Exendin-4 Therapy in NOD Mice with New-Onset Diabetes Increases Regulatory T Cell Frequency Recent studies, albeit controversial, have suggested that the incretin exendin-4 (Ex-4) is capable of inducing ? cell proliferation in vivo. Furthermore, this compound has been shown to enhance the ability of other agents (e.g., anti-CD3, antilymphocyte serum) to reverse type 1 diabetes (T1D) in NOD mice. However, the mechanisms underlying this beneficial action for disease reversal remain largely unclear. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that Ex-4 therapy may act as a stimulator of regulatory T cells (Tregs). We evaluated the effect of Ex-4 (Byetta; 0.2 ?g/mouse/day for 30 days) treatment on the frequency and function of Tregs and changes in the cytokine profile of NOD mice with recently diagnosed T1D. In comparison to that of saline-treated control NOD mice, the frequency of Tregs was increased in Ex-4-treated mice. Suppression assays demonstrated a trend towards increased Treg suppression after administration of Ex-4, but were limited by small sample size. Lastly, Ex-4 treatment induced production of IL-10, indicating a possible shift towards a more Th2-like phenotype. Taken collectively, these data suggest that in addition to its potential effects on ? cell proliferation, Ex-4 may also act as a regulator of the immune response.

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


On the application of singular value decomposition and Tikhonov regularization to ill-posed problems in hyperbolic passive location Hyperbolic passive location of targets (e.g. used in the Multilateration systems for civil aviation) calls for the solution of highly non-linear systems. In this paper, we show how the effect of typical ill-conditioning of passive location, arising in many operational conditions, may be significantly mitigated by regularization techniques. The pertaining advantages with respect to the conventional (non-regularized) approach are shown in a realistic situation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

passive location
singular value decomposition
tikhonov regularization
multilateration

regularization methods
air traffic control


Acyclic edge coloring of planar graphs with ? ? colors An acyclic edge coloring of a graph is a proper edge coloring without bichromatic cycles. In 1978, it was conjectured that ?(G)+2 ? ( G ) + 2 colors suffice for an acyclic edge coloring of every graph G G (Fiam?k, 1978 [8]). The conjecture has been verified for several classes of graphs, however, the best known upper bound for as special class as planar graphs are, is ?+12 ? + 12 (Basavaraju and Chandran, 2009 [3]). In this paper, we study simple planar graphs which need only ?(G) ? ( G ) colors for an acyclic edge coloring. We show that a planar graph with girth g g and maximum degree ? ? admits such acyclic edge coloring if g?12 g ? 12 , or g?8 g ? 8 and ??4 ? ? 4 , or g?7 g ? 7 and ??5 ? ? 5 , or g?6 g ? 6 and ??6 ? ? 6 , or g?5 g ? 5 and ??10 ? ? 10 . Our results improve some previously known bounds.

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


Low-frequency vibrational modes and infrared absorbance of red, blue and green opsin Vibrational excitations of low-frequency collective modes are essential for functionally important conformational transitions in proteins. We carried out an analysis of the low-frequency modes in the G protein coupled receptors (GPCR) family of cone opsins based on both normal-mode analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Power spectra obtained by MD can be compared directly with normal modes. In agreement with existing experimental evidence related to transmembrane proteins, cone opsins have functionally important transitions that correspond to approximately 950 modes and are found below 80 cm(-1). This is in contrast to bacteriorhodopsin and rhodopsin, where the important low-frequency transition modes are below 50 cm(-1). We find that the density of states (DOS) profile of blue opsin in a solvent (e. g. water) has increased populations in the very lowest frequency modes (< 15 cm(-1)); this is indicative of the increased thermostability of blue opsin. From our work we found that, although light absorption behaves differently in blue, green and red opsins, their low-frequency vibrational motions are similar. The similarities and differences in the domain motions of blue, red and green opsins are discussed for several representative modes. In addition, the influence of the presence of a solvent is reported and compared with vacuum spectra. We thus demonstrate that terahertz spectroscopy of low-frequency modes might be relevant for identifying those vibrational degrees of freedom that correlate to known conformational changes in opsins.

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

normal modes
molecular dynamics
vibrational modes
proteins
infrared absorbance


On the relevance of the type of contraction of the Germano identity in the new integral-based dynamic Smagorinsky model The 20-year old dynamic model is a well-established procedure in large eddy simulation that allowed us achieving several progresses in the field of numerical simulation of turbulence. The key of the procedure is in the derivation of the exact Germano identity, which is a tensor relation. After introducing the eddy viscosity model, in order to achieve a scalar relation and thereby determine a single value of the model constant, Germano et al. proposed contracting the tensor identity with the resolved strain rate tensor. Then, Lilly observed that this method can be efficient, but does raise the problem of indetermination when the resolved strain rate tensor cancels out. To remedy this problem, Lilly proposed calculating the model constant by a least-squares method, that is by minimizing the Germano identity error, observing that a negative value of the constant results to be consistent. Such a contraction is now a standard in the LES community, however, since the model function is arbitrarily extracted out from filtering, the necessity to adopt suitable averaging, clipping and some other cares to achieve numerically stable solutions are considered to be still open problems. Unlike the original Germano identity, which was developed in the framework of the differential formulation of the filtered equations, the recent integral-based filtered equations were shown to produce a new tensor identity wherein the model function is no longer acted on by filtering [8,9]. While the constant model preserves its full three-dimensional character, this new model was proved to produce stable and accurate solutions and is suitable also for complex flows. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of three different contractions of the new integral-based tensor identity since each one of the projection represents a different minimization of the residual. The new expression of the Germano identity error is introduced to show the resulting accuracy in testing the turbulent flow in a plane channel. Unlike what is reported for the differential form of the dynamic model, the results highlight that the integral-based method is much less sensitive to the type of contraction than expected in the differential-based formulation. This fact confirms the better aspect of the integral-based Germano identity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

dynamic smagorinsky model
germano identity error

large-eddy simulation
finite volume methods


Identification of technological knowledge intermediaries Intermediaries in a technological knowledge network have recently been highlighted as crucial innovation drivers that accelerate technological knowledge flows. Although the patent network analysis has been frequently used to monitor technological knowledge structures, it has examined only sources or recipients of the technological knowledge by mainly estimating technological knowledge inflows or outflows of a network node. This study, therefore, aims to identify technological knowledge intermediaries when a technology-level knowledge network is composed of several industries. First, types of technological knowledge flows are deductively classified into four types by highlighting industry affiliations of source technologies and recipient technologies. Second, a directed technological knowledge network is generated at the technology class level, using patent co-classification analysis. Third, for each class, mediating scores are measured according to the four types. The empirical analysis illustrates the Koreas technological knowledge network between 2000 and 2008. As a result, the four types of mediating scores are compared between industries, and industry-wise technological knowledge intermediaries are identified. The proposed approach is practical to explore converging processes in technology development where technology classes act as technological knowledge intermediaries among diverse industries.

O O O O 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

technological knowledge intermediary
industry affiliation
patent co-classification


Undecidability and Intractability Results Concerning Datalog Programs and Their Persistency Numbers The relation between Datalog programs and homomorphism problems, and, between Datalog programs and bounded treewidth structures has been recognized for some time and given much attention recently. Additionally, the essential role of persistent variables (in program expansions) for solving several relevant problems has also started to be observed. In Afrati et al. [2005] the general notion of program persistencies was refined into four notions (two syntactical ones and two semantical ones) and the interrelationship between these four persistency numbers was studied. In the present article (1) we prove undecidability results concerning the semantical notions of persistency number-modulo equivalence, of persistency number and of characteristic integer, (2) we exhibit new classes of programs for which boundedness is undecidable and (3) we prove intractabiltity results concerning the syntactical notions of weak persistency number and of weak characteristic integer.

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

datalog
persistent variables
persistency numbers
boundedness
undecidability
intractability

algorithms
languages
theory
bounded treewidth hypergraphs


Tractable reasoning with vague knowledge using fuzzy epsilon L++ Fuzzy Description Logics (fuzzy DLs) are extensions of classic DLs that are capable of representing and reasoning with imprecise and vague knowledge. Though reasoning algorithms for very expressive fuzzy DLs have been developed and optimizations have started to be explored, the efficiency of such systems is still questionable, and the study of tractable languages is an interesting open issue. In this paper we introduce a tractable fuzzy extension of epsilon L++. We present its syntax and semantics together with a reasoning algorithm for the fuzzy concept subsumption problem to which other problems can be reduced.

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

fuzzy epsilon l++
tractable description logics
fuzzy concrete domains


Combined channel assignment and network coded opportunistic routing in cognitive radio networks ? ?? In this paper, we investigate the joint opportunistic routing and channel assignment problem in multi-channel multi-radio (MCMR) cognitive radio networks (CRNs) for improving the aggregate throughput of the secondary users. We first present the nonlinear programming optimization model for this joint problem, taking into account the feature of CRNs-channel uncertainty. In order to reduce the computational complexity of the problem, we present a heuristic algorithm to select forwarding candidates and assign channels in CRNs, including candidate selection algorithm considering the queue state of a node and expected transmission count (ETX), and channel assignment algorithm taking into account the transmission time and the available time of a given channel. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme Channel Assignment and Network Coded Opportunistic Routing, (CANCOR) performs better than the traditional routing and classical opportunistic routing in which channel assignment strategy is employed.

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

opportunistic routing
channel assignment
cognitive radio networks


Why simple shrinkage is still relevant for redundant representations? Shrinkage is a well known and appealing denoising technique, introduced originally by Donoho and Johnstone in 1994. The use of shrinkage for denoising is known to be optimal for Gaussian white noise, provided that the sparsity on the signal's representation is enforced using a unitary transform. Still, shrinkage is also practiced with nonunitary, and even redundant representations, typically leading to very satisfactory results. In this correspondence we shed some light on this behavior. The main argument in this work is that such simple shrinkage could be interpreted as the first iteration of an algorithm that solves the basis pursuit denoising (BPDN) problem. While the desired solution of BPDN is hard to obtain in general, we develop a simple iterative procedure for the BPDN minimization that amounts to stepwise shrinkage. We demonstrate how the simple shrinkage emerges as the first iteration of this novel algorithm. Furthermore, we show how shrinkage can be iterated, turning into an effective algorithm that minimizes the BPDN via simple shrinkage steps, in order to further strengthen the denoising effect.

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

basis pursuit
denoising
redundant
shrinkage

frame
overcomplete
sparse representation
thresholding


Creating infrastructure for seismic microzonation by Geographical Information Systems (GIS): A case study in the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) Although there are many studies for seismic microzonation in the literature, these studies have not covered the whole seismic microzonation processes. Moreover, they have not sufficiently focused on the important subjects, such as significance and use of aerial photos in seismic microzonation studies, data types used for seismic microzonation, and integrating these data by GIS. This study suggests a GIS-based model that can be used for all settlements that are at risk of natural disaster, with a view to taking necessary measures against such natural disasters (especially earthquakes). This model was applied so as to take the measures needed for the town of Erbaa located on the western part of the eastern segments of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ), a settlement with earthquake risk on the NAFZ. During creation of the system, geological, geotechnical data and data produced from aerial photos were integrated and assessed on a GIS environment. The infrastructure for seismic microzonation was created using this model. The potential areas for soil liquefaction were detected in the study area. Thus, the results were produced to assist in seismic microzonation.

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

gis
north anatolian fault zone
seismic microzonation


AN APPROACH FOR AN INTEGRATED DSS FOR STRATEGIC-PLANNING Although Decision Support Systems (DSS) have become widespread in recent years for operational control their use in strategic decision-making has only rarely been seen. This study investigates how DSS technology can be applied in the process of strategic planning. The requirements of Strategic Decision Support Systems (SDSS) are discussed and a conceptual frame for the construction of SDSS is developed. The authors emphasize the integration of both the planning instruments and the corresponding data flows. They present the StratConsult system - a PC-based prototype for supporting strategic sessions. Benefits and drawbacks of SDSS are explored and relevant trends for integrated computer-aided strategic DSS are outlined.

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

decision support system
dss generator
financial modeling language


a microprocessor-controlled asynchronous circuit switching network This paper describes an asynchronous circuit switching network for multiple-processor systems. Several circuit switching networks for various applications have been proposed and constructed. However, there are problems associated with these networks. The asynchronous circuit switching network possesses several features that can solve these problems. A three-stage fully connected topology is utilized to construct the network. Each switching element is functionally and physically identical and this facilitates a cost-effective LSI implementation and software development. The control structure of the switching element and the routing algorithm are re-organized to fit the asynchronous operation. The network takes advantage of low-cost microcomputers to do the distributed routing control and to implement the communication protocols. The graceful degradation characteristic in the network is provided by independent multiple paths existing between any pair of the source and the destination. A network monitor is incorporated to facilitate an adaptive routing strategy and to have the fault diagnostic capability. Three alternatives for the switching element implementation are described to demonstrate the hardware and software tradeoffs.

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

network
fit
applications
software development
paper
control
communication protocols
software
adaptive routing
structure
systems
implementation
demonstrate
fault
routing
hardware
distributed

association
topologies
processor
asynchronous circuits
strategies
network monitoring
microprocessor
asynchronicity
switch
feature
effect
routing algorithm
microcomputer
cost
circuits


stack safe parallel recursion with paraffin Recursion is a programming technique in which a solution can be expressed by a subroutine invoking itself either directly or indirectly. Many problems can be expressed simply using a recursive approach, however one of the drawbacks of using recursion is that it requires a stack, and often one does not know how much stack space is needed to obtain a recursive result. Stack overflow often results in spectacular failure with strange, often unrepeatable behaviour. Paraffin is a suite of generic units that can add parallelism to iterative and recursive problems. Some of the generics involve a load balancing technique described as "work-seeking". It was found that the recursive work seeking algorithm could be extended to also provide stack safety whereby the generics monitor the amount of remaining stack space and avoid stack overflow using a technique similar to load balancing. The stack safety feature also makes it attractive to consider Paraffin for use with code destined for execution on a single core. This paper describes how the recursive work-seeking algorithm was extended to provide the stack-safety feature, and then goes on to report some performance results using the generics.

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

work-stealing
multi-core
work-seeking
work-sharing
ada 2005


SAGA: A hybrid search algorithm for Bayesian Network structure learning of transcriptional regulatory networks We propose an effective hybrid method for inferring Bayesian Networks with priors. Our method, SAGA, performs better than its components on high dimensional datasets. SAGA infers Bayesian Networks (BNs) with higher sensitivities and specificities. Inference with BNs is enhanced by the inclusion of prior network relationships.

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

search algorithms
transcriptional regulatory network
microarray dataset


Constitutive relation error estimators for time-dependent non-linear FE analysis The paper deals with error estimators based on residuals on the constitutive relation which has been developed for the past 20 years at Cachan. Recent advances are shown, especially for time-dependent non-linear FE analysis.

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


Simulated nonlinear control studies of five-effect evaporator models This paper is devoted to the simulated nonlinear control studies of two dynamic models of an industrial five-effect evaporator of an alumina refinery. The simulated control studies were carried out to ascertain the performance and robustness of nonlinear control techniques on the five-effect evaporator prior to its implementation on-site. The nonlinear control structure used in the studies was the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) globally linearizing control (GLC) structure of Kravaris and Soroush (1990). The I/O linearizing controller was implemented in a cascade arrangement with the industrial coded velocity form of proportional-integral (PI) controllers in the simulation. The design parameters were chosen such that the desired decoupling control of the ill-conditioned evaporator models was achieved, and such that cascade arrangement of the nonlinear controller was possible. Simulated results indicates that the MIMO GLC structure provides superior servo and regulatory control to multi-loop single-input single-output (SISO) PI controllers that are currently being used to regulate the five-effect evaporator on-site. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

nonlinear control
evaporator models
simulated control studies

input-output linearization
nonlinear controller implementation


On pressure boundary conditions for thermoconvective problems Solving numerically hydrodynamical problems of incompressible fluids raises the question of handling first order derivatives (those of pressure) in a closed container and determining its boundary conditions. A way to avoid the first point is to derive a Poisson equation for pressure, although the problem of taking the right boundary conditions still remains. To remove this problem another formulation of the problem has been used consisting of projecting the master equations into the space of divergence-free velocity fields, so pressure is eliminated from the equations. This technique raises the order of the differential equations and additional boundary conditions may be required. High-order derivatives are sometimes troublesome, specially in cylindrical coordinates due to the singularity at the origin, so for these problems a low order formulation is,,cry convenient. We research several pressure boundary conditions for the primitive variables formulation of thermoconvective problems. In particular we study the Marangoni instability of an infinite fluid layer and we show that the numerical results with a Chebyshev collocation method are highly correspondent to the exact ones. These ideas have been applied to linear stability analysis of the Benard-Marangoni (BM) problem in cylindrical geometry and the results obtained have been very accurate. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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

boundary conditions
cylindrical geometry
collocation method

marangoni convection
benard-marangoni convection


Modelling solute transport in soil columns using advective-dispersive equations with fractional spatial derivatives Solute transport in soils is commonly simulated with the advective-dispersive equation, or ADE. It has been reported that this model cannot take into account several important features of solute movement through soil. Recently, a new model has been suggested that results in a solute transport equation with fractional spatial derivatives, or FADE. We have assembled a database on published solute transport experiments in soil columns to test the new model. The FADE appears to be a useful generalization of the ADE. The order of the fractional differentiation reflects differences in physical conditions of the solute transport in soil. (C) 2009 Civil-Comp Ltd. and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


the vre volume rendering engine We present the extendable volume rendering engine VRE which provides an open and flexible environment for both experimental and production level implementation of a wide range of volume visualisation algorithms, including various CPU and GPU based ones. We identify parts of renderer functionality suitable for isolation in logical units and propose various types of plugins. As the support for various volume data file formats, internal data representation and rendering algorithms is realised by the plugins, the engine can be easily extended by new functionality. We define a general application interface which enables to develop arbitrary visualisation applications, being it command line, batch ones or applications with a graphical user interface. The proposed architecture provides for multiple concurrent renderings which can be with advantage utilised in the client/server version of the engine. In this setup the server side component of the engine allows access of multiple peers to a single instance of the engine, which makes sharing of the visualised data by multiple clients possible. The VRE software is released under the GPL licence, opening the potential of the environment to all interested parties.

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


Enhanced VANET broadcast throughput capacity via a dynamic backbone architecture We propose a high throughput dissemination scheme for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET) based on the dynamic formation of a multi-hop backbone network. We describe and analyze such a networking protocol when used to broadcast message flows generated by a Road Side Unit along a linear road, forming a VANET structure that is identified as a Vehicular Backbone Network (VBN). The VBN is based on elected vehicles that reside at preferred locations to act as backbone relay nodes, jointly optimally configured to operate at designated link data rates and spatial reuse factors. We present both an analytical evaluation of the broadcast throughput capacity that can be achieved by using the VBN mechanism and a simulative analysis based on the IEEE 802.11p CSMA/CA MAC protocol, standardized for VANET. The results demonstrate the significant performance enhancement achieved under VBN in attaining enhanced throughput capacity rate and in providing for a wider dissemination coverage span. Admitted packets are assured low end-to-end packet delays through the employment of a flow control scheme.

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

data dissemination
broadcast capacity
message relaying
multi-hop communications


Discrete Cosine Transform based fusion of multi-focus images for visual sensor networks Method presents a simple and efficient multi-focus image fusion scheme in DCT domain. It is explicitly designed for resource constrained wireless visual sensor systems. The fusion rule does not involve any complex arithmetic floating point operations like mean or variance calculations. Simulations are performed using Atmel Atmega128 processor of Mica 2 mote. Extensive experiments verify the efficiency improvement in terms of image quality and computation energy.

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


Distribution of putative xenogeneic silencers in prokaryote genomes Xenogeneic silencer-like regulators were searched in fully sequenced prokaryote genomes. Putative xenogeneic silencer regulators are limited to some bacteria and are specific for each division. Xenogeneic silencer regulators from the H-NS family are the most diversified. Other nucleoid-associated proteins were also searched and their distribution was also assessed. Our search updates and extends xenogeneic silencer regulators database. Results showed that xenogeneic silencer-like regulators are specific for the bacteria they are found in and exclusive, as members of the other families are excluded.

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

foreign dna
comparative genomics
bacterial transcriptional regulators
archaea and bacteria


Nitrogen impurity effects on nickel silicide formation at low temperatures New nitrogen co-plasma approach Nickel based silicide films were prepared by annealing nickelplatinum layers deposited on n doped Si substrates. We report on the evolution of the phase formation and the redistribution of contaminants on blanket wafers during silicide formation as a function of the nitrogen gas flow introduces during Ni(Pt) deposition. Nitrogen incorporation creates a contamination as-deposited layer which modifies phase formation and changes nickel diffusion. Nitrogen is not incorporated in silicide formed. After a second anneal, the monosilicide forms excepted for high nitrogen quantity introduced where the Ni3Si2 is always observed. Monosilicide thermal stability is also improved by nitrogen co-plasma.

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

nickel
nitrogen
silicide
ni3si2
thermal stability


A HCI technique for improving requirements elicitation To develop usable software we need to understand the users that will interact with the system. Personas is a HCI technique that gathers information about users in order to comprehend their characteristics. This information is used to define fictitious persons on which development should focus. Personas provides an understanding of the user, often overlooked in SE developments. The goal of our research is to modify Personas to readily build the technique into the requirements stage of regular SE developments. We tried to apply Coopers version of the Personas technique and we found shortcomings in both the definition of the procedure to be enacted and the formalization of the product resulting from the execution of each step of the Personas technique. For each of these limitations (up to a total of 11), we devised an improvement to be built into Personas. We have incorporated these improvements into a SE version of Personas. The improved Personas avoid the weaknesses encountered by an average software developer unfamiliar with HCI techniques applying the original Personas. We aim to improve requirements elicitation through the use of Personas. We have systematized and formalized Personas in the SE tradition in order to build this new version of the technique into the requirements stage. We have applied our proposal in an application example. The integration of Personas into the SE requirements stage might improves the understanding of what the software product should do and how it should behave. We have modified the HCI Personas technique to comply with the levels of systematization required by SE. We have enriched the SE requirements process by incorporating Personas activities into requirements activities. Requirements elicitation and requirements analysis are the RE activities most affected by incorporating Personas.

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

humancomputer interaction
analysis activity
software process


Algorithms for the analysis of polysomnographic recordings with customizable criteria The diagnosis of Sleep Apnoea-Hypopnoea Syndrome requires the visual inspection of a recording containing a large number of physiological parameters of the patient - the polysomnogram. The purpose of this visual inspection is the identification and characterization of different types of pathological events that occur over these parameters. These events are defined by a set of morphological criteria. Based on these criteria, commercial tools have been developed to support clinicians in the task of visually inspecting polysomnograms. This article argues that the standard morphological criteria are just guiding recommendations that experienced physicians often adapt to each specific diagnostic context. Thus, tools that support the analysis of polysomnograms ideally should use flexible criteria that could be easily customizable by clinicians. In this paper, we propose algorithms capable of identifying pathological events relevant in the diagnosis of SAHS using custom criteria that are acquired directly from the clinician. These algorithms take advantage of the Fuzzy Set Theory to capture and handle the vagueness and uncertainty that are characteristics of medical knowledge. Knowledge acquisition using the traditional linguistic approach of the Fuzzy Sets Theory is supported by a desktop tool. However, the authors feel that some of the criteria that need to be acquired are more visual in nature than linguistic. An alternative mechanism for the visual acquisition of these criteria is proposed. Finally, when presenting the pathological events that have been identified, the tool uses several visual metaphors designed to simplify visual inspection of the polysomnogram. We have validated our proposal over 69 h of polysomnographic recordings arising from 12 patients that were subjected to a sleep study. 95.7% of the events identified were correct detections. The rate of false negatives was 1.6%. (C) 2011 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome
structural pattern recognition
clinical user interfaces


Automatic actor-based program partitioning Software reverse engineering techniques are applied most often to reconstruct the architecture of a program with respect to quality constraints, or non-functional requirements such as maintainability or reusability. In this paper, AOPR, a novel actor-oriented program reverse engineering approach, is proposed to reconstruct an object-oriented program architecture based on a high performance model such as an actor model. Reconstructing the program architecture based on this model results in the concurrent execution of the program invocations and consequently increases the overall performance of the program provided enough processors are available. The proposed reverse engineering approach applies a hill climbing clustering algorithm to find actors.

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

actor model
software reverse engineering


Vector field analysis for multi-object behavior modeling ? ?? This paper proposes an end-to-end system to recognize multi-person behaviors in video, unifying different tasks like segmentation, modeling and recognition within a single optical flow based motion analysis framework. We show how optical flow can be used for analyzing activities of individual actors, as opposed to dense crowds, which is what the existing literature has concentrated on mostly. The algorithm consists of two steps identification of motion patterns and modeling of motion patterns. Activities are analyzed using the underlying motion patterns which are formed by the optical flow field over a period of time. Streaklines are used to capture these motion patterns via integration of the flow field. To recognize the regions of interest, we utilize the Helmholtz decomposition to compute the divergence potential. The extrema or critical points of this potential indicates regions of high activity in the video, which are then represented as motion patterns by clustering the streaklines. We then present a method to compare two videos by measuring the similarity between their motion patterns using a combination of shape theory and subspace analysis. Such an analysis allows us to represent, compare and recognize a wide range of activities. We perform experiments on state-of-the-art datasets and show that the proposed method is suitable for natural videos in the presence of noise, background clutter and high intra class variations. Our method has two significant advantages over recent related approaches it provides a single framework that takes care of both low-level and high-level visual analysis tasks, and is computationally efficient.

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


Stability and sensitivity for congestion control in wireless mesh networks with time varying link capacities A critical challenge for wireless mesh networks is the design of efficient transport protocols that provide high bandwidth utilization and desired fairness in the multi-hop, wireless environment. While extensive efforts have been devoted to providing optimization based, distributed congestion control schemes for efficient bandwidth utilization and fair allocation in both wireline and wireless networks, a common assumption therein is fixed link capacities. This unfortunately will limit the application scope in wireless mesh networks where channels are ever changing. In this paper, we explicitly model link capacities to be time varying and investigate congestion control problems in multi-hop wireless networks. In particular we propose a primal-dual congestion control algorithm which is proved to be trajectory stable in the absence of feedback delay. Different from system stability around a single equilibrium point, trajectory stability guarantees the system is stable around a time varying reference trajectory. Moreover, we obtain sufficient conditions for the scheme to be locally stable in the presence of delay. Our key technique is to model time variations of capacities as perturbations to a constant link. Furthermore, to study the robustness of the algorithm against capacity variations, we investigate the sensitivity of the control scheme and through simulations to study the tradeoff between stability and sensitivity. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

wireless mesh networks
congestion control
trajectory stability
sensitivity


Locator/Identifier Separation: Comparison and Analysis on the Mitigation of Worm Propagation As a basic prerequisite for worm detection based on computational intelligence in networks with locator/identifier separation, it is well worth considering the influence on worm propagation due to the incoming locator/identifier separation. In this paper, according to the characteristics of locator/identifier separation, we systematically analyze the mitigation of worm propagation in three aspects: address semantics, address space and mapping delay. By applying the classical AAWP and SIR worm propagation models, we give a quantitative comparison between today's Internet and networks with locator/identifier separation. In particular, our research results show that, the characteristics of locator/identifier separation can help to markedly mitigate worm propagation, and networks with locator/identifier separation are more resistant to worm propagation than today's Internet.

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

worm propagation
aawp
sir
computational intelligence


An 8-Bit 100-kS/s CMOS Single-Ended SA ADC for 8 x 8 Point EEG/MEG Acquisition System An 8-bit 100-kS/s successive approximation (SA) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is proposed for measuring EEG and MEG signals in an 8 x 8 point. The architectures of a SA ADC with a single-ended analog input and a split-capacitor-based digital-to-analog converter (SC-DAC) are used to reduce the power consumption and chip area of the entire ADC. The proposed SA ADC uses a time-domain comparator that has an input offset self-calibration circuit. It also includes a serial output interface to support a daisy channel that reduces the number of channels for the multi-point sensor interface. It is designed by using a 0.35-mu m 1-poly 6-metal CMOS process with a 3.3 V supply to implement together with a conventional analog circuit such as a low-noise-amplifier. The measured DNL and INL of the SA ADC are +0.63/-0.46 and +0.46/-0.51 LSB, respectively. The SNDR is 48.39 dB for a 1.11 kHz analog input signal at a sampling rate of 100 kS/s. The power consumption and core area are 38.71 mu W and 0.059 mm(2), respectively.

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

analog-to-digital converter
time-domain comparator


mining communities of acquainted mobile users on call detail records In a telecommunication system, call detail records (i.e., CDRs) are generated automatically for tracking and billing purposes when mobile users having calls. To further investigate the information buried in huge amounts of CDRs, relationship among mobile users can be organized. Specifically, communities of acquainted mobile users can be effectively discovered from collected CDRs through our approach proposed in this paper. Note that understanding the communities and corresponding calling behaviors are of great importance to telecommunication companies. To conduct proper community mining on CDRs, techniques of data transformation and social network analysis are fully exploited. Our study shows that the proposed approach is practically feasible.

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

community mining
social network analysis


sound candy Sound Candy is a device with which anyone in the world can create his/her own playground anywhere of using sounds and movements around him/her. In our daily life, we are surrounded by the "Kings of Entertainment" such as theme parks and home video game machines. However, the entertainment gives us only passively experience without our creation or creativity. In this paper, we suggest Sound Candy designed as the tool with which each user can create a new way of playing actively. In its small body, Sound Candy has two functions as follows. First, it has a recording function. Second, it has a function to integrate recorded sounds and signals from sensors, such as vibration or acceleration caused from variety of movements. Sound Candy can be attached to any part of user's body and almost objects in his/her environments. So users can convert the recorded sound to the one synchronized with various actions by selecting a play mode from four play modes including Angle, Vibration, Speed and Rotation Mode.

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


Dynamic Scheme Transition Adaptable to Variable Video Popularity in a Digital Broadcast Network To provide on-demand video streaming services through the network, video objects with both high and low client request rates must be served efficiently. In this paper, we propose a dynamic scheme transition to provide on-demand streaming services efficiently regardless of video popularity. This approach can maintain quality-of-service (QoS) by transitioning the service scheme according to the request rate. The server provides services by heuristically broadcasting video segments when the video popularity is low and by a Periodic Broadcast when the video popularity is high. The server identifies the variations in client request rates from the number of service channels and determines transitions to more efficient service schemes autonomously. We evaluated this scheme transition for various parameters and traces from a company providing streaming services. The results show that the performance of scheme transition is very efficient.

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

periodic broadcast
video popularity
video streaming


TAME: Using PVS strategies for special-purpose theorem proving TAME (Timed Automata Modeling Environment), an interface to the theorem proving system PVS, is designed for proving properties of three classes of automata: I/O automata, Lynch-Vaandrager timed automata, and SCR automata. TAME provides templates for specifying these automata, a set of auxiliary theories, and a set of specialized PVS strategies that rely on these theories and on the structure of automata defined using the templates. Use of the TAME strategies simplifies the process of proving automaton properties. particularly state and transition invariants. TAME provides two types of strategies: strategies for "automatic" proof and strategies designed to implement "natural" proof steps, i.e., proof steps that mimic the high-level steps in typical natural language proofs. TAME's "natural" proof steps can be used both to mechanically check hand proofs in a straightforward way and to create proof scripts that can he understood without executing them in the PVS proof checker. Several new PVS features can be used to obtain better control and efficiency in user-defined strategies such as those used in TAME. This paper describes the TAME strategies, their use, and how their implementation exploits the structure of specifications and various PVS features, It also describes several features, currently unsupported in PVS. that would either allow additional "natural" proof steps in TAME or allow existing TAME proof steps to be improved. Lessons learned from TAME relevant to the development of similar specialized interfaces to PVS or other theorem provers are discussed.

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


Extremes of information combining Extreme densities for information combining are found for two important channel models: the binary-input symmetric parallel broadcast channel and the parity-constrained-input symmetric parallel channels. Following, upper and lower mutual information thresholds are stated for per-bit maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoding and low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles.

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

information combining
mutual information

extrinsic information transfer (exit) charts


Production scheduling with complex precedence constraints in parallel machines Heuristic search is a core area of artificial intelligence and the employment of an efficient search algorithm is critical to the performance of an intelligent system. This paper addresses a production scheduling problem with complex precedence constraints in an identical parallel machines environment. Although this particular problem can be found in several production and other scheduling applications; it is considered to be A(P-hard due to its high computational complexity. The solution approach we adopt is based on a comparison among several dispatching rules combined with a diagram analysis methodology. Computational results on large instances provide relatively high quality practical solutions in very short computational times, indicating the applicability of the methodology in real life-production scheduling applications.

O O O O B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 linear-time combinatorial algorithm to find the orthogonal hull of an object on the digital plane ? A combinatorial algorithm to compute the orthogonal hull of a digital object imposed on a background grid is presented in this paper. The resolution and complexity of the orthogonal hull can be controlled by varying the grid size, which may be used for a multiresolution analysis of a given object. Existing algorithms on finding the convex hull are based on divide and conquer strategy, sweepline approach, etc., whereas the proposed algorithm is combinatorial in nature whose time complexity is linear on the object perimeter instead of the object area. For a larger grid size, the perimeter of an object decreases in length in terms of grid units, and hence the runtime of the algorithm reduces significantly. The algorithm uses only comparison and addition in the integer domain, thereby making it amenable to usage in real-world applications where speed is a prime factor. Experimental results including the CPU time demonstrate the elegance and efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

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

combinatorial algorithm
convex hull
multiresolution analysis

digital geometry
image processing
shape analysis


an integrated framework for dependable and revivable architectures using multicore processors This paper presents a high-availability system architecture called INDRA an INtegrated framework for Dependable and Revivable Architecture that enhances a multicore processor (or CMP) with novel security and fault recovery mechanisms. INDRA represents the first effort to create remote attack immune, self-healing network services using the emerging multicore processors. By exploring the property of a tightly-coupled multicore system, INDRA pioneers several concepts. It creates a hardware insulation, establishes finegrained fault monitoring, exploits monitoring/backup concurrency, and facilitates fast recovery services with minimal performance impact. In addition, INDRA's fault/exploit monitoring is implemented in software rather than in hardware logic, thereby providing better flexibility and upgradability. To provide efficient service recovery and thus improve service availability, we propose a novel delta state backup and recovery on-demand mechanism in INDRA that substantially outperforms conventional checkpointing schemes. We demonstrate and evaluate INDRA's capability and performance using real network services and a cycle-level architecture simulator. As indicated by our performance results, INDRA is highly effective in establishing a more dependable system with high service availability using emerging multicore processors.

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

network
framework
recovery
multicore processor
performance
flexibility
service
paper
minimal
availability
software
multicore
architecture
concurrency
demonstrate
fault
logic
hardware
attack

simulation
efficiency
concept
evaluation
self healing
exploration
dependencies
systems
exploit
secure
monitor
effect
checkpoint
system architecture
scheme
integrability


on correct and complete strong merging of partial behaviour models Modal Transition Systems (MTS) have been shown to be useful to reason about system behaviour in the context of partial information and to support incremental elaboration of behaviour models. A particularly useful notion in the context of software and requirements engineering is that of merge. MTS merging can be used as the conjunction of multiple partial operational descriptions which may have been provided as MTS or even synthesised from other description languages such as goal models and scenarios. One of the current limitations of MTS merging is that a complete and correct algorithm for merging has not been developed. Hence, an engineer attempting to merge partial descriptions may be prevented to do so by overconstrained algorithms or algorithms that introduce behaviour that does not follow from the partial descriptions being merged. This paper resolves these problems for strong semantics by providing a complete characterization of MTS consistency and a correct and complete algorithm for MTS merging.

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

partial behaviour models
modal transition systems
merge
elaboration


Orientable Hamilton Cycle Embeddings of Complete Tripartite Graphs II: Voltage Graph Constructions and Applications In an earlier article the authors constructed a hamilton cycle embedding of in a nonorientable surface for all and then used these embeddings to determine the genus of some large families of graphs. In this two-part series, we extend those results to orientable surfaces for all . In part II, a voltage graph construction is presented for building embeddings of the complete tripartite graph on an orientable surface such that the boundary of every face is a hamilton cycle. This construction works for all such that p is prime, completing the proof started by part I (which covers the case ) that there exists an orientable hamilton cycle embedding of for all , . These embeddings are then used to determine the genus of several families of graphs, notably for and, in some cases, for .

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

complete tripartite graph
genus
hamilton cycle
voltage graph


GENERALISED LINEAR MODELLING OF SUSCEPTIBILITY TO LANDSLIDING IN THE CENTRAL APENNINES, ITALY Generalised linear modelling was used to model the relation between landsliding and several independent variables (geology, dip, strike, strata-slope interaction, aspect, density of lineaments and slope angle) for a small area of the central Apennines, Italy. Raster maps of landsliding and the independent variables were produced from air photographs, topographic and geological maps, and field checking. A logistic regression was then obtained between all slope movements and the independent variables (chosen to reflect conditions prior to landsliding). Not surprisingly, geology and slope angle were found to be the most significant factors in the model. The landslides in the region were then classified into dormant and active types and further linear models were obtained for each. While geology and slope angle were again the most significant factors in each model, slope aspect and strike were less significant for active landslides. Finally, further independent variables applicable to active landslides only (vegetation cover, soil thickness, horizontal curvature, vertical curvature, concavity of slope, local relief and roughness) were added to the model for active landslides. Interestingly, with these new variables added, vegetation cover and concavity of slope were found to be more significant than geology and slope angle.

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


Towards automating the finite element method: a test-bed for soft computing ? A program to automate the finite element method (FEM) using various soft-computing techniques is presented. The overall program is discussed, and the implementations of three specific sub-problems (mesh placement, node numbering, and adaptive meshing) are described. It is also argued that the overall architecture of an intelligent finite element package can serve as a test-bed for many soft-computing techniques.

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


Assessing the Effect of Visualizations on Bayesian Reasoning through Crowdsourcing People have difficulty understanding statistical information and are unaware of their wrong judgments, particularly in Bayesian reasoning. Psychology studies suggest that the way Bayesian problems are represented can impact comprehension, but few visual designs have been evaluated and only populations with a specific background have been involved. In this study, a textual and six visual representations for three classic problems were compared using a diverse subject pool through crowdsourcing. Visualizations included area-proportional Euler diagrams, glyph representations, and hybrid diagrams combining both. Our study failed to replicate previous findings in that subjects' accuracy was remarkably lower and visualizations exhibited no measurable benefit. A second experiment confirmed that simply adding a visualization to a textual Bayesian problem is of little help, even when the text refers to the visualization, but suggests that visualizations are more effective when the text is given without numerical values. We discuss our findings and the need for more such experiments to be carried out on heterogeneous populations of non-experts.

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

bayesian reasoning
euler diagrams
crowdsourcing

base rate fallacy
probabilistic judgment
glyphs


Computer-aided RCM-based plant maintenance management system In most of the industries, classical reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is employed to decide the maintenance strategies using reliability data without having adequate interaction with the design and operational systems. This means that the RCM process will be conducted with no or limited access to the design and operational data/knowledge. Commonly, the developed maintenance strategies are implemented and managed within the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), which is usually separate from the RCM automated environment. This paper presents the detailed system design and mechanism of improved RCM process as integrated with CMMS. The proposed solution is integrated with design and operational systems and consolidates some successful maintainability approaches to formulate an effective solution for optimized plant maintenance. The major components of the enhanced RCM process are identified and a prototype system is implemented as integrated with the various modules of the adopted CMMS (MAXIMO). A case study is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed RCM-based CMMS solution in optimizing plant maintenance over the traditional approaches.

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

rcm
cmms
maintenance management
reliability


Trade credit contract with limited liability in the supply chain with budget constraints The paper investigates the impacts of trade credit (i.e., open account payment) and limited liability on the performance of a two-level supply chain with budget constraints. It shows that limited liability accounts for the reason why the retailer with a lower initial budget initiates a higher ordering level under trade credit contract. Furthermore, this paper finds that trade credit contract could create value in a supply chain with budget constraints, and partly coordinate the supply chain.

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

trade credit
budget constraints
limited liability
supply chain


Academic computing in Asia - An overview and a case study Academic computing in Asia is marked by a process of uneven development with the National University of Singapore clearly on the leading edge. This article provides a short overview of the use of information technology in Asian academic institutions and then a case study of its use at the National University of Singapore with a particular emphasis given to computer-mediated discussions.

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

ivle (integrated virtual learning environment)


towards procedural level generation for rehabilitation This paper introduces the concept of procedural content generation for physical rehabilitation. In this initial study a ski-slalom game is developed on the Wii platform that procedurally places the gates of the game according to player performance. A preliminary game evaluation study is conducted on patients with injured legs and showcases the efficiency of the procedural gate generation mechanism tailoring the game difficulty to match rehabilitation goals. The study also validates certain usability aspects of the patients.

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


Analysis of mixed finite element methods for fourth-order wave equations Mixed finite element methods, explicit and implicit in time, for a fourth-order wave equation are considered in this paper. The optimal error estimates in theL2 L 2 norm for velocity and moment and in theH1 H 1 norm andL2 L 2 norm for displacement are derived. These error estimates are proved by using a special interpolation operator on quasi-uniform rectangular meshes. The stabilities of the two schemes are also analyzed. In addition, three other kinds of mixed scheme are constructed. Numerical examples are provided to verify the theoretical 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

fourth-order wave equation
mixed method
stability
optimal error estimate


Modeling of axis-symmetric steam plasma flow in a non-transferred torch ? This paper discusses the numerical modeling of steam plasma in a DC non-transferred torch equipped with well-type cathode, where the non-trivial azimuthal velocity component and turbulent effect are both taken into account. In order to investigate the complicated flow characteristics of thermal plasma due to the interaction between steam and electric arc, the flow filed inside the plasma torch is modeled by the magnetichydrodynamic (MHD) equations. The governing equations are then solved numerically using a non-staggered finite volume discretization based on Cartesian grid system. The anode location and maximum current density at cathode are fixed by the corresponding experimental measurement at a given flow rate. The predicted result suggests that the steam plasma can be accelerated to a mean velocity of 1500 m/s at torch outlet with the mass flow rate of 5 g/s and the system current of 180 A. A strong vortex flow structure is found inside the torch due to the introduction of azimuthal velocity at the gas inlet, which should help to stabilize the rotating arc during the torch operation.

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


Bridging proper orthogonal decomposition methods and augmented NewtonKrylov algorithms: An adaptive model order reduction for highly nonlinear mechanical problems This article describes a bridge between POD-based model order reduction techniques and the classical Newton/Krylov solvers. This bridge is used to derive an efficient algorithm to correct, on-the-fly, the reduced order modelling of highly nonlinear problems undergoing strong topological changes. Damage initiation problems tackled via a corrected hyperreduction method are used as an example. It is shown that the relevancy of reduced order model can be significantly improved with reasonable additional costs when using this algorithm, even when strong topological changes are involved.

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

model order reduction (mor)
proper orthogonal decomposition (pod)
newton/krylov solver
projected conjugate gradient
damage propagation


FILIB++, a fast interval library supporting containment computations filib++ is an extension of the interval library filib originally developed at the University of Karlsruhe. The most important aim of filib is the fast computation of guaranteed bounds for interval versions of a comprehensive set of elementary functions. filib++ extends this library in two aspects. First, it adds a second mode, the extended mode, that extends the exception-free computation mode ( using special values to represent infinities and NaNs known from the IEEE floating-point standard 754) to intervals. In this mode, the so-called containment sets are computed to enclose the topological closure of a range of a function over an interval. Second, our new design uses templates and traits classes to obtain an efficient, easily extendable, and portable C++ library.

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

containment computations
containment sets
templates

algorithms
reliability
standardization
filib plus
interval arithmetic
validation
guaranteed numerical results
interval computations
validated numerics
exception free computations
c plus plus class library
traits class


Lineage Commitment and Maturation Induction in Normal and Leukemic Preprogenitor Cells Analysis of the critical cellular processes of self-generation, commitment, and maturation induction ideally requires the use of clonal cultures using cells with a capacity to undergo all three processes. Preprogenitor cells from normal mouse marrow are proving useful cells for such studies. Cells of a newly established cloned leukemic cell line, the GB2, are providing a useful analogous leukemic system because GB2 cells form stratified subpopulations of clonogenic cells able to be clonally analyzed in vitro in which self-renewal is demonstrable, but in which near-normal maturation can be induced by a wide range of hematopoietic regulators.

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

hematopoiesis
cytokines
leukemia
blast colonies


Systemic modelling and computational physiology: The application of Bond Graph boundary conditions for 3D cardiovascular models This paper presents an application of Bond Graphs in physiological modelling. In this work, a Bond Graph model is utilised as boundary condition for a detailed model of an idealized mitral valve. Applications of this type fit within the framework described by the Virtual Physiological Human initiative. This supports the integration of physical, mechanical and biochemical models encompassing a range of different length and time scales to obtain predictive models of the human body. Because 3D detailed modelling and simulation is computationally intensive, a 3D computational model of a whole biological system is, by todays standards, impossible to achieve. Due to their unique multi-physics nature of internal coherence, Bond Graphs are particularly suited to biological applications and can be coupled to 3D models and lumped parameter models. A specific application in cardiovascular modelling is demonstrated by focusing on a specific example; a 3D model of the mitral valve coupled to a lumped parameter model of the left ventricle.

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

bond graphs
boundary conditions
computational physiology

cardiovascular modelling and simulation
3d modelling
lumped parameter modelling
cardiac valves modelling and simulation
biological modelling


can irrelevant data help semi-supervised learning, why and how? Previous semi-supervised learning (SSL) techniques usually assume unlabeled data are relevant to the target task. That is, they follow the same distribution as the targeted labeled data. In this paper, we address a different and very difficult scenario in SSL, where the unlabeled data may be a mixture of data relevant or irrelevant to the target binary classification task. In our framework, we do not require explicitly prior knowledge on the relatedness of the unlabeled data to the target data. In order to alleviate the effect of the irrelevant unlabeled data and utilize the implicit knowledge among all available data, we develop a novel maximum margin classifier, named the tri-class support vector machine (3C-SVM), to seek an inductive rule to separate the target binary classification task well while finding out the irrelevant data by-product. To attain this goal, we introduce a new min loss function, which can relieve the impact of the irrelevant data while relying more on the labeled data and the relevant unlabeled data. This loss function can therefore achieve the maximum entropy principle. The 3C-SVM can then generalize standard SVMs, Semi-supervised SVMs, and SVMs learned from the universum as its special cases. We further analyze the property of 3C-SVM on why the irrelevant data can help to improve the model performance. For implementation, we make relaxation and approximate the objective by the convex-concave procedure, which turns the original optimization from integral programming problem to a problem by just solving a finite number of quadratic programming problems. Empirical results are reported to demonstrate the advantages of our 3C-SVM model.

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

semi-supervised learning
concave-convex procedure


Null space based feature selection method for gene expression data Feature selection is quite an important process in gene expression data analysis. Feature selection methods discard unimportant genes from several thousands of genes for finding important genes or pathways for the target biological phenomenon like cancer. The obtained gene subset is used for statistical analysis for prediction such as survival as well as functional analysis for understanding biological characteristics. In this paper we propose a null space based feature selection method for gene expression data in terms of supervised classification. The proposed method discards the redundant genes by applying the information of null space of scatter matrices. We derive the method theoretically and demonstrate its effectiveness on several DNA gene expression datasets. The method is easy to implement and computationally efficient.

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

dna microarray gene expression data
classification accuracy
biological significance


NOVEL APPROACHES FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF FUZZY MEMBERSHIP FUNCTION INTO BASIC PROBABILITY ASSIGNMENT BASED ON UNCERTAINTY OPTIMIZATION With the development of uncertainty reasoning and information fusion, there have emerged several theories including fuzzy set theory, Dempster-Shafer evidence theory, probability theory and rough set theory, etc., for representing and dealing with the uncertain information. When the fusion of the uncertain information originated from different sources is needed, how to construct a general framework for different theories of uncertainty or how to establish the connection between different theoretical frameworks has become a crucial problem. Particularly, to combine two kinds of information represented respectively by the BPA and the FMF, this paper proposes two transformations of an FMF into a BPA by solving a constrained maximization or minimization optimization problem. The objective function is the uncertainty degree of the body of evidence (BOE) and the corresponding constraints are established based on the given FMF. In fact the transformation of an FMF into a BPA is the transformation of fuzzy sets into random sets, which is currently accepted as a unified framework for several theories of uncertainty. Our proposed approaches have no predefinition of focal elements and they can be used as the general transformations of fuzzy sets into random sets. Some examples and analyses are provided to illustrate and justify the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

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

evidence theory
bpa
fuzzy membership function
optimization


Repairable consecutive-k-out-of-n: G systems with r repairmen In this paper, we study repairable consecutive-k-out-of-n: G systems with r repairmen. The systems are either circular or linear. It is assumed that the working time, and the repair time of each component in the system are both exponentially distributed; and every component after repair is 'as good as new'. Each component is classified as either a key component, or an ordinary one according to its priority role to the system's repair. By using the definition of generalized transition probability, the state transition probabilities of the system are derived. Some important indices related to repairmen are obtained, and some reliability indices are derived by using the Laplace transform technique. Numerical examples are then studied in detail to demonstrate the theoretical results developed in the paper. The proposed method, and its numerical illustrations for the examples verify the validity & generality of the studied system.

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

generalized transition probability
reliability

repairable consecutive-k-out-of-n : g system


Student teachers go online; the need for a focus on human agency and pedagogy in learning about e-learning in initial teacher education (ITE) This paper argues that student teachers developing pedagogical approaches achieve expression within the virtual classroom in much the same way as they would in the real classroom; that is to say through language as the primary tool of mediation. Whilst the advent of new communications technologies affords new arenas in which learning can take placeVirtual Learning Environments (VLEs), online communities, Managed Learning Environmentsthe importance of human agency and the significance of language remains pivotal to the effective use of such technologies. As such it is argued that student teachers need opportunities to engage in authentic online dialogue with children as they endeavour to find their online pedagogical voice. The key findings emerge from a case study carried out with a group of Year3 ICT specialists on an undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) degree course in the UK, leading to qualified teacher status (QTS) in the primary and lower secondary phases of education. Funding from the University of Brighton, Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP), was used to design and resource a module, which facilitated opportunities for student teachers to engage in online learning dialogues with children from a local primary school, having initially met with the children face-to-face. Fourteen student teachers participated in the study. Interviews were carried out and their online dialogues with the children were analysed to establish both the issues and potential advantages of such a situated approach to learning about the educational use of new communications technologies with children.

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

learning communities
tools for learning
web2 technologies and learning
theories and philosophies of learning


highly dynamic destination-sequenced distance-vector routing (dsdv) for mobile computers An ad-hoc network is the cooperative engagement of a collection of Mobile Hosts without the required intervention of any centralized Access Point. In this paper we present an innovative design for the operation of such ad-hoc networks. The basic idea of the design is to operate each Mobile Host as a specialized router, which periodically advertises its view of the interconnection topology with other Mobile Hosts within the network. This amounts to a new sort of routing protocol. We have investigated modifications to the basic Bellman-Ford routing mechanisms, as specified by RIP [5], to make it suitable for a dynamic and self-starting network mechanism as is required by users wishing to utilize ad hoc networks. Our modifications address some of the previous objections to the use of Bellman-Ford, related to the poor looping properties of such algorithms in the face of broken links and the resulting time dependent nature of the interconnection topology describing the links between the Mobile Hosts. Finally, we describe the ways in which the basic network-layer routing can be modified to provide MAC-layer support for ad-hoc networks.

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

network
point
use
design
router
links
access
paper
routing protocol
engagement
users
ad hoc networks
dynamic
support
routing

sorting
innovating
mobility
centrality
collect
addressing
topologies
timing
distance
dependencies
vectorization
cooperation
layer
interconnect
algorithm
mobile computing


A hybrid Granular Tabu Search algorithm for the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem In this paper, we propose a hybrid Granular Tabu Search algorithm to solve the Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem (MDVRP). We are given on input a set of identical vehicles (each having a capacity and a maximum duration), a set of depots, and a set of customers with deterministic demands and service times. The problem consists of determining the routes to be performed to fulfill the demand of the customers by satisfying, for each route, the associated capacity and maximum duration constraints. The objective is to minimize the sum of the traveling costs related to the performed routes. The proposed algorithm is based on a heuristic framework previously introduced by the authors for the solution of the Capacitated Location Routing Problem (CLRP). The algorithm applies a hybrid Granular Tabu Search procedure, which considers different neighborhoods and diversification strategies, to improve the initial solution obtained by a hybrid procedure. Computational experiments on benchmark instances from the literature show that the proposed algorithm is able to produce, within short computing time, several best solutions obtained by the previously published methods and new best solutions.

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multi-depot vehicle routing problem
heuristic algorithms


Load frequency control of power system under deregulated environment using optimal firefly algorithm FA optimized hybrid fuzzy PIDF controller is proposed for LFC of deregulated power system. Generation Rate Constraint and Governor Dead Band nonlinearity are considered. Control parameters of FA are tuned by carrying out multiple runs of algorithm. Superiority of FA is demonstrated by comparing the results with tuned GA. Results are presented under different contracted scenarios and parameter variation.

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load frequency control (lfc)
firefly algorithm (fa)
generation rate constraint (grc)
governor dead band (gdb)
sensitivity


Using fractional order accumulation to reduce errors from inverse accumulated generating operator of grey model To smooth the randomness, a grey forecasting model is formulated using the data of accumulating generation operator (AGO) rather than original data. Then the inverse accumulating generation operator (IAGO) is applied to find the predicted values of original data. It is proved that the errors from IAGO are affected by the order number of AGO. To achieve an accurate prediction, GM(2,1), which stands for one-variable and second-order differential equation, has been improved by means of fractional order AGO. Finally, four real data sets are imported for comparing the performance of the developed GM(2,1) with several other grey models, such as traditional GM(2,1) and GM(1,1). The simulation results show that optimized GM(2,1) has higher performances not only on model fitting but also on forecasting.

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grey system
gm(2
1) model
tourism demand forecasting
deaths in road traffic accidents


an evaluation scheme of adaptive configuration techniques In this paper, we present a set of metrics (scalability, adaptability, overhead, latency, complexity, and effectiveness) to evaluate dynamic configuration techniques. We have applied these metrics to two real systems: remote management system and dynamic security configuration of networked systems. The evaluation results show that our approach can efficiently and dynamically manage system resources and network security with little overhead.

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autonomic component
self-configuration
autonomic computing
system management


Adaptive space transformation: An invariant based method for predicting aerodynamic coefficients of hypersonic vehicles ? When developing a new hypersonic vehicle, thousands of wind tunnel tests to study its aerodynamic performance are needed. Due to limitations of experimental facilities and/or cost budget, only a part of flight parameters could be replicated. The point to predict might locate outside the convex hull of sample points. This makes it necessary but difficult to predict its aerodynamic coefficients under flight conditions so as to make the vehicle under control and be optimized. Approximation based methods including regression, nonlinear fit, artificial neural network, and support vector machine could predict well within the convex hull (interpolation). But the prediction performance will degenerate very fast as the new point gets away from the convex hull (extrapolation). In this paper, we suggest regarding the prediction not just a mathematical extrapolation, but a mathematics-assisted physical problem, and propose a supervised self-learning scheme, adaptive space transformation (AST), for the prediction. AST tries to automatically detect an underlying invariant relation with the known data under the supervision of physicists. Once the invariant is detected, it will be used for prediction. The result should be valid provided that the physical condition has not essentially changed. The study indicates that AST can predict the aerodynamic coefficient reliably, and is also a promising method for other extrapolation related predictions.

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data correlation
scaling parameter
genetic programming


Multi-class named entities extraction from biomedical literature With rapid growth of electronic literature in recent years, efficient named entities extraction becomes an indispensable part of knowledge base construction automation. In this paper an entity extraction system useful as biomedical knowledge acquisition was presented. Unlike most entity extraction systems which do not concern term variants, the proposed system was incorporated with a rule-based resolver to recover the full forms of those target entities from the coordination variants. The resolution approach was proved with GENIA Corpus 3.0 to be feasible by showing 88.51% recall and 57.04% precision. On the other hand, the kernel part of the system was based on Hidden Markov Model (HMMs) by setting appropriate set of input features extracted from training corpus. With various experiments on different corpora the proposed system achieved promising results at entity boundary identification and at classification as well.

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named entity extraction
statistical model
term variant


Dynamic self-organising map We present in this paper a variation of the self-organising map algorithm where the original time-dependent (learning rate and neighbourhood) learning function is replaced by a time-invariant one. This allows for on-line and continuous learning on both static and dynamic data distributions. One of the property of the newly proposed algorithm is that it does not fit the magnification law and the achieved vector density is not directly proportional to the density of the distribution as found in most vector quantisation algorithms. From a biological point of view, this algorithm sheds light on cortical plasticity seen as a dynamic and tight coupling between the environment and the model.

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