An effective branching strategy based on structural relationship among multiple forbidden induced subgraphs Branching on forbidden induced subgraphs is a genetic strategy to obtain parameterized algorithms for many edge modification problems. For such a problem in which the graph property is defined by multiple forbidden induced subgraphs, branching process is trivially performed on each subgraph. Thus, the size of the resulting search tree is dominated by the size of the largest forbidden subgraph. In this paper, we present a simple strategy for deriving significantly improved branching rules to deal with multiple forbidden subgraphs by edge modifications. The basic idea hereby is that while constructing branching rules for the largest forbidden subgraph, we sufficiently take into account the structural relationship between it and other forbidden subgraphs. By applying this strategy, we obtain improved parameterized algorithms for edge modification problems for several graph properties such as 3-leaf power, proper interval, threshold and co-trivially perfect graphs.

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


Analysis of dynamic MR breast images using a model of contrast enhancement We describe a model of dynamic contrast enhancement in breast MRI designed to aid the radiologist in cases for which X-ray mammography is ineffective. The breasts are segmented from the image slices by a dynamic programming algorithm after morphological opening. A pharmacokinetic model has been derived to fit the rise in intensities after injection of a contrast agent, in a way that facilitates investigation of the effects of different models of bolus injection. The pharmacokinetic model is used in a modified HornSchunck algorithm to correct for motion effects during the seven minute acquisition period. The results show significant localization of tumours and enable discrimination of cancerous tissue. In particular, we illustrate the approach with an image that shows a carcinoma, whose appearance and localization are greatly improved by the registration algorithm.

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

mri of the breast
pharmacokinetic modelling


Scalability analysis of Dalton, a molecular structure program We performed a detailed performance analysis of Dalton a computational chemistry code. We improved the performance of numerical and communication operations. We reorganized the masterworker architecture with teams of workers to increase the scalability. Optimizations allow to use efficiently a significant larger number of nodes than before.

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


Minimization of circuit registers: Retiming revisited We address the following problem: given a synchronous digital circuit, is it possible to construct a new circuit computing the same function as the original one but using a minimal number of registers? We show that the minimal number of registers is the size of the minimal cut on a bi-infinite graph, namely the unfolding of the dependencies in the digital circuit. Furthermore, the construction of such a cut and the corresponding circuit can be done in polynomial time, using a max-flow min-cut result of Orlin for one-periodic bi-infinite graphs. Finally, we show the relation between this construction and the retiming technique introduced by Leiserson and Saxe.

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

digital circuits
register minimization
periodic graphs
cuts and flows


Set-valued information systems Set-valued information systems are generalized models of single-valued information systems. Incomplete information systems can be viewed as disjunctively interpreted set-valued information systems. Since some objects in set-valued information systems may have more than one value for an attribute, so we define tolerance relation and use the maximal tolerance classes to classify the universe of discourse. In order to derive optimal decision rules from set-valued decision information systems, we propose the concept of relative reduct of maximal tolerance classes, and define a kind of discernibility function to compute the relative reduct by Boolean reasoning techniques. Finally, we define three kinds of relative reducts for set-valued information systems and used them to evaluate the significance of attributes.

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

tolerance relation
discernibility function

set-valued information system
maximal tolerance class
attribute reduct


On the use of compact polarimetry SAR for ship detection Quad-pol data are generally acknowledged as providing the highest performance in ship detection applications using SAR data. Yet quad-pol data have half the swath width of single and dual-pol data and are thus less useful for maritime surveillance, where wide area coverage is crucial. Compact polarimetry (CP) has been proposed as a compromise between swath width and polarization information. The circular-transmit-linear-receive (CTLR) CP data have certain engineering advantages over other CP configurations. CP data may be used to reconstruct a reduced quad-pol covariance matrix (termed pseudo-quad, or PQ, data) and the potential of these data in terrestrial applications has recently been demonstrated. We present some of the first results on the use of CTLR data and reconstructed quad-pol data for ship detection. We use Radarsat-2 fine-quad (FQ) data to examine 76 ships over a range of incidence angles and ship orientations at low to moderate wind speeds. We examined the ship detection performance of full quad-pol and full-PQ data; several dual-pol configurations suggested in the literature, HV and PQ HV and the raw CTLR data. We find that the ship detection performance of the PQ HV data is the strongest of all the detectors we examined, with performance that was comparable to quad-pol data. Other strong performers were HV and CTLR data.

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

compact polarimetry
synthetic aperture radar


Fabrication of precise copper micro-coils using electrolytic etching Precise and homogeneous copper micro-coils were fabricated using electrolytic etching in aqueous solution of sodium chloride and ammonium chloride. It was clarified that the etching rate was hardly influenced by the resist pattern thickness and the etching voltage, but only depended on the helical space pattern width. Start and stop of the etching was exactly controlled by switching on and off the power supply circuit, and the etching was practiced under the room temperature without heating the specimens. The sidewall surfaces of the etched coils were very much smoother than those of the coils fabricated by the conventional chemical etching, and very favorable coil width homogeneity was obtained even for narrow space patterns with a width around 10?m.

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

dissociation etching
micro-coil
helical pattern
laser lithography


defining constraints graphically A number of constraint-oriented, interactive graphical systems have been constructed. A typical problem in such systems is that, to define a new kind of constraint, the user must leave the graphical domain and write code in the underlying implementation language. This makes it difficult for less experienced users to add new kinds of constraints. As a step toward solving this problem, the system described here allows the graphical definition of constraints. An interface has been built in which a user can conveniently construct a new kind of object, annotating it with the relations that it must obey.

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

implementation object systems users constraint user language code definition


fisheyes are good for large steering tasks Fisheye views use distortion to provide both local detail and global context in a single continuous view. However, the distorted presentation can make it more difficult to interact with the data; it is therefore not clear whether fisheye views are good choices for interactive tasks. To investigate this question, we tested the effects of magnification and representation on user performance in a basic pointing activity called steering - where a user moves a pointer along a predefined path in the workspace. We looked specifically at magnified steering, where the entire path does not fit into one view. We tested three types of fisheye at several levels of distortion, and also compared the fisheyes with two non-distorting techniques. We found that increasing distortion did not reduce steering performance, and that the fisheyes were faster than the non-distorting techniques. Our results show that in situations where magnification is required, distortion-oriented views can be effective representations for interactive tasks.

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

fit views use performance types context representation user global

situated
interaction
present
activation
point
fisheye views
pointers
steering law
continuation
effect
locality


On differential properties of copulas We clarify the problem of the existence of functions obtained as particular restrictions of the first partial derivatives of a quasi-copula and we show their role for characterizing the 2-increasing property. The question of the existence of the one-sided first partial derivatives of a copula along an affine section of the real unit square is discussed and new results and several examples are provided. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

quasi-copula
2-increasing property
rademacher's theorem


a montage method: the overlaying of the computer generated images onto a background photograph A system of computer programs has been established to generate high quality montage image of considerable usefulness in architectural simulation which combine computer-generated images and photographed background pictures.Traditionally, there are two methods of creating architectural montages: (1) an artist paints new buildings onto a background scene usually generated photographically, and (2) a three-dimensional scale model is created to simulate the whole landscape, and this model is then photographed. The montage method described here combines aspects of both traditional montage methods with significant improvement in accuracy and reduction of time and cost of preparation. Specifically, a digitized photograph is used as a background scene onto which is superimposed a 3D computer-generated image of a new building. The outstanding points of the new method are:(i) The shading and shadows of each computer generated image are calculated with higher accuracy, (ii) the fog effect is taken into account, and (iii) a new anti-aliasing technique improves the quality of the final montage image.

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

quality method accuracy simulation scale reduction 3d image account model effect cost

program point aspect use systems architecture computation timing imaging aliasing


Incremental association mining using a closed-set lattice The use of closed-set algorithms to generate condensed accurate representations of a dataset's frequent itemsets has been well documented. This paper presents a novel approach to incremental association mining in which the maintenance of the set of frequent itemsets is based upon the evolution of a closed-set lattice. This approach also creates a closed-set representation of the increment dataset, providing the user with insight to the increment's effect upon the maintained lattice and provides an effective means of incorporating windowing functionality.

O B I O O O O O O O O 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


Input selection for disturbance rejection under manipulated variable constraints In this paper, two new input screening techniques that consider the disturbance rejection capability of a process in the presence of manipulated variable constraints are proposed. These are used to overcome the difficulties associated with the combinatorial problem that naturally arises in control structure selection. The measures used to provide screening criteria are the Worst Case Input-Disturbance Gain (WCIDG) and the Input-Disturbance Gain Deviation (IDGD). These criteria are used to determine the best choice of manipulated variables to provide a control structure with the best disturbance-rejection capability.

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 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

control structure selection
disturbance rejection


A dual encoding-based meta-heuristic algorithm for solving a constrained hybrid flow shop scheduling problem Though scheduling problems have been largely investigated by literature over the last 50 years, this topic still influences the research activity of many experts and practitioners, especially due to a series of studies which recently emphasized the closeness between theory and industrial practice. In this paper the scheduling problem of a hybrid flow shop with m stages, inspired to a truly observed micro-electronics manufacturing environment, has been investigated. Overlap between jobs of the same type, waiting time limit of jobs within inter-stage buffers as well as machine unavailability time intervals represent just a part of the constraints which characterize the problem here investigated. A mixed integer linear programming model of the problem in hand has been developed with the aim to validate the performance concerning the proposed optimization technique, based on a two-phase metaheuristics (MEs). In the first phase the proposed ME algorithm evolves similarly to a genetic algorithm equipped with a regular permutation encoding. Subsequently, since the permutation encoding is not able to investigate the overall space of solutions, a random search algorithm equipped with an m-stage permutation encoding is launched for improving the algorithm strength in terms of both exploration and exploitation. Extensive numerical studies on a benchmark of problems, along with a properly arranged ANOVA analysis, demonstrate the statistical outperformance of the proposed approach with respect to the traditional optimization approach based on a single encoding. Finally, a comprehensive comparative analysis involving the proposed algorithm and several metaheuristics developed by literature demonstrated the effectiveness of the dual encoding based approach for solving HFS scheduling problems. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

metaheuristics
genetic algorithm
encoding
optimization


An orientation-selective orthogonal lapped transform A novel critically sampled orientation-selective orthogonal lapped transform called the lapped Hartley transform (LHT) is derived. In a first step, overlapping basis functions are generated by modulating basis functions of a 2-D block Hartley transform by a cosine wave. To achieve invertibility and orthogonality, an iterative filter is applied as prefilter in the analysis and as postfilter in the synthesis operation, respectively. Alternatively, filtering can be restricted to analysis or synthesis, ending up with a biorthogonal transform (LHT-PR, LHT-PO). A statistical analysis based on a 4000-image data base shows that the LHT and LHT-PO have better redundancy removal properties than other block or lapped transforms. Finally, image compression and noise removal examples are given, showing the advantages of the LHT especially in images containing oriented textures.

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


Partial Factorization of a Dense Symmetric Indefinite Matrix At the heart of a frontal or multifrontal solver for the solution of sparse symmetric sets of linear equations, there is the need to partially factorize dense matrices (the frontal matrices) and to be able to use their factorizations in subsequent forward and backward substitutions. For a large problem, packing ( holding only the lower or upper triangular part) is important to save memory. It has long been recognized that blocking is the key to efficiency and this has become particularly relevant on modern hardware. For stability in the indefinite case, the use of interchanges and 2x2 pivots as well as 1x1 pivots is equally well established. In this article, the challenge of using these three ideas ( packing, blocking, and pivoting) together is addressed to achieve stable factorizations of large real-world symmetric indefinite problems with good execution speed. The ideas are not restricted to frontal and multifrontal solvers and are applicable whenever partial or complete factorizations of dense symmetric indefinite matrices are needed.

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

indefinite matrices
frontal
multifrontal

algorithms
experimentation
performance
symmetric linear systems
ldl(t) factorization


New Lower Bounds on Circuit Size of Multi-output Functions Let B n, m be the set of all Boolean functions from {0, 1} n to {0, 1} m , B n = B n, 1 and U 2 = B 2?{?, ?}. In this paper, we prove the following two new lower bounds on the circuit size over U 2. 1. A lower bound \(C_{U_{2}}(f) \ge 5n-o(n)\) for a linear function f ? B n ? 1,logn . The lower bound follows from the following more general result: for any matrix A ? {0, 1} m n with n pairwise different non-zero columns and b ? {0, 1} m , $$C_{U_{2}}(Ax \oplus b)\ge 5(n-m).$$ 2. A lower bound \(C_{U_{2}}(f) \ge 7n-o(n)\) for f ? B n, n . Again, this is a consequence of the following result: for any f ? B n satisfying a certain simple property, $$C_{U_{2}}(g(f)) \ge \min \{C_{U_{2}}(f|_{x_{i} = a, x_{j} = b}) \colon x_{i} \neq x_{j}, a,b, \in \{0,1\}\} +2n-\varTheta (1)$$ where g(f) ? B n, n is defined as follows: g(f) = (f ? x 1, , f ? x n ) (to get a 7n ? o(n) lower bound it remains to plug in a known function f ? B n, 1 with \(C_{U_{2}}(f) \ge 5n-o(n)\)).

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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 new uniform parameterization and invariant 3D spherical harmonic shape descriptors for shape analysis of the heart's left ventricle - A pilot study A new approach for uniform parameterization and rotation invariant global description of 3D triangular surface meshes of objects with a spherical topology is presented. It consists of two steps. First, an initial mapping based on a heat conduction model is carried out and an optimization of the initial parameterization in a constrained optimization procedure is applied. Second, a rotation invariant 3D shape description is achieved using the abstract harmonic analysis and the shift theorem. Our approach is validated on both synthetic data and real data obtained from myocardial scintigraphy imaging technique as an example. (c) 2010 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.

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

uniform parameterization
left ventricle
myocardial scintigraphy

spherical harmonic model
rotation invariant 3d shape descriptors


Integrating dynamic time-to-market, pricing, production and sales channel decisions We provide an optimization model that captures the key trade-offs among time-to-market, sales channel, pricing and production decisions. We characterize optimal pricing, market timing and production policies. We show how pricing lever can be used to mitigate the risk of entering the market early or late. We study the role of the secondary sales channel on market timing, pricing and inventory decisions. We provide a method to characterize optimal policies for optimal stopping problems. The results are also proven to be useful for practical application because the model was developed in conjunction with a major hard disk drive manufacturer.

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

time-to-market
stochastic production systems
learning by doing


First-Class State Change in Plaid Objects model the world, and state is fundamental to a faithful modeling. Engineers use state machines to understand and reason about state transitions, but programming languages provide little support for building software based on state abstractions. We propose Plaid, a language in which objects are modeled not just in terms of classes, but in terms of changing abstract states. Each state may have its own representation, as well as methods that may transition the object into a new state. A formal model precisely defines the semantics of core Plaid constructs such as state transition and trait-like state composition. We evaluate Plaid through a series of examples taken from the Plaid compiler and the standard libraries of Smalltalk and Java. These examples show how Plaid can more closely model state-based designs, enhancing understandability, enhancing dynamic error checking, and providing reuse benefits.

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

design documentation reliability typestate state-chart


A fuzzy approach to Markov decision processes with uncertain transition probabilities In this paper, Markov decision models with uncertain transition matrices, which allow a matrix to fluctuate at each step in time, is described by the use of fuzzy sets. We find a Pareto optimal policy maximizing the infinite horizon fuzzy expected discounted reward (FEDR) over all stationary policies under some partial order. The Pareto optimal policies are characterized by maximal solutions of an optimal inclusion including efficient set-functions. As a numerical example, a machine maintenance problem is considered. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Optimizing the number of learning cycles in the design of radial basis neural networks using a multi-agent system Radial Basis Neural (RBN) network has the power of the universal approximation function and the convergence of those networks is very fast compared to multilayer feedforward neural networks. However, how to determine the architecture of the RBN networks to solve a given problem is not straightforward. In addition, the number of hidden units allocated in an RBN network seems to be a critical factor in the performance of these networks. In this work, the design of RBN network is based on the cooperation of n + m agents: n RBN agents and m manager agents. The n + m agents are organized in a Multi-agent System. The training process is distributed among the n RBN agents, each one with a different number of neurons. Each agent executes a number of training cycles, a stage, when the manager decides about that is the best RBN agent and sends it the corresponding message. The m manager agents have in charge to control the evolution of each problem. Each manager agent controls one problem. Manager agents govern the whole process; each one decides about the best RBN agent in each stage for each problem. The results show that the proposed method is able to find the most adequate RBN network architecture. In addition, a reduction in the number of training cycles is obtained with the proposed Multi-agent strategy instead of sequential strategy.

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

multiagent systems
distributed systems
distributed learning
radial basis nn


Serial binary multiplication with feed-forward neural networks In this paper we propose no learning based neural networks for serial binary multiplication. We show that for subarray-wise generation of the partial product matrix and a data transmission rate of ? bits per cycle the serial multiplication of two n bits operands can be computed in ?n/?? serial cycles with an size neural network, and maximum fan-in and weight values both in the order of . The minimum delay for this scheme is in the order of and it corresponds to a data transmission rate of bits per cycle. For column-wise generation of the partial product matrix and a data transmission rate of 1-bit per cycle the serial multiplication can be achieved in delay with a (k+1)(n?1)/(k?1) size neural network, a maximum weight of 2k and a maximum fan-in of 3k+1 . If a data transmission rate of ? bits per serial cycle is assumed we prove a delay of for a (?+1)(n?1) size neural network, a maximum weight of 2? and a maximum fan-in of 3?+1 .

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

feed-forward neural networks
mccullochpitts neural networks
threshold logic
counters
serial binary multipliers


Finite element-based analysis of shunted piezoelectric structures for vibration damping Piezoelectric patches shunted with passive electrical networks can be attached to a host structure for reduction of structural vibrations. This approach is frequently called shunted piezo damping and has the advantage of guaranteed stability and low complexity in implementation. For numerical treatment of such structures, a finite element modelling methodology is presented that incorporates both the piezoelectric coupling effects of the patches and the electrical dynamics of the connected passive electrical circuits. It allows direct computation of the achieved modal damping ratios as a major design criterion of interest. The damping ratios are determined from the eigenvalue problem corresponding to the coupled model containing piezoelectric structure and passive electrical circuit. The model includes local stiffening and mass effects as a result of the attached patches and, therefore, enables accurate prediction of the natural frequencies and corresponding modal damping ratios. This becomes crucial for choosing the patch thickness to achieve optimal modal damping for a given host structure. Additionally, structures with complex geometry or spatially varying material properties can easily be handled. Furthermore, the use of a finite element formulation for the coupled model of piezoelectric patches and a host structure facilitates design modifications and systematic investigations of parameter dependencies. In this paper, the impact of parameters of the passive electrical network on modal damping ratios as well as the variation of the patch thickness are studied. An application of this modelling method is realized by commercial software packages by importing fully coupled ANSYS models in MATLAB. Afterwards, modal truncation is applied, the dynamic equations of the passive electrical network are integrated into the piezoelectric model and eigenvalue problems are solved to extract the increase in modal damping ratios. The numerical results are verified by experiments.

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

piezoelectric structure
passive electrical network
vibration damping


Optimal broadcasting in injured hypercubes using directed safety levels Reliable communication in injured hypercubes with faulty links/nodes using directed safety levels is studied in this paper. in this approach. each node it in an n-dimensional hypercube (n-cube) is associated with a sequence of directed safety levels. A directed safety level associated with node u is an approximated measure of broadcast capability of performing optimal broadcasting from it in an (n - 1)-subcube containing u. By optimal broadcasting, we mean that the broadcast message reaches each destination through a shortest path (i.e., the length of each path is equal to the Hamming distance between the source and destination). Directed safety levels are based on a special coding scheme generalized from Wu's safety level model and are calculated through it - I rounds of information exchanges and updates among neighboring nodes. In this model, fault information of nodes within distance-d is precisely represented to better capture link faults, whereas fault information of nodes outside distance-d is approximated as in the regular safety level model. Optimal broadcasting at node u is guaranteed if node it is globally safe, which is defined in terms of the directed safety levels associated with it. The directed safety level model with d = 1 or d = 2 has the same asymptotic complexity as the regular safety level model. Simulation results show a significant improvement in terms of optimal broadcast capability in injured hypercubes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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


Optimal allocation of minimal & perfect repairs under resource constraints The effect of a repair of a complex system can usually be approximated by the following two types: minimal repair for which the system is restored to its functioning state with minimum effort, or perfect repair for which the system is replaced or repaired to a good-as-new state. When both types of repair are possible an important problem is to determine the repair policy; that is, the type of repair which should be carried out after a failure. In this paper, an optimal. Allocation problem is studied for a monotonic failure rate repairable system under some resource constraints. In the first model, the numbers of minimal & perfect repairs are fixed, and the optimal repair policy maximizing the expected system lifetime is studied. In the second model, the total amount of repair resource is fixed and the costs of each minimal & perfect repair are assumed to be known. The optimal allocation algorithm is derived in this case. Two numerical examples are shown to illustrate the procedures.

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

expected system lifetimes minimal repair


Social balance in signed networks The theory of social balance, also called structural balance, is first proposed by Heider in 1940s, which is utilized to describe the potential social dynamics process. This theory is of great importance in sociology, computer science, psychology and other disciplines where social systems can be represented as signed networks. The social balance problem is hard but very interesting. It has attracted many researchers from various fields working on it over the past few years. Many significant theories and approaches have been developed and now exhibit tremendous potential for future applications. A comprehensive review of these existing studies can provide us significant insights into understanding the dynamic patterns of social systems. Yet to our investigation, existing studies have not done this, especially from a dynamical perspective. In this paper, we make an attempt towards conducting a brief survey of these scientific activities on social balance. Our efforts aim to review what has been done so far in this evolving area. We firstly introduce the fundamental concepts and significant properties of social balance. Then we summarize the existing balance measures and present detecting/partitioning algorithms, as well as important empirical investigations in both physical world and cyberspace. We next mainly focus on describing and comparing the fundamental mechanisms of the dynamics models. Several existing problems not yet satisfactorily solved in this area are also discussed.

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


Classifying high dimensional data by interactive visual analysis Data mining techniques such as classification algorithms are applied to data which are usually high dimensional and very large. In order to assist the user to perform a classification task, visual techniques can be employed to represent high dimensional data in a more comprehensible 2D or 3D space. However, such representation of high dimensional data in the 2D or 3D space may unavoidably cause overlapping data and information loss. This issue can be addressed by interactive visualization. With expert domain knowledge, the user can build classifiers that are as competitive as automated ones using a 2D or 3D visual interface interactively. Several visual techniques have been proposed for classifying high dimensional data. However, the user?s interaction with those techniques is highly dependent on the experience of the user in the visual identification of classifying data, and as a result, the classification results of those techniques may vary and may not be repeatable. To address this deficiency, this article presents an interactive visual approach to the classification of high dimensional data. Our approach employs the enhanced separation feature of a visual technique called HOV3 by which the user plots the training dataset by applying statistical measurements on a 2D space in order to separate data points into groups with the same class labels. A data group with its corresponding statistical measurement which separated it from the others is taken as a visual classifier. Then the user mixes the data points in a classifier with the unlabeled dataset and plots them in HOV3 by the measurement of the classifier. The data points which overlap the labeled ones in the 2D space are assigned the corresponding label. Our approach avoids the randomness in the existing interactive visual classification techniques, as the visual classifier in this approach only depends on the training dataset and its statistical measurement. As a result, this work provides an intuitive and effective approach to classify high dimensional data by interactive visualization.

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

interactive visual analysis (iva)
visual classifer
data projection


graph-based synopses for relational selectivity estimation This paper introduces the Tuple Graph (TUG) synopses, a new class of data summaries that enable accurate selectivity estimates for complex relational queries. The proposed summarization framework adopts a "semi-structured" view of the relational database, modeling a relational data set as a graph of tuples and join queries as graph traversals respectively. The key idea is to approximate the structure of the induced data graph in a concise synopsis, and to estimate the selectivity of a query by performing the corresponding traversal over the summarized graph. We detail the TUG synopsis model that is based on this novel approach, and we describe an efficient and scalable construction algorithm for building accurate TUGs within a specific storage budget. We validate the performance of TUGs with an extensive experimental study on real-life and synthetic data sets. Our results verify the effectiveness of TUGs in generating accurate selectivity estimates for complex join queries, and demonstrate their benefits over existing summarization techniques.

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


experience and evolution of concurrent smalltalk ConcurrentSmalltalk is an object-oriented concurrent programming language/system which has been running since late 1985. ConcurrentSmalltalk has the following features: Upper-compatibility with Smalltalk-80. Asynchronous method calls and CBox objects yield concurrency. Atomic objects have the property of running one at a time so that it can serialize the many requests sent to it. Through experience in writing programs, some disadvantages have become apparent related to concurrency control and the behavior of a block context. In this paper, these issues are re-examined in detail, and then the evolution of the solutions for overcoming these shortcomings is described along with the model of computation in ConcurrentSmalltalk. New features are explained with an example program. The implementation of the ConcurrentSmalltalk virtual machine is also presented along with the evaluation of it.

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

evolution
concurrency control
smalltalk
context
experience
virtual machine
paper
writing
evaluation
model of computation
yield
program
method
behavior
concurrency
implementation

concurrent program
examples
object
timing
object-oriented
systems
language
compatibility
feature
blocking


A proposal for a hybrid meta-strategy for combinatorial optimization problems In this paper, we propose an algorithm named BDS (Bound-Driven Search) that combines features of exact and approximate methods. The proposed procedure may be seen as a local search algorithm that systematically explores (in a branch-and bound sense) the most promising nodes, thus preventing solutions from being reevaluated. Additionally, it can be regarded as an exact method as it may be able to guarantee that the solution found is optimal. We present the application of this new algorithm to a specific problem domain: the permutation flow shop scheduling problem with makespan objective. The subsequent computational experiments are encouraging, as the algorithm is able to yield exact or near exact solutions to most instances of the problem. Furthermore, the algorithm outperforms one of the best state-of-the-art algorithms for the problem.

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


On the integration of stresses in large deformations plasticity Discusses an alternative formulation for the incremental determination of stresses in strain measures that can be used to replace the stress rates currently employed, The formulation is based on Doyle-Hill generalized definition of strain, the corresponding conjugate stresses and an isotropic hyperelastic constitutive equation. When used to analyze the simple shear deformation the proposed formulation avoids the pathologies usually observed (oscillations, pressure build up, path dependence). The origin and importance of these pathologies is then discussed in relation to different materials behavior It is shown that the incremental procedure used together with the logarithmic definition of strain is the most convenient but that other approximations may be used in well defined particular situations. The numerical algorithms proposed are detailed in an Appendix.

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


Experience report: Scheme in commercial web application development Over the past year Untyped has developed some 40'000 lines of Scheme code for a variety of web-based applications, which receive over 10'000 hits a day. This is, to our knowledge, the largest web-based application deployment of PLT Scheme. Our experiences developing with PLT Scheme show that deficiencies in the existing infrastructure can be easily overcome, and we can exploit advanced language features to improve productivity. We conclude that PLT Scheme makes an excellent platform for developing web-based applications, and is competitive with more mainstream choices.

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


An online scheduling algorithm for assigning jobs in the computational grid The computational grid provides a promising platform for the deployment of various high-performance computing applications. Problem in implementing computational grid environments is how to effectively use various resources in the system, such as CPU cycle, memory, communication network, and data storage. There are many effective heuristic algorithms for scheduling in the computational grid, however most scheduling strategies have no theoretical guarantee at all. In this paper, a cost-based online scheduling algorithm is presented for job assignment in the grid environment with theoretical guarantee. Firstly, a scheduling framework is described, where the grid environment is characterized, and the online job model is defined. Secondly, the cost-based online scheduling algorithm is presented where costs of resources are exponential functions of their loads, and the performance of this algorithm is theoretically analyzed against the performance of the optimal offline algorithm. Finally, we implement the algorithm in the grid simulation environment, and compare the performance of the presented algorithm with the other three algorithms, and experimental results indicate that the cost-based online scheduling algorithm can outperform the other three online algorithms.

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

computational grid
scheduling algorithm
simulation


how does radical collocation help a team succeed? Companies are experimenting with putting teams into warrooms, hoping for some productivity enhancement. We conducted a field study of six such teams, tracking their activity, attitudes, use of technology and productivity. Teams in these warrooms showed a doubling of productivity. Why? Among other things, teams had easy access to each other for both coordination of their work and for learning, and the work artifacts they posted on the walls remained visible to all. These results imply that if we are to truly support remote teams, we should provide constant awareness and easy transitions in and out of spontaneous meetings.

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

coordination help use warrooms productivity collocation awareness support tracking learning access teams

activation
meeting
technologies
transit
team rooms
rapid software development
attitude
metrics
field studies


otm: specifying office tasks While there are many difficulties in computerizing office tasks, two of the major ones are a lack of appropriate end-user facilities for specifying office tasks and inadequate system-level support for managing office tasks. We are investigating these two issues within the Office Task Manager (OTM) project at the University of Toronto. To address the user-level aspects of specifying office tasks, we believe that a programming-by-example approach to office task specification holds much promise for providing office workers with facilities to help them computerize their own office activities. We outline our approach to such a facility in this paper. To address the system-level aspects of managing office tasks, we believe that object-oriented environments, because of their ability to combine data and operations on the data, can provide the support required for managing office tasks. In this paper, we also outline how office data and tasks are encoded and managed as objects. Initially, we are addressing the problem of supporting structured office tasks and our approach to this problem is the emphasis of this paper.

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

help task environments addressing data project support paper

task management
activation
aspect
structure
systems
object
operability
end-user
object-oriented
user
management
programming-by-example


OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF 16 KBIT/S LD-CELP SPEECH QUALITY Objective assessment techniques are computer-based algorithms to automatically assess speech quality without requiring human listeners. When compared with listener-based tests, objective systems offer the potential advantages of low cost, quick turn-around and repeatable results. This paper briefly outlines four candidate objective techniques being considered by CCITT, and discusses their relative performance as determined during the CCITT 16 kbit/s LD-CELP tests. The results showed that none of the methods is sufficiently accurate or reliable to replace human listener panels in all applications. However, objective measures may play an important role in future large-scale subjective evaluations as a means of obtaining coarse preliminary quality estimates for test design and validation.

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

objective quality
communication performance
speech coding
quality assessment
cepstral distance
information index


Strategic information systems planning model for building flexibility and success Purpose - This paper provides a model for IS planning for building flexibility and success, by considering volatile environment and the possibilities for leveraging the user's cognitive capabilities. Design/methodology/approach - A review of existing IS planning models is given to identify the shortcomings in building flexibility and success. A model is evolved by hypothesizing user involvement in IS planning leads to IS flexibility; and flexibility in IS enables organizational flexibility and IS success. The control variables were considered at the user, IS, and organizational levels. The proposed model was examined by a questionnaire survey, in which 296 users and planners from 42 organizations participated. Findings - The study results validated the proposed model that IS success and organizational flexibility could be achieved through IS flexibility, which could be generated by involving users in IS planning. Also, the study results have shown that user expectations, perceived personal usefulness, and users' internal flexibility possess a high driver power for user involvement. Research limitations/implications - The variables included in the model are not exhaustive, and the validity of the model has not been tested in a real life situation. Originality/value - This paper explains the ways of collaborating with users and top management to plan a flexible IS by studying the impending changes in the environment.

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


High Speed Architectures for Finding the First two Maximum/Minimum Values High speed architectures for finding the first two maximum/minimum values are of paramount importance in several applications, including iterative (e. g., turbo and low-density-parity-check) decoders. In this brief, stemming from a previous work, based on radix-2 solutions, we propose higher and mixed radix implementations that improve the architecture latency. Post place and route results on a 180-nm CMOS standard cell technology show that the proposed architectures achieve lower latency than radix-2 solutions with a moderate area increase.

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

low-density-parity-check (ldpc) decoder
minimum values generator
tree structure approach
turbo decoder


Impact of Landmark Parametrization on Monocular EKF-SLAM with Points and Lines This paper explores the impact that landmark parametrization has in the performance of monocular, EKF-based, 6-DOF simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in the context of undelayed landmark initialization. Undelayed initialization in monocular SLAM challenges EKF because of the combination of non-linearity with the large uncertainty associated with the unmeasured degrees of freedom. In the EKF context, the goal of a good landmark parametrization is to improve the model's linearity as much as possible, improving the filter consistency, achieving robuster and more accurate localization and mapping. This work compares the performances of eight different landmark parametrizations: three for points and five for straight lines. It highlights and justifies the keys for satisfactory operation: the use of parameters behaving proportionally to inverse-distance, and landmark anchoring. A unified EKF-SLAM framework is formulated as a benchmark for points and lines that is independent of the parametrization used. The paper also defines a generalized linearity index suited for the EKF, and uses it to compute and compare the degrees of linearity of each parametrization. Finally, all eight parametrizations are benchmarked employing analytical tools (the linearity index) and statistical tools (based on Monte Carlo error and consistency analyses), with simulations and real imagery data, using the standard and the robocentric EKF-SLAM formulations.

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

simultaneous localization and mapping
landmark parametrization
linearity
consistency

monocular vision
structure from motion
kalman filtering
benchmarking


Improvement of online adaptation knowledge acquisition and reuse in case-based reasoning: Application to process engineering design Despite various publications in the area during the last few years, the adaptation step is still a crucial phase for a relevant and reasonable Case Based Reasoning system. Furthermore, the online acquisition of the new adaptation knowledge is of particular interest as it enables the progressive improvement of the system while reducing the knowledge engineering effort without constraints for the expert. Therefore this paper presents a new interactive method for adaptation knowledge elicitation, acquisition and reuse, thanks to a modification of the traditional CBR cycle. Moreover to improve adaptation knowledge reuse, a test procedure is also implemented to help the user in the adaptation step and its diagnosis during adaptation failure. A study on the quality and usefulness of the new knowledge acquired is also driven. As our Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) is more focused on preliminary design, and more particularly in the field of process engineering, we need to unify in the same method two types of knowledge: contextual and general. To realize this, this article proposes the integration of the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (based on general knowledge) approach into the Case Based Reasoning (based on contextual knowledge) process to improve the case representation and the adaptation of past experiences. To highlight its capability, the proposed approach is illustrated through a case study dedicated to the design of an industrial mixing device.

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

constraint satisfaction problems
interactive adaptation method
online knowledge acquisition
failure diagnosis and repair


On the aggregation of deterministic service flows It is common belief that "flat" Quality of Service (QoS) architectures, e.g. the IETFs Integrated Services architecture (IntServ), are not scalable to large networks, e.g. the global Internet. This is due to the ambitious goal of providing per-flow QoS and the resulting complexity of fine-grained traffic management. One solution to this problem is the aggregation of traffic flows in the core of the network, thus creating a hierarchical resource allocation system. While one might suspect that aggregation leads to allocating more resources for the aggregated flow than for the sum of the separated flows if flow isolation shall be guaranteed deterministically, we show in this article that for IntServ's Guaranteed Service flows this is not necessarily the case even if flow isolation is retained. We compare different approaches to describe the aggregated traffic and analyze their impact on bandwidth consumption and ease of flow management. Furthermore, we perform a thorough numerical evaluation of the derived results with respect to their behavior in response to changes in exogenous parameters like the traffic specifications of the Rows or the configuration of the network. Applications of these theoretical insights and numerical evidence could be to use the derived formulae for resource allocation in either a hierarchical IntServ, IntServ over DiffServ (Differentiated Services), or IntServ over ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science 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 B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

network qos
scalability
deterministic multiplexing
network calculus


teaching theory of computation using pen-based computers and an electronic whiteboard This paper describes a Theory of Computation course that was taught in an electronic classroom equipped with a network of pen-based computers, a touch-sensitive electronic whiteboard, and locally written groupware that was designed to enhance the ability of teachers and students to share written information during class. We first describe the technology that was used to support the course, and then provide an overview of the instructor's use of this technology to engage students during class. Finally, we present the students' reaction to the approach.

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

network use computation teaching theory support paper groupware class

sharing sensitive technologies pen touch informal student


Applying principles of mass customization to improve the empirical product development process Applying methods of mass customization to the empirical process can improve product development process efficiency and reduce time and cost. Empirical methods are used to develop predictions of product behavior in conjunction with analytical methods or instead of analytical methods. These empirical methods represent a complete sub-product development process within the overall product development process. Application of process decomposition and planning used in mass customization can improve the efficiency, lower the time and cost of these empirical processes. This paper presents a method for applying principles of mass customization to the empirical sub-processes within a product development process. Two case studies are also presented to demonstrate the method.

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


Stability SCAD: a powerful approach to detect interactions in large-scale genomic study Evidence suggests that common complex diseases may be partially due to SNP-SNP interactions, but such detection is yet to be fully established in a high-dimensional small-sample (small-n-large-p) study. A number of penalized regression techniques are gaining popularity within the statistical community, and are now being applied to detect interactions. These techniques tend to be over-fitting, and are prone to false positives. The recently developed stability least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (SLASSO) has been used to control family-wise error rate, but often at the expense of power (and thus false negative results).

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

least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (lasso)

smoothly clipped absolute deviation (scad)


Phase analysis and thermal stability of thin films synthesized via solid state reaction of Ni with Si1?xGex substrate The reaction of ultrathin Ni film with Si1?xGex layer (x: 25 and 55at.%) is studied. Depending of Ge%, NiSi or NiGe is obtained but with different formation temperatures. The morphology, roughness and resistivity were found to be the same for NiSi and NiGe. NiGe on Si45Ge55 has limited thermal stability compared to NiSi on Si75Ge25.

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

si1?xgex
nickel-silicide
nickel-germanide
surface morphology


Automatic folder allocation system using Bayesian-support vector machines hybrid classification approach This paper proposes an automatic folder allocation system for text documents through the implementation of a hybrid classification method which combines the Bayesian (Bayes) approach and the Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Folder allocation for text documents in computer is typically executed manually by the user. Every time the user creates text documents by using text editors or downloads the documents from the internet, and wishes to store these documents on the computer, the user needs to determine and allocate the appropriate folder in which to store these new documents. This situation is inconvenient as repeating the folder allocation each time a text document is stored becomes tedious especially when the numbers and layers of folders are huge and the structure is complex and continuously growing. This problem can be overcome by implementing Artificial Intelligence machine learning methods to classify the new text documents and allocate the most appropriate folder as the storage for them. In this paper we propose the Bayes-SVMs hybrid classification framework to perform the tedious task of automatically allocating the right folder for text documents in computers.

B I I 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 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

support vector machines
automatic folder allocation

document classification
bayes formula
bayesian approach


Technique to diagnose open defects that takes coupling effects into consideration Although open defects are hard to diagnose because they are unstable, we developed a technique to diagnose completely open defects. We applied a new "segment model" that takes the coupling effects on a defective node that are caused by neighboring nodes into consideration. This technique is used to focuse not only on the behavior of the defective node, but also on the behavior of other nodes affecting its behavior. We explain the theoretical treatment of our model and present experimental results obtained from an actual chip.

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


Efficient saliency analysis based on wavelet transform and entropy theory ? Wavelet transform is used to imitate the mechanism of the human vision system. Color, orientation, texture, and shape are considered in the proposed method. Two-dimensional entropy is used to measure the weight of different features. Our method outperforms other methods in terms of different objective measures.

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

human vision system
wavelet transform
entropy theory

saliency detection
preprocessing technique
color information
bottom-up approach
fixationprediction


a unified platform for archival description and access The archival community has developed content and data structure standards to facilitate access to the diverse and unique sets of archival records, personal papers, and manuscript collections that are held by archival repositories and special collections libraries. However, these standards are difficult for archivists to use and are often implemented in ways that negatively affect materials-handling workflows, depriving archival users of the best possible access to the totality of materials available within an individual repository. The authors propose that archival descriptive problems can be addressed by implementing a web/database application that is tailored specifically to archival needs and can be implemented with little technical knowledge. This paper describes the system architecture of one such tool, the Archon software package, which was developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Archon automates many technical tasks, such as producing a searchable website, an EAD instance or a MARC record. Although the system utilizes sophisticated algorithms and optimizations, it is easily extensible because most development takes place in an easy-to-use, object-oriented environment.

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

web interfaces
archival information systems
encoded archival description
databases


A digital image analysis and neural network based system for identification of third-stage parasitic strongyle larvae from domestic animals A competitive learning vector quantization artificial neural network (ANN) was trained to identify third-stage parasitic strongyle larvae from domestic animals on the basis of quantitative data obtained from processed digital images of larvae. For this reason, various quantitative features obtained from processed digital images of larvae were tested as to whether they are variant or invariant to the shape taken by the motile larvae during image recording. A total of 255 images of 57 individual larvae in various shapes belonging to five genera were recorded. Following image processing, 16 features were measured, of which seven were selected as invariant to larva shape. By trial and error, two of those features, area and perimeter, along with the quantitative features used in conventional identification, overall body length, width and extension of sheath (tip of larva to tip of sheath), were used as an effective training data set for the ANN. This ANN coupled with an image analysis facility and a knowledge relational database became the basis for developing a computer-based larva identification system whose overall identification performance was 91.9%. The advantages of this system are its speed and objectivity. The objectivity of the system is based on the fact that it is not subject to inter- and intra-observer variability arising from the users profile of competency in interpreting subjective and non-quantifiable descriptions. The limitations of the system are that it cannot handle raw images but only data extracted from images, its performance depends on the reliability of the input vectors used as training data for the ANN, and its use is restricted only to well-equipped laboratories due to its requirement for expensive instrumentation.

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


Development of a software package for ergonomic assessment of manufacturing industry A computer software package has been developed to be used as a self-assessment tool to evaluate ergonomic improvement potential of production systems by engineers, managers and safety professionals. Production managers of manufacturing industries with no prior knowledge of ergonomics were able to identify ergonomic deficiencies successfully (81%) in the shop floors as a result of the application of the ergonomic assessment tool. This enabled them to formulate intervention strategies to improve ergonomic conditions in their industries. The software package is user friendly, self-explanatory and provides relevant information, data and guidelines. It is unique, as the users will have access to necessary ergonomics information, which is often lacking in the manufacturing industries, especially in developing countries. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

ergonomics
manufacturing industry
software package

ergonomic deficiency
assessment procedure


Transfer function models for multidimensional systems with bounded spatial domains Multidimensional (MD) systems describe relations between signals depending on two or more independent variables. They are also called distributed parameter systems, if the independent variables are time and space. The only conventional models for their description are partial differential equations. This is in contrast to onedimensional (lumped parameter) systems, where a variety of different models including transfer functions is used. This paper extends the concept of transfer function models to multidimensional systems with bounded spatial domains, i.e., systems which can be described as initial-boundary-value problems. These transfer function models are useful for: system analysis and as a starting point for the derivation of numerically efficient discrete simulation models.

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


All-digital PLL using bulk-controlled varactor and pulse-based digitally controlled oscillator This work presented a 150-450-MHz, all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) implemented in a 0.18 mu m CMOS process. The design utilizes bulk-controlled varactor and pulse-based digitally controlled oscillator (PB-DCO) providing a high timing resolution and a good jitter performance. The worst-case total locking time of the proposed ADPLL is 32 reference clock cycles. The divider used here divides by factors from 2 to 63. A test chip is implemented and verified. The RMS and peak-to-peak jitters are 6.7 and 44 ps, respectively, at 450-MHz. The peak-to-peak jitter is 2.0% at 450-MHz. When the multiplication of divider is varying at 150-MHz, the peak-to-peak jitters are less than 3.2%. The power consumption is 16.2-mW at 450-MHz. The core area of ADPLL is only 260 x 360 mm(2). This clock generator can be applied as re-usable silicon IP for system-on-chip (SoC) applications.

O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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-locked loop
digitally controlled varactor


efficient context-sensitive plausible inference for information disclosure Plausible inference is an essential aspect of logic-based information disclosure. This paper proposes a context-sensitive plausible inference mechanism based on a so-called index expression belief network. Plausible inference is cloaked as probabilistic evidence propagation within this network. Preliminary experiments show general evidence propagation algorithms to be too inefficient for real-life information disclosure applications. The paper sketches two optimizations whereby efficient, special-purpose evidence propagation may be realized.

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

network applications aspect inference general paper evidence propagation

indexing efficiency optimality context-sensitivity sketching express experience logic algorithm informal


Bilingual legal document retrieval and management using XML In certain bilingual and multi-lingual societies, translated legal documents are as important as the original legal documents because they have the same legal status as the originals. However, there is little reported work on the retrieval and management of bilingual legal documents. We describe the design and development of a bilingual document retrieval and management prototype, called ELDoS, which is used by court interpreters and judges from the Hong Kong Judiciary. Since the speed of retrieval is a major concern for user acceptance, and therefore for widespread deployment of the system, the architecture of the prototype is designed to balance the workload of the client and server. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used to mark up the bilingual legal documents for a variety of document retrieval and management tasks. XML enables the use of XML Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) to align bilingual data in the client, instead of the server, and improve alignment speed linearly with respect to the size of the document, using a high-end PC, when the server has no concurrent access. The design of the interface was continually improved after extensive consultation with court interpreters and after the user acceptance tests. In our evaluation, the facilities for highlighting translated terms have a macro-averaged precision of 90+ % and a macro-average recall of 80+ %, which were considered acceptable by our users. We believe that the experience in the design and development of this prototype is applicable to other language pairs as well as to other domains. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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

legal information retrieval
multilingual computing
xsl


IMPACT OF COMMUNICATION MEDIUM AND COMPUTER SUPPORT ON GROUP PERCEPTIONS AND PERFORMANCE - A COMPARISON OF FACE-TO-FACE AND DISPERSED MEETINGS Economic, social, and political institutions worldwide are relying increasingly on communication technology to perform a variety of functions: holding electronic town meetings where hundreds of people in numerous cities participate simultaneously; forging strategic links with business partners, thereby forming ''virtual corporations'' that can be instantly disbanded; redefining the conventional notion of a college campus by offering classes via interactive media to non-traditional students; and enabling consumers with personal digital assistants to remain connected with their children and families at all times. In this environment, where geographic and temporal boundaries are shrinking rapidly, electronic meeting systems (EMS) are playing an important role. This study examines the impact on teams of using EMS in dispersed and face-to-face settings. The results suggest that EMS can be effective in augmenting traditional audio-conferencing by strengthening the medium and allowing additional communication cues to be exchanged among participants. They also indicate that EMS can improve decision-making performance, given proper task-technology fit and adequate facilitation. As businesses expand globally, such systems will provide instant communication capabilities and help coordinate dispersed decision-making activities.

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

electronic meeting systems
group perceptions

group decision support systems
communication media
audio-conferencing
dispersed/remote meeting support
group performance


Why does ?-secretase zymogen possess catalytic activity? Molecular modeling and molecular dynamics simulation studies ?-secretase is a potential target for inhibitory drugs against Alzheimer's disease as it cleaves amyloid precursor protein (APP) to form insoluble amyloid plaques and vascular deposits in the brain. ?-secretase is matured from its precursor protein, called ?-secretase zymogen, which, different from most of other zymogens, is also partially active in cleaving APP. Hence, it is important to study on the mechanism of the zymogen's activation process. This study was to model the 3-D structure of the zymogen, followed by intensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to identify the most probable 3-D model and to study the dynamic structural behavior of the zymogen for understanding the effects of pro-segment on the function of the enzyme. The results revealed that the dropping in catalytic activity of the ?-secretase zymogen could be attributed to the occupation of the entrance of the catalytic site of the zymogen by its pro-segment. On the other hand, the partial catalytic activity of the zymogen could be explained by high fluctuation of the pro-segment in comparison with that of other zymogens, resulting in the occasionally exposure of the catalytic site for access its substrate APP. Indeed, steered MD (SMD) simulation revealed a weak pulling force at quasi-equilibrium state for the pro-segment of the zymogen leaving from the entrance, indicating that this swinging process could take place spontaneously. Furthermore, MM-PBSA calculation revealed a small change of free energy of 10.56kal/mol between the initial and final states of the process of pro-segment swung outside the binding pocket of ?-secretase zymogen. These results not only account for the partial catalytic activity of ?-secretase zymogen, but also provide useful clues for discovering new potent ligands, as new type of drug leads for curing Alzheimer's disease, to prevent the pro-segment of the zymogen from leaving its catalytic site.

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


Energy efficient control of a BTX dividing-wall column Dividing-wall column (DWC) is considered nowadays the new champion in distillation, as it can bring substantial reduction in the capital invested as well as savings in the operating costs. This work presents the simulation results of energy efficient control and dynamics of a dividing-wall column (DWC). In order to allow a fair comparison of the results with previously published references, the case-study considered here is the industrially relevant ternary separation of the mixture benzene-toluene-xylene (BTX) in a DWC. Rigorous simulations were carried out in Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics. Several conventional control structures based on PID control loops (DB/LSV, DV/LSB, LB/DSV, LV/DSB) were used as a control basis. These control structures were enhanced by adding an extra loop controlling the heavy component composition in the top of the prefractionator, by using the liquid split as an additional manipulated variable, thus implicitly achieving minimization of energy requirements. The results of the dynamic simulations show relatively short settling times and low overshooting especially for the DB/LSV and LB/DSV control structures. Moreover, the energy efficient control proposed in this work allows the operation of DWC with minimum energy requirements or maximum purity of products. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

dividing-wall column
petlyuk
energy efficiency
dynamic optimization
pid loops


Two-dimensional model of base force element method (BFEM) on complementary energy principle for geometrically nonlinear problems Based on the concept of the base forces by Gao, a new finite element methodthe base force element method (BFEM) on complementary energy principle for two-dimensional geometrically nonlinear problems is presented using arbitrary meshes. An arbitrary convex polygonal element model of the BFEM for geometrically nonlinear problem is derived by assuming that the stress is uniformly distributed on each edges of a plane element. The explicit formulations of the control equations for the BFEM are derived using the modified complementary energy principle. The BFEM is naturally universal for small displacement and large displacement problems. A number of example problems are solved using the BFEM and the results are compared with corresponding analytical solutions. A good agreement of the results using the arbitrary convex polygonal element model of BFEM in the large displacement and large rotation calculations, are observed.

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

finite element
complementary energy
geometrically nonlinear
base forces


Evolutionary strategies for ultra-large-scale autonomic systems Ultra-large-scale (ULS) systems originate from the need to address social problems that are getting more and more complex, such as climatic monitoring, transportation, citizens protection and security. These factors imply a continuous increase of information systems, requiring digital communication networks allowing for communication between people, between machines, and machines and people. The aim of this paper is to present a novel approach for the design of highly adaptive ULS systems, with the focus on computer-supported evolution, adaptable structures, emergent behaviors as well as advanced monitoring and control techniques. We illustrate the Networked Autonomic Machine (NAM), a framework for the characterization of self-managing, highly reconfigurable ULS systems, and the Adaptive Evolutionary Framework (AEF), for the implementation of distributed evolutionary strategies. Finally, we show their effectiveness in the design of an ULS overlay network provided with evolutionary strategies for facing denial-of-service attacks.

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


Structural evidence for lack of inhibition of fish goose-type lysozymes by a bacterial inhibitor of lysozyme It is known that bacteria contain inhibitors of lysozyme activity. The recently discovered Escherichia coli inhibitor of vertebrate lysozyme (Ivy) and its potential interactions with several goose-type (g-type) lysozymes from fish were studied using functional enzyme assays, comparative homology modelling, protein-protein docking, and molecular dynamics simulations. Enzyme assays carried out on salmon g-type lysozyme revealed a lack of inhibition by Ivy. Detailed analysis of the complexes formed between Ivy and both hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) and goose egg white lysozyme (GEWL) suggests that electrostatic interactions make a dominant contribution to inhibition. Comparison of three dimensional models of aquatic g-type lysozymes revealed important insertions in the beta domain, and specific sequence substitutions yielding altered electrostatic surface properties and surface curvature at the protein-protein interface. Thus, based on structural homology models, we propose that Ivy is not effective against any of the known fish g-type lysozymes. Docking studies suggest a weaker binding mode between Ivy and GEWL compared to that with HEWL, and our models explain the mechanistic necessity for conservation of a set of residues in g-type lysozymes as a prerequisite for inhibition by Ivy.

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

lysozyme
inhibitor
vertebrate
homology modelling


fault-scalable byzantine fault-tolerant services A fault-scalable service can be configured to tolerate increasing numbers of faults without significant decreases in performance. The Query/Update (Q/U) protocol is a new tool that enables construction of fault-scalable Byzantine fault-tolerant services. The optimistic quorum-based nature of the Q/U protocol allows it to provide better throughput and fault-scalability than replicated state machines using agreement-based protocols. A prototype service built using the Q/U protocol outperforms the same service built using a popular replicated state machine implementation at all system sizes in experiments that permit an optimistic execution. Moreover, the performance of the Q/U protocol decreases by only 36\% as the number of Byzantine faults tolerated increases from one to five, whereas the performance of the replicated state machine decreases by 83\%.

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

services
prototype
performance
implementation
throughput
tool
state machine
replicated state machines

byzantine fault-tolerance
systems
scalability
fault-scalability
fault
experience
fault tolerance
quorums
update
query


probabilistic modeling of transaction data with applications to profiling, visualization, and prediction Transaction data is ubiquitous in data mining applications. Examples include market basket data in retail commerce, telephone call records in telecommunications, and Web logs of individual page-requests at Web sites. Profiling consists of using historical transaction data on individuals to construct a model of each individual's behavior. Simple profiling techniques such as histograms do not generalize well from sparse transaction data. In this paper we investigate the application of probabilistic mixture models to automatically generate profiles from large volumes of transaction data. In effect, the mixture model represents each individual's behavior as a linear combination of "basis transactions." We evaluate several variations of the model on a large retail transaction data set and show that the proposed model provides improved predictive power over simpler histogram-based techniques, as well as being relatively scalable, interpretable, and flexible. In addition we point to applications in outlier detection, customer ranking, interactive visualization, and so forth. The paper concludes by comparing and relating the proposed framework to other transaction-data modeling techniques such as association rules.

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

transaction data
profiles
mixture models


Exploring the role of primary and supplementary motor areas in simple motor tasks with fNIRS Studies employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have highlighted a covariation between the amplitude of hemodynamic responses recorded in primary and supplementary motor areas (M1 and SMA) and the duration of a motor task. A subset of these studies have hinted to a possible functional dissociation between processing carried out in these areas, with SMA primarily involved in action preparation, while M1 involved in action execution. This proposed functional dissociation was explored in the present study using a different techniquefunctional near-infrared spectroscopywhich enabled a finer-grained monitoring of the temporal characteristics of the hemodynamic response compared to fMRI. Here, hemodynamic responses in M1 and SMA were recorded in 7 participants during a right-finger-tapping task of short (1s) or long (3s) duration. Hemodynamic responses of larger amplitude were recorded from both contralateral M1 and SMA during long-duration than short-duration tapping. Furthermore, the analysis of the temporal profiles of these responses revealed a more sustained and prolonged activity for long-duration versus short-duration tapping in M1, but not in SMA. Rather than functionally dissociable areas, the present results are more compatible with the hypothesis that M1 and SMA subserve different, though strongly interacting, functional subroutines subtended in motor task preparation and execution.

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


Shape from periodic texture using the eigenvectors of local affine distortion This paper shows how the local slant and tilt angles of regularly textured curved surfaces can be estimated directly, without the need for iterative numerical optimization, We work in the frequency domain and measure texture distortion using the affine distortion of the pattern of spectral peaks. The key theoretical contribution is to show that the directions of the eigenvectors of the affine distortion matrices can be used to estimate local slant and tilt angles of tangent planes to curved surfaces. In particular, the leading eigenvector points in the tilt direction. Although not as geometrically transparent, the direction of the second eigenvector can be used to estimate the slant direction. The required affine distortion matrices are computed using the correspondences between spectral peaks, established on the basis of their energy ordering. We apply the method to a variety of real-world and synthetic imagery.

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

shape-from-texture
spectral analysis
eigen-analysis