automatically assessing resource quality for educational digital libraries With the rise of community-generated web content, the need for automatic assessment of resource quality has grown. We demonstrate how developing a concrete characterization of quality for web-based resources can make machine learning approaches to automating quality assessment in the realm of educational digital libraries tractable. Using data from several previous studies of quality, we gathered a set of key dimensions and indicators of quality that were commonly identified by educators. We then performed a mixed-method study of digital library quality experts, showing that our characterization of quality captured the subjective processes used by the experts when assessing resource quality. Using key indicators of quality selected from a statistical analysis of our expert study data, we developed a set of annotation guidelines and annotated a corpus of 1000 digital resources for the presence or absence of the key quality indicators. Agreement among annotators was high, and initial machine learning models trained from this corpus were able to identify some indicators of quality with as much as an 18\% improvement over the baseline.

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

machine learning
digital library
quality

natural language processing
digital resource


summarization evaluation using relative utility We present a series of experiments to demonstrate the validity of Relative Utility (RU) as a measure for evaluating extractive summarizers. RU is applicable in both single-document and multi-document summarization, is extendable to arbitrary compression rates with no extra annotation effort, and takes into account both random system performance and interjudge agreement. Our results using the JHU summary corpus indicate that RU is a reasonable and often superior alternative to several common evaluation metrics.

O B 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 O O B O


Robust mixture modeling using multivariate skew t distributions This paper presents a robust mixture modeling framework using the multivariate skew t distributions, an extension of the multivariate Student's t family with additional shape parameters to regulate skewness. The proposed model results in a very complicated likelihood. Two variants of Monte Carlo EM algorithms are developed to carry out maximum likelihood estimation of mixture parameters. In addition, we offer a general information-based method for obtaining the asymptotic covariance matrix of maximum likelihood estimates. Some practical issues including the selection of starting values as well as the stopping criterion are also discussed. The proposed methodology is applied to a subset of the Australian Institute of Sport data for illustration.

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

mcem-type algorithms
msn
mst
multivariate truncated normal
multivariate truncated t
outliers


Comparison

of

the

interaction

of

dopamine

and

high

affinity

positron

emission

tomography

radiotracer

fallypride

with

the

dopamine

receptor:

a

molecular

modeling

study

We

have

built

a

model

of

the

dopaminergic

receptor

protein

and

have

docked

the

agonist

dopamine

and

two

dopamine

receptor

antagonists,

(S)-N-[(1-allyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)-methyl]-5-(3-fluoropropyl)-

(fallypride)

and

to

its

putative

active

site.

We

have

utilized

the

structures

of

bacteriorhodopsin

and

rhodopsin

for

modeling

the

receptor

by

homology.

Mutation

studies

and

structure-activity

studies

have

been

used

to

refine

our

model

further.

Docking

exercises

of

the

ligands

to

the

computer-generated

model

are

used

to

explain

the

observed

in

vitro

and

in

vivo

behavior

of

these

compounds.

Interactions

with

the

aspartate

residue

in

and

the

serine

residues

and

in

were

observed

for

both

dopamine

and

fallypride.

A

significant

interaction

of

the

phenyl

ring

of

fallypride

was

observed

with

and

which

was

weaker

in

the

case

of

dopamine.

The

N-allyl

group

of

fallypride

is

flanked

by

and

possibly

enhancing

interaction

and

the

fluoropropyl

group

in

fallypride

is

flanked

by

and

which

seem

to

form

a

pocket.

These

interactions

may

account

for

the

higher

affinity

of

fallypride

for

the

receptor

compared

to

dopamine.

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


State complexity of union and intersection of square and reversal on k regular languages In this paper, we continue our study on the state complexity of combined operations on regular languages. We study the state complexities of boolean OR(k)(i=1) L-i(2), boolean AND(k)(i=1) L-i(2), boolean OR(k)(i=1) L-i(R), and boolean AND(k)(i=1) L-i(R), for regular languages L-i, 1 = 2. We obtain the exact bounds for these combined operations and show that the state complexities of boolean OR(k)(i=1) L-i(2) and boolean AND(k)(i=1) L-i(2) are the same as the mathematical compositions of the state complexities of their component individual operations, while, on the other hand, the state complexities of boolean OR(k)(i=1) L-i(R) and boolean AND(k)(i=1) L-i(R) are lower than the corresponding mathematical compositions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

state complexity
combined operations
regular languages


Frequency-domain steady-state analysis of circuits with mem-elements The paper deals with frequency-domain models of memristor, memcapacitor, and meminductor, and their use in the steady-state analysis by means of the harmonic-balance method. The models are based on a polynomial approximation of constitutive relations, allowing analytical formulation of relations between the spectral components of stimulus and response, for both periodic and quasi-periodic steady-state conditions. The method does not require transforming signals between the time and the frequency domains to obtain the mem-element response. Examples of the analysis of a mem-resonance circuit with long settling time and the HP memristor with nonlinear dopant drift are presented.

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

mem-elements
constitutive relation
modeling
steady state
harmonic balance


An experimental teletaction system for sensing and teleperception of human pulse Teletaction is the sensing of a remote object by transmitting tactile information from a remote tactile sensor to an operator's skin through tactile interface devices. A tactile interface is used to reproduce the information such as force (static and dynamic), texture, roughness, temperature, and shape. This paper describes the design, modeling, simulation, fabrication and testing of an experimental teletaction system to detect and reproduce the human pulse. It consists of three major components: pulse sensing system, pulse teleperception system and the data processing system. Two 25 pin thick polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film sensors had been fabricated and calibrated for pulse detection and force measurement. A computer controlled force feedback system was developed for achieving pulse teleperception. The simulation and experimental results demonstrated the close matching between the sensed and perceived pulse. A psychophysics test showed that the fingertip feeling at the pulse teleperception end closely matched the feeling of touching a human pulse directly. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

teletaction
pulse sensing
pulse teleperception

tactile sensing
tactile display
strain matching


Building robust wavelet estimators for multicomponent images using Stein's principle Multichannel imaging systems provide several observations of the same scene which are often corrupted by noise. In this paper, we are interested in multispectral image denoising in the wavelet domain. We adopt a multivariate statistical approach in order to exploit the correlations existing between the different spectral components. Our main contribution is the application of Stein's principle to build a new estimator for arbitrary multichannel images embedded in additive Gaussian noise. Simulation tests carried out on optical satellite images show that the proposed method outperforms conventional wavelet shrinkage techniques.

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

image denoising
satellite images
shrinkage

bayesian methods
multispectral images
multivariate estimation
nonlinear estimation
robust estimation
stein's estimator
unbiased risk estimator
wavelets


Interpreting information security culture: An organizational transformation case study When two companies merge, technical infrastructures change, formal security policies get rewritten, and normative structures clash. The resultant changes typically disrupt the prevalent security culture, thus making the new organization highly vulnerable. Literature in this area has been rather scant, and there is a lack of empirical studies. In this paper, we use Hall's (1959) theory of cultural message streams to evaluate disruptions in security culture following a merger. We carry out an extensive case study of a telecom firm. Data were collected whilst the merger was taking place, which allowed us to evaluate the changing structures in real time. Findings from our analysis will be beneficial for researchers and practitioners alike. For researchers, it provides an opportunity to theorize about security culture formulation during a merger. At a practical level, decision makers will find this analysis useful for engaging in strategic security planning.

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

security culture
organizational transformation
case study

formal and informal security
cultural analysis
information security management


Evaluating lifetime performance for the Pareto model with censored and imprecise information A lifetime capability index L-tp has been proposed to measure the business lifetime performance, wherein output lifetime measurements are assumed to be precise from the Pareto model with censored information. In the present study, we study a more realistic situation where the lifetime output data are imprecise. The approach developed by Buckley [Fuzzy system, Soft Comput. 9 (2005), pp. 757-760; Fuzzy statistics: Regression and prediction, Soft Comput. 9 (2005), pp. 769-775] incorporated with some extensions (a set of confidence intervals, one on top of the other), is used to construct the triangular-shaped fuzzy number for the fuzzy estimate of the L-tp. With the sampling distribution of the unbiased estimator of the L-tp, two useful fuzzy inference criteria, its critical value and fuzzy p-value are obtained to assess the lifetime performance. The presented methodology can handle the lifetime performance assessment on the condition that sample lifetime data are involved with imprecise information, classifying the lifetime performance with the three-decision rule. With different preset requirements and a certain degree of imprecise data, we also develop a four quadrants decision-making plot where managers can easily simultaneously visualize several important features of lifetime performance for making a decision. An example of business lifetime data is given to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method.

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

lifetime-conforming rate
fuzzy sets
fuzzy hypothesis testing
fuzzy p-value


Remote control of turn-on latency time in a semiconductor diode laser Turn-on latency time is numerically investigated in a system of unidirectionally coupled semiconductor diode lasers. The optical output of a diode laser (master) is unidirectionally injected into another diode laser (slave). The slaves turn-on latency time is found to have a logarithmic dependence on masters transmission coefficient. This dependency is studied at different bias levels of the lasers. The frequency detuning between the lasers is found to influence the turn-on latency time, and is found that the turn-on latency time is relatively larger for positive detuning than that of negative detuning. Thus, we present a possibility of a remote control of the turn-on latency time of a diode laser (slave) by controlling the operating parameters of another (master) diode laser.

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


An Optimum-Time Square Synchronization Algorithm - One-Sided Recursive-Halving Marking Based The firing squad synchronization problem (FSSP, for short) on cellular automata has been studied extensively for more than fifty years, and a rich variety of synchronization algorithms have been proposed for one- and two-dimensional cellular automata. In the present paper, we propose a new optimum-time FSSP algorithm for two-dimensional square cellular automata. The algorithm can synchronize any square arrays of size n X n with a general at one corner in exactly 2n - 2 steps. It is based on a new technique called one-sided recursive-halving marking and is quite different from the well known classical FSSP algorithm proposed by Beyer [1969] and Shinahr [1974].

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

two-dimensional square synchronization problem


Normalized discriminant analysis for dimensionality reduction In this paper, we propose the normalized discriminant analysis (NDA) technique for dimensionality reduction. NDA is built on the information of data point pairs that is implicitly encoded by using the pseudo-Riemannian metric tensor. This makes NDA to be easily adapted for unsupervised or supervised learning. It is also interesting to note that the solution of NDA will asymptotically converge to that of generalized linear discriminant analysis (GLDA) under proper conditions. This gives us some insights in understanding the evolving behavior of NDA. Extensive experiments on a simulated data, face images, character images, and UCI data sets are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of NDA.

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

normalized laplacain matrix
locality preserving projections (lpp)
normalized discriminant analysis (nda)
data classification


Interactive Design of Urban Spaces using Geometrical and Behavioral Modeling The main contribution of our work is in closing the loop between behavioral and geometrical modeling of cities. Editing of urban design variables is performed intuitively and visually using a graphical user interface. Any design variable can be constrained or changed. The design process uses an iterative dynamical system for reaching equilibrium: a state where the demands of behavioral modeling match those of geometrical modeling. 3D models are generated in a few seconds and conform to plausible urban behavior and urban geometry. Our framework includes an interactive agent-based behavioral modeling system as well as adaptive geometry generation algorithms. We demonstrate interactive and incremental design and editing for synthetic urban spaces spanning over 200 square kilometers.

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

interactive
editing
3d models
urban spaces


Fusing ant colony optimization with Lagrangian relaxation for the multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem The multiple-choice multidimensional knapsack problem (MMKP) concerns a wide variety of practical problems. It is strongly constrained and NP-hard; thus searching for an efficient heuristic approach for MMKP is of great significance. In this study, we attempt to solve MMKP by fusing ant colony optimization (ACO) with Lagrangian relaxation (LR). The algorithm used here follows the algorithmic scheme of maxmin ant system for its outstanding performance in solving many other combinatorial optimization problems. The Lagrangian value of the item in MMKP, obtained from LR, is used as the heuristic factor in ACO since it performs best among the six domain-based heuristic factors we define. Furthermore, a novel infeasibility index is proposed for the development of a new repair operator, which converts possibly infeasible solutions into feasible ones. The proposed algorithm was compared with four existing algorithms by applying them to three groups of instances. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of producing competitive solutions.

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

ant colony optimization
lagrangian relaxation


A local spectral inversion of a linearized TV model for denoising and deblurring In this paper, we propose a model for denoising and deblurring consisting of a system of linear partial differential equations with locally constant coefficients, obtained as a local linearization of the total variation models [9]. The keypoint of our model is to get the local inversion of the Laplacian operator, which will be done via the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Two local schemes will be developed: a pointwise and a piecewise one. We will analyze both, their advantages and their limitations.

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


laboratory design for wireless network attacks There has been an increased awareness on the importance of a hands-on laboratory component in information security education in recent years. We developed a series of laboratory exercises for wireless network security. These laboratory exercises introduce to the students the following wireless network attacks: Wardriving, Eavesdropping, WEP Key Cracking/Decryption, Man in the Middle, MAC Spoofing, ARP Cache Poisoning, and ARP Request Replay. Open source tools such as Aircrack-ng, Cain and Abel, and Mac Makeup are used in these laboratory exercises to demonstrate how these attacks are conducted. The laboratory exercises were presented to two information security related courses at this university. The student feedback was very positive. Future work will include refining the laboratory design, conducting evaluation of the exercises extensively, developing more laboratory exercises for wireless network security and developing laboratory exercises for the Linux platform.

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

wireless security
network laboratory exercise


the use of observability and external don't cares for the simplification of multi-level networks We give an algorithm for computing subsets of observability don't cares at the nodes of a multi-level Boolean network. These subsets are based on an extension of the methods introduced in [4] for computing compatible sets of permissible functions (CSPF's) at the nodes of networks composed of NOR gates. The extensions presented are in four directions; an arbitrary logic function is allowed at any node, the don't cares are expressed in terms of both primary inputs and intermediate variables, a new ordering scheme is used, and maximal CSPF's are computed. These ideas are incorporated in an algorithm designed to take full advantage of the power of two-level minimization in multi-level logic synthesis systems. This has been implemented in MIS-II and we present results that demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques.

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

network
use
simplification
systems
logic synthesis
demonstrate
power
logic
algorithm
scheme

variability order method computation functional extensibility effect minimal


A novel function prediction approach using protein overlap networks Construction of a reliable network remains the bottleneck for network-based protein function prediction. We built an artificial network model called protein overlap network (PON) for the entire genome of yeast, fly, worm, and human, respectively. Each node of the network represents a protein, and two proteins are connected if they share a domain according to InterPro database.

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 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

protein overlap network
protein function prediction


Checking Timed Buchi Automata Emptiness on Simulation Graphs Timed automata [Alur and Dill 1994] comprise a popular model for describing real-time and embedded systems and reasoning formally about them. Efficient model-checking algorithms have been developed and implemented in tools such as Kronos [Daws et al. 1996] or Uppaal [Larsen et al. 1997] for checking safety properties on this model, which amounts to reachability. These algorithms use the so-called zone-closed simulation graph, a finite graph that admits efficient representation and has been recently shown to preserve reachability [Bouyer 2004]. Building upon Bouyer [2004] and our previous work [Bouajjani et al. 1997; Tripakis et al. 2005], we show that this graph can also be used for checking liveness properties, in particular, emptiness of timed Buchi automata.

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 B I I

verification
design
languages
formal methods
specification languages
model checking
property-preserving abstractions


iterative selection criteria to improve simple adaptive subdivision surfaces method in handling cracks for triangular meshes This paper brings to iterative selection criteria to improve simple adaptive subdivision surfaces method in handling cracks for triangular meshes. Adaptive subdivision is a method that subdivides only at certain areas of the control mesh. Although subdivision occurs in the selected areas, the quality of produced surfaces can be preserved similar to the regular subdivision surfaces. Traditionally, subdivision surfaces were applied to the entire model in order to produce smooth surfaces refinement from coarse meshes. Several schemes had been proposed in this area to provide a set of rules to converge smooth surfaces. However, to compute and render all the vertices are inconvenient in terms of memory consumption and run time while the subdivision process converges to a limit shape. It will lead to heavy computational loads especially at a higher level of subdivision. The result brings to an outcome that subdivisions of entire meshes are unnecessary. Nevertheless, adaptive subdivision suffers with two weaknesses; difficult to select necessary areas needed to be subdivided, and to remove cracks created from the subdivision depth difference between the selected and unselected areas. Cracks must be removed because it creates artifacts in editing, rendering, and processing of the mesh. The result of comparison for simple adaptive subdivision surfaces method has been presented.

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

subdivision surfaces
selection criteria
adaptive subdivision


Identification of Imaging Biomarkers in Schizophrenia: A Coefficient-constrained Independent Component Analysis of the Mind Multi-site Schizophrenia Study A number of recent studies have combined multiple experimental paradigms and modalities to find relevant biological markers for schizophrenia. In this study, we extracted fMRI features maps from the analysis of three experimental paradigms (auditory oddball, Sternberg item recognition, sensorimotor) for a large number (n?=?154) of patients with schizophrenia and matched healthy controls. We used the general linear model (GLM) and independent component analysis (ICA) to extract feature maps (i.e. ICA component maps and GLM contrast maps), which were then subjected to a coefficient-constrained independent component analysis (CCICA) to identify potential neurobiological markers. A total of 29 different feature maps were extracted for each subject. Our results show a number of optimal feature combinations that reflect a set of brain regions that significantly discriminate between patients and controls in the spatial heterogeneity and amplitude of their feature signals. Spatial heterogeneity was seen in regions such as the superior/middle temporal and frontal gyri, bilateral parietal lobules, and regions of the thalamus. Most strikingly, an ICA feature representing a bilateral frontal pole network was consistently seen in the ten highest feature results when ranked on differences found in the amplitude of their feature signals. The implication of this frontal pole network and the spatial variability which spans regions comprising of bilateral frontal/temporal lobes and parietal lobules suggests that they might play a significant role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

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

schizophrenia
independent component analysis
fmri
biomarkers
ccica
auditory oddball
sensorimotor

coefficient constrained independent component analysis


Coordinated inductive learning using argumentation-based communication This paper focuses on coordinated inductive learning, concerning how agents with inductive learning capabilities can coordinate their learnt hypotheses with other agents. Coordination in this context means that the hypothesis learnt by one agent is consistent with the data known to the other agents. In order to address this problem, we present A-MAIL, an argumentation approach for agents to argue about hypotheses learnt by induction. A-MAIL integrates, in a single framework, the capabilities of learning from experience, communication, hypothesis revision and argumentation. Therefore, the A-MAIL approach is one step further in achieving autonomous agents with learning capabilities which can use, communicate and reason about the knowledge they learn from examples.

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

multiagent systems
computational argumentation
learning from communication
learning from argumentation
coordinated inductive learning


Computation of through-space NMR shielding effects by small-ring aromatic and antiaromatic hydrocarbons The GIAO-HF method in Gaussian 03 was employed to calculate the isotropic NMR shielding values of a diatomic hydrogen probe above simple small-ring aromatic and antiaromatic hydrocarbons, including neutral and ionic examples. Subtraction of the isotropic shielding of diatomic hydrogen by itself allowed the prediction of through-space proton NMR shielding increment surfaces for these systems. Substantial shielding was observed above the center of aromatic rings, regardless of whether the ring was ?-aromatic or ?-aromatic, and also regardless of the charge. In sharp contrast, deshielding was observed above the center of antiaromatic rings, regardless of whether the ring was ?-aromatic or ?-aromatic, and also regardless of the charge. Shielding increment values at 2.5 above the ring centers were compared to NICS values at the same position. The shielding effects predicted by using diatomic hydrogen as a computational probe are diagnostic of whether a structure possesses aromaticity or antiaromaticity.

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

through-space shielding effects
giao
hydrocarbon


Integrating stochasticity into the objective function avoids Monte Carlo computation in the optimisation of beef feedlots The real world contains many sources of natural variation. Useful simulation models of real-world problems, such as the optimal allocation of beef cattle into feedlot pens, need to take this into account. Monte Carlo simulation is the usual method of achieving this, using multiple model runs, each with a different set of randomly generated variables. However, when the goal is system optimisation, this approach can make the computation extremely intensive, and difficult for the optimisation of even moderately-sized models. This problem was addressed in an industry model of feedlot operations, where animals are selected and drafted into separate pens, and grown to the optimal weight and fat ranges in the pricing grid. For each pen, it is planned that the majority of the animals achieve this targeted region of the price grid, so that the number of discounted carcasses will be minimal. The main problem is that animals which appear reasonably similar at intake then display variable growth and fattening rates. Hence deterministic predictions are unrealistic, and stochasticity needs to be factored in. However this interferes with the efficient optimisation of this feedlot operation, which ultimately needs to be done real-time (at animal induction), and on-site at the feedlot. Our solution to this dilemma was to transfer all of the modelled stochastic processes onto the evaluation side of this problem, by integrating over Normal distributions applied to the expected prices for each animal. This allows the optimisation runs to directly estimate the expected economic outcome using just one model evaluation for each trial management strategy. This process is illustrated with two case-studies, based on separate past intakes of animals into a commercial feedlot. For both intakes, the simulated results as reflected by the carcass values for the actual times on feed matched well with the observed values. Simulated results indicate that increases in profitability can be obtained both by altering the days on feed, and by better allocation of the animals to the pens. The overall predicted increase in profit per animal was $34 for the first intake, where the actual allocation of animals to the pens was approximately random (the order they were offloaded), and $20 for the second example where the animals had been allocated to pens on a more structured basis (by weights). This optimised allocation scheme appears to offer obvious improvements for feedlot operations, and is currently being trialed by a number of industry collaborators.

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

market specifications
evolutionary algorithm
differential evolution


Introduction to the Special Issue Semiotics of Perception Being in the World of the LivingSemiotic Perspectives This special issue on the semiotics of perception originates from two workshops arranged in Tartu, Estonia, in February 2009. We are located at the junction of nature and culture, and of semiotics and phenomenology. Can they be reconciled? More particularly, can subfields such as biosemiotics and ecophenomenology be mutually enriching? The authors of the current special issue believe that they can. Semiotic study of life and the living can emerge as properly informed only if it is capable of incorporating observations made in natural science, philosophy and cultural studies. The semiotic study of nature entails an experiential turn in the study of life processes. Perception isor should beat the heart of the life sciences.

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

animal mind
landscape
uexkllian phenomenology
umwelt


mindmapx Mind Mapping is a diagramming technique that allows its users to effectively capture, learn, manipulate and develop information. It has the potential to radically enhance an individual's capacity to learn, in both a single user and group environment and has been proven to do so in a wide variety of fields. MindMapX is a multi user Mind Mapping application that is being developed with the express intention of unlocking Mind Mapping's potential.

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


Numerical analysis of cracked beams using nonlinear output frequency response functions Nonlinear output frequency response functions (NOFRFs) are a new concept recently developed for the analysis of nonlinear systems in the frequency domain. Based on this concept, the output frequency behaviors of nonlinear systems can be expressed using a number of one-dimensional functions similar to the approach used in the traditional frequency response analysis of linear systems. In this paper, the NOFRFs are first employed to analyze a typical representation for cracked structures, a single degree of freedom system (SDOF) bilinear model, to explain the occurrence of the nonlinear phenomena when a cracked structure is subjected to sinusoidal excitations, including the generation of super-harmonic components and sub-resonances. Then the NOFRF concept is used to analyze the crack induced nonlinear response of a beam represented by a finite model. The results show that higher order NOFRFs are extremely sensitive to the appearance of cracks in the beam, and can therefore be used as crack damage indicators to indicate the existences and the sizes of cracks. This research study establishes an important basis for the application of the NOFRF concept in fault diagnosis of mechanical structures.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 vibration
crack detection
volterra series
fault detection
bilinear oscillator


How to satisfy citizens? Using mobile government to reengineer fair government processes We identified seven MWT (mobile and wireless technology) functions of mGovernment systems. We adopted the task-technology fit perspective and theory of procedural fairness to explore the mediating processes through which the seven MWT functions of mGovernment affected user satisfaction toward mGovernment. Results show that the seven MWT functions improve three fair procedural characteristics (i.e. transparency, information accuracy and voice). Results show that the three procedural characteristics increase procedural fairness of governmental services. Results show that procedural fairness of governmental services increases user satisfaction toward mGovernment.

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

mgovernment
procedural fairness
user satisfaction


On groups of complex integers used as QAM signals Recently, the multiplicative group of units in the Gaussian quotient ring Z[i]/(2(n) + 2(n)i) was used to obtain a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal space of 2(2n) points and to design one error correcting codes. In this paper it is shown that the multiplicative group of units in the quotient ring Z[i]/(2(n)) can also be used to obtain a QAM signal space of 2(2n-1) points and to design one error correcting codes. The required module operation in this paper is simpler and block codes constructed in this paper are able to correct one error with more values. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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

multiplicative group of units
block codes
qam signal space


Arm load magnitude affects selective shoulder muscle activation For isometric tasks, shoulder muscle forces are assumed to scale linearly with the external arm load magnitude, i.e., muscle force ratios are constant. Inverse dynamic modeling generally predicts such linear scaling behavior, with a critical role for the arbitrary load sharing criteria, i.e., the cost function. We tested the linearity of the relation between external load magnitude exerted on the humerus and shoulder muscle activation. Six isometric force levels ranging from 17 to 100% of maximal arm force were exerted in 24 directions in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the humerus. The direction of maximum muscle activation, the experimentally observed so called Principal Action (PA), was determined for each force magnitude in 12 healthy subjects. This experiment was also simulated with the Delft Shoulder and Elbow Model (DSEM) using two cost functions: (1) minimizing muscle stress and (2) a compound, energy related cost function. PA, both experimental (PAexp) and simulated (PAsim), was expected not to change with arm forces magnitudes. PAexp of the mm. trapezius pars descendens, deltoideus pars medialis and teres major changed substantially as a function of external force magnitude, indicating external load dependency of shoulder muscle activation. In DSEM simulations, using the stress cost function, small non-linearities in the muscle forceexternal load dependency were observed, originating from gravitational forces working on clavicular and scapular bone masses. More pronounced non-linearities were introduced by using the compound energy related cost function, but no similarity was observed between PAexp and PAsim.

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


Newly vulnerable markets in an age of pure information products: An analysis of Online music and Online news We describe the emerging competition between music companies and their star acts and the role of online distribution in this industry. We then contrast this with the lack of competition newspapers will face from their reporters, writers, and photographers, but identify other possible competitors for newspaper publishers. We examine what resources have previously enabled record companies to lock in their star acts and ways in which technology has altered artists' abilities to reach the market independently and thus their dependency upon record companies. We examine which resources have seen their value eroded in the newspaper industry and the remaining value that the newspaper company still creates, other than bundling stories, adding advertising, and printing and selling the papers. We consider what part of the newspaper business is vulnerable, if any, and where threats may arise. We combine the resource-based view of competitive advantage to examine which industry may have become newly easy to enter, and the theory of newly vulnerable markets to assess which industry may actually have become vulnerable as a result. Our analyses are then used to create a computer simulation model to make the implications more explicit under a range of assumptions.

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

newly vulnerable markets
newspaper industry

electronic commerce
music industry
resource-based competition


Speech enhancement using generalized weighted ?-order spectral amplitude estimator We propose a new generalized weighted ?-order spectral amplitude estimator. We employ the masking properties and compressive nonlinearities of the cochlea. GW-?-STSA takes full advantage of traditional Bayesian STSA estimators. Combining p and ? parameters can obtain more flexible and effective gain functions. PEDD method overcomes the drawback of DD method and therefore outperforms it.

B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 weighed spectral amplitude estimator


Generalized Jeffreys rule of conditioning and evidence combining rule for a priori probabilistic knowledge in conditional evidence theory In Bayesian probabilistic approach for uncertain reasoning, one basic assumption is that a priori knowledge about the uncertain variable is modeled by a probability distribution. When new evidence representable by a constant set is available, the Bayesian conditioning is used to update a priori knowledge. In the conventional D-S evidence theory, all bodies of evidence about the uncertain variable are imprecise and uncertain. All bodies of evidence are combined by so-called Dempsters rule of combination to achieve a combined body of evidence without considering a priori knowledge. From our point of view, when identifying the true value of an uncertain variable, Bayesian approach and evidence theory can cooperate to deal with uncertain reasoning. Firstly all imprecise and uncertain bodies of evidence about the uncertain variable are fused to achieve a combined evidence based on a priori knowledge, then the a posteriori probability distribution is achieved from a priori probability distribution by conditioning on the combined evidence. In this paper we firstly deal with the knowledge updating problem where a priori knowledge is represented by a probability distribution and new evidence is represented by a random set. Then we review the conditional evidence theory which resolves the knowledge combining problem based on a priori probabilistic knowledge. Finally we discuss the close relationship between knowledge updating procedure and knowledge combining procedure presented in this paper. We show that a posteriori probability conditioned on fused body of evidence satisfies the Bayesian parallel combination rule.

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

random set
knowledge updating
knowledge combining
generalized jeffreys rule
bayesian parallel combination rule
conditional evidence theory

conditioned combination rule
target identification


PORTFOLIOS WITH DEADLINES FOR BACKTRACKING SEARCH Backtracking search is often the method of choice for solving constraint satisfaction and propositional satisfiability problems. Previous studies have shown that portfolios of backtracking algorithms - a selection of one or more algorithms plus a schedule for executing the algorithms - can dramatically improve performance on some instances. In this paper, we consider a setting that often arises in practice where the instances to be solved arise over time, the instances all belong to some class of problem instances, and a limit or deadline is placed on the computational resources that can be consumed in solving any instance. For such a scenario, we present a simple scheme for learning a good portfolio of backtracking algorithms from a small sample of instances. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through an extensive empirical evaluation using two testbeds: real-world instruction scheduling problems and the widely used quasigroup completion problems.

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

constraint satisfaction
satisfiability
backtracking search
portfolios


FPGA Based High Performance Double-Precision Matrix Multiplication We present two designs (I and II) for IEEE 754 double precision floating point matrix multiplication, optimized for implementation on high-end FPGAs. It forms the kernel in many important tile-based BLAS algorithms, making an excellent candidate for acceleration. The designs, both based on the rank-1 update scheme, can handle arbitrary matrix sizes, and are able to sustain their peak performance except during an initial latency period. Through these designs, the trade-offs involved in terms of local-memory and bandwidth for an FPGA implementation are demonstrated and an analysis is presented for the optimal choice of design parameters. The designs, implemented on a Virtex-5 SX240T FPGA, scale gracefully from 1 to 40 processing elements(PEs) with a less than 1% degradation in the design frequency of 373 MHz. With 40 PEs and a design speed of 373 MHz, a sustained performance of 29.8 GFLOPS is possible with a bandwidth requirement of 750 MB/s for design-II and 5.9 GB/s for design-I. This compares favourably with both related art and general purpose CPU implementations.

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

matrix multiplication
fpga implementation

high performance computing
rank-1 scheme
memory-bandwidth trade-off
scalability


Towards supporting expert evaluation of clustering results using a data mining process model Clustering is a popular non-directed learning data mining technique for partitioning a dataset into a set of clusters (i.e. a segmentation). Although there are many clustering algorithms, none is superior on all datasets, and so it is never clear which algorithm and which parameter settings are the most appropriate for a given dataset. This suggests that an appropriate approach to clustering should involve the application of multiple clustering algorithms with different parameter settings and a non-taxing approach for comparing the various segmentations that would be generated by these algorithms. In this paper we are concerned with the situation where a domain expert has to evaluate several segmentations in order to determine the most appropriate segmentation (set of clusters) based on his/her specified objective(s). We illustrate how a data mining process model could be applied to address this problem.

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

expert evaluation
data mining process model

cluster quality
clustering goals
decision support
similarity measures
crisp-dm


Defect-oriented test scheduling As tester complexity and cost increase, reducing test time is an important manufacturing priority. Test time can be reduced by ordering tests so as to fail defective units early in the test process. Algorithms to order tests that guarantee optimality require execution time that is exponential in the number of tests applied. We develop a simple polynomial-time heuristic to order tests. The heuristic, based on criteria that offer local optimality, offers globally optimal solutions in many cases, An ordering algorithm requires information on the ability of tests to detect defective units. One way to obtain this information is by simulation. We obtain it by applying all possible tests to a small subset of manufactured units and assuming the information obtained from this subset is representative. The ordering heuristic was applied to manufactured digital and analog integrated circuits (ICs) tested with commercial testers. When both approaches work, the orders generated by the heuristic are optimal. More importantly, the heuristic is able to generate an improved order for large problem sizes when the optimal algorithm is not able to do so. The new test orders result in a significant reduction, as high as a factor of four, in the time needed to identify defective units. We also assess the validity of using such sampling techniques to order tests.

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

heuristic sample
order fault coverage
test-cost scheduling


learning from multi-topic web documents for contextual advertisement Contextual advertising on web pages has become very popular recently and it poses its own set of unique text mining challenges. Often advertisers wish to either target (or avoid) some specific content on web pages which may appear only in a small part of the page. Learning for these targeting tasks is difficult since most training pages are multi-topic and need expensive human labeling at the sub-document level for accurate training. In this paper we investigate ways to learn for sub-document classification when only page level labels are available - these labels only indicate if the relevant content exists in the given page or not. We propose the application of multiple-instance learning to this task to improve the effectiveness of traditional methods. We apply sub-document classification to two different problems in contextual advertising. One is "sensitive content detection" where the advertiser wants to avoid content relating to war, violence, pornography, etc. even if they occur only in a small part of a page. The second problem involves opinion mining from review sites - the advertiser wants to detect and avoid negative opinion about their product when positive, negative and neutral sentiments co-exist on a page. In both these scenarios we present experimental results to show that our proposed system is able to get good block level labeling for free and improve the performance of traditional learning methods.

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

sensitive content detection
opinion mining
contextual advertising


A High Speed IC Truly Random Number Generator Based on Chaotic Sampling of Regular Waveform A novel random number generation method based on chaotic sampling of regular waveform is proposed. A high speed IC truly random number generator based on this method is also presented. Simulation and experimental results, verifying the feasibility of the circuit, are given. Numerical binary data obtained according to the proposed method pass the four basic tests of FIPS-140-2, while experimental data pass the full NIST-800-22 random number test suite without post-processing.

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

continuous-time chaotic oscillator
truly random


Minimal average cost of searching for a counterfeit coin: Restricted model ? The following restricted model of coin-weighing problem is considered: there is a heavier coin in a set of n coins, n-1 n - 1 of which are good coins having the same weight. The test device is a two-arms balance scale and each test-set is of the form A:B A : B with |A|=|B|?? | A | = | B | ? ? , where ??1 ? ? 1 is a given integer. We present an optimal sequential algorithm requiring the minimal average cost of weighings when the probability distribution on the coin set is uniform distribution.

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


Experiences from using ICMM in inspection process assessment Inspection Capability Maturity Model (ICMM) is a new tool for the assessment and improvement of software inspection practices in an organization. This paper presents the first experiences in using ICMM. The model structure and usability is evaluated based on the data collected from eight case organizations. The major findings support the conclusion that ICMM worked well in identifying weaknesses in the current inspection practices. First, the perceived inspection quality in the organizations was compared with the assessment results. Second, the identified weaknesses appear to be related to the problems faced in inspection practices. Finally, the collected experiences provided some useful improvement suggestions for ICMM.

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

inspection capability maturity model (icmm)


Parallel processing of continuous queries over data streams In this paper, we propose parallel processing of continuous queries over data streams to handle the bottleneck of single processor DSMSs. Queries are executed in parallel over the logical machines in a multiprocessing environment. Scheduling parallel execution of operators is performed via finding the shortest path in a weighted graph called Query Mega Graph (QMG), which is a logical view of K machines. By lapse of time, number of tuples waiting in queues of different operators may be very different. When a queue becomes full, re-scheduling is done by updating weight of edges of QMG. In the new computed path, machines with more workload will be used less. The proposed system is formally presented and its correctness is proved. It is also modeled in PetriNets and its performance is evaluated and compared with serial query processing as well as the Min-Latency scheduling algorithm. The presented system is shown to outperform them w.r.t. tuple latency (response time), memory usage, throughput and also tuple loss- critical parameters in any data stream management systems.

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

data stream
parallel execution
tuple latency


a data management system for ab-initio nuclear physics applications Reproducible Research lies at the very core of the scientific method: an experiment is reproducible if it can be replicated by researchers independent from those that conducted it in the first place. Provenance is an emerging concept in computational sciences. In this work, provenance is introduced to another scientific domain - ab initio nuclear physics calculations. Through a data management system, the provenance information is consistently recorded for post-processing, validation, and education purposes. Due to the large volume of data generated in each large scale simulation, the proposed data management system needs to address the high performance computing needs as compared with a traditional database management system.

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

reproducible research
data management system


Adaptive almost sure asymptotically stability for neutral-type neural networks with stochastic perturbation and Markovian switching ? The problem of stability via adaptive controller is considered for time-delay neutral-type neural networks with stochastic noise and Markovian switching in this paper. A new criterion of almost sure (a.s.) asymptotic stability for a general neutral-type stochastic differential equation is proposed. Based on this criterion, and by using of the generalized It?s formula and the M-matrix method, a delay dependent sufficient condition is established to ensure the almost sure asymptotic stability for neutral-type neural networks with stochastic perturbation and Markovian switching. Meanwhile, the update law of the feedback control is determined. A numerical example is provided to verify the usefulness of the criterion proposed in this paper.

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

stochastic noise
markovian switching
adaptive controller
stability


pattern-based sparse matrix representation for memory-efficient smvm kernels Pattern-based Representation (PBR) is a novel approach to improving the performance of Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiply (SMVM) numerical kernels. Motivated by our observation that many matrices can be divided into blocks that share a small number of distinct patterns, we generate custom multiplication kernels for frequently recurring block patterns. The resulting reduction in index overhead significantly reduces memory bandwidth requirements and improves performance. Unlike existing methods, PBR requires neither detection of dense blocks nor zero filling, making it particularly advantageous for matrices that lack dense nonzero concentrations. SMVM kernels for PBR can benefit from explicit prefetching and vectorization, and are amenable to parallelization. We present sequential and parallel performance results for PBR on two current multicore architectures, which show that PBR outperforms available alternatives for the matrices to which it is applicable.

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

smvm
prefetching
vectorization
memory bandwidth
pbr

matrix splitting
spmv
iterative solvers
bcoo
sparse computations
bcsr
csr


Patterns based classifiers Data mining is one of the most important areas in the 21 century for its applications are wide ranging. This includes medicine, finance, commerce and engineering, to name a few. Pattern mining is amongst the most important and challenging techniques employed in data mining. Patterns are collections of items which satisfy certain properties. Emerging Patterns are those whose frequencies change significantly from one dataset to another. They represent strong contrast knowledge and have been shown very successful for constructing accurate and robust classifiers. In this paper, we examine various kinds of patterns. We also investigate efficient pattern mining techniques and discuss how to exploit patterns to construct effective classifiers.

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


Using analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy set theory to rate and rank the disability Any discrimination against qualified disabled people in all employment practices is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and it must be prohibited. Assigning qualified disabled people to a proper job or making reasonable accommodations for disabled employees is not only ethical but also necessary for reducing the social-economic burden. Therefore, in order to place qualified disabled people in appropriate job positions, a multidimensional assessment method should be developed for measuring and interpreting the disabled people's residual capabilities with respect to their strengths, weaknesses, and their compatibility to job requirements and work environments. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to discuss how to structure a hierarchy related to the problem of deriving an Overall Disability Index (ODI) for measuring the individual's disability. The analytic hierarchy process, along with the entropy theory and fuzzy set theory, is applied for eliciting the weights among the attributes and aggregating the multiple attributes into a single measurement. We believe that the resultant ODI is meaningful and useful for both the evaluator, who supervises a rehabilitation program, and the human resource director, who engages in a hiring process. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

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

analytic hierarchy process
disability
rehabilitation

decision making
membership functions
vocational assessment
multicriteria analysis


Localizing relevant frames in web videos using topic model and relevance filtering Numerous web videos associated with rich metadata are available on the Internet today. While such metadata like video tags bring us facilitation and opportunities for video search and multimedia content understanding, some challenges also arise due to the fact that those video tags are usually annotated at the video level, while many tags actually only describe parts of the video content. How to localize the relevant parts or frames of web video for given tags is the key to many applications and research tasks. In this paper we propose combining topic model and relevance filtering to localize relevant frames. Our method is designed in three steps. First, we apply relevance filtering to assign relevance scores to video frames and a raw relevant frame set is obtained by selecting the top ranked frames. Then, we separate the frames into topics by mining the underlying semantics using latent Dirichlet allocation and use the raw relevance set as validation set to select relevant topics. Finally, the topical relevances are used to refine the raw relevant frame set and the final results are obtained. Experiment results on two real web video databases validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

kernel density estimation
tag localization


influence of program inputs on the selection of garbage collectors Many studies have shown that the best performer among a set of garbage collectors tends to be different for different applications. Researchers have proposed application-specific selection of garbage collectors. In this work, we concentrate on a second dimension of the problem: the influence of program inputs on the selection of garbage collectors. We collect tens to hundreds of inputs for a set of Java benchmarks, and measure their performance on Jikes RVM with different heap sizes and garbage collectors. A rigorous statistical analysis produces four-fold insights. First, inputs influence the relative performance of garbage collectors significantly, causing large variations to the top set of garbage collectors across inputs. Profiling one or few runs is thus inadequate for selecting the garbage collector that works well for most inputs. Second, when the heap size ratio is fixed, one or two types of garbage collectors are enough to stimulate the top performance of the program on all inputs. Third, for some programs, the heap size ratio significantly affects the relative performance of different types of garbage collectors. For the selection of garbage collectors on those programs, it is necessary to have a cross-input predictive model that predicts the minimum possible heap size of the execution on an arbitrary input. Finally, based on regression techniques, we demonstrate the predictability of the minimum possible heap size, indicating the potential feasibility of the input-specific selection of garbage collectors.

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

profiling
selection of garbage collectors
minimum possible heap size

input-specific selection
cross-input program analysis


Blind identification of multichannel systems by exploiting prior knowledge of the channel This paper presents an approach to the blind identification of multichannel communication systems by using partial knowledge of the channel. The received signal is first processed by a filter constructed by the known component of the channel and then a blind identification algorithm based on the second-order statistics is applied to the filtered signal. It is shown that, if the unknown component satisfies the identifiability condition, the channel can be identified even though the channel does not satisfy the identifiability condition. Simulation results are presented to show the performance of the proposed approach. A comparison to the existing approaches is also presented.

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

multichannel system
least-squares
noise subspace


Connecting users to instruments and sensors: portals as multi-user GUIs for instrument and sensor facilities The Common Instrument Middleware Architecture (CIMA) aims at integrating instruments and sensors into computing and storage Grids through a standard interface methodology that existing and future instrument facilities can provide. This instrument interface provides a base which data acquisition and reduction applications can rely on as the design of the underlying facilities evolves and changes. After connecting instruments and sensors in a reliable and secure manner to applications, the next step is to integrate instruments, data acquisition, reduction and analysis applications with community provided resources such as application servers, temporary and archival storage. Practices and workflows at the instrument facilities also need to be captured and presented to users. Portals provide a natural approach to a 'community' interface to instrument and sensor facilities. Here we describe the CIMA Crystallography portal, a portal based on GridSphere that provides a user interface to equipment and workflows for a global federation of crystallography laboratories. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

science portals
x-ray diffraction crystallography


MESAFace,

a

graphical

interface

to

analyze

the

MESA

output

MESA

(Modules

for

Experiments

in

Stellar

Astrophysics)

has

become

very

popular

among

astrophysicists

as

a

powerful

and

reliable

code

to

simulate

stellar

evolution.

Analyzing

the

output

data

thoroughly

may,

however,

present

some

challenges

and

be

rather

time-consuming.

Here

we

describe

MESAFace,

a

graphical

and

dynamical

interface

which

provides

an

intuitive,

efficient

and

quick

way

to

analyze

the

MESA

output.

Program

title:

MESAFace

Catalogue

identifier:

Program

summary

Program

obtainable

from:

CPC

Program

Library,

Queens

University,

Belfast,

N.

Ireland

Licensing

provisions:

Standard

CPC

licence,

No.

of

lines

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

No.

of

bytes

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

Distribution

format:

tar.gz

Programming

language:

Mathematica.

Computer:

Any

computer

capable

of

running

Mathematica.

Operating

system:

Any

capable

of

running

Mathematica.

Tested

on

Linux,

Mac,

Windows

XP,

Windows

RAM:

Recommended

Gigabytes

or

more.

Supplementary

material:

Additional

test

data

files

are

available.

Classification:

Nature

of

problem:

Find

a

way

to

quickly

and

thoroughly

analyze

the

output

of

a

MESA

run,

including

all

the

profiles,

and

have

an

efficient

method

to

produce

graphical

representations

of

the

data.

Solution

method:

We

created

two

scripts

(to

be

run

consecutively).

The

first

one

downloads

all

the

data

from

a

MESA

run

and

organizes

the

profiles

in

order

of

age.

All

the

files

are

saved

as

tables

or

arrays

of

tables

which

can

then

be

accessed

very

quickly

by

Mathematica.

The

second

script

uses

the

Manipulate

function

to

create

a

graphical

interface

which

allows

the

user

to

choose

what

to

plot

from

a

set

of

menus

and

buttons.

The

information

shown

is

updated

in

real

time.

The

user

can

access

very

quickly

all

the

data

from

the

run

under

examination

and

visualize

it

with

plots

and

tables.

Unusual

features:

Moving

the

slides

in

certain

regions

may

cause

an

error

message.

This

happens

when

Mathematica

is

asked

to

read

nonexistent

data.

The

error

message,

however,

disappears

when

the

slides

are

moved

back.

This

issue

does

not

preclude

the

good

functioning

of

the

interface.

Additional

comments:

The

program

uses

the

dynamical

capabilities

of

Mathematica.

When

the

program

is

opened,

Mathematica

prompts

the

user

to

Enable

Dynamics.

It

is

necessary

to

accept

before

proceeding.

Running

time:

Depends

on

the

size

of

the

data

downloaded,

on

where

the

data

are

stored

(hard-drive

or

web),

and

on

the

speed

of

the

computer

or

network

connection.

In

general,

downloading

the

data

may

take

from

a

minute

to

several

minutes.

Loading

directly

from

the

web

is

slower.

For

example,

downloading

a

data

folder

(a

total

of

files)

with

a

dual-core

Intel

laptop,

GB

of

RAM,

at

GHz

took

about

a

minute

from

the

hard-drive

and

about

min

from

the

web

(with

a

basic

home

wireless

connection).

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


APINetworks:

A

general

API

for

the

treatment

of

complex

networks

in

arbitrary

computational

environments

The

last

decade

witnessed

a

great

development

of

the

structural

and

dynamic

study

of

complex

systems

described

as

a

network

of

elements.

Therefore,

systems

can

be

described

as

a

set

of,

possibly,

heterogeneous

entities

or

agents

(the

network

nodes)

interacting

in,

possibly,

different

ways

(defining

the

network

edges).

In

this

context,

it

is

of

practical

interest

to

model

and

handle

not

only

static

and

homogeneous

networks

but

also

dynamic,

heterogeneous

ones.

Depending

on

the

size

and

type

of

the

problem,

these

networks

may

require

different

computational

approaches

involving

sequential,

parallel

or

distributed

systems

with

or

without

the

use

of

disk-based

data

structures.

In

this

work,

we

develop

an

Application

Programming

Interface

(APINetworks)

for

the

modeling

and

treatment

of

general

networks

in

arbitrary

computational

environments.

To

minimize

dependency

between

components,

we

decouple

the

network

structure

from

its

function

using

different

packages

for

grouping

sets

of

related

tasks.

The

structural

package,

the

one

in

charge

of

building

and

handling

the

network

structure,

is

the

core

element

of

the

system.

In

this

work,

we

focus

in

this

API

structural

component.

We

apply

an

object-oriented

approach

that

makes

use

of

inheritance

and

polymorphism.

In

this

way,

we

can

model

static

and

dynamic

networks

with

heterogeneous

elements

in

the

nodes

and

heterogeneous

interactions

in

the

edges.

In

addition,

this

approach

permits

a

unified

treatment

of

different

computational

environments.

Tests

performed

on

a

version

of

the

structural

package

show

that,

on

current

standard

computers,

the

system

can

handle,

in

main

memory,

directed

and

undirected

linear

networks

formed

by

tens

of

millions

of

nodes

and

edges.

Our

results

compare

favorably

to

those

of

existing

tools.

Program

title:

APINetworks

Catalogue

identifier:

Program

summary

Program

obtainable

from:

CPC

Program

Library,

Queens

University,

Belfast,

N.

Ireland

Licensing

provisions:

Standard

CPC

licence,

No.

of

lines

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

No.

of

bytes

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

Distribution

format:

tar.gz

Programming

language:

Standard

ANSI

Computer:

Workstation.

Operating

system:

Linux,

Windows.

Classification:

Nature

of

problem:

The

computational

modeling

and

handling

of

complex

systems,

described

as

a

network

of

interacting

elements,

is

nowadays

a

topic

of

paramount

importance.

In

the

general

case,

it

is

necessary

to

represent

static

or

dynamic,

time

dependent,

sets

of

heterogeneous

entities

related

through

heterogeneous

interactions.

In

turn,

and

depending

on

the

size

and

nature

of

the

problem,

different

computational

approaches

may

be

required.

Thus,

we

can

resort

to

sequential,

parallel

or

distributed

systems

and

to

disk-based

data

structures.

Different

tools

are

available

that

satisfy

one

or

several

of

these

requirements.

However,

a

unified

approach

for

dealing

with

heterogeneous

networks

in

arbitrary

computational

environments

is

still

pending.

Solution

method:

To

address

the

above

issues,

we

have

developed

an

Application

Programming

Interface:

APINetworks.

The

API

is

organized

in

several

packages

where

the

one

responsible

for

the

network

structure

acts

as

the

core

element.

We

resort

to

an

object-oriented

approach,

that

makes

use

of

inheritance

and

polymorphism.

In

this

way,

we

can

model

static

and

dynamic

networks

and

include

heterogeneous

agents

in

the

nodes

and

heterogeneous

interactions

in

the

edges.

In

addition,

this

approach

permits

a

unified

treatment,

transparent

to

the

user,

of

different

computational

environments:

sequential,

parallel,

distributed,

memory-based

or

disk-based.

Running

time:

Examples

provided

take

a

few

seconds

each.

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

api
complex networks
heterogeneous networks
dynamic networks


Combining HRTEMEELS nano-analysis with capacitancevoltage measurements to evaluate high-? thin films deposited on Si and Ge as candidate for future gate dielectrics Aberration corrected transmission electron microscopy and electron spectroscopy are combined with electrical measurements for the quantitative description of the structural, chemical and dielectric parameters of rare earth/transition metal oxides thin films. Atomic structure near the interface and elemental profiles across the interface up to the surface of La-doped ZrO2 and Er-doped HfO2 films prepared by atomic layer deposition on Si(100) and Ge(100) are determined. Interfacial layers unavoidably form between the semiconductor substrate and the dielectric oxide after deposition and annealing. They are evidenced from a structural and chemical point of view. From the knowledge of the chemical extent of the interfacial layer and of the accumulation capacitance of the stack, it is possible to recover the dielectric constant of both the interfacial layer and the high-? oxide layer constituting the stack using a multi-layers capacitor model approach. Oxides with permittivities higher than 30 are stabilized. Interfacial layers, silicate/germanate in composition, with permittivites, respectively, tripled/doubled compared to the one of SiO2 are evidenced.

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

aberration corrected high resolution transmission electron microscopy (hrtem)

electron energy loss spectroscopy (eels)


On the dynamic initialization of parallel computers The incremental and dynamic construction of interconnection networks from smaller components often leaves the fundamental problem of assigning addresses to processors to be contended with at power-up time. The problem is fundamental, for virtually all parallel algorithms known to the authors assume that the processors know their global coordinates within the newly created entity. We refer to this problem as the initialization problem. Rather surprisingly, the initialization problem has not received much attention in the literature. Our main contribution is to present parallel algorithms for the initialization problem on a number of network topologies, including complete binary trees, meshes of trees, pyramids, linear arrays, rings, meshes, tori, higher dimensional meshes and tori, hypercubes, butterflies, linear arrays with a global bus, rings with a global bus and meshes with multiple broadcasting, under various assumptions about edge labels, leader existence, and a priori knowledge of the number of nodes in the network. With two exceptions, the proposed algorithms are optimal.

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

initialization
linear arrays
rings
binary trees
meshes
tori
hypercubes

parallel architectures
meshes with broadcasting


ANALOG LOGICAL ELEMENTS AND THEIR USE FOR SIGNAL PROCESSING When n coherent pulses us against additive independent noises u(n) are received, n voltages u(s) + u(n1),..., u(s) + u(nn) can be obtained in the outputs of a delay line. After addition of these voltages in the matched filter, an improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio SNR is obtained due to random character of summation of the noises and in-phase summation of the signal pulses. As a result, the signal power increases faster than the noise power. However, availability of n pointed voltages enables us to use another processing. It is based on a selection of one of these and of their mean voltages in accordance with its characteristic feature. As shown in the paper, the SNR improvement can be achieved if the selection of the maximum and minimum voltages is performed. The maximum SNR value is obtained by the selection of the noises with the minimum instantaneous power. In this case, the SNR improvement exceeds the one obtained by summation. The results are confirmed by modeling.

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

signal-to-noise ratio
analog logical element


An adaptive algorithm for group testing for complexes In group testing for complexes, the property of being positive is not defined on single items but on subsets of items. Given a set N of n items with at most d positive subsets of N, each positive subset having cardinality at most r , we need to determine the set P?P(N) P ? P ( N ) of positive subsets via group tests. In this paper, we give an adaptive algorithm for group testing for the complex model, for all r?2 r ? 2 , which can be seen as a generalization of the binary splitting method for classical group testing (r=1 r = 1 ). For fixed r , our algorithm solves the problem with O(drlog?n) O ( d r log ? n ) tests while the best known non-adaptive algorithm requires O ( d r + 1 ( 1 + 3 / d ) d log ? n d ) tests. While non-adaptive solutions are preferable for some applications that require parallelization of tests, our adaptive algorithm is superior when d grows with n, yielding a polynomial number of tests on d and log?k log ? k .

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 group testing
complex group testing
graph testing
hypergraph testing


Exploring privileged structures: the combinatorial synthesis of cyclic peptides Head-to-tail cyclic peptides have been reported to bind to multiple, unrelated classes of receptor with high affinity. They may therefore be considered to be privileged structures. This review outlines the strategies by which both macrocyclic cyclic peptides and cyclic dipeptides or diketopiperazines have been synthesised in combinatorial libraries. It also briefly outlines some of the biological applications of these molecules, thereby justifying their inclusion as privileged structures.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 chemistry
cyclic peptide
diketopiperazine
library synthesis
piperazine-2,5-dione
privileged structure
ring contraction
solid-phase


A Low-Effort Recommendation System with High Accuracy A New Approach with Ranked Pareto-Fronts In recent studies on recommendation systems, the choice-based conjoint analysis has been suggested as a method for measuring consumer preferences. This approach achieves high recommendation accuracy and does not suffer from the start-up problem because it is also applicable for recommendations for new consumers or of new products. However, this method requires massive consumer input, which causes consumer reluctance. In a simulation study, we demonstrate the high accuracy, but also the high user's effort for using a utility-based recommendation system using a choice-based conjoint analysis with hierarchical Bayes estimation. In order to reduce the conflict between consumer effort and recommendation accuracy, we develop a novel approach that only shows Pareto-efficient alternatives and ranks them according to the number of dominated attributes. We demonstrate that, in terms of the decision accuracy of the recommended products, the ranked Pareto-front approach performs better than a recommendation system that employs choice-based conjoint analysis. Furthermore, the consumer's effort is kept low and comparable to that of simple systems that require little consumer input.

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

recommendation systems
effort
accuracy
simulation


Next Generation Access (NGA) supply side interventionsAn international comparison Over the last years, technical and economic developments towards the deployment of Next Generation (Access) Networks have triggered discussions under which circumstances investments into physical infrastructure are economically viable. In many countries the discussion has arisen regarding conditions under which private investment will/will not be undertaken and whether or not in such cases public policy measures should support deployment. This could come in different waysfrom incentivizing private investments to deploying new state-owned networks. Public policy can have an impact for example by intervening into a competitive market. The paper tries to provide answers as to why such interventions and supply side policies are undertaken (thereby referring to the central role that broadband infrastructures have for the economy) and how such interventions take place, for example an analysis of the public policy interventions to drive Next Generation Access Network deployment. The article thereby derives policy patterns that have occurred in different regions of the world.

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

next generation access networks (ngn/ngan)


A FAST k-MEANS IMPLEMENTATION USING CORESETS In this paper we develop an efficient implementation for a k-means clustering algorithm. The algorithm is based on a combination of Lloyd's algorithm with random swapping of centers to avoid local minima. This approach was proposed by Mount (30). The novel feature of our algorithms is the use of coresets to speed up the algorithm. A coreset is a small weighted set of points that approximates the original point set with respect to the considered problem. We use a coreset construction described in (12). Our algorithm first computes a solution on a very small coreset. Then in each iteration the previous solution is used as a starting solution on a refined, i.e. larger, coreset. To evaluate the performance of our algorithm we compare it with algorithm KMHybrid (30) on typical 3D data sets for an image compression application and on artificially created instances. Our data sets consist of 300; 000 to 4.9 million points. Our algorithm outperforms KMHybrid on most of these input instances. Additionally, the quality of the solutions computed by our algorithm deviates significantly less than that of KMHybrid. We conclude that the use of coresets has two effects. First, it can speed up algorithms significantly. Secondly, in variants of Lloyd's algorithm, it reduces the dependency on the starting solution and thus makes the algorithm more stable. Finally, we propose the use of coresets as a heuristic to approximate the average silhouette coefficient of clusterings. The average silhouette coefficient is a measure for the quality of a clustering that is independent of the number of clusters k. Hence, it can be used to compare the quality of clusterings for different sizes of k. To show the applicability of our approach we computed clusterings and approximate average silhouette coefficient for k = 1,...,100 for our input instances and discuss the performance of our algorithm in detail.

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

computational geometry
clustering algorithms
approximation algorithms
algorithm engineering


dynamic algebras and the nature of induction Dynamic algebras constitute the variety (equationally defined class) of models of the Segerberg axioms for propositional dynamic logic. We obtain the following results (to within inseparability). (i) In any dynamic algebra * is reflexive transitive closure. (ii) Every free dynamic algebra can be factored into finite dynamic algebras. (iii) Every finite dynamic algebra is isomorphic to a Kripke structure. (ii) and (iii) imply Parikh's completeness theorem for the Segerberg axioms. We also present an approach to treating the inductive aspect of recursion within dynamic algebras.

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

aspect logic structure recursion algebra dynamic class