Dynamic directional gradient vector flow for snakes Snakes, or active contour models, have been widely used in image segmentation. However, most present snake models do not discern between positive and negative step edges. In this paper. a new type of dynamic external force for snakes named dynamic directional gradient vector flow (DDGVF) is proposed that uses this information for better performance. It makes use of the gradients in both x and y directions and deals with the external force field for the two directions separately. In snake deformation, the DDGVF field is utilized dynamically according to the orientation of snake in each iteration. Experimental results demonstrate that the DDGVF snake provides a much better segmentation than GVF snake in situations when edges of different directions are present which pose confusion for segmentation.

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

boundary detection
gradient vector flow (gvf)


Transforming teaching and learning: embedding ICT into everyday classroom practices Drawing on socio-cultural theory, this paper describes how teams of teachers and researchers have developed ways of embedding information and communications technology (ICT) into everyday classroom practices to enhance learning. The focus is on teaching and learning across a range of subjects: English, history, geography, mathematics, modern foreign languages, music and science. The influence of young people's out-of-school uses of ICT on in-school learning is discussed. The creative tension between idiosyncratic and institutional knowledge construction is emphasised and we argue that this is exacerbated by the use of ICT in the classroom.

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


Hierarchical decision making in strategic investment by a Boltzmann machine A conventional portfolio selection problem, which is based on a mean-variance model, is difficult to solve by using mathematical programming techniques. This difficulty is caused by the fact that the corresponding mathematical programming problems are large-dimensional one, since almost all variance-covariances of return rates are, typically, not zeros. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for solving a portfolio selection problem, a method which uses a Boltzmann machine. In a real-life problem, it is also important to find the optimal combination of a small number of invested securities out of many securities in a market, because of a limited amount of funds to invest into securities. So we also propose a portfolio selection method to obtain the invest ratio of limited number of securities out of huge number of securities using a multi-stage application of the Boltzmann machine.

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

portfolio selection problem
boltzmann machine
limited number of securities


Similarity measures for mid-surface quality evaluation Mid-surface models are widely used in engineering analysis to simplify the analysis of thin-walled parts, but it can be difficult to ensure that the mid-surface model is representative of the solid part from which it was generated. This paper proposes two similarity measures that can be used to evaluate the quality of a mid-surface model by comparing it to a solid model of the same part. Two similarity measures are proposed; firstly a geometric similarity evaluation technique based on the Hausdorff distance and secondly a topological similarity evaluation method which uses geometry graph attributes as the basis for comparison. Both measures are able to provide local and global similarity evaluation for the models. The proposed methods have been implemented in a software demonstrator and tested on a selection of representative models. They have been found to be effective for identifying geometric and topological errors in mid-surface models and are applicable to a wide range of practical thin-walled designs.

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

mid-surface
medial surface
similarity assessment


A comparative study of nonparametric estimation in Weibull regression: A penalized likelihood approach The Weibull distribution is popularly used to model lifetime distributions in many areas of applied statistics. This paper employs a penalized likelihood method to estimate the shape parameter and an unknown regression function simultaneously in a nonparametric Weibull regression. Four methods were considered: two cross-validation methods, a corrected Akaike information criterion, and a Bayesian information criterion. Each method was evaluated based on shape parameter estimation as well as selecting the smoothing parameter in a penalized likelihood model through a simulation study. Adapting a lower-dimensional approximation and deriving confidence intervals from Bayes models of the penalized likelihood, the comparative performances of methods using both censored and uncensored data were examined for various censoring rates. The methods are applied to a real data example of lung cancer.

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 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 B I 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 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

penalized likelihood
shape parameter
smoothing parameter
weibull distribution


Current advances in SWIFT Models of eye movement control are very useful for gaining insights into the intricate connections of different cognitive and oculomotor subsystems involved in reading. The SWIFT model (Engbert, Longtin, & Kliegl (2002). Vision Research, 42, 621636) proposed a unified mechanism to account for all types of eye movement patterns that might be observed in reading behavior. The model is based on the notion of spatially distributed, or parallel, processing of words in a sentence. We present a refined version of SWIFT introducing a letter-based approach that proposes a processing gradient in the shape of a smooth function. We show that SWIFT extents its capabilities by accounting for distributions of landing positions.

O O O O 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 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


A low-complexity microprocessor design with speculative pre-execution Current superscalar architectures strongly depend on an instruction issue queue to achieve multiple instruction issue and out-of-order execution. However, the issue queue requires a centralized structure and mainly causes globally broadcasting operations to wakeup and select the instructions. Therefore, a large issue queue ultimately results in a low clock rate along with a high circuit complexity. In other words, the increasing demands for a larger issue queue correspondingly impose a significant burden on achieving a higher clock speed. This paper discusses our Speculative Pre-Execution Assisted by compileR (SPEAR), a low-complexity issue queue design. SPEAR is designed to manage (he small window superscalar architecture more efficiently Without increasing the window size. To this end, we have first recognized that the long memory latency is one of the factors that demand a large window, and we aim at achieving early execution of the miss-causing load instructions using another hierarchy of an issue queue. We pre-execute those miss-causing instructions speculatively as an additional prefetching thread. Simulation results Show that the SPEAR design achieves performance comparable to or even better than what would be obtained in superscalar architectures with a large issue queue. However, SPEAR is designed with smaller issue queues which consequently call be implemented with low hardware complexity and high clock speed. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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 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

speculative execution
data-prefetching
multithreading
instruction level parallelism


Software reliability analysis: a systems development model Implementation and utilization of the software reliability analysis model (SRAM) provides analysts, software engineers, and systems analysts and developers (SA&D) the means to predict, estimate, and measure rate-of-failure occurrences in software (including firmware). Rate-of-failure measures are understandable to system users. By implementing the SRAM in the content of software engineering, SA&D can: (1) analyze, manage, and improve the reliability of their systems; (2) balance users' needs for competitive price, product reliability, and timely delivery; (3) determine when the software is ready to be released to the users, thereby minimizing the risks of releasing software with serious problems; and (4) avoid excessive time-to-market of the system due to system overtesting. Although the SRAM uses sophisticated statistical. concepts, available software tools allow SA&D and developers to readily apply the model without difficulties. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

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

systems analysis and design
model development
software development


The programming model of ASSIST, an environment for parallel and distributed portable applications ? A software development system based upon integrated skeleton technology (ASSIST) is a proposal of a new programming environment oriented to the development of parallel and distributed high-performance applications according to a unified approach. The main goals are: high-level programmability and software productivity for complex multidisciplinary applications, including data-intensive and interactive software; performance portability across different platforms, in particular large-scale platforms and grids; effective reuse of parallel software; efficient evolution of applications through versions that scale according to the underlying technologies. The purpose of this paper is to show the principles of the proposed approach in terms of the programming model (successive papers will deal with the environment implementation and with performance evaluation). The features and the characteristics of the ASSIST programming model are described according to an operational semantics style and using examples to drive the presentation, to show the expressive power and to discuss the research issues. According to our previous experience in structured parallel programming, in ASSIST we wish to overcome some limitations of the classical skeletons approach to improve generality and flexibility, expressive power and efficiency for irregular, dynamic and interactive applications, as well as for complex combinations of task and data parallelism. A new paradigm, called parallel module (parmod), is defined which, in addition to expressing the semantics of several skeletons as particular cases, is able to express more general parallel and distributed program structures, including both data-flow and nondeterministic reactive computations. ASSIST allows the programmer to design the applications in the form of generic graphs of parallel components. Another distinguishing feature is that ASSIST modules are able to utilize external objects, including shared data structures and abstract objects (e.g. CORBA), with standard interfacing mechanisms. In turn, an ASSIST application can be reused and exported as a component for other applications, possibly expressed in different formalisms.

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

parallel and distributed programming environments


The effect of pre-smoothing functional data on cluster analysis We investigate the possible benefits of pre-smoothing functional data before performing a cluster analysis. A simulation study compares the accuracy of clustering results on the basis of the use of unsmoothed functional data-and two smoothed versions of the data-as the inputs in a clustering algorithm. Smoothing is usually found to produce a more accurate clustering, with the best results arising from a novel James-Stein-type shrinkage adjustment to the standard linear smoother. Two real functional data sets are clustered using the competing methods to illustrate the procedure.

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

classification
distance
dissimilarity measures
stein estimation
shrinkage estimation


A Memory-based Collaborative Filtering Algorithm for Recommending Semantic Web Services This paper focuses on the construction of collaborative filtering (CF) recommender systems for Web services. The main contribution of the proposed approach is to reduce the problems caused by sparse rating data - one of the main shortcomings of memory-base CF algorithms - using semantic markup of Web services. In the presented algorithm, the similarity between users is computed using the Pearson correlation coefficient, extended to consider also the ratings of users for similarity services. Likewise, to predict the rating a user would give to a target service, the algorithm considers the ratings of neighbor users for the target service and also for similar services. Experiments conducted to evaluate the algorithm show that our approach has a significant impact on the accuracy of the algorithm, particularly when rating data are sparse.

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

semantic web services
collaborative filtering
pearson correlation coefficient


MEMS optical switches and interconnects This paper reviews several optical connecting devices that are based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components. The reviewed MEMS-based optical connecting devices are divided into two categories: optical switches and optical interconnects. Working principles of these optical connecting devices are discussed.

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

mems-based optical switches
mems-based optical interconnect


Using Generalized Estimating Equation to Learn Decision Tree with Multivariate Responses Previous decision tree algorithms have used Mahalanobis distance for multiple continuous longitudinal response or generalized entropy index for multiple binary responses. However, these methods are limited to either continuous or binary responses. In this paper, we suggest a new tree-based method that can analyze any type of multiple responses by using a statistical approach, called GEE (generalized estimating equations). The value of this new technique is demonstrated with reference to an application using web-usage survey.

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

generalized estimating equations (gee)
multivariate decision tree


Average stretch analysis of compact routing schemes This paper presents some analytic results concerning the pivot interval routing (PIR ) strategy of [T. Eilam, C. Gavoille, D. Peleg, Compact routing schemes with low stretch factor, J. Algorithms 46(2) (2003) 97114, Preliminary version appeared. in: Proceedings of the 17th ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, June 1998, pp. 1120.] That strategy allows message routing on every weighted n n -node network along paths whose stretch (namely, the ratio between their length and the distance between their endpoints) is at most five, and whose average stretch is at most three, with routing tables of size O ( n log 3 / 2 n ) bits per node. In addition, the route lengths are at most 2D 2 D (?1.5D? ? 1.5 D ? for uniform weights) where D is the weighted diameter of the network. The PIR PIR strategy can be constructed in polynomial time and can be implemented so that the generated scheme is in the form of an interval routing scheme (IRS ), using at most O ( n log n ) intervals per link. Here, it is shown that there exists an unweighted n n -node graph G G and an identity assignment ID ID for its nodes such that for every R?PIR R ? PIR on G G with a set of pivots computed by a greedy cover algorithm (respectively, a randomized algorithm), AvStrG(R)>3-o(1) AvStr G ( R ) > 3 - o ( 1 ) (respectively, with high probability). Also, it is shown that for almost every unweighted n n -node graph G G , and for every R?PIR R ? PIR on G G , AvStrG(R)=1.875o(1) AvStr G ( R ) = 1.875 o ( 1 ) . A comparison between PIR PIR and HCPk HCP k , the hierarchical routing strategy presented in [B. Awerbuch, A. Bar-Noy, N. Linial, D. Peleg, Improved routing strategies with succinct tables, J. Algorithms 11 (1990) 307341.] is also given.

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

compact routing schemes
pivot interval routing
stretch factor
average stretch


Efficient run-time dispatching in generic programming with minimal code bloat Generic programming with C++ templates results in efficient but inflexible code: efficient, because the exact types of inputs to generic functions are known at compile time; inflexible because they must be known at compile time. We show how to achieve run-time polymorphism without compromising performance by instantiating the generic algorithm with a comprehensive set of possible parameter types, and choosing the appropriate instantiation at run time. Applying this approach naively can result in excessive template bloat: a large number of template instantiations. many of which are identical at the assembly level. We show practical examples of this approach quickly approaching the limits of the compiler. Consequently, we combine this method of run-time polymorphism for generic programming, with a strategy for reducing the number of necessary template instantiations. We report on using our approach in GIL, Adobe's open source Generic Image Library. We observed a notable reduction, up to 70% at times, in executable sizes of our test programs. This was the case even with compilers that perform aggressive template hoisting at the compiler level, due to significantly smaller dispatching code. The framework draws from both the generic and generative programming paradigms, using static metaprogramming to fine tune the compilation of a generic library. Our test bed. GIL, is deployed in a real world industrial setting, where code size is often an important factor. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

c plus plus templates
template metaprogramming


Using a Scottish multimedia statistics courseware in a Hong Kong tertiary institution: An experiment In this paper, we present an application in which a Scottish multimedia statistics courseware was used for teaching purposes in a Hong Kong University. First, background information and the philosophy underlying the development and application of this multimedia software are presented. Then, during the use of the software, various informal evaluations were conducted, and the experiences of students and staff in manipulating the software are observed and described. Following this, the results of using the courseware from selected pilot and control groups are analyzed and discussed The results indicated that students fl om the pilot group performed significantly better than those of the control group, and it was concluded that using educational multimedia software facilitated the whole learning process. Furthermore, issues pertaining to culture differences and English proficiency are also addressed to elaborate the learning attitudes of Hong Kong tertiary institution students regarding the use of multimedia software in their learning process. Finally, this study provides recommendations pertaining to the further development of this multimedia courseware in improving the quality of teaching and enhancing student learning.

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


Find the 'Best' Solution from Multiple Analog Topologies via Pareto-Optimality This paper presents a novel method using multi-objective optimization algorithm to automatically find the best solution from a topology library of analog circuits. Firstly this method abstracts, the Pareto-front of each topology in the library by SPICE simulation. Then, the Pareto-front of the topology library is abstracted from the individual Pareto-fronts of topologies in the library followed by the theorem we proved. The best solution which is defined as the nearest point to specification on the Pareto-front of the topology library is then calculated by the equations derived from collinearity theorem. After the local searching using Nelder-Mead method maps the calculated best solution backs to design variable space, the non-dominated best solution is obtained. Comparing to the traditional optimization methods using single-objective optimization algorithms, this work can efficiently find the best non-dominated solution front multiple topologies for different specifications without additional time-consuming optimizing iterations. The experiments demonstrate that this method is feasible and practical in actual analog designs especially for uncertain or variant multi-dimensional specifications.

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

analog design
topology selection and sizing
automation
multi-objective optimization
pareto-optimality


On stable parametric finite element methods for the Stefan problem and the Mullins-Sekerka problem with applications to dendritic growth We introduce a parametric finite element approximation for the Stefan problem with the Gibbs-Thomson law and kinetic undercooling, which mimics the underlying energy structure of the problem. The proposed method is also applicable to certain quasi-stationary variants, such as the Mullins-Sekerka problem. In addition, fully anisotropic energies are easily handled. The approximation has good mesh properties, leading to a well-conditioned discretization, even in three space dimensions. Several numerical computations, including for dendritic growth and for snow crystal growth, are presented. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

stefan problem
kinetic undercooling
dendritic growth
snow crystal growth

mullins-sekerka problem
surface tension
anisotropy
gibbs-thomson law
parametric finite elements


Software testing - searching for the missing link Software testing has been the subject of active research for approaching 30 years. In that time, there have been developments such as the invention of techniques and tools, the morphosis of these techniques and tools to deal with the adoption of new development paradigms and programming languages, and analytical and empirical comparisons of techniques to improve our understanding of their relative merits. Impressive though these developments are, there still remains the fundamental problem of trying to relate the results of testing to some objective attribute of the program (such as number of faults). It is the search for this missing link that is attracting much of the recent research in the area. Any progress made towards this will have a considerable impact on our understanding of the subject and ultimately on software itself. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Bibliometric characteristics of highly cited papers from Taiwan, 2000-2009 The present study analyzes bibliometric characteristics of Taiwan's highly cited papers published from 2000 to 2009. During this period, Taiwan ranked within the top 30 countries by number of highly cited papers, defined in Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators (ESI) as those that rank in the top 1 % by citations for their category and year of publication. Taiwan made notable progress in world-class research in the two consecutive 5-year periods 2000-2004 and 2005-2009. For the group of highly cited papers from Taiwan, USA, China, Germany, and Japan were the top collaborating countries over the decade. In recent years, Taiwan has increasingly collaborated with European countries whose output of highly cited papers is relatively high and increasing, rather than with its neighboring countries in Asia. Overall, Taiwan produced highly cited papers in all the 22 ESI subject categories during the 10-year period. Taiwan's output of highly cited papers was greatest in the categories of Engineering, Clinical Medicine, and Physics, while those in Agricultural Sciences and Mathematics exceeded the expected output level in relative terms. More detailed analyses would be useful for a holistic understanding of Taiwan's research landscape and their progress in world-class research, combining both bibliometric and non-bibliometric data, such as researcher mobility, research grants, and output from internationally-collaborated research programs.

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

highly cited papers
taiwan
indicators
science


Machine learning in adversarial environments Whenever machine learning is used to prevent illegal or unsanctioned activity and there is an economic incentive, adversaries will attempt to circumvent the protection provided. Constraints on how adversaries can manipulate training and test data for classifiers used to detect suspicious behavior make problems in this area tractable and interesting. This special issue highlights papers that span many disciplines including email spam detection, computer intrusion detection, and detection of web pages deliberately designed to manipulate the priorities of pages returned by modern search engines. The four papers in this special issue provide a standard taxonomy of the types of attacks that can be expected in an adversarial framework, demonstrate how to design classifiers that are robust to deleted or corrupted features, demonstrate the ability of modern polymorphic engines to rewrite malware so it evades detection by current intrusion detection and antivirus systems, and provide approaches to detect web pages designed to manipulate web page scores returned by search engines. We hope that these papers and this special issue encourages the multidisciplinary cooperation required to address many interesting problems in this relatively new area including predicting the future of the arms races created by adversarial learning, developing effective long-term defensive strategies, and creating algorithms that can process the massive amounts of training and test data available for internet-scale problems.

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

adversarial learning
spam
intrusion detection

adversary
web spam
robust classifier
feature deletion
arms race
game theory


A possibilistic approach to selecting portfolios with highest utility score The mean-variance methodology for the portfolio selection problem, originally proposed by Markowitz, has been one of the most important research fields in modem finance. In this paper we will assume that: (i) each investor can assign a welfare, or utility, score to competing investment portfolios based on the expected return and risk of the portfolios; and (ii) the rates of return on securities are modelled by possibility distributions rather than probability distributions. We will present an algorithm of complexity o(n(3)) for finding an exact optimal solution (in the sense of utility scores) to the n-asset portfolio selection problem under possibility distributions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Guaranteed intersection-free polygon morphing We present a method for naturally and continuously morphing two simple planar polygons with corresponding vertices in a manner that guarantees that the intermediate polygons are also simple. This contrasts with all existing polygon morphing schemes who cannot guarantee the non-self-intersection property on a global scale, due to the heuristics they employ. Our method achieves this property by reducing the polygon morphing problem to the problem of morphing compatible planar triangulations of corresponding point sets, which is performed by interpolating vertex barycentric coordinates instead of vertex locations. The reduction involves compatibly triangulating simple polygons and polygons with a single hole. We show how to achieve this using only a small number of extra (Steiner) vertices.

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

metamorphosis
blending
geometric modeling


"Flying-Adder" architecture of frequency and phase synthesis with scalability Most of today's digital designs, from small-scale digital block designs to system-on-chip (SoC) designs, are based on "synchronous" design principle. Clock is the most important issue in these designs. Frequency and phase synthesis is closely related to the clock generation. A frequency and phase synthesis technique based on phase-locked loop is proposed in [1] that delivers high performance, easy integration, and high stability. However, there are problems associated with this architecture, such as: 1) its highest deliverable frequency is limited by the speed of the accumulator and 2) the phase synthesis circuitry will not work well in certain ranges (dead zone) and in certain conditions (dual stability). This paper presents an improved architecture that addresses these problems. The new frequency, synthesis circuitry has scalability for higher output frequency. It also has an internal node whose frequency is twice that of output signal. When duty cycle is not a concern, this signal can be used directly as clock source. The new phase synthesis circuitry is free of "dead zone" and "dual stability." The improved architecture has better performance, is simpler to implement, and is easier to understand.

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

clock generation
frequency synthesis
phase synthesis

cmos circuit design
phase-locked loop
spread spectrum
voltage-controlled oscillator


Numerical calculations using the hyper-molecular dynamics simulation method Hyper-molecular dynamics (H-MD) is a new simulation method developed to increase the time scale over which a molecular dynamics simulation can be carried out. Adding a bias potential to the interatomic potential, the simulated time can be boosted by a factor dependent upon the temperature of the system. A bias potential which gives a substantial 'boost' can be defined as a function of the lowest eigenvalue of the Hessian matrix of the total interatomic potential with respect to the atom co-ordinates and the projection of the gradient of the potential onto the eigenvector. In order to obtain a numerical approximation for these quantities without the diagonalization of the Hessian matrix, numerical minimization methods have been proposed. The performance of a hyper-molecular dynamics simulation depends on the accuracy and speed of such minimization methods. Here we present a numerical approximation for the H-MD simulation method and prove the mathematical expressions required for that approach. The speed of a H-MD simulation increases by a factor of up to 3 compared to previous derivations with improved accuracy. Some numerical examples are calculated and compared in order to assess the applicability of the method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

hyper-molecular dynamics
diffusion processes
rate of escape
long time scales
numerical iteratives methods
lowest eigenvalues


the analytic design of a dynamic look ahead and program segmenting system for multiprogrammed computers Since the computer operation when viewed as the execution of subroutines or instructions or logical subcommands is a discrete sequential process, its action or behavior can be predicted to a degree of certainty when sufficient knowledge is available about the structure of its information flow. Conventionally, the look-ahead function implies fetching the next set of instructions and their associated data and preparing ahead of time for their execution. We shall, however, broaden the concept to the anticipation of the next event of a specified type whether it is a functional subroutine, instruction or an input-output function. In some sense, one can consider looking-ahead as the anticipatory simulation of important events in the execution sequence. By anticipating the most probable events, their requirements can be preplanned and furnished, if possible, without stalling the program, e.g., by alerting I/O units, by providing memory space for the next set of subroutines to be executed, etc. This is particularly important in a multi-programmed, multi-processor environment

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

requirements
information flow
structure
simulation
space
event
dynamic
behavior
design
functional
concept
instruction
data
process
knowledge
sequence
action

processor systems input association computation memorialized timing


Predicting real-time coagulant dosage in water treatment by artificial neural networks and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system Coagulation is an important component of water treatment. Determining the optimal coagulant dosage is vital, as insufficient dosage will result in unqualified water quality. Traditionally, jar tests and operators own experience are used to determine the optimum coagulant dosage. However, jar tests are time-consuming and less adaptive to changes in raw water quality in real time. When an unusual condition occurs, such as a heavy rain, the storm water brings high turbidity to water source, and the treated effluent quality may be inferior to drinking water quality standards, because the conventional operation method can be hardly in time to adjust to the proper dosage. An optimal modeling can be used to overcome these limitations. In this paper, artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) models were used to model poly aluminum chloride (PAC) dosing of northern Taiwan's surface water. Each of them was built based on 819 sets of process-controlled data. The performance of the models was found to be sufficient. Two simulation tools, ANN and ANFIS, were developed that enabled operators to obtain real-time PAC dosage more easily. The self-predicting model of ANFIS is better than ANN for PAC dosage predictions.

O O B I O B I O B I I 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 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

coagulant dosage
artificial neural networks
water treatment


What is Productivity in Knowledge Work? - A Cross-industrial View Experts in specific professional domains form the fastest increasing workforce in OECD countries. Since this fact has been realised by management researchers, they have focussed on the question of how to measure and enhance the productivity of said workforce. According to the author's cross-industrial research undertaken in five different knowledge-intensive organisations, it is, however, not productivity in the traditional meaning of the term which is to be regarded as the crucial performance indicator in expert work. There rather exist multiple performance indicators, each of which is, moreover, differently graded as to its importance by different stakeholders. These findings, firstly, indicate the need for an alternative definition and way of measurement of productivity when the term is applied to knowledge work, and, secondly, they indicate the need for alternative management strategies in order to generate an increase in the productivity of knowledge workers. This paper describes and summarises the key performance indicators for expert work as well as the major 'managing forces' and their general strategies in assessing knowledge workers' performance across five different business segments. It further delineates consequences for the management of knowledge workers - consequences affecting various 'knowledge-intensive' industries.

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

expert professional performance productivity management


Multiple Descriptions Coinciding Lattice Vector Quantizer for Wavelet Image Coding Multiple description (MD) coding has been a popular choice for robust data transmission over the unreliable network channels. Lattice vector quantization provides lower computation for efficient data compression. In this paper, a new MD coinciding lattice vector quantizer (MDCLVQ) is presented. The design of the quantizer is based on coinciding 2-D hexagonal sublattices. The coinciding sublattices are geometrically similar sublattices, with the same index but generated by different generator matrices. A novel labeling algorithm based on the hexagonal coinciding sublattices is also developed. Performance results of the MDCLVQ scheme, together with the new labeling algorithm applied to standard test images, show improvements of the central and side decoders, as compared with the renowned techniques for several test images.

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

multiple description (md) coding
md lattice vector quantizer (mdlvq)
wavelet transforms


Security Analysis of Randomize-Hash-then-Sign Digital Signatures At CRYPTO 2006, Halevi and Krawczyk proposed two randomized hash function modes and analyzed the security of digital signature algorithms based on these constructions. They showed that the security of signature schemes based on the two randomized hash function modes relies on properties similar to the second preimage resistance rather than on the collision resistance property of the hash functions. One of the randomized hash function modes was named the RMX hash function mode and was recommended for practical purposes. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA standardized a variant of the RMX hash function mode and published this standard in the Special Publication (SP) 800-106. In this article, we first discuss a generic online birthday existential forgery attack of Dang and Perlner on the RMX-hash-then-sign schemes. We show that a variant of this attack can be applied to forge the other randomize-hash-then-sign schemes. We point out practical limitations of the generic forgery attack on the RMX-hash-then-sign schemes. We then show that these limitations can be overcome for the RMX-hash-then-sign schemes if it is easy to find fixed points for the underlying compression functions, such as for the Davies-Meyer construction used in the popular hash functions such as MD5 designed by Rivest and the SHA family of hash functions designed by the National Security Agency (NSA), USA and published by NIST in the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). We show an online birthday forgery attack on this class of signatures by using a variant of Dean's method of finding fixed point expandable messages for hash functions based on the Davies-Meyer construction. This forgery attack is also applicable to signature schemes based on the variant of RMX standardized by NIST in SP 800-106. We discuss some important applications of our attacks and discuss their applicability on signature schemes based on hash functions with 'built-in' randomization. Finally, we compare our attacks on randomize-hash-then-sign schemes with the generic forgery attacks on the standard hash-based message authentication code (HMAC).

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

collision resistance
digital signature
hash function
rmx
second preimage resistance

compression function
davies-meyer
merkle-damgard
randomized hashing
sha-3 hash function competition


high-level synthesis under multi-cycle interconnect delay As process technology goes into deep submicron range, interconnect delay becomes dominant among overall system delay, occupying most of the system clock cycle time. Interconnect delay is now a crucial factor that needs to be considered even during high-level synthesis. In this paper, we propose a concurrent scheduling and binding algorithm that takes interconnect delay into account. We first define our distributed target architecture, which minimizes the effect of interconnect delay on clock cycle time. We no longer assume that interconnect delay between functional units is a part of one clock cycle. Interconnect delay can span over multiple clock cycles. We incorporate the concept of multi-cycle interconnect delay into scheduling and binding process, to reduce the critical path length and therefore the system latency. We show that by introducing interconnect delay, we can obtain latency improvement of up to 54 \% and of 37\% on the average.

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

scheduling latency factor architecture functional delay concept clock process interconnect binding account distributed algorithm paper effect

high level synthesis
technologies
systems
concurrency
timing
critic


Recent Advances in Filter Topologies and Realizations for Satellite Communications This paper presents an overview of recent advances in radio frequency and microwave filter topologies for satellite communication systems. Many types of filters have been developed during the last years in order to satisfy the demands of modern applications in both terrestrial systems and onboard spacecrafts, leading to a great variety of aspects such as transfer functions, resonator implementations or coupling structures. This paper revisits some of the last advances in this area, including the modeling and full-wave simulation. Some recent designs using dual-mode cavities along with other novel implementations in ridge waveguide will be shown.

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

radio frequency (rf) and microwave filters


Multi-objective optimization of two stage thermoelectric cooler using a modified teaching-learning-based optimization algorithm Teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) is a recently developed heuristic algorithm based on the natural phenomenon of teaching-learning process. In the present work, a modified version of the TLBO algorithm is introduced and applied for the multi-objective optimization of a two stage thermoelectric cooler (TEC). Two different arrangements of the thermoelectric cooler are considered for the optimization. Maximization of cooling capacity and coefficient of performance of the thermoelectric cooler are considered as the objective functions. An example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The results of optimization obtained by using the modified TLBO are validated by comparing with those obtained by using the basic TLBO, genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithms. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 B I I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 stage thermoelectric cooler
cooling capacity
coefficient of performance

thermoelectric modules
teaching-learning-based optimization


Speech enhancement by noise driven adaptation of perceptual scales and thresholds of continuous wavelet transform coefficients Speech enhancement. Adaptive thresholding. Adaptive scaling. Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). Real world noises: Pink, Babble, Car interior, F16 cockpit noise.

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

speech enhancement
continuous wavelet transform
adaptive thresholding
adaptive scaling


A tool for strategic biophysical assessment of a national economy The Australian stocks and flows framework The Australian Stocks and Flows Framework (ASFF) was developed to assess the biophysical longevity of the Australian economy, with top-down coverage of the whole physical economy based on bottom-up process-based detail. The ASFF employs mass-balance identities associated with stock and flow dynamics throughout the national economy and associated interaction with the environment. We show that the ASFF shares common features with complementary approaches, including Mass Flow Analysis, Physical InputOutput Tables, and Life Cycle Analysis, but is distinctly different from these because the biophysical processes throughout the economy and environment are represented explicitly. The detailed physical processes modelled have a strong empirical basis, being calibrated with six or more decades of historical data. Given the coverage of the entire economy in physical terms, it provides for many subject specific analyses such as water, energy, climate change, etc, which can also be assessed in integrated analysis of scenarios to 2100 in order to highlight conflicts, trade-offs, and synergies. The ASFF can be applied and adapted to represent specific interests in more detail and context, as demonstrated by multiple applications of the ASFF. Overall, it is designed to explore the possible trajectories of the national economic system over the long term within irrefutable biophysical constraints, and thereby inform development of appropriate policy. The open biophysical nature of the ASFF is intended for exploration and learning, rather than being normative or policy prescriptive.

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

stocks and flows
physical economy
scenarios

sustainability
integrated assessment
tensions


A general approach for modeling interacting flow through porous media under finite deformations In the last few decades modeling deformation and flow in porous media has been of great interest due to its possible application areas in various fields of engineering such as biomechanics, soil mechanics, geophysics, physical chemistry and material sciences. Due to the high complexity and in most cases also unknown geometry of porous media on the microscale, a fully resolved model is nearly impossible to obtain, but most of the times also not necessary to answer important questions. As a consequence, one switches to a macroscopic approach. Such a mathematical description of porous media on the macroscale leads to a volume-coupled multi-field problem, wherein the interface between the two phases is not resolved explicitly. In this work we propose a numerical approach for modeling incompressible flow through a nearly incompressible elastic matrix under finite deformations. After a short overview of physical and mathematical fundamentals, the system equations are formulated and different representations are introduced and analyzed. Based on thermodynamic principles, a general constitutive law is derived, which allows the integration of arbitrary strain energy functions for the skeleton. Discretization in space with three primary variables and discretization in time using the one-step-theta method lead to a complete discrete formulation, which includes both finite deformations as well as full coupling of structural and fluid phases. Therein, we include dynamic effects, especially a time and space dependent porosity. Due to the compressibility of the solid phase, the porosity and its time derivative is not depending on the determinant of the deformation gradient only, but also on the pore pressure, which is an effect that is neglected in many publications. Considering this and also a general version of Darcys law, we derive two finite element formulations in a straightforward way, which, along with the numerical illustrations, provide a new numerical scheme for solving large deformation porous media problems.

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

deformable porous media
finite deformation
poroelasticity


An audio-visual approach to web video categorization In this paper, we discuss and audio-visual approach to automatic web video categorization. To this end, we propose content descriptors which exploit audio, temporal, and color content. The power of our descriptors was validated both in the context of a classification system and as part of an information retrieval approach. For this purpose, we used a real-world scenario, comprising 26 video categories from the blip.tv media platform (up to 421h of video footage). Additionally, to bridge the descriptor semantic gap, we propose a new relevance feedback technique which is based on hierarchical clustering. Experiments demonstrated that with this technique retrieval performance can be increased significantly and becomes comparable to that of high level semantic textual descriptors.

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

audio block-based descriptors
color perception
action assessment
video relevance feedback
video genre classification


Guarding a set of line segments in the plane We consider the following problem: Given a finite set of straight line segments in the plane, find a set of points of minimum size, so that every segment contains at least one point in the set. This problem can be interpreted as looking for a minimum number of locations of policemen, guards, cameras or other sensors, that can observe a network of streets, corridors, tunnels, tubes, etc. We show that the problem is strongly NP-complete even for a set of segments with a cubic graph structure, but in P for tree structures. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

art-gallery problem
guarding set of segments
strongly np-complete problem
polynomial algorithm
set cover
vertex cover


disjunctive decomposition of switching functions using symmetry information A new approach to a simple disjunctive decomposition of a Boolean function is presented. It is based on using symmetric relations among a function's variables to recognize intrinsic characteristics of the function. The conditions for the existence of a simple disjunctive decomposition are formulated and a hierarchical simple disjunctive decomposition is generated in a bottom-up manner without exhaustive search. Results on benchmark functions are very encouraging.

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

switching functions
symmetric relations
intrinsic characteristics
benchmark functions
disjunctive decomposition
boolean function

circuit optimisation
hierarchical decomposition
multiple symmetries
vlsi layout optimisation
integrated circuit layout
logic partitioning
vlsi
boolean functions


Lower bounds for linear locally decodable codes and private information retrieval We prove that if a linear error-correcting code C:{0, 1}(n) -> {0, 1}(m) is such that a bit of the message can be probabilistically reconstructed by looking at two entries of a corrupted codeword, then m = 2(Omega(n)). We also present several extensions of this result. We show a reduction from the complexity of one-round, information-theoretic Private Information Retrieval Systems (with two servers) to Locally Decodable Codes, and conclude that if all the servers' answers are linear combinations of the database content, then t = Omega (n/2(a)), where t is the length of the user's query and a is the length of the servers' answers. Actually, 2(a) can be replaced by O(a(k)), where k is the number of bit locations in the answer that are actually inspected in the reconstruction.

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

lower bounds
locally decodable codes
private information retrieval


SIPPI: A Matlab toolbox for sampling the solution to inverse problems with complex prior information: Part 2Application to crosshole GPR tomography We present an application of the SIPPI Matlab toolbox, to obtain a sample from the a posteriori probability density function for the classical tomographic inversion problem. We consider a number of different forward models, linear and non-linear, such as ray based forward models that rely on the high frequency approximation of the wave-equation and fat ray based forward models relying on finite frequency theory. In order to sample the a posteriori probability density function we make use of both least squares based inversion, for linear Gaussian inverse problems, and the extended Metropolis sampler, for non-linear non-Gaussian inverse problems. To illustrate the applicability of the SIPPI toolbox to a tomographic field data set we use a cross-borehole traveltime data set from Arrens, Denmark. Both the computer code and the data are released in the public domain using open source and open data licenses. The code has been developed to facilitate inversion of 2D and 3D travel time tomographic data using a wide range of possible a priori models and choices of forward models.

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

inversion
tomography
sampling
a priori
a posteriori


a personalization framework for olap queries OLAP users heavily rely on visualization of query answers for their interactive analysis of massive amounts of data. Very often, these answers cannot be visualized entirely and the user has to navigate through them to find relevant facts.In this paper, we propose a framework for personalizing OLAP queries. In this framework, the user is asked to give his (her) preferences and a visualization constraint, that can be for instance the limitations imposed by the device used to display the answer to a query. Given this, for each query, our method computes the part of the answer that respects both the user preferences and the visualization constraint. In addition, a personalized structure for the visualization is proposed.

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

personalization visualization preferences olap


Partial instantiation methods for inference in first-order logic Satisfiability algorithms for propositional logic have improved enormously in recently years. This improvement increases the attractiveness of satisfiability methods for first-order logic that reduce the problem to a series of ground-level satisfiability problems. R. Jeroslow introduced a partial instantiation method of this kind that differs radically from the standard resolution-based methods. This paper lays the theoretical groundwork for an extension of his method that is general enough and efficient enough for general logic programming with indefinite clauses. In particular we improve Jeroslow's approach by (1) extending it to logic with functions, (2) accelerating it through the use of satisfiers, as introduced by Gallo and Rago, and (3) simplifying it to obtain further speedup. We provide a similar development for a "dual" partial instantiation approach defined by Hooker and suggest a primal-dual strategy. We prove correctness of the primal and dual algorithms for full first-order logic with functions, as well as termination on unsatisfiable formulas. We also report some preliminary computational results.

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


Exploration of directional-predictive sounds for nonvisual interaction with graphs Sonification of stylus movements accompanied with kinesthetic feedback is one of possible techniques to develop cross-modal coordination in the absence of visual information. The investigated problems are the following: how to minimize the number of sounds while increasing the information they contain and how to choose a natural sonification grammar which would not require extra cognitive efforts. We demonstrate two case studies of employing directional-predictive sounds (DPS). Stylus movements were sonified through three sound signals taking into account the exploration behavior and the concept of the capture radius. The performance of eight subjects was evaluated in terms of the stylus deviation in relation to the points of the virtual graph, a length of the scanpaths, and the task completion time. When stylus movements were accompanied with the DPS signals within four capture radiuses, the deviation of the stylus from the graph inspected was always less than one capture radius. The scanpaths were 24-40% shorter in length and the task completion times decreased by 20-25%. We also demonstrate the game application which was designed to optimize an exploration behavior enhanced by the DPS. The results of the proposed sonification technique based on the model of the exploration behavior are discussed.

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

sonification
coordination
nonvisual interaction

haptic-auditory interaction
cross-modal
directional-predictive sounds
exploratory behavioral patterns
graph access


Two-dimensional array coloring with many colors Given an m x n array and k distinct colors with 2 = mn - inverted right perpendicularm(2)/2inverted left perpendicular.

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

coloring distance
cyclic shifting
interleaving
random error-correcting codes
sphere packing


Enhancement of sound sources located within a particular area using a pair of small microphone arrays A method for extracting a sound signal from a particular area that is surrounded by multiple ambient noise sources is proposed. This method performs several fixed beamformings on a pair of small Microphone arrays separated from each other to estimate the signal and noise power spectra. Noise suppression is achieved by applying spectrum emphasis to the output of fixed beamforming in the frequency domain, which is derived from the estimated power spectra. In experiments performed in a room with reverberation, this method succeeded in suppressing the ambient noise, giving an SNR improvement of more than 10,0, which is better than the performance of the conventional fixed and adaptive beamforming methods using a large-aperture microphone array. We also confirmed that this method keeps its performance even if the noise source location changes continuously or abruptly.

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

microphone array
noise suppression
spectrum emphasis

power spectrum estimation
non-negative least squares method


Unsupervised image-set clustering using an information theoretic framework In this paper, we combine discrete and continuous image models with information-theoretic-based criteria for unsupervised hierarchical image-set clustering. The continuous image modeling is based on mixture of Gaussian densities. The unsupervised image-set clustering is based on a generalized version of a recently introduced information-theoretic principle, the information bottleneck principle. Images are clustered such that the mutual information between the clusters and the image content is maximally preserved. Experimental results demonstrate the performance of the proposed framework for image clustering on a large image set. Information theoretic tools are used to evaluate cluster quality. Particular emphasis is placed on the application of the clustering for efficient image search and retrieval.

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

image clustering
image modeling
mutual information
retrieval

hierarchical database analysis
image database management
information bottleneck (ib)
kullback-leibler divergence
mixture of gaussians


A Kernel Two-Sample Test We propose a framework for analyzing and comparing distributions, which we use to construct statistical tests to determine if two samples are drawn from different distributions. Our test statistic is the largest difference in expectations over functions in the unit ball of a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), and is called the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD). We present two distribution-free tests based on large deviation bounds for the MMD, and a third test based on the asymptotic distribution of this statistic. The MMD can be computed in quadratic time, although efficient linear time approximations are available. Our statistic is an instance of an integral probability metric, and various classical metrics on distributions are obtained when alternative function classes are used in place of an RKHS. We apply our two-sample tests to a variety of problems, including attribute matching for databases using the Hungarian marriage method, where they perform strongly. Excellent performance is also obtained when comparing distributions over graphs, for which these are the first such 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 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

kernel methods
two-sample test
uniform convergence bounds
schema matching
hypothesis testing


A level-set based variational method for design and optimization of heterogeneous objects A heterogeneous object is referred to as a solid object made of different constituent materials. The object is of a finite collection of regions of a set of prescribed material classes of continuously varying material properties. These properties have a discontinuous change across the interface of the material regions. In this paper, we propose a level-set based variational approach for the design of this class of heterogeneous objects. Central to the approach is a variational framework for a well-posed formulation of the design problem. In particular, we adapt the MumfordShah model which specifies that any point of the object belongs to either of two types: inside a material region of a well-defined gradient or on the boundary edges and surfaces of discontinuities. Furthermore, the set of discontinuities is represented implicitly, using a multi-phase level set model. This level-set based variational approach yields a computational system of coupled geometric evolution and diffusion partial differential equations. Promising features of the proposed method include strong regularity in the problem formulation and inherent capabilities of geometric and material modeling, yielding a common framework for optimization of the heterogeneous objects that incorporates dimension, shape, topology, and material properties. The proposed method is illustrated with several 2D examples of optimal design of multi-material structures and materials.

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

level set method
structural optimization


A new quadrilateral shell element using 16 degrees of freedom Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a quadrilateral shell element using 16 degrees offreedom (dof) (12 translations and four rotations) which makes a pair with Morley's triangle at 12 dof This latter has been updated by Batoz who later proposed an extension to a quadrilateral ("DKQ16") but only with special interpolation functions for an elastic behaviour of the material. Precisely, it is in order to release from this strong limitation that a completely different formulation is proposed here. Design/methodology/approach - The development of this new quadrilateral called "DKS16" involves three stages. The first one starts from Morley's triangle updated by Batoz ("DKT12") to derive a rotation-free (RF) triangular element ("S3"). The second stage consists in generalising this triangle to a RF quadrilateral ("S4"). During the final leg, the S4 and DKT12 main features are combined to give the quadrilateral "DKS16". Findings - Other parameters being equal, the type of finite element chosen for the forming stage simulation has a great influence on further springback result even in software with automatic remeshing. Particularly, it is pointed out that the RF shell elements S3 and S4 as well as the triangle DKT12 are less sensitive to the mesh size than classical shell elements with six dof per node. But, even if some improvements of in-plane shear have been proposed, stamping codes users are reluctant to use triangles. That is why this paper presents an attempt to extrapolate a quadrilateral (DKS16) from the triangle DKT12 via S3 and S4 elements formulation. Numerous examples showing convergence and accuracy are presented: irregular meshes, large displacement analyses and deep-drawing simulations. Practical implications - The triangular "S3" element is already implemented in RADIOSS (R) software and its implementation - as well as the one of "DKT12" - is in progress in Pam-Stamp, both as "user elements". The next step will be the implementation of the quadrilateral "S4" (RF) and, maybe, the element "DKS16" since both are cheaper in terms of computation time and are found interesting for sheet forming. Originality/value - It seems obvious that curvatures are more exactly captured in RF elements (when nodes slide on die radius) since they are imposed in terms of translations instead of traditional nodal rotations not managed by contact conditions. As the neighbours are involved, a drawback of these RF elements is their complex formulation in case of branching surfaces and/or abrupt variations in material behaviour and/or thickness. This is not the case for elements such as DKT12 or DKS16, good candidates to add to the (long) list of cheap shell elements for large scale computations typical of sheet metal forming.

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


An approach for solving fuzzy implicit variational inequalities with linear membership functions ? In this paper, we consider a class of fuzzy implicit variational inequalities with linear membership functions. By using the tolerance approach, we show that solving such problems can be reduced to a semi-infinite programming problem. A version of the method of centres with entropic regularization techniques, only used a quasi-Newton line search using MATLAB software is required in our implementation. We also give a numerical example to illustrate the validity of our approach.

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

linear membership functions
tolerance approach
entropic regularization

fuzzy implicit variational inequality
fuzzy mathematical programming


Chosen Ciphertext Security with Optimal Ciphertext Overhead Every public-key encryption scheme has to incorporate a certain amount of randomness into its ciphertexts to provide semantic security against chosen ciphertext attacks (IND-CCA). The difference between the length of a ciphertext and the embedded message is called the ciphertext overhead. While a generic brute-force adversary running in 2(t) steps gives a theoretical lower bound of t bits on the ciphertext overhead for IND-CPA security, the best known IND-CCA secure schemes demand roughly 2t bits even in the random oracle model. Is the t-bit gap essential for achieving IND-CCA security? We close the gap by proposing an IND-CCA secure scheme whose ciphertext overhead matches the generic lower bound up to a small constant. Our scheme uses a variation of a four-round Feistel network in the random oracle model and hence belongs to the family of OAEP-based schemes. Maybe of independent interest is a new efficient method to encrypt long messages exceeding the length of the permutation while retaining the minimal overhead.

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


Ontology based complex object recognition This paper presents a new approach for object categorization involving the following aspects of cognitive vision: learning, recognition and knowledge representation. A major element of our approach is a visual concept ontology composed of several types of concepts (spatial concepts and relations, color concepts and texture concepts). Visual concepts contained in this ontology can be seen as an intermediate layer between domain knowledge and image processing procedures. Machine learning techniques are used to solve the symbol grounding problem (i.e. linking meaningfully symbols to sensory information). This paper shows, how a new object categorization system is set up by a knowledge acquisition and learning phase and then used by an object categorization phase.

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

ontology
machine learning
categorization
cognitive vision


data extraction from the web using wild card queries This paper presents an overview of our work for searching and retrieving facts and relationships within natural language text sources. In this work, an extraction task over a text collection is expressed as a query that combines text fragments with wild cards, and the query result is a set of facts in the form of unary, binary and general n -ary tuples. Despite being both simple and declarative, the framework can be applied to a wide range of extraction tasks. This paper presents an overview of the work and its various components. We also report some of our experiments and an evaluation of the proposed querying framework in extracting relevant information to a task.

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


Thickness dependent soft-breakdown phenomena of low dielectric constant thin films and corresponding activation energy Thickness dependent dielectric soft-breakdown and corresponding activation energy in low dielectric constant (low-k) thin films with thickness ranging from 48 to 1141nm are investigated to evaluate the reliability of polymer integration on device wafers for the first time. It is found that the strength against soft-breakdown decreases and the leakage current increases with the decrease in low-k film thickness. In the regions both before and after soft-breakdown, the conduction activation energy increases with the increase in low-k film thickness. The conduction activation energy before soft-breakdown is smaller than that after soft-breakdown.

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

thickness dependent
low dielectric constant
activation energy


Geometric modelling based on simplicial chains In this work we present a mathematical formulation for geometric modelling which may be applied in spaces of any dimension. The model can be seen as an example of a graphic object algebra [see Torres, J. C. and Clares, B., Graphics objects: a mathematical abstract model for computer graphics. Computer Graphics Forum, 1993, 12(5), 311328 and Feito, F. R. and Torres, J. C., Boundary representation of polyhedral heterogenous solids in the context of a graphics objects algebra. The Visual Computer, 1997, 13(2), 6477]. It is based on the concept of simplicial chain which is considered a particular case of the polyhedral chains presented by Whitney (Geometric Integration Theory, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1957). From the algebraic operations with simplicial chains we can obtain any element of the general polyhedral solids (manifold and non-manifold). Similarly, from the defined operations with chains, we can obtain the usual operations of geometric modelling (union, intersection and difference). So, the model can be considered a new scheme of representation of solids based on simplician chains. One of its uses is to obtain the usual operations of geometric modelling by means of operations with simplices (triangles, tetrahedra, etc) which are simple elements.

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

mathematical modelling
formal methods in computer graphics


Block-balanced meshes in iterative uniform refinement In this paper we study and delimit a property of known four triangle subdivisions that is useful in tri to quad mesh conversion methods. We provide both theoretical results and empirical evidence showing that iterative application of the four triangles longest-edge subdivision and the four triangles similar subdivision produces block-balanced meshes, meshes in which triangle pairs sharing a common longest edge tend to cover the area of the entire mesh. Some other properties of such triangle subdivisions regarding mesh quality and adjacency relationships are also discussed. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Structured unitary space-time autocoding constellations We recently showed that arbitrarily reliable communication is possible within a single coherence interval in Rayleigh flat fading as the symbol duration of the coherence interval and the number of transmit antennas grow simultaneously. This effect, where the space-time signals act as their own channel codes, is called autocoding. For relatively short (e.g., 16-symbol) coherence intervals, a codebook of independent isotropically random unitary space-time signals theoretically supports transmission rates that are a significant fraction of autocapacity with an extremely low probability of error. The exploitation of space-time autocoding requires the creation and decoding of extraordinarily large constellations-typically L = 2(80). In this correspondence, we make progress on the first part of the problem through a random, but highly structured, constellation that is completely specified by log(2) L independent isotropically distributed unitary matrices. The distinguishing property of this construction is that any two signals in the constellation are pairwise statistically independent and isotropically distributed. Thus, the pairwise probability of error, and hence the union bound on the block probability of error, of the structured constellation is identical to that of a fully random constellation of independent signals. We establish the limitations of an earlier construction through a subsidiary result that is interesting in its own right: the square (or for that matter, any integer power greater than one) of an isotropically random unitary matrix is not isotropically random, with the sole exception of the one-by-one unitary matrix.

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

eigenvalues of random matrices
multiple antennas
space-time autocoding
unitary space-time modulation
wireless communication


Government records and records management: Law on the right to information in Turkey Operating of the laws on right to information is related to effective management of government records and information having social value. This article contains the relation of government records and records management considering the role of records management at institutions in execution of law on right to information in Turkey, and the evaluation of Turkish Law on the right to information that came into force in 2004 in view of records management and archival approaches.

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

government records
records management
turkish law on the right to information


Sensor-based control architecture for a car-like vehicle This paper presents a control architecture endowing a car-like vehicle moving in a dynamic and partially known environment with autonomous motion capabilities. Like most recent control architectures for autonomous robot systems, it combines three functional components: a set of basic real-time skills, a reactive execution mechanism and a decision module. The main novelty of the architecture proposed lies in the introduction of a fourth component akin to a meta-level of skills: the sensor-based manoeuvers, i.e., general templates that encode high-level expert human knowledge and heuristics about how a specific motion task is to be performed. The concept of sensor-based manoeuvers permit to reduce the planning effort required to address a given motion task, thus improving the overall response-time of the system, while retaining the good properties of a skill-based architecture, i.e., robustness, flexibility and reactivity. The paper focuses on the trajectory planning function (which is an important part of the decision module) and two types of sensor-based manoeuvers, trajectory following and parallel parking, that have been implemented and successfully tested on a real automatic car-like vehicle placed in different situations.

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


thesaurus based automatic keyphrase indexing We propose a new method that enhances automatic keyphrase extraction by using semantic information on terms and phrases gleaned from a domain-specific thesaurus. We evaluate the results against keyphrase sets assigned by a state-of-the-art keyphrase extraction system and those assigned by six professional indexers.

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

keyphrase assignment
machine aided indexing
automatic indexing


Support Vector Regression Model for the prediction of Loadability Margin of a Power System SVR methodology will estimate the loadability margin not only under normal conditions and different loading directions. It improves the accuracy of mean square error and reduces the prediction time, by choosing various kernel type and SVR parameter. The results of SVRs (nu-SVR and epsilon-SVR) are compared with RBF networks corresponding to various loading scenarios of a power system to estimate the voltage stability margin. The estimation of loading margin is achieved with least absolute error, minimum training and testing computational time.

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

loadability margin
support vector regression

artificial neural networks
voltage stability assessment
kernel parameter


Facial landmarks detection using improved active shape model on android platform Detection of facial feature is fundamental for applications such as security, biometrics, 3D face modeling and personal authentication. Active Shape Model (ASM) is one of the most popular local texture models for face detection. This paper presents an issue related to face detection based on ASM, and proposes an efficient extraction algorithm for facial landmarks suitable for use on mobile devices. We modifies the original ASM to improve its performance with three changes; (1) Improving the initialization model using the center of the eyes by using a feature map of color information, (2) Constructing modified model definition and fitting more landmarks than the classical ASM, and (3) Extending and building a 2-D profile model for detecting faces in input image. The proposed method is evaluated on dataset containing over 700 images of faces, and experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm exhibited a significant improvement of over 10.2% in average success ratio, compared to the classic ASM, clearly outperforming on success rate and computing time.

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

facial feature points
face analysis
active shape model (asm)


ASTRO: An integrated environment for dependability and sustainability evaluation Sustainability has received great attention by the scientific community, due to concerns for meeting current needs of energy without compromising, for instance, non-renewable resources for future generations. Indeed, the higher demand for energy is an issue that has impacted the way systems are conceived (e.g. data centers), in the sense that designers need to verify several trade-offs and select the feasible solution considering energy utilization and other metrics, such as dependability. Tools are important in this context to automate several design activities and provide results as fast as possible. This paper presents an integrated environment, namely, ASTRO, which contemplates: (i) Reliability Block Diagrams (RBDs), Stochastic Petri Nets (SPN) and continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC) for dependability evaluation; and (ii) a method based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) for quantification of sustainability impact. ASTRO has been conceived to evaluate data center infrastructures, but the environment is generic enough to evaluate general systems. Besides, a real world case study is provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed environment.

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

sustainability
dependability evaluation
stochastic petri nets
reliability block diagrams
lca

continuous-time markov chains
data center design


Reliability-Guaranteed Task Assignment and Scheduling for Heterogeneous Multiprocessors Considering Timing Constraint Heterogeneous multiprocessors have become the mainstream computing platforms nowadays and are increasingly employed for critical applications. Inherently, heterogeneous systems are more complex than homogeneous systems. The added complexity increases the potential of system failures. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a reliability-guaranteed task assignment and scheduling approach for heterogeneous multiprocessors considering timing constraint. We propose a two-phase approach to solve this problem. In the first phase, we determine assignments for heterogeneous multiprocessors such that both reliability requirement and timing constraint can be satisfied with the minimum total system cost. Efficient algorithms are proposed to produce optimal solutions for simple-path and tree-structured task graphs in polynomial time. When the input graph is a directed acyclic graph (DAG), the task assignment problem is NP-Complete. In this situation, we first develop an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation to generate optimal solutions. Then, we propose a polynomial-time heuristic algorithm to find near optimal solutions. In the second phase, based on the assignments obtained in the first phase, we propose a minimum resource scheduling algorithm to generate a schedule and a feasible configuration that uses as little resource as possible. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms and the ILP formulation can effectively reduce the total cost compared with the previous work.

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

task assignment
scheduling
heterogeneous


The Role of Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger in Endothelin-1-Aggravated Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Induced Injury in Renal Epithelial Cells We analyzed the role of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) in endothelin-1-aggravated hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced injury in renal epithelial LLC-PK1 cells. KB-R7943, a selective NCX inhibitor, suppressed hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced cell damage, whereas overexpression of NCX1 into cells enhanced it. Endothelin-1 significantly aggravated hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced injury in parental and NCX1-overexpressing LLC-PK1 cells. Such aggravation by endothelin-1 was not observed in cells overexpressing a deregulated NCX1 mutant, which displays no protein kinase C-dependent activation. These results suggest that Ca2+ overload via NCX plays a critical role in hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced renal tubular injury, and that endothelin-1 aggravates the cell damage through the activation of NCX

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