment systems. This study is a further step toward IS continuance acceptance delivered in Computer Based Assessment (CBA) context. Specifically, it aims at the exploration of continuance acceptance in CBA context and the development of a new approach for continuance use. This approach is applied by measuring user's expectations before the interaction with the system and user's perceptions after the interaction. The sign (+/-) and the intensity of the difference between pre and post measures is actually the strength that drives users to continuance intention to use. Through these measurements it is possible to estimate student's level of confirmation for each essential determinant of CBA continuance acceptance. Results underline Confirmed Ease of Use and Confirmed Playfulness as the direct determinants of continuance acceptance. Through Confirmed Playfulness important determinants, such as Confirmed Usefulness and Confirmed Content influence Continuance Behavioral Intention. Confirmed Facilitating Conditions and Confirmed Goal determine Confirmed Ease of Use and Confirmed Usefulness respectively. Important implications of these results are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

continuance acceptance
computer based assessment

perceived playfulness
perceived ease of use


The role of nurses in installing telehealth technology in the home Home telehealth involves the use of video conferencing or remote monitoring equipment in patients' homes. The installation of hardware and training of patients has historically been performed by nurses, typically RNs. This article examines the experience of RNs as telehealth installers in the Informatics for Diabetes Education and Telemedicine (IDEATel) project, where RNs were responsible for the installation of the Home Telemedicine Units (HTUs) and for training patients in the use of the HTUs, blood pressure cuffs, and fingerstick glucose meters. Average installation and training time was 166 minutes (SD 51 min). Structured interviews with RN installers revealed that patient education and training accounted for roughly two thirds of the in-home time. Technology-related problems, especially those related to telecommunications, were the primary cause of installation difficulties. Thematic analysis of installer interviews identified eight major themes and confirmed the importance of both clinical and technical knowledge during the telehealth installation process.

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


Strong reductions in effective randomness We study generalizations of Demuth's Theorem, which states that the image of a Martin-Lof random real under a tt-reduction is either computable or Turing equivalent to a Martin-Lof random real. We show that Demuth's Theorem holds for Schnorr randomness and computable randomness (answering a question of Franklin), but that it cannot be strengthened by replacing the Turing equivalence in the statement of the theorem with wtt-equivalence. We also provide some additional results about the Turing and tt-degrees of reals that are random with respect to some computable measure. (C) 2012 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

algorithmic randomness
demuth's theorem
computable analysis


Application of feed-forward Artificial Neural Networks to the identification of defective analog integrated circuits This paper presents a new approach for detecting defects in analog integrated circuits using a feed-forward neural network trained by the resilient error back-propagation method. A feed forward neural network has been, used for detecting faults in a simple analog CMOS circuit by representing the differences observed in power supply current of fault free and faulty circuits. The identification of defects was performed in time and frequency domains, followed by a comparison of results achieved in both domains. We show that resilient back-propagation neural networks can be a very efficient and versatile approach for identifying defective analog circuits. Moreover, this approach is not limited to the supply current analysis, because it also offers monitoring of other circuit parameters. The type of defects detected by the resilient back-propagation neural networks, as well as other possible applications of this approach, are discussed.

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


A finite element formulation of non-smooth contact based on oriented volumes for quadrilateral and hexahedral elements This paper concerns the finite element modeling of contact between solid bodies, with a special emphasis on the treatment of non-smooth conditions. A new approach for the formulation of the contact constraint that allows for a simple and unified treatment of all potential contact scenarios in the presence of large deformations is presented. Based on the calculation of an oriented volume, this approach possesses the ability to resolve complicated contact scenarios efficiently, while being simple to implement and more widely applicable than the contact formulations available to-date. We show that the formulation boils down to a node-to-surface gap function that works effectively for non-smooth contact situations. The numerical implementation using the midpoint rule shows the need to guarantee the conservation of the total energy during impact, for which a Lagrange multiplier method is used. The result is a robust contact detection and resolution algorithm.

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

non-smooth contact
gap functions
finite deformations
energy conservation


Accurate 3D surface measurement of mountain slopes through a fully automated image-based technique In this paper an automated procedure for surface reconstruction that can be used for surveying and monitoring rock and ground slopes is presented. This method has been developed for geological and engineering applications, where accuracy and completeness are factors of primary importance for the final 3D model, which must provide a detailed metric survey and not only a visual reconstruction of the scene. The proposed procedure integrates two image matching techniques. The first one is used to automatically extract a set of tie points that are needed for computing the exterior orientation parameters of all images through a photogrammetric bundle adjustment. Such tie oints are also exploited to obtain a preliminary seed model that is then enriched based on Multi-photo Least Squares Matching. During this second stage, the surface model is improved in terms of point density and accuracy. Different strategies were implemented to successfully combine both techniques, along with some new improvements. The presented procedure has been tested in two different applications: geometric modelling of rock cliffs and evaluation of weathering of a ground slope. In both cases the obtained results presented accuracy sufficient for geological investigation. Moreover, outcomes were comparable to the ones from laser scanning surveying and other photogrammetric implementations.

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

slope reconstruction
photogrammetry
feature extraction


Approximate periodic solutions for the HelmholtzDuffing equation Approximate periodic solutions for the HelmholtzDuffing oscillator are obtained in this paper. Hes Energy Balance Method (HEBM) and Hes Frequency Amplitude Formulation (HFAF) are adopted as the solution methods. Oscillation natural frequencies are analytically analyzed. Error analysis is carried out and accuracy of the solution methods is evaluated.

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

helmholtzduffing oscillator
hes energy balance method
hes frequency amplitude formulation


Facial expression recognition based on two-dimensional discriminant locality preserving projections In this paper, a novel method called two-dimensional discriminant locality preserving projections (2D-DLPP) is proposed. By introducing between-class scatter constraint and label information into two-dimensional locality preserving projections (2D-LPP) algorithm, 2D-DLPP successfully finds the subspace which can best discriminate different pattern classes. So the subspace obtained by 2D-DLPP has more discriminant power than 2D-LPP, and is more suitable for recognition tasks. The proposed method was applied to facial expression recognition tasks on JAFFE and Cohn-Kanade database and compared with other three widely used two-dimensional methods: 2D-PCA, 2D-LDA and 2D-LPP. The high recognition rates show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

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 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


Cognitive Relaying with Frequency Incentive for Multiple Primary Users This work is directed towards a symbiotic architecture called cognitive relaying with frequency incentive for multiple primary users (CRFI-M). The rationale of CRFI-M is that the primary users (PUs) of a cognitive radio (CR) network, with weak transmission links, seek cooperation from the secondary user (SU) nodes in their vicinity to achieve as much throughput as they can get from their direct links. In return they reward the SUs with incentive frequency bands for their own communication. Each PU has its own distinct bandwidth of operation; however, when relaying through the SU network it can also use the bandwidth of the other PUs to enhance its throughput. Furthermore, the incentive frequency bands may be offered as a complete band-set or interleaved bands. Cross-layer optimization problems are formulated for each of these variants of the CRFI-M paradigm in a multi-hop multi-channel SU network. The frequency incentive that should be awarded to the SUs by each PU is analyzed by means of a utility-based decision-making process, and its efficient utilization is proposed. To make the CRFI-M scheme practically realizable, a MAC scheduling protocol is described. Simulation results are furnished to demonstrate the proof of concept.

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

cross-layer optimization
symbiotic cooperative relaying
ofdm


A hybrid gray image representation using spatial- and DCT-based approach with application to moment computation In this paper, a novel hybrid gray image representation using spatial- and DCT-based approach is presented. In the first phase, according to the bintree decomposition principle under the specified error, an S-tree spatial data structure (SDS) is used to represent the decomposed bintree of the input gray image. In the constructed S-tree SIDS, the leaves are partitioned into two types, namely the homogeneous leaves and the norhomogeneous leaves. The homogeneous leaf is used to represent one rectangular or square homogeneous subimage with smooth, i.e., low frequency, content and the nonhomogeneous leaf is used to represent one norhomogeneous subimage with nonsmooth, i.e., high frequency, content. In the second phase, each nonhomogeneous leaf is encoded by the DCT-based coding scheme for reducing the memory requirement. Based on some real gray images, experimental results show that our proposed gray image representation over the previously published S-tree- and shading-based SIDS has about 63.08% memory-saving improvement ratio in average. Finally, we investigate the computational benefit when computing moments on our proposed gray image representation directly. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

gray image representation
moment computation

dct
linear interpolation
psnr
spatial data structures


Robots, insects and swarm intelligence The aim of this paper is to consider the relationships between robots and insects. To this end, an overview is provided of the two main areas in which insects have been implicated in robotics research. First, robots have been used to provide working models of mechanisms underlying insect behaviour. Second, there are developments in robotics that have been inspired by our understanding of insect behaviour; in particular the approach of swarm robotics. In the final section of the paper, the possibility of achieving "strong swarm intelligence" is discussed. Two possible interpretations of strong swarm intelligence are raised: (1) the emergence of a group mind from a natural, or robot swarm, and (2) that behaviours could emerge from a swarm of artificial robots in the same way as they emerge from a biological swarm. Both interpretations are dismissed as being unachievable in principle. It is concluded that bio-robotic modelling and biological inspiration have made important contributions to both insect and robot research, but insects and robots remain separated by the divide between the living and the purely mechanical.

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

swarm intelligence
swarm robotics
biological inspiration
emergence

strong artificial intelligence
bio-robotics
social insects


Nonlinear Robust Control of Fuzzy Time-Delay Systems This paper investigates the nano-positioning control for a piezoelectric actuator system with states time-delay via multiple Lyapunov functions. The multiple Lyapunov functions can relax stabilization conditions derived by the traditional single Lyapunov function. First, the Bouc-Wen equation establishes the mathematical model of a piezoelectric actuator system. To reduce the nonlinear hysteresis effect, the Bouc-Wen model is linearized by Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems. According to the proposed stability theorem, we rind the feasible solutions of feedback gains by LMIs and employ the strategy of parallel distributed compensation (PDC) to control the piezoelectric actuator system.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 matrix inequality
piezoelectric systems


OFF-LINE TEST SELECTION WITH TEST PURPOSES FOR NON-DETERMINISTIC TIMED AUTOMATA This article proposes novel off-line test generation techniques from non-deterministic timed automata with inputs and outputs (TAIOs) in the formal framework of the tioco conformance theory. In this context, a first problem is the determinization of TAIOs, which is necessary to foresee next enabled actions after an observable trace, but is in general impossible because not all timed automata are determinizable. This problem is solved thanks to an approximate determinization using a game approach. The algorithm performs an io-abstraction which preserves the tioco conformance relation and thus guarantees the soundness of generated test cases. A second problem is the selection of test cases from a TAIO specification. The selection here relies on a precise description of timed behaviors to be tested which is carried out by expressive test purposes modeled by a generalization of TAIOs. Finally, an algorithm is described which generates test cases in the form of TAIOs equipped with verdicts, using a symbolic co-reachability analysis guided by the test purpose. Properties of test cases are then analyzed with respect to the precision of the approximate determinization: when determinization is exact, which is the case on known determinizable classes, in addition to soundness, properties characterizing the adequacy of test cases verdicts are also guaranteed.

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

timed automata
approximate determinization
game
test purpose

conformance testing
partial observability
urgency


Multihybrid job scheduling for fault-tolerant distributed computing in policy-constrained resource networks Unpredictable fluctuations in resource availability often lead to rescheduling decisions that sacrifice a success rate of job completion in batch job scheduling. To overcome this limitation, we consider the problem of assigning a set of sequential batch jobs with demands to a set of resources with constraints such as heterogeneous rescheduling policies and capabilities. The ultimate goal is to find an optimal allocation such that performance benefits in terms of makespan and utilization are maximized according to the principle of Pareto optimality, while maintaining the job failure rate close to an acceptably low bound. To this end, we formulate a multihybrid policy decision problem (MPDP) on the primary-backup fault tolerance model and theoretically show its NP-completeness. The main contribution is to prove that our multihybrid job scheduling (MJS) scheme confidently guarantees the fault-tolerant performance by adaptively combining jobs and resources with different rescheduling policies in MPDP. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed MJS scheme outperforms the five rescheduling heuristics in solution quality, searching adaptability and time efficiency by conducting a set of extensive simulations under various scheduling conditions.

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

job scheduling
fault tolerance
distributed computing

policy heterogeneity
multiobjective optimization
genetic algorithm


A fast Fourier transform accelerated Ewald summation technique for the vector electromagnetic rectangular cavity Green's function A fast Fourier transform accelerated Ewald method for the computation of the vector electromagnetic rectangular cavity Green's function in terms of the electric field due to electric currents is presented and used in a boundary integral formulation. The Ewald summation technique suffers from the high-frequency breakdown when it is applied to Green's functions of wave problems. In the case of the rectangular cavity Green's function, the number of necessary terms in the spectral series grows, therefore, cubically with frequency for a given accuracy. To counteract the high-frequency breakdown, the evaluation of the spectral series is accelerated with an inverse fast Fourier transform in this work. At high frequencies, a speed-up of up to four orders of magnitude is achieved. As an application example, a reverberation chamber containing a metallic enclosure and a mode-stirrer is modeled.

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

ewald summation technique
fast fourier transform
reverberation chamber

green's function
curl curl equation
lagrange interpolation
boundary element method


Comparison between staggered and unstaggered finite-difference time-domain grids for few-cycle temporal optical soliton propagation The auxiliary-differential-equation formulation of the finite-difference time-domain method has become a powerful tool for modeling electromagnetic wave propagation in linear and nonlinear dispersive media. In the first part of this paper, we compare the stability and accuracy of second- and fourth-order-accurate spatial central discretizations on staggered grids with a third-order-accurate spatial discretization on an unstaggered grid, combined with a second-order leapfrog time integration scheme for modeling linear dispersive phenomena in a one-dimensional single-resonance Lorentz medium. We use on the unstaggered grid the NS2 scheme introduced by Y. Liu, which combines forward and backward differencing for the spatial derivatives. Phase and attenuation errors are determined analytically across the entire frequency band of the low-loss single-resonance Lorentz model. In the second part of the paper, we compare the use of one-dimensional staggered and unstaggered grids for modeling the transient evolution of few-cycle optical localized pulses in a dispersive Lorentz medium with a delayed third-order nonlinearity. The focus of the study is on the decay of higher-order solitons under the combined action of dispersion, self-phase modulation, self-steepening, and stimulated Raman scattering, Numerical results from the simulations on the unstaggered and staggered grids are in excellent agreement. This study demonstrates the accuracy of the unstaggered scheme augmented with a linear/nonlinear dispersive media formulation for temporal soliton propagation. (C) 2000 Academic Press.

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

finite-difference time-domain methods
maxwell's equations
material dispersion
nonlinear optics
optical solitons


A Lattice Boltzmann Method for Image Denoising In this paper, we construct a Lattice Boltzmann scheme to simulate the well known total variation based restoration model, that is, ROF model. The advantages of the Lattice Boltzmann method include the fast computational speed and the easily implemented fully parallel algorithm. A conservative property of the LB method is discussed. The macroscopic PDE associated with the LB algorithm is derived which is just the ROF model. Moreover, the linearized stability of the method is analyzed. The numerical computations demonstrate that the LB algorithm is efficient and robust. Even though the quality of the restored images is slightly lower than those by using the ROF model, the restored images of the LB method are satisfactory. Furthermore, computational speed of the LB method is much faster than ROF model. In general, CPU time of the LB method for restored images is about one tenth of ROF model.

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

lattice boltzmann method
parallel algorithm

algorithm of denoising
fast algorithm
image restoration


Survey on synchronization mechanisms in machine-to-machine systems People have always tried to understand natural phenomena. In computer science natural phenomena are mostly used as a source of inspiration for solving various problems in distributed systems such as optimization, clustering, and data processing. In this paper we will give an overview of research in field of computer science where fireflies in nature are used as role models for time synchronization. We will compare two models of oscillators that explain firefly synchronization along with other phenomena of synchrony in nature (e.g., synchronization of pacemaker cells of the heart and synchronization of neuron networks of the circadian pacemaker). Afterwards, we will present Mirollo and Strogatz?s pulse coupled oscillator model together with its limitations. As discussed by the authors of the model, this model lacks of explanation what happens when oscillators are nonidentical. It also does not support mobile and faulty oscillators. Finally, it does not take into consideration that in communication among oscillators there are communication delays. Since these limitations prevent Mirollo and Strogatz?s model to be used in real-world environments (such as Machine-to-Machine systems), we will sum up related work in which scholars investigated how to modify the model in order for it to be applicable in distributed systems. However, one has to bear in mind that there are usually large differences between mathematical models in theory and their implementation in practice. Therefore, we give an overview of both mathematical models and mechanisms in distributed systems that were designed after them.

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

fireflies
pulse coupled oscillator model

biological inspiration
real-world environments
self-organization


Trade curtailment schemes for the security control of the transmission network in a deregulated environment Due to deregulation, the electrical power industry is undergoing deep changes, moving towards an open market. Two kinds of parties are active in the new environment: the economical agents (producers, consumers, brokers) and the power system operator, the former interested in power exchanges and their economic value, the latter in bus injections and their threat to the security of the transmission network. The variables used to model the transmission network operation have to be meaningful to the power system operator as well as to the economical parties; the action rules followed by the power system operator to enforce network security have to be carefully designed to be equitable and non-discriminatory. In this paper, a modeling of the power exchanges is proposed in the form of multilateral trades, and some rules for the action of the power system operator are proposed and discussed. The results obtained on a simple study case are discussed.

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

power trades
transmission network security


The Performance of BICM With a Single Decision Feedback for the AWGN Channel This paper studies the performance of bit interleaved coded modulation (BICM) with a single decision feedback. The separation of demodulation and decoding in BICM inevitably reduces the channel's capacity. Altering the conventional bit mapping in BICM and allowing a single decision feedback greatly reduces the capacity loss. The extra complexity introduced by the single decision feedback appears well justified for dense constellations.

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

bit interleaved coded modulation (bicm)
channel coding
information rates


A New Quantum Lower Bound Method, with Applications to Direct Product Theorems and Time-Space Tradeoffs We give a new version of the adversary method for proving lower bounds on quantum query algorithms. The new method is based on analyzing the eigenspace structure of the problem at hand. We use it to prove a new and optimal strong direct product theorem for 2-sided error quantum algorithms computing k independent instances of a symmetric Boolean function: if the algorithm uses significantly less than k times the number of queries needed for one instance of the function, then its success probability is exponentially small in k. We also use the polynomial method to prove a direct product theorem for 1-sided error algorithms for k threshold functions with a stronger bound on the success probability. Finally, we present a quantum algorithm for evaluating solutions to systems of linear inequalities, and use our direct product theorems to show that the time-space tradeoff of this algorithm is close to optimal.

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

quantum computing
quantum lower bounds
time-space tradeoffs
boolean functions


Patient Specific Prostate Segmentation in 3-D Magnetic Resonance Images Accurate localization of the prostate and its surrounding tissue is essential in the treatment of prostate cancer. This paper presents a novel approach to fully automatically segment the prostate, including its seminal vesicles, within a few minutes of a magnetic resonance (MR) scan acquired without an endorectal coil. Such MR images are important in external beam radiation therapy, where using an endorectal coil is highly undesirable. The segmentation is obtained using a deformable model that is trained on-the-fly so that it is specific to the patient's scan. This case specific deformable model consists of a patient specific initialized triangulated surface and image feature model that are trained during its initialization. The image feature model is used to deform the initialized surface by template matching image features (via normalized cross-correlation) to the features of the scan. The resulting deformations are regularized over the surface via well established simple surface smoothing algorithms, which is then made anatomically valid via an optimized shape model. Mean and median Dice's similarity coefficients (DSCs) of 0.85 and 0.87 were achieved when segmenting 3T MR clinical scans of 50 patients. The median DSC result was equal to the inter-rater DSC and had a mean absolute surface error of 1.85 mm. The approach is showed to perform well near the apex and seminal vesicles of the prostate.

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

cancer
prostate segmentation
radiation therapy

atlas
deformable models
magnetic resonance imaging


Stimulation-induced ectopicity and propagation windows in model damaged axons Neural tissue injuries render voltage-gated Na+ channels (Nav) leaky, thereby altering excitability, disrupting propagation and causing neuropathic pain related ectopic activity. In both recombinant systems and native excitable membranes, membrane damage causes the kinetically-coupled activation and inactivation processes of Nav channels to undergo hyperpolarizing shifts. This damage-intensity dependent change, called coupled left-shift (CLS), yields a persistent or subthreshold Nav window conductance. Nodes of Ranvier simulations involving various degrees of mild CLS showed that, as the systems channel/pump fluxes attempt to re-establish ion homeostasis, the CLS elicits hyperexcitability, subthreshold oscillations and neuropathic type action potential (AP) bursts. CLS-induced intermittent propagation failure was studied in simulations of stimulated axons, but pump contributions were ignored, leaving open an important question: does mild-injury (small CLS values, pumps functioning well) render propagation-competent but still quiescent axons vulnerable to further impairments as the system attempts to cope with its normal excitatory inputs? We probe this incipient diffuse axonal injury scenario using a 10-node myelinated axon model. Fully restabilized nodes with mild damage can, we show, become ectopic signal generators (ectopic nodes) because incoming APs stress Na+/K+ gradients, thereby altering spike thresholds. Comparable changes could contribute to acquired sodium channelopathies as diverse as epileptic phenomena and to the neuropathic amplification of normally benign sensory inputs. Input spike patterns, we found, propagate with good fidelity through an ectopically firing site only when their frequencies exceed the ectopic frequency. This propagation window is a robust phenomenon, occurring despite Gaussian noise, large jitter and the presence of several consecutive ectopic nodes.

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

ectopicity onset
phase locking
coupled left-shift (cls)
nav1.6 acquired channelopathies


Minimum augmentation of local edge-connectivity between vertices and vertex subsets in undirected graphs ? Given an undirected multigraph G=(V,E) G = ( V , E ) , a family W W of sets W?V W ? V of vertices (areas), and a requirement function r:W r : W ?Z+ ? Z + (where Z+ Z + is the set of nonnegative integers), we consider the problem of augmenting G by the smallest number of new edges so that the resulting graph has at least r(W) r ( W ) edge-disjoint paths between v v and W for every pair of a vertex v?V v ? V and an area W?W W ? W . So far this problem was shown to be NP-hard in the uniform case of r(W)=1 r ( W ) = 1 for each W?W W ? W , and polynomially solvable in the uniform case of r(W)=r?2 r ( W ) = r ? 2 for each W?W W ? W . In this paper, we show that the problem can be solved in O ( m + pn 4 ( r * + log n ) ) time, even if r(W)?2 r ( W ) ? 2 holds for each W?W W ? W , where n=|V| n = | V | , m=|{{u,v}|(u,v)?E}| m = | { { u , v } | ( u , v ) ? E } | , p=|W| p = | W | , and r*=max{r(W)?W?W} r * = max { r ( W ) ? W ? W } .

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

undirected graph
connectivity augmentation problem
local edge-connectivity
node-to-area connectivity
polynomial time deterministic algorithm


3D reconstruction of complex polyhedral shapes from contours using a simplified generalized Vorondi diagram We are interested in modelling the surface of very irregular objects known through af ew planar polygonal cross-sections. This problem is considered difficult when severe topology and morphology variations appear between neighbouring cross-sections (multi-branching, holes, disconnected areas). Only few methods deal with this problem in a systematic way. The paper describes an original method allowing to build, in a fully automatic and systematic way, an external surface with a valid topology in any case. It moreover allows To adjust derails of the reconstructed surface in view of the morphologies and topologies of the various initial cross-sectional contours. At first, a global correspondence is operated between each couple of adjacent cross-sections by extracting polygonal areas of difference. Next steps are based on the computation in each area of difference of the bisector network, a well-defined simplified generalised Voronoi diagram. This structure is used both for connecting initial contour points and for interpolating new intermediate portions of contours. It depends on the complexity of initial 2D shapes. Interpolation stage is then recursively operated until a satisfactory surface has been obtained or until a maximum number of new intermediate cross-sectional contours have been built. The valid final surface is directly obtained by concatenating all the tiling areas of difference without need of any post processing step. The processing of several real data related to geological bodies or human organs has proved that the described method allows detailed modelling of irregular objects with very performing CPU times. The reconstruction appears insensitive to severe variations of the object shape, including apparitions of holes or disconnections.

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

3d
reconstruction
interpolation
bisector network

simplified generalised voronoi diagrams
skeleton
cross-sectional contours


QUANTUM WAVELET TRANSFORMS OF ANY ORDER Many classical algorithms are known to efficiently compute the wavelet transforms. However, those classical algorithms cannot be directly translated to quantum algorithms. Recently, efficient and complete quantum algorithms for two representative wavelet transforms (quantum Haar and quantum Daubechies of fourth order) have been proposed. In this paper, we generalize these algorithms in order do they can be applied to Daubechies wavelet kernels of any order. Specifically, we develop a method that efficiently factorize those kernels. The factorization is compatible with the existing pyramidal and packet quantum wavelet algorithms. All steps of the algorithm are unitary and easily implementable on a quantum computer.

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


Direct measurement of optical phase difference in a 33 fiber coupler The precise phase difference in a 33 coupler is calculated by using Fourier transform based white-light interferometry. The phase relationships between any two of the three outputs are directly measured, and the result is in agreement with the ideal value. The phase difference of two re-constructed signals in a 33 coupler is also measured. In a passive homodyne system, this technique is helpful in removing the distortion of the demodulated signals, which is caused by imperfect properties of the 33 coupler.

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

33 fiber coupler
phase difference
fourier transform


Improved detection of fluorescently labeled microspheres and vessel architecture with an imaging cryomicrotome Due to spectral overlap, the number of fluorescent labels for imaging cryomicrotome detection was limited to 4. The aim of this study was to increase the separation of fluorescent labels. In the new imaging cryomicrotome, the sample is cut in slices of 40?m. Six images are taken for each cutting plane. Correction for spectral overlap is based on linear combinations of fluorescent images. Locations of microspheres are determined by using the system point spread function. Five differently colored microspheres were injected in vivo distributed over two major coronaries, the left anterior descending and left circumflex artery. Under absence of collateral flow, microspheres outside of target perfusion territories were not found and the procedure did not generate false positive detection when spectral overlap was relevant. In silico-generated microspheres were used to test the effect of background image, transparency correction, and color separation. The percentage of microspheres undetected was 2.30.8% in the presence and 1.50.4% in the absence of background structures with a density of 900 microspheres per color per cm3. The image analysis method presented here, allows for an increased number of experimental conditions that can be investigated in studies of regional myocardial perfusion.

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

myocardial perfusion
separation of fluorescent labels

fluorescent microspheres
microvascular structure
cardiovascular imaging


Dependent rounding and its applications to approximation algorithms We develop a new randomized rounding approach for fractional vectors defined on the edge-sets of bipartite graphs. We show various ways of combining this technique with other ideas, leading to improved (approximation) algorithms for various problems. These include: low congestion multi-path routing; richer random-graph models for graphs with a given degree-sequence; improved approximation algorithms for: (i) throughput-maximization in broadcast scheduling, (ii) delay-minimization in broadcast scheduling, as well as (iii) capacitated vertex cover; and fair scheduling of jobs on unrelated parallel machines.

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

algorithms
randomized rounding
broadcast scheduling


Allocation and design of power system stabilizers for mitigating low-frequency oscillations in the eastern interconnected power system in Japan Low-frequency oscillations have been observed on trunk transmission systems in Japan, and have been the subject for studies in fields of operation, control, and devices by the many power system utilities. Power system stabilizers (PSSs) are very effective controllers in enhancing the damping of low-frequency oscillations, since the controllers can increase damping torque for inter area modes by introducing additional signals into the excitation controllers already equipped with generators. In this paper, allocation of PSSs in an interconnected power system with inter area modes has been determined by an eigenvalue analysis, and PSSs for the allocated generators have been designed by a frequency response method. The designed PSSs have been verified in a Japanese power system standard model. This test system is created as a standard model based on the trunk transmission systems in the eastern area of Japan, and reflects characteristic features of the real power systems; therefore, realistic allocation and design for enhancement of the stability of low-frequency oscillations have been verified.

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

low-frequency oscillation
power system stability


Dynamic allocation in a self-scaling cluster database Database systems have been vital for all forms of data processing for a long time. In recent years, the amount of processed data has been growing dramatically, even in small projects. Nevertheless, database management systems tend to be static in terms of size and performance, which makes scaling a difficult and an expensive task. This is especially an acute problem in dynamic environments such as grid systems. On the basis of the C-JDBC project, we developed a cluster database that supports automatic scaling in the number of nodes used. To ensure good load balancing, we distribute the tablespace according to a statistical analysis of the query history. In this paper, we will focus on the allocation algorithm. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


Optimal Randomized RANSAC A randomized model verification strategy for RANSAC is presented. The proposed method finds, like RANSAC, a solution that is optimal with user-specified probability. The solution is found in time that is close to the shortest possible and superior to any deterministic verification strategy. A provably fastest model verification strategy is designed for the (theoretical) situation when the contamination of data by outliers is known. In this case, the algorithm is the fastest possible (on the average) of all randomized RANSAC algorithms guaranteeing a confidence in the solution. The derivation of the optimality property is based on Wald's theory of sequential decision making, in particular, a modified sequential probability ratio test (SPRT). Next, the R-RANSAC with SPRT algorithm is introduced. The algorithm removes the requirement for a priori knowledge of the fraction of outliers and estimates the quantity online. We show experimentally that on standard test data, the method has performance close to the theoretically optimal and is 2 to 10 times faster than standard RANSAC and is up to four times faster than previously published methods.

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


The HERMIT in the Machine A Plugin for the Interactive Transformation of GHC Core Language Programs The importance of reasoning about and refactoring programs is a central tenet of functional programming. Yet our compilers and development toolchains only provide rudimentary support for these tasks. This paper introduces a programmatic and compiler-centric interface that facilitates refactoring and equational reasoning. To develop our ideas, we have implemented HERMIT, a toolkit enabling informal but systematic transformation of Haskell programs from inside the Glasgow Haskell Compiler's optimization pipeline. With HERMIT, users can experiment with optimizations and equational reasoning, while the tedious heavy lifting of performing the actual transformations is done for them. HERMIT provides a transformation API that can be used to build higher-level rewrite tools. One use-case is prototyping new optimizations as clients of this API before being committed to the GHC toolchain. We describe a HERMIT application-a read-eval-print shell for performing transformations using HERMIT. We also demonstrate using this shell to prototype an optimization on a specific example, and report our initial experiences and remaining challenges.

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

experimentation
languages
performance
verification
dsls
strategic programming


semi-supervised sequence classification using abstraction augmented markov models Supervised methods for learning sequence classifiers rely on the availability of large amounts of labeled data. However, in many applications because of the high cost and effort involved in labeling the data, the amount of labeled data is quite small compared to the amount of unlabeled data. Hence, there is a growing interest in semi-supervised methods that can exploit large amounts of unlabeled data together with small amounts of labeled data. In this paper, we introduce a novel Abstraction Augmented Markov Model (AAMM) based approach to semi-supervised learning. We investigate the effectiveness of AAMMs in exploiting unlabeled data. We compare semi-supervised AAMMs with: (i) the Markov models (MMs) (which do not take advantage of unlabeled data); and (ii) an expectation maximization (EM) based approach to semi-supervised training of MMs (that make use of unlabeled data). The results of our experiments on three protein subcellular localization prediction tasks show that semi-supervised AAMMs: (i) can effectively exploit unlabeled data; and (ii) are more accurate than both the MMs and the EM based semi-supervised MMs.

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


Pulse Width Allocation and Clock Skew Scheduling: Optimizing Sequential Circuits Based on Pulsed Latches Pulsed latches, latches driven by a brief clock pulse, offer the same convenience of timing verification and optimization as flip-flop-based circuits, while retaining the advantages of latches over flip-flops. But a pulsed latch that uses a single pulse width has a lower bound on its clock period, limiting its capacity to deal with higher frequencies or operate at lower V(dd). The limitation still exists even when clock skew scheduling is employed, since the amount of skew that can be assigned and realized is practically limited due to process variation. For the first time, we formulate the problem of allocating pulse widths, out of a small discrete number of predefined widths, and scheduling clock skews, within a predefined upper bound on skew, for optimizing pulsed latch-based sequential circuits. We then present an algorithm called PWCS Optimize (pulse width allocation and clock skew scheduling, PWCS) to solve the problem. The allocated skews are realized through synthesis of local clock trees between pulse generators and latches, and a global clock tree between a clock source and pulse generators. Experiments with 65-nm technology demonstrate that combining a small number of different pulse widths with clock skews of up to 10% of the clock period yield the minimum achievable clock period for many benchmark circuits. The results have an average figure of merit of 0.86, where 1.0 indicates a minimum clock period, and the average reduction in area by 11%. The design flow including PWCS_Optimize, placement and routing, and synthesis of local and global clock trees is presented and assessed with example circuits.

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

clock period
clock skew scheduling
clock tree
pulsed latch


An architecture for automatically developing secure OLAP applications from models Decision makers query enterprise information stored in Data Warehouses (DW) by using tools (such as On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools) which use specific views or cubes from the corporate DW or Data Marts, based on the multidimensional modeling. Since the information managed is critical, security constraints have to be correctly established in order to avoid unauthorized accesses. In previous work we have defined a Model-Driven based approach for developing a secure DWs repository by following a relational approach. Nevertheless, is also important to define security constraints in the metadata layer that connects the DWs repository with the OLAP tools, that is, over the same multidimensional structures that final users manage. This paper defines a proposal to develop secure OLAP applications and incorporates it into our previous approach. Our proposal is composed of models and transformations. Our models have been defined using the extension capabilities from UML (conceptual model) and extending the OLAP package of CWM with security (logical model). Transformations have been defined by using a graphical notation and implemented into QVT and MOFScript. Finally, this proposal has been evaluated through case studies. A complete MDA architecture for developing secure OLAP applications. The main contributions of this paper are: improvement of a UML profile for conceptual modeling; definition of a logical metamodel for OLAP applications; and definition and implementation of transformations from conceptual to logical models, and from logical models to the secure implementation into a specific OLAP tool (SSAS). Our proposal allows us to develop secure OLAP applications, providing a complete MDA architecture composed of several security models and automatic transformations towards the final secure implementation. Security aspects are early identified and fitted into a most robust solution that provides us a better information assurance and a saving of time in maintenance.

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

confidentiality
model driven development
data warehouse
sql server analysis services


towards network security policy generation for configuration analysis and testing Access-control lists are an essential part in the security framework of any system. Researchers are always in need to have a repository of ready made policies for conducting research and development. Such policies, especially firewall policies which are the focus of our work, are needed to perform performance testing as well as configuration analysis. In this paper we introduce a novel technique to perform access-control policy generation. The proposed approach learns policy parameters from a set of given policies. It generates policies that conform with natural policy-writing practices while following the grammar syntax required by the security device. A probabilistic learning approach is used to infer transition probabilities for the given policy grammar.

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


Strength limitations to proper child safety seat installation: Implications for child safety A majority of child safety restraints are misused in some manner, often leading to an increased risk of serious injury or death. It is possible that at least some instances of misuse are the result of biomechanical limitations during the installation process. Twenty-seven adult participants were trained and then monitored in three stages of child safety seat installation. All installations were done with an identical restraint system in the rear bench seat of a mocked-up minivan. EMG of 10 muscles, as well as trunk, shoulder, and wrist postures were analyzed. Peak maximum efforts were often required of the trunk extensor, forearm, and anterior shoulder muscles during the installation process. Routing and tightening of the seatbelt, as well as placing and securing the child into the seat were observed to be particularly difficult tasks. Many portions of the child safety seat installation process were found to be very physically demanding; some individuals may not be capable of performing these tasks correctly, thereby putting the child at greater risk in the motor vehicle.

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

biomechanics
motor vehicle accident
restraint systems


Structure dynamic reliability: A hybrid approach and robust meta-models Mathematical modeling of physical systems is essential to understand and, if possible, control such systems. However, insufficient information may be available about the level of uncertainty related to material properties, geometric parameters, boundary conditions and the applied loads. In the context of structural reliability, the uncertainties may be uncontrollable when designing for robustness. These problems in the modeling of the uncertainties are often complicated by the model's inability to describe the physical phenomena that are involved. In this paper, the proposed approach combines a dynamic reliability method and a meta-model (reduced model) to obtain good results in terms of the reliability and optimization of such systems. Using the available information about the uncertain design parameters, we use the hybrid model coupling of the possibility and probability approaches for the propagation of the uncertainties in the model. The proposed method was implemented on theoretical structures with different meta-models. The results are compared with the Monte Carlo simulations. This allowed us to prove the robustness and efficiency of the proposed methodology for reliability calculations of complex dynamic structures.

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


Exploring the Path to Success: A Review of the Strategic IT Benchmarking Literature We synthesize previous research on IT management and benchmarking into a concept relationship map on strategic IT benchmarking success. We find that there is much literature on how to produce strategic IT benchmarking results. Research does not, however, explain how results are transformed into outcome. We suggest propositions and future research directions as a foundation for a theory of strategic IT benchmarking success.

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 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 B O

strategic benchmarking
strategic it management
is assessment
is evaluation
strategic is planning


AN AGENCY THEORY EXPLANATION OF PROJECT SUCCESS Agency theory provides a possible explanation for information systems project success and failure. The theory suggests that a greater outcome-basis of the contract between project manager and systems developers reduces goal conflict which in turn increases the likelihood of project success, and that project monitoring reduces privately held information which in turn increases the likelihood of that success. To investigate information systems project success, this study uses a web-based survey to collect data from 428 project managers and 65 other team participants. The data are analyzed for reliability and validity, and structural equation modeling is used to test hypotheses related to project success. Results show that monitoring predicts privately held information which in turn predicts project success, and that monitoring also directly predicts project success. The testing finds no analogous relationships between project success and outcome-basis or goal conflict. The study contributes by showing that contract type (i.e., more versus less outcome-based), monitoring, goal conflict, and privately held information are multi-dimensional constructs and provides instruments for their measurement. Perhaps surprisingly, it suggests that the monitoring of systems developers may be a more effective way to improve project outcome than promising to reward them for that outcome.

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

agency theory
contract type
goal conflict
monitoring
privately held information
project success


Completeness and an extension theorem for continuous fuzzy linear order-homomorphisms In this paper, the notions of lambda-Cauchy net and completeness in L-topological vector spaces are introduced, and some of their properties are studied. An extension theorem for continuous fuzzy linear order homomorphisms is proved. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

l-topological vector spaces
fuzzy linear order homomorphism
lambda-cauchy net


Cheaper adjoints by reversing address computations The reverse mode of automatic differentiation is widely used in science and engineering. A severe bottleneck for the performance of the reverse mode, however, is the necessity to recover certain intermediate values of the program in reverse order. Among these values are computed addresses, which traditionally are recovered through forward recomputation and storage in memory. We propose an alternative approach for recovery that uses inverse computation based on dependency information. Address storage constitutes a significant portion of the overall storage requirements. An example illustrates substantial gains that the proposed approach yields, and we show use cases in practical applications.

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

automatic differentiation
inverse computation


A new continuous max-flow algorithm for multiphase image segmentation using super-level set functions New graph construction for multiphase segmentation according to the super level set representation. Continuous max-flow algorithm overcomes some drawbacks of the discrete graph cut method. Mathematical analysis for the proposed algorithms.

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

global minimization
continuous max-flow
super-level set functions
convex relaxation
augmented lagrangian method
potts model


A nesting ranging algorithm for a Hybrid WDM/TDM PON with colorless Reflective-ONUs under different distances OLT-ONUs To reduce costs and cumbersome laser provisioning at the Optical Network Unit (ONU) user level in an access Passive Optical Network (PON), the use of a Reflective-ONU (R-ONU) is a good choice for up-data transmission. An optical carrier is sent by the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) at the Central Office, and a device at the ONU modulates the carrier with the upstream data. This allows all ONUs to be equal and colorless, without a light source in a Hybrid WDM/TDM architecture. A Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation is placed at the OLT, managing the lasers and photodetectors shared by all R-ONUs. The OLT laser and photodetector employed in an up-data transmission must be tuned for each ONU and a particular Round Trip Time (RTT), which is twice the propagation time from OLT to ONU. When an R-ONU is served by a laser, the photodetector must also be available after the RTT to demodulate the up-data. We propose a novel nesting ranging algorithm to deal with large different distances OLT-ONUs avoiding collisions and minimizing the delay under Priority Queuing with Quality of Service (QoS).

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

passive optical network
dynamic bandwidth allocation
round trip time
quality of service

hybrid wdm/tdm
reflective optical network unit


Getting a handle on how the brain generates complexity Sensory processing in cortex across modalities appears to rely on a "simple-to-complex'' hierarchical computational strategy in which neurons at later levels in the hierarchy combine inputs from earlier levels to create more complex neuronal selectivities. The specifics of this process are still poorly understood, however. In this issue of Network, Plebe shows how computational modeling of experimental data on neuronal tuning in secondary visual cortex can help us understand how the brain increases neuronal tuning complexity across the visual cortical hierarchy.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 models
visual system
object recognition
neural development


Cyclic block designs with block size 3 from Skolem-type sequences A Skolem-type sequence is a sequence (s(1),..., s(t)) of positive integers i is an element of D such that for each i is an element of D there is exactly one j is an element of {1,..., t - i} such that s(j) = s(j+i) = i. Positions in the sequence not occupied by integers i is an element of D contain null elements. In 1939, Peltesohn solved the existence problem for cyclic Steiner triple systems for nu equivalent to 1, 3(mod 6), v not equal 9. Using the same technique in 1981, Colbourn and Colbourn extended the solution to all admissible. lambda > 1. It is known that Skolem-type sequences may be used to construct cyclic Steiner triple systems as well as cyclic triple systems with lambda = 2. The main result of this paper is an extension of former results to cyclic triple systems with lambda > 2. In addition we introduce a new kind of Skolem-type sequence.

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


Controlled exploration of state space in off-line ADP and its application to stochastic shortest path problems This paper addresses the problem of finding a control policy that drives a generic discrete event stochastic system from an initial state to a set of goal states with a specified probability. The control policy is iteratively constructed via an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) technique over a small subset of the state space that is evolved via Monte Carlo simulations. The effect of certain user-chosen parameters on the performance of the algorithm is investigated The method is evaluated on several stochastic shortest path (SSP) examples and on a manufacturing job shop problem. We solve SSP problems that contain up to one million states to illustrate the scaling of computational and memory benefits with respect to the problem size. In the case of the manufacturing job shop example. the proposed ADP approach outperforms a traditional rolling horizon math programming approach. (C) 2009 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 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

approximate dynamic programming
controlled exploration

markov decision process
discrete time stochastic systems
simulation


A queue with semi-Markovian batch plus Poisson arrivals with application to the MPEG frame sequence We consider a queueing system with a single server having a mixture of a semi-Markov process (SMP) and a Poisson process as the arrival process, where each SMP arrival contains a batch of customers. The service times are exponentially distributed. We derive the distributions of the queue length of both SMP and Poisson customers when the sojourn time distributions of the SMP have rational Laplace-Stieltjes transforms. We prove that the number of unknown constants contained in the generating function for the queue length distribution equals the number of zeros of the denominator of this generating function in the case where the sojourn times of the SMP follow exponential distributions. The linear independence of the equations generated by those zeros is discussed for the same case with additional assumption. The necessary and sufficient condition for the stability of the system is also analyzed. The distributions of the waiting times of both SMP and Poisson customers are derived. The results are applied to the case in which the SMP arrivals correspond to the exact sequence of Motion Picture Experts Group ( MPEG) frames. Poisson arrivals are regarded as interfering traffic. In the numerical examples, the mean and variance of the waiting time of the ATM cells generated from the MPEG frames of real video data are evaluated.

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

semi-markov process
batch arrival
group of pictures (gop)


Assessment of multichannel lung sounds parameterization for two-class classification in interstitial lung disease patients This work deals with the assessment of different parameterization techniques for lung sounds (LS) acquired on the whole posterior thoracic surface for normal versus abnormal LS classification. Besides the conventional technique of power spectral density (PSD), the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix and both the univariate autoregressive (UAR) and the multivariate autoregressive models (MAR) were applied for constructing feature vectors as input to a supervised neural network (SNN). The results showed the effectiveness of the UAR modeling for multichannel LS parameterization, using new data, with classification accuracy of 75% and 93% for healthy subjects and patients, respectively.

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

crackles sounds
multichannel acquisition
multivariate and univariate ar modeling
feature vector dimensionality reduction


PREDICTION OF THE TOTAL STARCH AND AMYLOSE CONTENT IN BARLEY USING NEAR-INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY Near-infrared reflectance (NIR) spectroscopy combined with reference data was used to predict the total starch content (TSC) and amylose content (AC) in different barley varieties. One hundred and twelve barley samples were analyzed for TSC and AC by AOAC methods. Out of the total samples, ninety were used to develop the calibration models, and twenty two were used to validate the models. The total starch model showed very good correlation with coefficient of determination (R-2) of 0.96 and root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) of 0.79; the correlation of amylose model was calculated to be R-2 = 0.94, RMSECV = 0.94. The results showed that NIR analysis was sufficiently accurate for the determination of total starch and amylose in barley varieties.

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

barley
total starch
amylose
nir spectroscopy


Personal driving diary: Automated recognition of driving events from first-person videos In this paper, we introduce the concept of personal driving diary. A personal driving diary is a multimedia archive of a person's daily driving experience, describing important driving events of the user with annotated videos. This paper presents an automated system that constructs such multimedia diary by analyzing videos obtained from a vehicle-mounted camera. The proposed system recognizes important interactions between the driving vehicle and the other actors in videos (e.g., accident, overtaking, etc.), and labels them together with its contextual knowledge on the vehicle (e.g., mean velocity) to construct an event log. A decision tree based activity recognizer is designed, detecting driving events of vehicles and pedestrians from the first-person view videos by analyzing their trajectories and spatio-temporal relationships. The constructed diary enables efficient searching and event-based browsing of video clips, which helps the users when retrieving videos of dangerous situations. Our experiment confirms that the proposed system reliably generates driving diaries by annotating the vehicle events learned from training examples. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

driving activity recognition
first-person event detection
lifelogging