Role of Various Neurotransmitters in Mediating the Long-Term Endocrine Consequences of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Adult rats and mice born to dams exposed to alcohol (fetal alcoholexposed [FAE]) exhibit enhanced activity of their hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis when exposed to stressors. However, the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon remain incompletely understood. Here two possibilities are reviewed: one that pertains to nitric oxide (NO), an unstable gas that stimulates the HPA axis; and one that focuses on catecholamines, which also stimulate this axis. Significant alterations were not observed in levels of NO synthase, the enzyme responsible for NO formation, in the paraventricula nucleus (PVN) of FAE rats. However, the stimulatory influence of this gas on the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis was enhanced in these animals, thereby providing a mechanism likely to participate in the neuroendocrine hyperactivity that is the hallmark of this model. It was also recently shown that, while the ability of catecholamines to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) was comparable in control rats and rats exposed to alcohol during embryonic development, there was a significant upregulation of the C1 brain-stem region when these latter animals were exposed to mild footshocks. Since this region sends prominent projections to the PVN, its increased activity may participate in the HPA axis hyperactivity observed in FAE offspring. Finally, microarray technology was used to search for potential differences in genes present in the brains of control and FAE mice. When these brains were collected on day 17.5 of embryonic development, several genes were upregulated, while others were downregulated, which may provide potential new candidates that mediate the influence of prenatal alcohol on the HPA axis of adult offspring.

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

alcohol
acth
nitric oxide
catecholamines


Joint sparse representation for video-based face recognition Propose a reconstruction-based method for video-based face recognition, where all images from a probe video clip are jointly recovered. Use two sparse constraints to make representation more credible. Develop an efficient optimization algorithm. Get a more competitive performance on the challenging dataset YTC.

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

structured sparse representation
accelerated proximal gradient


IV characteristics of a methanol sensor for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) as a function of deposited platinum (Pt) thickness We have fabricated methanol sensor for monitoring the methanol concentration in direct methanol fuel cells. A thin composite nafion membrane was used as an electrolyte. We have analyzed the IV characteristic of the fabricated methanol sensor as functions of methanol concentration, catalyst electrode and platinum (Pt) thickness. When we measured the sensor with 10nm Pt and at 1V, the current value was 1.3010?6, 1.9610?6, and 2.8010?6A for three methanol concentration of 1, 2, and 3M, respectively. And when the methanol concentration was fixed at 2M, the current value of the fabricated device with Pt of 5, 10 and 15nm was 3.0610?6, 1.9610?6, and 1.0010?6A, respectively.

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

dmfc
methanol sensor
catalyst electrode
iv characteristics


Computational framework for common visco-elastic models in engineering based on the theory of rheology This paper presents a constitutive framework of generating common visco-elastic models that have been used in recent years for the modelling of viscous materials such as asphalt binders and mixtures. The paper provides a brief introduction into the experimental and theoretical aspects of rheological modelling using fractional time derivatives. A differential equation of a rheological element is formulated from which a wide variety of simpler elements such as the fractional Newton element, the fractional Kelvin element and the fractional Standard Linear Solid can be derived. This same development is expanded to include the well known Huet, HuetSayegh, and 2S2P1D models. The equations presented may be implemented in standard numerical approaches such as multi-layer theory or the finite element method to solve pavement engineering problems. In addition to this, the ColeCole plots, Black Diagrams, and master curves of the elements mentioned above are presented and 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 fuzzy linear basis algorithm for nonlinear separable programming problems In the paper we develop a theory of fuzzy linear bases. The theory is useful for transforming nonlinear separable programming problems (NLSP) into a finite sequence of fuzzy linear programming relaxations at a given level of accuracy epsilon. The key concepts of the theory are fuzzy linear interpolation and the maximal profile of the polyhedron generated from a set of break points for each variable dimension. The maximal profile is divided into adjacent convex sub-intervals, in which the nonlinear problem is transformed into a sequence of fuzzy linear sub-problems. All discontinuities are equipped with a break point, whereby the Fuzzy Linear Basis (FLB) Algorithm is applicable to separable NLPs with a finite number of discontinuities. We prove that the solution to the original nonlinear problem is included in the sequence of fuzzy linear subproblems at the prespecified accuracy epsilon. The principles of the Fuzzy Linear Basis Algorithm are illustrated in an example. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy linear bases
maximal profile
nonlinear separable programming


A timed workflow process model An internet-based workflow management system (WfMS) enables business participants to work co-operatively at sites belonging to different time zones. Time-related factors have to be incorporated into the traditional workflow processes so as to adapt to the globally distributed applications. This paper proposes a timed workflow process model through incorporating the time constraints, the duration of activities, the duration of flow, and the activity distribution with respect to the multiple time axes into the conventional workflow processes. The model provides an approach for temporal consistency checking during both build-time and run-time. The proposed model and approach provide a vehicle for global business process modeling, planning and monitoring.

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

consistency checking
duration
time
workflow


On d-Asymptotics for High-Dimensional Discriminant Analysis with Different Variance-Covariance Matrices In this paper we consider the two-class classification problem with high-dimensional data. It is important to find a class of distributions such that we cannot expect good performance in classification for any classifier. In this paper, when two population variance-covariance matrices are different, we give a reasonable sufficient condition for distributions such that the misclassification rate converges to the worst value as the dimension of data tends to infinity for any classifier. Our results can give guidelines to decide whether or not an experiment is worth performing in many fields such as bioinformatics.

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

discriminant analysis
misclassification rate


Exact and Approximate Expressions for the Probability of Undetected Errors of Varshamov-Tenengol'ts Codes Computation of the undetected error probability for error detecting codes over the Z-channel is an important issue, explored only in part in previous literature. In this paper, Varshamov-Tenengol'ts (VT) codes are considered. First, an exact formula for the probability of undetected errors is given. It can be explicitly computed for small code lengths (up to approximately 25). Next, some lower bounds that can be explicitly computed up to almost twice this length are studied. A comparison to the Hamming codes is given. It is further shown that heuristic arguments give a very good approximation that can easily be computed even for large lengths. Finally, Monte Carlo methods are used to estimate performance for long code lengths.

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

asymmetric codes
varshamov-tenengol'ts (vt) codes
z-channel


A Storage-Efficient Suffix Tree Construction Algorithm for Human Genome Sequences The suffix tree is one of most widely adopted indexes in the application of genome sequence alignment. Although it supports very fast alignment, it has a couple of shortcomings, such as a very long construction time and a very large volume size. Loh et al. [7] proposed a suffix tree construction algorithm with dramatically improved performance; however, the size still remains as a challenging problem. We propose an algorithm by extending the one by Loh et al. to reduce the suffix tree size. As a result of our experiments, our algorithm constructed a suffix tree of approximately 60% of the size within almost the same time period.

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

storage-efficient suffix tree
divide-and-conquer


Effects of plasmas on porous low dielectric constant CVD SiOCH films Plasma etch and ash processes can alter surface and bulk properties in porous low-k films leading to poor device performance and reliability. Plasma-induced changes in film surface chemistries and topographies can result in increased water absorption, surface roughness, and metal intrusion. In this work, the effects of oxidizing and reducing plasmas on film surface roughness, porosities and chemistries are examined in a CVD porous low-k dielectric. Film surface chemical compositions were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Water and diiodomethane contact angle measurements were used to determine the polar and dispersive components of film surface energies. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to measure changes in surface roughness after ashing. Surface roughnesses were described by both vertical amplitudes and horizontal wavelengths, thus, creating real topographic film description. Changes in film densities were measured using spectroscopic ellipsometry. To study moisture adsorption, these films were exposed to liquid and vapor D2O. The extent of D2O adsorption was monitored by FTIR. Both oxidizing and reducing ashes appear to densify the top layer of the low-k film, but oxidizing ashes do not adsorb measurable quantities of D2O while reducing ashed samples show significant deuterium oxide uptake.

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


Groupwise multi-atlas segmentation of the spinal cords internal structure Provide a simple method for pre-aligning slice-based atlases into a groupwise consistent space. Demonstrate a technique for constructing a model of spinal cord variability. Develop a model-specific registration cost function for aligning the target with the model. Provide a natural framework for selecting geodesically-appropriate atlas information. Demonstrate superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches.

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

cervical spinal cord segmentation
groupwise registration
multi-atlas segmentation
spinal cord internal structure


Complex Decision Systems and Conflicts Analysis Problem This paper discusses the issues related to the conflict analysis method and the rough set theory, process of global decision-making on the basis of knowledge which is stored in several local knowledge bases. The value of the rough set theory and conflict analysis applied in practical decision support systems with complex domain knowledge are expressed. The furthermore examples of decision support systems with complex domain knowledge are presented in this article. The paper proposes a new approach to the organizational structure of a multi-agent decision-making system, which operates on the basis of dispersed knowledge. In the presented system, the local knowledge bases will be combined into groups in a dynamic way. We will seek to designate groups of local bases on which the test object is classified to the decision classes in a similar manner. Then, a process of knowledge inconsistencies elimination will be implemented for created groups. Global decisions will be made using one of the methods for analysis of conflicts.

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

knowledge bases
rough set theory
conflict analysis
decision support systems

cluster analysis
relation of friendship
relation of conflict


Stock exchange game model as an example for graduate level distance studies This paper deals with the development of a Web-based integrated system for distance graduate studies of theories of optimization, games, and markets, which is aimed to support core curriculum and to provide students with hands-on experience on effective use of software tools. The main objective is to stimulate and develop creative abilities to work as independent researchers. This can be explained by detailed description of a typical example: the Stock Exchange Game Model (SEGM). That is the purpose of this paper. The web-site http:// mockus.org/optimum includes SEGM and accompanying models. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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

distance studies
optimization
games
stock exchange


The Unification Space implemented as a localist neural net: predictions and error-tolerance in a constraint-based parser We introduce a novel computer implementation of the Unification-Space parser (Vosse and Kempen in Cognition 75:105143, 2000) in the form of a localist neural network whose dynamics is based on interactive activation and inhibition. The wiring of the network is determined by Performance Grammar (Kempen and Harbusch in Verb constructions in German and Dutch. Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2003), a lexicalist formalism with feature unification as binding operation. While the network is processing input word strings incrementally, the evolving shape of parse trees is represented in the form of changing patterns of activation in nodes that code for syntactic properties of words and phrases, and for the grammatical functions they fulfill. The system is capable, at least qualitatively and rudimentarily, of simulating several important dynamic aspects of human syntactic parsing, including garden-path phenomena and reanalysis, effects of complexity (various types of clause embeddings), fault-tolerance in case of unification failures and unknown words, and predictive parsing (expectation-based analysis, surprisal effects). English is the target language of the parser described.

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

predictive parsing
unification space
localist neural network

syntactic ambiguity resolution
psycholinguistics


Parametric tool wear estimation solution of HSC appropriate machining New strategies are used in manufacturing enterprises due to global competition. High-speed cutting offers a very appropriate opportunity to reduce run times since the high cutting speeds and feed rates involved permit the reduction of production times and minimise rework. There are, however, difficulties in judging tool wear [1]. This paper analyses the formation mechanism of tool wear and presents a complete solution to calculate wear using a ball end cutter for high-speed cutting. Chip geometry generated to calculate tool wear is affected by machining conditions such as turning speed, cutting depth and geometries of tool and work piece which in turn determine the key parameters of chip sections such as length of cut and mean chip thickness. An improved algorithm and a knowledge-based decision model developed to calculate effective tool contact are also discussed to help reduce calculation time and improve calculation efficiency. The calculation results include output form and a 3D wear model showing wear data distributed on the tool contour.

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


The space efficiency of XML XML is the future language for data exchange, and support for XML has been extensive. Although XML has numerous benefits including self-describing data, improved readability, and standardization, there are always tradeoffs in the introduction of new technologies that replace existing systems. The tradeoff of XML versus other data exchange languages is improved readability and descriptiveness versus space efficiency. There has been limited work on examining the space efficiency of XML. This paper compares XML to other data exchange formats. Experiments are performed to measure the overhead in XML files and determine the amount of space used for data, schema, and overhead in a typical XML document.

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

relational database
character-separated files


Universal current-mode filter with multiple inputs and one output using MOCCII and MO-CCCA In this paper, by introducing a current-controlled current amplifier with multi-outputs (MO-CCCA), two new multi-input and single-output (MISO) universal filtering circuits are proposed. Each circuit just contains two second-generation current conveyors with multiple outputs (MOCCIIs), one MO-CCCA and four grounded RC elements. They can realize low-pass, band-pass, high-pass, band-stop and all-pass filtering outputs. The characteristic parameters natural frequency (?0 ? 0 ) and quality factor (Q) ( Q ) can be tuned independently by bias current of MO-CCCA. Compared to other similar circuits, the circuits in this paper have simpler structures and independent tuning characteristics of ?0 ? 0 and Q. Moreover, a filter with a high Q can be obtained by adjusting the ratio of MO-CCCA's bias currents.

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


A review of mobile pervasive learning: Applications and issues To investigate and review how urbanized youth perceive and use mobile phones. To review the mobile phone usage pattern among the youth. Mobile learning technologies can utilize the technology of pervasive computing. The integration of mobile learning with pervasive computing.

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

mobile learning
pervasive learning
pervasive computing


Electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations on magnetic reconnection with adaptive mesh refinement The electromagnetic particle-in-cell (EM-PIC) model using the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is reconsidered so that it is properly and efficiently applied to the current sheet evolution associated with magnetic reconnection. It is very important to adequately select the refinement criteria for cell splitting. It is demonstrated that fine cells have to be distributed not only in the region where the electron Debye length is small, but also in the region where the electron-scale structure is expected to be significant. While the AMR reduces the number of cells drastically, the total simulation cost is also controlled by the number of particles. In order to reduce the total number of particles in the entire system, the present code controls the local number of particles per cell by splitting or coalescing particles. It is shown that the particle splitting and coalescence are quite effective as well as the AMR to enhance the efficiency of the EM-PIC simulations. A new 3D code extended from the 2D code is also introduced. The code is checked against the tearing instability and the lower hybrid drift instability, and it is confirmed that the code has been successfully developed. It is also found that the 3D simulations can gain more efficiency by using the AMR than the 2D simulations.

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

adaptive mesh refinement
magnetic reconnection


learning to match and cluster large high-dimensional data sets for data integration Part of the process of data integration is determining which sets of identifiers refer to the same real-world entities. In integrating databases found on the Web or obtained by using information extraction methods, it is often possible to solve this problem by exploiting similarities in the textual names used for objects in different databases. In this paper we describe techniques for clustering and matching identifier names that are both scalable and adaptive , in the sense that they can be trained to obtain better performance in a particular domain. An experimental evaluation on a number of sample datasets shows that the adaptive method sometimes performs much better than either of two non-adaptive baseline systems, and is nearly always competitive with the best baseline system.

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

learning
method
systems
experimental evaluation
web
performance
clustering
matching
process
paper
information extraction

adapt
scalability
large datasets
object
competition
high-dimensional data
sampling
database
text mining
data integrity
identifiability


Robust processing rate allocation for proportional slowdown differentiation on Internet servers A desirable behavior of an Internet server is that a request's queuing delay depends on its service time in a linear fashion. Measuring the quality of service in terms of slowdown, the ratio of a request's queuing delay to its service time, provides a simple way to attain the objective. Moreover, it treats client requests equally regardless of their service time, whereas response time favors requests that need more processing resources. In this paper, we propose a proportional slowdown differentiation (PSD) service model on Internet servers. It aims to maintain prespecified slowdown ratios between different classes of client requests. To provide PSD services, we first derive a closed-form expression of the expected slowdown in an M/G/1 FCFS queuing system with a typical heavy-tailed service time distribution, the bounded Pareto distribution. Based on the closed-form expression, we design a queuing-theoretic strategy of processing-rate allocation. The rate allocation is realized by deploying a virtual server for each class. Simulation results show that the strategy can provide controllable PSD services on Internet servers. It, however, comes along with large variance and weak predictability due to the dynamics of Internet traffic. To address these issues, we design an integral feedback controller and integrate it into the queuing-theoretic strategy. Simulation results demonstrate that the integrated strategy is robust and can deliver predictable PSD services at a superior fine-grained level. We modified the Apache Web server with an implementation of the integrated processing-rate allocation strategy. Experimental results further demonstrate its effectiveness and feasibility in practice.

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

quality of service
slowdown
rate allocation


Ensuring latest-bound currency of read-only transactions in mobile broadcasting environments In mobile broadcasting environments, an information server periodically broadcasts a set of data items to a large mobile client population at every broadcast cycle and mobile clients retrieve the data items they need upon arrival at the broadcast channel. In such environments, the cost of data delivery is independent of the number of clients. Many applications such as auctions and stock quotes perform read-only transactions that require the clients to read consistent and current data for accurate result. Previous concurrency control mechanisms designed for such environments ensure that the clients read consistent data, but they cannot ensure latest-bound currency which allows the clients to read the latest or most up-to-date data. In this paper, we propose an efficient concurrency control mechanism that ensures latest-bound currency as well as update consistency, which is appropriate for the mobile broadcasting environments. To ensure latest-bound currency, the server computes control information using "virtual" broadcast cycles. This control information is also used for checking update consistency. Thus, the proposed mechanism allows all data committed in current broadcast cycle to be broadcast. We have performed simulation experiments to measure transaction aborts in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism. The result confirms that the proposed mechanism produces no stale reads and also shows that the proposed mechanism generates less transaction aborts than previous mechanisms, which implies that we call get higher data currency without increasing data inconsistency.

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

mobile broadcast
read-only transaction
latest-bound currency


Philosophical foundations and research relevance: issues for information research This paper examines three ideas that affect the nature of research in information science: (1) the fact of the incoherent nature of information science, which results from the concept of 'information' being dealt with at different integrative levels; (2) the lack of an over-arching philosophical framework that might guide the development of methods; and (3) the problem of grounding research in the reality of everyday professional practice. It is suggested that, at one level, phenomenology offers an integrative philosophical perspective that might also help to resolve the research/practice split.

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

information science
research
philosophical framework
relevance
professional practice
integrative levels
phenomenology

librarianship
methodologies
models
knowledge organization


SFE method using Hermite polynomials: An approach for solving nonlinear mechanical problems with uncertain parameters We propose a stochastic finite element method for nonlinear mechanical systems whose uncertain parameters can be modeled as random variables. This method is based on a Gaussian standardization of the problem and on an Hilbertian approximation of the nonlinear mechanical function using Hermite polynomials. The coefficients of the approximation are obtained using a cubic B-spline interpolation of the response function. It provides simple expressions of the response moments. Some of its possibilities are illustrated through four numerical examples concerning one linear problem and three nonlinear problems (elasto-plastic behaviors and contact problem) in which the random parameters are modeled as correlated lognormal random variables. The numerical results obtained attest the relevance of this approach.

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

stochastic finite elements
b-spline interpolation


On design criteria and construction of noncoherent space-time constellations We consider the problem of digital communication in a Rayleigh flat-fading environment using a multiple-antenna system, when the channel state information is available neither at the transmitter nor at the receiver. It is known that at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or when the coherence interval is much larger than the, number of transmit antennas, a constellation of unitary matrices can achieve the capacity of the noncoherent system. However, at low SNR, high spectral efficiencies, or for small values of coherence interval, the unitary constellations lose their optimality and fail to provide an acceptable performance. In this work, inspired by the Stein's lemma, we propose to use the Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance between conditional distributions to design space-time constellations for noncoherent communication. In fast fading, i.e., when the coherence interval is equal to one symbol period and the unitary construction provides only one signal point, the new design criterion results in pulse amplitude moduclation (PAM)-type constellations with unequal spacing between constellation points. We also show that in this case, the new design criterion is equivalent to design criteria based on the exact pairwise error probability and the Chernoff information. When the coherence interval is larger than the number of transmit antennas, the resulting constellations overlap with the unitary constellations at high SNR, but at low SNR they have a multilevel structure and show significant performance improvement over unitary constellations of the same size. The performance improvement becomes especially more significant when an appropriately designed outer code or multiple receive antennas are used. This property, together with the facts that the proposed constellations eliminate the need for training sequences and are most suitable for low SNR, makes them a good candidate for uplink communication in wireless systems.

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

fading channels
multiple-antenna systems
noncoherent constellations
space-time modulation
wireless communications


Study of MPI measurement conditions and MPI characteristic in BIF We investigated the suitable sampling interval over FSR for MPI measurement. We investigated the effect of randomized polarization states for MPI measurement. We confirmed the suitable measurement conditions experimentally and numerically. We showed the MPI characteristic of BIF with offset connections and tight bends. To take account of the MPI degradation in BIF is very important for access networks.

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

bending loss insensitive fibers
multipath interference
free spectral range
randomized polarization state


Integrating job parallelism in real-time scheduling theory We investigate the global scheduling of sporadic, implicit deadline, real-time task systems on multiprocessor platforms. We provide a task model which integrates job parallelism. We prove that the time-complexity of the feasibility problem of these systems is linear relatively to the number of (sporadic) tasks for a fixed number of processors. We propose a scheduling algorithm theoretically optimal (i.e., preemptions and migrations neglected). Moreover, we provide an exact feasibility utilization bound. Lastly, we propose a technique to limit the number of migrations and preemptions. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O 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 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

real-time systems
multiprocessor systems
parallel systems


Exponential and almost sure exponential stability of stochastic fuzzy delayed Cohen-Grossberg neural networks In this paper, we study a class of stochastic fuzzy delayed Cohen-Grossberg neural networks. Two kinds of stability are discussed in our investigation. One is exponential stability in the mean square and the other is almost sure exponential stability. First, some sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the exponential stability in the mean square for the considered system based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, stochastic analysis theory and the Ito's formula as well as the Dynkin formula. Then, we further investigate the almost sure exponential stability by employing the nonnegative semi-martingale convergence theorem. Moreover, we prove that the addressed system is both almost sure exponentially stable and exponentially stable in the mean square under suitable conditions. Finally, three numerical examples are also given to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results. In particular, the simulation figures establish that fuzzy systems do have more advantages than non-fuzzy systems. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

stochastic cohen-grossberg neural network


CBC: Caching for cloud-based VOD systems Cloud-based video on demand (VOD) service is a promising next-generation media streaming service paradigm. Being a resource-intensive application, how to maximize resource utilization is a key issue of designing such an application. Due to the special cloud-based VOD system architecture consisting of cloud storage cluster and media server cluster, existing techniques such as traditional caching strategies are inappropriate to be adopted by a cloud-based VOD system directly in practice. Therefore, in this study, we have proposed a systemic caching scheme, which seamlessly integrates a caching algorithm and a cache deployment algorithm together to maximize the resources utilization of cloud-based VOD system. Firstly, we have proposed a cloud-based caching algorithm. The algorithm models the cloud-based VOD system as a multi-constraint optimization problem, so as to balance the resource utilization between cloud storage cluster and media server cluster. Secondly, we have proposed a cache deployment algorithm. The algorithm further manages the bandwidth and cache space resource utilization inside the media server cluster in a more fine-grained manner, and achieves load balancing performance. Our evaluation results show that the proposed scheme enhances the resource utilization of the cloud-based VOD system under resource-constrained situation, and cuts down the reject ratio of user requests.

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


initiating a design pattern catalog for embedded network systems In the domain of desktop software, design patterns have had a profound impact; they are applied ubiquitously across a broad range of applications. Patterns serve both to promulgate expert knowledge and as a vocabulary for documenting software design. The result is higher-quality software, reduced development effort, and improved documentation. This impact has yet to be felt in the emerging domain of embedded network software. The applications are characterized by highly distributed, reactive computations executed over resource-constrained processors; they present a host of new design challenges. Without a coherent repository of expert solutions, best practices do not emerge, design flaws are repeated, and developer communication is hindered. In this paper, we initiate a pattern catalog for embedded network software. The contributions are two-fold. First, we present three new design patterns distilled from a careful analysis of expert-crafted software. Second, we present a formalism for specifying the structural requirements of such patterns. The resulting specifications provide a rigorous foundation for pattern identification and documentation.

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

sensor networks
tinyos
nesc
embedded networks


Conformational Changes upon Conversion of Fibrinogen into Fibrin Conformational changes upon conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin result in the exposure of multiple binding sites that provide its interaction with various proteins and cells and, thus, its participation in a number of physiological and pathological processes. Here we focus on conformational changes in the fibrinogen D regions (domains) and ?C-domains that are directly involved in intermolecular interactions upon fibrin assembly. According to the current view, two ?C-domains that interact intramolecularly in fibrinogen undergo an intra- to intermolecular switch to form ?C-polymers in fibrin. The availability of recombinant fragments that correspond to the ?C-domain made it possible to further clarify this mechanism and to reveal novel cryptic sites in this domain for plasminogen and its activator tPA, whose exposure may play an important role in the regulation of fibrinolysis. To elucidate the mechanism of exposure of cryptic sites in the D regions, we tested the accessibility of their fibrin specific epitopes (A?148160 and ?312324) that are also involved in binding of plasminogen and tPA, in several fragments derived from fibrinogen (fragment D), and crosslinked fibrin (fragment D-D and its non-covalent complex with the E1 fragment, D-D

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

fibrinogen
fibrin
conversion
cryptic sites
plasminogen
tpa


protocols and strategies for automated multi-attribute auctions In this paper, we consider a model of a procurement multi-attribute auction in which the sales item is defined by several attributes, the buyer is the auctioneer, and the sellers are the bidders. Such domains include auctions on task allocation, services, or compound items. The buyer announces a scoring rule, according to its preferences, before the auction starts, and each seller places a bid, which describes the attributes of the item it offers for sale.First, we consider a variation of the first-price sealed-bid protocol, and we provide optimal and stable strategies for the buyer agent and for the seller agents participating in the multi-attribute auction. In addition, we analyze the buyer's expected revenue and suggest an optimal scoring rule that can be announced. Second, we consider four variations of the English auction for the case of a multi-attribute item, and we prove that, given some assumptions, they all converge to the same result. We also discuss which variation is preferred for different types of environments. Moreover, we show under which conditions, announcing the truth about buyer preferences is the optimal strategy for the buyer.

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

bidding and bargaining agents
electronic commerce market


A Fuzzy-Based Sensor Validation Strategy for AC Motor Drives Measurements validation is a critical feature in monitoring systems required by most industry applications to achieve higher level reliability. This paper presents the use of the measurement thresholds generated from the propagation of parametric uncertainty using polynomial chaos theory (PCT) to validate the sensor measurements of an AC motor drive by means of fuzzy techniques. If measurements fail the validation check, they are replaced by reconstructed data to maintain the operation. Reconstruction is performed with a PCT observer, which also supports the evaluation of the thresholds. The algorithms proposed here have been implemented and tested both in simulation and in real time experiments on a field oriented controlled induction machine.

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


The Complexity of Obstruction-Free Implementations Obstruction-free implementations of concurrent objects are optimized for the common case where there is no step contention, and were recently advocated as a solution to the costs associated with synchronization without locks. In this article, we study this claim and this goes through precisely defining the notions of obstruction-freedom and step contention. We consider several classes of obstruction-free implementations, present corresponding generic object implementations, and prove lower bounds on their complexity. Viewed collectively, our results establish that the worst-case operation time complexity of obstruction-free implementations is high, even in the absence of step contention. We also show that lock-based implementations are not subject to some of the time-complexity lower bounds we present.

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

algorithms
theory
shared memory
solo-fast implementations
perturbable objects
memory contention


A self-paced brain interface system that uses movement related potentials and changes in the power of brain rhythms Movement execution results in the simultaneous generation of movement-related potentials (MRP) as well as changes in the power of Mu and Beta rhythms. This paper proposes a new self-paced multi-channel BI that combines features extracted from MRPs and from changes in the power of Mu and Beta rhythms.

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

self-paced brain interface systems
multiple neurological phenomena
movement-related potentials
mu rhythms


Coverage-Directed Observability-Based Validation for Embedded Software Motivated by the need for validation methodologies for embedded systems we propose a method for embedded software testing that can be integrated with existing hardware methods. Existing coverage-directed validation methods guarantee the execution of a certain percentage of the program code under test. Yet they do not generally verify whether the statements executed have any influence on the program's output. In the proposed method, a program statement is considered covered not simply for belonging to the executed path, but only if its execution has influence in some observable output. The paths are generated by searching the longest path in terms of the number of statements in the path. Given that not all paths are valid, we check their feasibility using a method based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). Variable aliasing is accounted for by representing variables by their memory addresses when building this MILP problem. In this manner, for feasible paths, we obtain immediately the input values that allow the execution of the path. Using these inputs, we determine the statements actually observed. We repeat this process until a user-specified level of coverage has been achieved. In the generation of each new path, the statement coverage obtained so far and the feasibility of previous paths is taken into account. We present results that demonstrate the effectiveness of this methodology.

O O B O B I 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 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 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

algorithms reliability verification observability


Fast and compact 16 by 16 cellular neural network implementation The paper presents a Cellular Neural Network implementation based on a high gain sigmoid operation. The required simplifications to the original theory are described that allow the use of high gain. With this design black and white images can be processed. The basic building blocks in a cell are described. A 16x16 cells network has been designed and processed with 1.2 micron CMOS technology. Measurement results which show the operation of the network are presented.

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


Trip destination prediction based on past GPS log using a Hidden Markov Model In this paper, a system based on the generation of a Hidden Markov Model from the past GPS log and current location is presented to predict a users destination when beginning a new trip. This approach drastically reduces the number of points supplied by the GPS device and it permits a support-map to be generated in which the main characteristics of the trips for each user are taken into account. Hence, in contrast with other similar approaches, total independence from a street-map database is achieved.

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

knowledge discovery
machine learning
predictive hmm
information retrieval


Semivalues as power indices ? A restricted notion of semivalue as a power index, i.e. as a value on the lattice of simple games, is axiomatically introduced by using the symmetry, positivity and dummy player standard properties together with the transfer property. The main theorem, that parallels the existing statement for semivalues on general cooperative games, provides a combinatorial definition of each semivalue on simple games in terms of weighting coefficients, and shows the crucial role of the transfer property in this class of games. A similar characterization is also given that refers to unanimity coefficients, which describe the action of the semivalue on unanimity games. We then combine the notion of induced semivalue on lower cardinalities with regularity and obtain a series of characteristic properties of regular semivalues on simple games, that concern null and nonnull players, subgames, quotients, and weighted majority games.

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


Trajectory control of mobile gateways for range extension in ad hoc networks In order to facilitate scalability in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) and to provide connectivity between partitions that might occur in wireless networks as a consequence of mobility, we can envision a `range extension' network that consists of airborne communication platforms, and satellites. These airborne or satellite nodes will maintain communication links with specific `gateway' nodes among the mobile ground nodes. To communicate with a node that is geographically distant or belongs to a different network partition, an ad hoc node can relay its data packets through an appropriate mobile gateway and via the range extension network. If we envision that the MANET is divided into different groups and a mobile gateway is deployed for each such group, an objective then, is to determine the trajectory of the mobile gateway to best serve the ad hoc group to which it belongs, in terms of network performance metrics such as throughput and latency. In this paper, this problem of computing the optimal position for a gateway is reduced to a linear optimization problem by means of some simplifying but realistic assumptions. We suggest methods that may be deployed to enable the gateway to follow this optimal trajectory as closely as possible (within the practical constraints imposed by its velocity and maneuverability). Simulation results for various scenarios show a 1015% improvement in the throughput and in latency (per group containing a gateway) if a gateway has a dynamic trajectory whose locus follows the computed optimal position, as compared to a gateway that is statically placed at a regular position, or to a gateway that has a random trajectory.

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

mobile ad hoc networks
convex optimization


Sliding-surface interface conditions for 3D machine models discretised by the finite integration technique Purpose - To propose trigonometric interpolation in combination with the sliding-surface technique for modeling rotation in electrical machine models discretised by the finite integration technique (FIT). Design/methodology/approach - Locked-step, linear and trigonometric interpolation techniques are developed for coupling the stator and rotor model parts of an electrical machine model. Findings - Linear and trigonometric interpolation should be preferred over the locked-step approach. Three-machine models with sliding-surface coupling discretised by the FIT result in efficient and reliable models. Originality/value - The introduction of sliding-surface techniques in the FIT, the trigonometric interpolation used in combination, the application of the FIT for simulating electrical machines.

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


Multi-objective and multi-constrained non-additive shortest path problems Shortest path problems appear as subproblems in numerous optimization problems. In most papers concerning multiple objective shortest path problems, additivity of the objective is a de-facto assumption, but in many real-life situations objectives and criteria, can be non-additive. The purpose of this paper is to give a general framework for dominance tests for problems involving a number of non-additive criteria. These dominance tests can help to eliminate paths in a dynamic programming framework when using multiple objectives. Results on real-life multi-objective problems containing non-additive criteria are reported. We show that in many cases the framework can be used to efficiently reduce the number of generated paths.

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

multi objective programming
shortest path problem
non-additive objective


Observer-based synchronization for a class of unknown chaos systems with adaptive fuzzy-neural network This investigation applies the adaptive fuzzy-neural observer (AFNO) to synchronize a class of unknown chaotic systems via scalar transmitting signal only. The proposed method can be used in synchronization if nonlinear chaotic systems can be transformed into the canonical form of Lur'e system type by the differential geometric method. In this approach, the adaptive fuzzy-neural network (FNN) in AFNO is adopted on line to model the nonlinear term in the transmitter. Additionally, the master's unknown states can be reconstructed from one transmitted state using observer design in the slave end. Synchronization is achieved when all states are observed. The utilized scheme can adaptively estimate the transmitter states on line, even if the transmitter is changed into another chaos system. On the other hand, the robustness of AFNO can be guaranteed with respect to the modeling error, and external bounded disturbance. Simulation results confirm that the AFNO design is valid for the application of chaos synchronization.

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

fuzzy-neural network (fnn)
adaptive fuzzy-neural observer (afno)
robust


On some balanced, totally balanced and submodular delivery games This paper studies a class of delivery problems associated with the Chinese postman problem and a corresponding class of delivery games. A delivery problem in this class is determined by a connected graph, a cost function defined on its edges and a special chosen vertex in that graph which will be referred to as the post office. It is assumed that the edges in the graph are owned by different individuals and thr delivery game is concerned with the allocation of the traveling costs incurred by the server, who starts at the post office and is expected to traverse all edges in the graph before returning to the post office. A graph G is called Chinese postman-submodular, or, for short, CP-submodular (CP-totally balanced, CP-balanced, respectively) if for each delivery problem in which G is the underlying graph the associated delivery game is submodular (totally balanced, balanced, respectively). For undirected graphs we prove that CP-submodular graphs and CP-totally balanced graphs are weakly cyclic graphs and conversely. An undirected graph is shown to be CP-balanced if and only if it is a weakly Euler graph. For directed graphs, CP-submodular graphs can be characterized by directed weakly cyclic graphs. Further, it is proven that any strongly connected directed graph is CP-balanced. For mixed graphs it is shown that a graph is CP-submodular if and only if it is a mixed weakly cyclic graph. Finally, we note that undirected, directed and mixed weakly cyclic graphs can be recognized in linear time.

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


Automated Classification of Free-text Pathology Reports for Registration of Incident Cases of Cancer Objective: Our study aimed to construct and evaluate functions called "classifiers", produced by supervised machine learning techniques, in order to categorize automatically pathology reports using solely their content. Methods: Patients from the Poitou-Charentes Cancer Registry having at least one pathology report and a single non-metastatic invasive neoplasm were included. A descriptor weighting function accounting for the distribution of terms among targeted classes was developed and compared to classic methods based on inverse document frequencies. The classification was performed with support vector machine (SVM) and Naive Bayes classifiers. Two levels of granularity were tested for both the topographical and the morphological axes of the ICD-03 code. The ability to correctly attribute a precise ICD-03 code and the ability to attribute the broad category defined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for the multiple primary cancer registration rules were evaluated using F1-measures. Results: 5121 pathology reports produced by 35 pathologists were selected. The best performance was achieved by our class-weighted descriptor, associated with a SVM classifier. Using this method, the pathology reports were properly classified in the IARC categories with F1-measures of 0.967 for both topography and morphology. The ICD-03 code attribution had lower performance with a 0.715 F1-measure for topography and 0.854 for morphology. Conclusion: These results suggest that free-text pathology reports could be useful as a data source for automated systems in order to identify and notify new cases of cancer. Future work is needed to evaluate the improvement in performance obtained from the use of natural language processing, including the case of multiple tumor description and possible incorporation of other medical documents such as surgical reports.

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

neoplasm
pathology
automated classification


Participatory information search and recommendation based on social roles and networks With the increasing popularity of social network services, a tremendous amount of information has been produced. And with more and more users involving in the SNS environment, their network relationships have become as complex as in the real world. In order to find out the useful information more efficiently, in this study, we propose a participatory search and recommendation system based on users social roles and their relationships in the SNS environment. The proposed system is used to filter users and their messages in a participatory way by analyzing their social roles and connection networks between each user, which can further contribute to personalized information search and recommendation. We describe the design and implementation issues of a prototype system, and discuss how to use the social roles and connection networks to support and empower information search and recommendation.

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

participatory systems
information recommendation


A knowledge-based heuristic particle swarm optimization approach with the adjustment strategy for the weighted circle packing problem The weighted circle packing problem is a kind of important combination optimization problem and has the NP-hard property. Inspired by the No Free Lunch Theorem, a knowledge-based heuristic particle swarm optimization approach with the adjustment strategy (KHPSOA) is developed for this problem. The knowledge (e.g., the relation between its weight matrix and better solution) is obtained from this problem itself and existing layout scheme diagrams and applied to form more effective ordering and positioning rules of the proposed heuristic method. A better layout scheme of larger circles is obtained through the heuristic method. The optimal solution of this problem is obtained by inserting a few residual smaller circles into the gaps of the better layout scheme and further optimizing it through the proposed particle swarm optimization with the adjustment strategy. The numerical experiments show that KHPSOA is superior to the existing algorithms in the performances.

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

the weighted circle packing problem
particle swarm optimization
heuristic method
adjustment strategy


a new incompleteness result for hoare's system A structure A is presented for which Hoare's formal system for partial correctness is incomplete, even if the entire first-order theory of A is included among the axioms. It follows that the language of first-order logic is insufficient to express all loop invariants. The implications of this result for program-proving 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


Phase-transfer energetics of small-molecule alcohols across the water-hexane interface: Molecular dynamics simulations using charge equilibration models We study the water-hexane interface using molecular dynamics (MD) and polarizable charge equilibration (CHEQ) force fields. Bulk densities for TIP4P-FQ water and hexane, 1.0086 +/- 0.0002 and 0.6378 +/- 0.0001 g/cm(3), demonstrate excellent agreement with experiment. Interfacial width and interfacial tension are consistent with previously reported values. The in-plane component of the dielectric permittivity (epsilon(parallel to)) for water is shown to decrease from 81.7 +/- 0.04 to unity, transitioning longitudinally from bulk water to bulk hexane. epsilon(parallel to) for hexane reaches a maximum in the interface, but this term represents only a small contribution to the total dielectric constant (as expected for a non-polar species). Structurally, net orientations of the molecules arise in the interfacial region such that hexane lies slightly parallel to the interface and water reorients to maximize hydrogen bonding. Interfacial potentials due to contributions of the water and hexane are calculated to be -567.9 +/- 0.13 and 198.7 +/- 0.01 mV, respectively, giving rise to a total potential in agreement with the range of values reported from previous simulations of similar systems. Potentials of mean force (PMF) calculated for methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol for the transfer from water to hexane indicate an interfacial free energy minimum, corresponding to the amphiphilic nature of the molecules. The magnitudes of transfer free energies were further characterized from the solvation free energies of alcohols in water and hexane using thermodynamic integration. This analysis shows that solvation free energies for alcohols in hexane are 0.2-0.3 kcal/mol too unfavorable, whereas solvation of alcohols in water is approximately 1 kcal/mol too favorable. For the pure hexane-water interfacial simulations, we observe a monotonic decrease of the water dipole moment to near-vacuum values. This suggests that the electrostatic component of the desolvation free energy is not as severe for polarizable models than for fixed-charge force fields. The implications of such behavior pertain to the modeling of polar and charged solutes in lipidic environments. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

charge equilibration
water
hexane
interface
alcohols
methanol
ethanol
molecular dynamics

potential of mean force
propanol
polarizable force fields


A stable estimator of the information matrix under EM for dependent data This article develops a new and stable estimator for information matrix when the EM algorithm is used in maximum likelihood estimation. This estimator is constructed using the smoothed individual complete-data scores that are readily available from running the EM algorithm. The method works for dependent data sets and when the expectation step is an irregular function of the conditioning parameters. In comparison to the approach of Louis (J. R. Stat. Soc., Ser. B 44:226-233, 1982), this new estimator is more stable and easier to implement. Both real and simulated data are used to demonstrate the use of this new estimator.

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

em
information matrix
maximum likelihood


Efficient and resilient backbones for multihop wireless networks We consider the problem of finding "backbones" in multihop wireless networks. The backbone provides end-to-end connectivity, allowing nonbackbone nodes to save energy since they do not have to route nonlocal data or participate in the routing protocol. Ideally, such a backbone would be small, consist primarily of high capacity nodes, and remain connected even when nodes are mobile or fail. Unfortunately, it is often infeasible to construct a backbone that has all of these properties; e. g., a small optimal backbone is often too sparse to handle node failures or high mobility. We present a parameterized backbone construction algorithm that permits explicit trade-offs between backbone size, resilience to node movement and failure, energy consumption, and path lengths. We prove that our scheme can construct essentially best possible backbones (with respect to energy consumption and backbone size) when the network is relatively static. We generalize our scheme to build more robust structures better suited to networks with higher mobility. We present a distributed protocol based upon our algorithm and show that this protocol builds and maintains a connected backbone in dynamic networks. Finally, we present detailed packet-level simulation results to evaluate and compare our scheme with existing energy-saving techniques. Our results show that, depending on the network environment, our scheme increases network lifetimes by 20 percent to 220 percent without adversely affecting delivery ratio or end-to-end latency.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 algorithm/protocol design and analysis


Climbing robots for maintenance and inspections of vertical structuresA survey of design aspects and technologies Comprehensive state-of-the-art in climbing robots for maintenance and inspections. Overview on locomotion and attraction principles for climbing robots. Discussion and classification of requirements for commercial systems. Schematics and design aspects of climbing robots.

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

climbing robot
adhesion principles
inspection


Introducing the use of depth data for fall detection Current emergency systems for elderly contain at least one sensor (button or accelerometer), which has to be worn or pressed in case of emergency. If elderly fall and loose their consciousness, they are not able to press the button anymore. Therefore, autonomous systems to detect falls without wearing any devices are needed. This paper presents three different non-invasive technologies: the use of audio, 2D sensors (cameras) and introduces a new technology for fall detection: the Kinect as 3D depth sensor. Our fall detection algorithms using the Kinect are evaluated on 72 video sequences, containing 40 falls and 32 activities of daily living. The evaluation results are compared with State-of-the-Art approaches using 2D sensors or microphones.

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


Sparse representation of transients in wavelet basis and its application in gearbox fault feature extraction A method of sparse representation in wavelet basis is proposed for gearbox fault feature extraction. The split augmented Lagrangian shrinkage algorithm is employed in sparse representation. Optimal wavelet atom is selected corresponding to the actual signal through correlation filtering. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by both of the simulated signals and the practical applications.

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

sparse representation
wavelet basis
feature extraction


using elimination to implement scalable and lock-free fifo queues This paper shows for the first time that elimination, a scaling technique formerly applied only to counters and LIFO structures, can be applied to FIFO data structures, specifically, to linearizable FIFO queues. We show how to transform existing nonscalable FIFO queue implementations into scalable implementations using the elimination technique, while preserving lock-freedom and linearizablity.We apply our transformation to the FIFO queue algorithm of Michael and Scott, which is included in the Java Concurrency Package. Empirical evaluation on a state-of-the-art CMT multiprocessor chip shows that by using elimination as a backoff technique for the Michael and Scott queue algorithm, we can achieve comparable performance at low loads, and improved scalability as load increases.

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

elimination
fifo queues
performance
data structures
concurrency
queue
algorithm
paper
empirical evaluation
transformation
scalability

scale
packaging
implementation
linearizability
art
timing
nonblocking synchronization
locking
multiprocessors
lock-free


Furstyling on angle-split shell textures This paper presents a new method for modeling and rendering fur with a wide variety of furstyles. We simulate virtual fur using shell textures-a multiple layers of textured slices for its generality and efficiency. As shell textures usually suffer from the inherent Visual gal; errors due to the uniform discretization nature, We present the angle-split shell textures (ASST) approach, which classifies the shell textures into different types with different numbers of texture layers, by splitting the angle space of the viewing angles between fur orientation and view directiom Our system can render the fur With biological patterns, and utilizes vector field and scalar field on ASST to control the geometric variations of the furry shape. Users can intuitively shape the fur by applying the combing, blowing, and interpolating effects in real time. Our approach is intuitive to implement without using complex data structures, with real-time performance for dynamic fur appearances. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

angle-split shell textures
vector fields
interactive modeling


Domain load balancing routing for multi-gateway wireless mesh networks As Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are typically used for Internet access, most traffic is routed through the gateways which connect WMN to the wired network. As a result, the gateways tend to get congested and balancing of the traffic load of gateways is critical. In this paper, we consider applications that require continuous provision of a certain bandwidth to a server located at the wired network. If a path that satisfies the bandwidth request cannot be found, the request will be rejected, so that load imbalance will result underutilization of the network capacity. We present a novel load balancing routing algorithm for maximizing the network utilization (i.e., accommodating service requests as many as possible) for multi-gateway WMNs. In the proposed scheme, a WMN is divided into domains. Each domain is served by one gateway, so that all traffic of a domain is served by the corresponding gateway. Our scheme determines routing to balance the traffic load among domains, and then performs load balancing routing within each domain. Simulation results show that in square grid topologies, our intra-domain routing achieves near optimal performance with about 70% less overhead than the existing schemes. Our inter-domain load balancing scheme outperforms the existing heuristics by up to 25% while achieving about 80% performance of the optimal solution.

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


Multi-scale homogenization procedure for continuumatomistic, thermo-mechanical problems A multi-scale algorithm is developed for solving, continuumatomistic thermo-mechanical problems. The coupling of the two scales occurs through a homogenization procedure. A uniform weighted residual approximation method is used to consistently model the interaction of the continuum and atomistic scales. Implementation of the coupling occurs through the transfer of macroscopic and microscopic variables at the macroscopic gauss points. The mechanism for transfer of atomistic information to the macro-level occurs through the Virial stress and the heat flux vector. A dynamic relaxation procedure is introduced to efficiently compute the coupled equilibrium solutions at the macroscopic and microscopic scales. The algorithm has been successfully tested for thermal stress analysis cases, involving constrained and unconstrained macro-components and fixed temperature distributions. Problems involving varying temperatures and heat transfer have been solved and are shown to be in good agreement with molecular dynamics results.

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


A feedback vertex set of 2-degenerate graphs A feedback vertex set of a graph G is a set S of its vertices such that the subgraph induced by V(G)?S V ( G ) ? S is a forest. The cardinality of a minimum feedback vertex set of G is denoted by ?(G) ? ( G ) . A graph G is 2-degenerate if each subgraph G? G ? of G has a vertex v such that dG?(v)?2 d G ? ( v ) ? 2 . In this paper, we prove that ?(G)?2n/5 ? ( G ) ? 2 n / 5 for any 2-degenerate n-vertex graph G and moreover, we show that this bound is tight. As a consequence, we derive a polynomial time algorithm, which for a given 2-degenerate n -vertex graph returns its feedback vertex set of cardinality at most 2n/5 2 n / 5 .

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


k-spine, 1-bend planarity In this paper, we study k-spine, h-bend planar drawings in which each vertex of a planar graph G lies on one of k >= 1 horizontal lines and each edge of G is drawn as a polyline containing at most h >= 0 bends. A graph with a k-spine, h-bend planar drawing is said to be k-spine, h-bend planar. We mainly focus on k- spine, 1-bend planar drawings, showing that for each k >= 2, there exists a planar graph that is not k-spine, 1-bend planar, and furthermore, that it is NP-hard to test k-spine, 1-bend planarity. Given this complexity result, we further narrow our focus onto 2-spine, 1-bend planar drawings. We characterize 2-spine, 1-bend planarity using anew generalization of Hamiltonian graphs that we call Hamiltonian-with-handles graphs. We observe that our characterization naturally extends the connection between 2-page book embeddings and Hamiltonicity. Finally, we use our characterization to show that 2-outerplanar graphs are 2-spine, 1-bend planar. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

graph drawing
graph theory
spine drawing


Diagnosis of resistive-open and stuck-open defects in digital CMOS ICs A resistive-open defect is an imperfect circuit connection that can be modeled as a defect resistor between two circuit nodes that should be connected. A stuck-open (SOP) defect is a complete break (no current flow) between two circuit nodes that should be connected. Conventional single stuck-at fault diagnosis cannot precisely diagnose these two defects because the test results of defective chips depend on the sequence of test patterns. This paper presents precise diagnosis techniques for these two defects. The diagnosis techniques take the test-pattern sequence into account, and therefore, produce precise diagnosis results. Also, our diagnosis technique handles multiple faults of different fault models. The diagnosis techniques are validated by experimental results. Twelve SOP and one resistive-open chips are diagnosed out of a total of 459 defective chips.

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

automatic test pattern generation (atpg)


Computing the real parabolic cylinder functions U(a,x), V(a,x) Methods for the computation of real parabolic cylinder functions U( a, x) and V( a, x) and their derivatives are described. We give details on power series, asymptotic series, recursion and quadrature. A combination of these methods can be used for computing parabolic cylinder functions for unrestricted values of the order a and the variable x except for the overflow/underflow limitations. By factoring the dominant exponential factor, scaled functions can be computed without practical overflow/ underflow limitations. In an accompanying article we describe the precise domains for these methods and we present the Fortran 90 codes for the computation of these functions.

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

algorithms
nonoscillating integral representations
numerical quadrature
asymptotic expansions


Multiphase Joint Segmentation-Registration and Object Tracking for Layered Images In this paper we propose to jointly segment and register objects of interest in layered images. Layered imaging refers to imageries taken from different perspectives and possibly by different sensors. Registration and segmentation are therefore the two main tasks which contribute to the bottom level, data alignment, of the multisensor data fusion hierarchical structures. Most exploitations of two layered images assumed that scanners are at very high altitudes and that only one transformation ties the two images. Our data are however taken at mid-range and therefore requires segmentation to assist us examining different object regions in a divide-and-conquer fashion. Our approach is a combination of multiphase active contour method with a joint segmentation-registration technique (which we called MPJSR) carried out in a local moving window prior to a global optimization. To further address layered video sequences and tracking objects in frames, we propose a simple adaptation of optical flow calculations along the active contours in a pair of layered image sequences. The experimental results show that the whole integrated algorithm is able to delineate the objects of interest, align them for a pair of layered frames and keep track of the objects over time.

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

joint segmentation registration
layered sensing
multiphase active contour
visual motion


Multimedia event-based video indexing using time intervals We propose the time interval multimedia event (TIME) framework as a robust approach for classification of semantic events in multimodal video documents. The representation used in TIME extends the Allen temporal interval relations and allows for proper inclusion of context and synchronization of the heterogeneous information sources involved in multimodal video analysis. To demonstrate the viability of our approach, it was evaluated on the domains of soccer and news broadcasts. For automatic classification of semantic events, we compare three different machine learning techniques, i.c. C4.5 decision tree, maximum entropy, and support vector machine. The results show that semantic video indexing results significantly benefit from using the TIME framework.

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

multimodal integration
semantic event classification
statistical pattern recognition
time interval relations


Detection of Astrakhan Fever Rickettsia from Ticks in Kosovo Astrakhan fever is a summer spotted fever resembling Mediterranean spotted fever, endemic in Astrakhan, a region of Russia located by the Caspian sea. Its agent is a spotted fever group rickettsia, member of the Rickettsia conorii complex, transmitted to humans by Rhipicephalus sanguineus and Rhipicephalus pumilio ticks. In Summer 2001, French United Nations troops in Kosovo collected 2 ticks on asymptomatic soldiers (1 R. sanguineus and 1 Hyalomma marginatum) and 10 ticks on dogs (7 R. sanguineus, 2 Ixodes ricinus, and 1 H. marginatum) in the Morina region. By PCR amplification of both the gltA and ompA genes, we detected a rickettsia in 4 R. sanguineus, i.e., 3 of those collected on dogs and those taken from military personnel. As ticks were preserved in alcohol, culture was not possible. The sequences obtained from these PCR products identified, with a 100% homology, Astrakhan fever rickettsia. None of the other collected tick species was positive. The patient with the positive tick remained asymptomatic. Our study demonstrates, for the first time, the presence of Astrakhan fever rickettsia in ticks outside Russia. We suspect that the area of distribution of this rickettsia could be wider than initially suspected. Moreover, as R. sanguineus ticks bite humans, Astrakhan fever might be a cause of spotted fever in Kosovo.

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

astrakhan fever rickettsia
kosovo
spotted fever group


Bound on the Jordan type of a generic nilpotent matrix commuting with a given matrix It is well known that a nilpotent nn matrix B is determined up to conjugacy by a partition of n formed by the sizes of the Jordan blocks of B. We call this partition the Jordan type of B. We obtain partial results on the following problem: for any partition P of n describe the type Q(P) of a generic nilpotent matrix commuting with a given nilpotent matrix of type P. A conjectural description for Q(P) was given by P.Oblak and restated by L.Khatami. In this paper we prove half of this conjecture by showing that this conjectural type is less than or equal to Q(P) in the dominance order on partitions.

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


improving flow-insensitive solutions for non-separable dataflow problems Flow-insensitive solutions to dataflow problems have been known to be highly scalable; however also hugely imprecise. For non-separable dataflow problems this solution is further degraded due to spurious facts generated as a result of dependence among the dataflow facts. We propose an improvement to the standard flow-insensitive analysis by creating a generalized version of the dominator relation that reduces the number of spurious facts generated. In addition, the solution obtained contains extra information to facilitate the extraction of a better solution at any program point, very close to the flow-sensitive solution. To improve the solution further, we propose the use of an intra-block variable renaming scheme. We illustrate these concepts using two classic non-separable dataflow problems --- points-to analysis and constant propagation.

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

dataflow analysis
compiler optimizations
compilers


a proposal for chemical information retrieval evaluation Based on the important progresses made in information retrieval (IR) in terms of theoretical models and evaluations, more and more attention has recently been paid to the research in domain specific IR, as evidenced by the organization of Genomics and Legal tracks in TREC (Text REtrieval Conference). We think that now is the right time to carry out large scale evaluations on chemistry datasets in order to promote the research in chemical IR in general and chemical patent IR in particular. Accordingly, we propose the organization of a chemical IR track in TREC in order to address the challenges in chemical and patent IR. In this position paper, we present the research questions we will address in the proposed track, our initial plan of the proposed track, and the kind of search tasks we propose for the track. We focus on the design of a new chemical entity search task consisting of two sub-tasks, i.e., chemical entity search and chemical entity relation search.

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 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

chemical information retrieval
chemistry


Who Knows the Power of His Bones: Reburial Redux This paper discusses the repatriation of human remains to indigenous peoples in Australia and the United States and the role anthropologists play in the construction of past, present, and future identities for contemporary indigenous peoples. Using examples from both countries, I suggest that many of the participants at the reburials, and in the events leading up to them, were not only reburying their dead ancestors and addressing religious concerns, but were also redeeming past social injustices, renegotiating the status quo, and affirming their modern social and religious identity-all important issues for Fourth World peoples living in First World nation-states today. Reburials are powerful social dramas, testimony to the complex historical relationships between and among all concerned, living and dead, indigenous and non-indigenous. I also argue that as Fourth World peoples attempt to renegotiate the status quo by turning to the past and reburying their ancestors, the important role of anthropologists in this effort should be considered in terms of both practice and theory. Because of the combination of heritage/cultural resource management legislation, government regulations, a changing professional ethic in regards to issues of repatriation, anthropologists in all subdisciplines are increasingly involved in the witting and unwitting reproduction of indigenous social orders. The implications of this and its ethical dilemmas for anthropologists working in all the subdisciplines and in varied workplaces are explored. The necessity of working with indigenous communities is underscored and suggestions for working toward a common universal heritage are presented.

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

reburial
repatriation of human remains
bones
indigenous peoples

nagpra
archaeology
ethics
ancestral
australian aboriginal reburials
native american reburials
mortuary customs
mindil beach (australia)
reburial at
ellis island (new york)
delaware (indian) bones
repatriation of
politics of identity
politics of the past
anthropology


An improved distributed power-control scheme for cellular mobile systems In this paper, a new distributed power-control (DPC) scheme is suggested to improve convergence speed and system robustness against carrier-to-interference-ratio (CIR) estimation errors. To expedite the CIR balancing in our DPC scheme, an instability detection ride was used. As compared with Foschini's DPC (FDPC) method, numerical results indicated that the proposed algorithm achieves performance improvements in terms of outage probability as well as in the algorithm's convergence speed. More specifically, by appropriate selection of some parameters, the algorithm speed reduces from about 90 iterations in FDPC to 9 iterations in the proposed algorithm. The system robustness against CIR estimation errors was also explored.

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

cellular systems
distributed algorithms
power control


Estimation of stability lobe diagrams in milling with continuous learning algorithms Continuous Learning of the Process Stability during production. Trust criterion allows the estimation of the quality of the approximation. Enhanced training process for RAN-RBF-network with Multi-Input-Extended-Kalman-Filter.

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

process stability
milling
learning algorithms