A GPU-Based Application Framework Supporting Fast Discrete-Event Simulation The graphics processing unit (GPU) has evolved into a flexible and powerful processor of relatively low cost, compared to processors used for other available parallel computing systems. The majority of studies using the GPU within the graphics and simulation communities have focused on the use of the GPU for models that are traditionally simulated using regular time increments, whether these increments are accomplished through the addition of a time delta (i.e., numerical integration) or event scheduling using the delta (i.e., discrete event approximations of continuous-time systems). These types of models have the property of being decomposable over a variable or parameter space. In prior studies, discrete event simulation has been characterized as being an inefficient application for the GPU primarily due to the inherent synchronicity of the GPU organization and an apparent mismatch between the classic event scheduling cycle and the GPU's basic functionality. However, we have found that irregular time advances of the sort common in discrete event models can be successfully mapped to a GPU, thus making it possible to execute discrete event systems on an inexpensive personal computer platform at speedups close to 10x. This speedup is achieved through the development of a special purpose code library we developed that uses an approximate time-based event scheduling approach. We present the design and implementation of this library, which is based on the compute unified device architecture (CUDA) general purpose parallel applications programming interface for the NVIDIA class of GPUs.

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

parallel event scheduling
simulation libraries


Rural Hospital Information Technology Implementation for Safety and Quality Improvement Lessons Learned This grant involved a hospital collaborative for excellence using information technology over 3-year period. The project activities focused on the improvement of patient care safety and quality in Southern rural and small community hospitals through the use of technology and education. The technology component of the design involved the implementation of a Web based business analytic tool that allows hospitals to view data create reports and analyze their safety and quality data. Through a preimplementation and postimplementation comparative design the focus of the implementation team was twofold to recruit participant hospitals and to implement the technology at each of the 66 hospital sites. Rural hospitals were defined as acute care hospitals located in a county with a population of less, than 100000 or a state-administered Critical Access Hospital making the total study population target 188 hospitals Lessons learned during the information technology implementation of these hospitals are reflective of the unique culture financial characteristics organizational structure and technology architecture of rural hospitals Specific steps such as recuritment information technology assessment, conference calls for project planning data file extraction and transfer technology training use of e-mail use of telephones personnel management and engaging information technology vendors were found to vary greatly among hospitals.

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

patient quality
patient safety
project management
rural health
rural health services


On Approximating the Ideal Random Access Machine by Physical Machines The capability of the Random Access Machine (RAM) to execute any instruction in constant time is not realizable, due to fundamental physical constraints on the minimum size of devices and on the maximum speed of signals. This work explores how well the ideal RAM performance can be approximated, for significant classes of computations, by machines whose building blocks have constant size and are connected at a constant distance. A novel memory structure is proposed, which is pipelined (can accept a new request at each cycle) and hierarchical, exhibiting optimal latency a(x)=O(x(1/d)) to address x, in d-dimensional realizations. In spite of block-transfer or other memory-pipeline capabilities, a number of previous machine models do not achieve a full overlap of memory accesses. These are examples of machines with explicit data movement. It is shown that there are direct-flow computations (without branches and indirect accesses) that require time superlinear in the number of instructions, on all such machines. To circumvent the explicit-data-movement constraints, the Speculative Prefetcher (SP) and the Speculative Prefetcher and Evaluator (SPE) processors are developed. Both processors can execute any direct-flow program in linear time. The SPE also executes in linear time a class of loop programs that includes many significant algorithms. Even quicksort, a somewhat irregular, recursive algorithm admits a linear-time SPE implementation. A relation between instructions called address dependence is introduced, which limits memory-access overlap and can lead to superlinear time, as illustrated with the classical merging algorithm.

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

theory
physical constraints on machines
pipelined hierarchical memory
speculative processors


Towards combinatorial analysis, adaptation, and planning of human-computer systems The paper addresses a modular system approach to the analysis, design, and improvement of human-computer systems (HCSs). The approach is based on ordinal expert information and optimization models. A modular description of HCSs (system components and their interconnection), some corresponding requirements to them, and improvement actions are described. The following stages have been examined: design of a basic system morphology, modification of the morphology, analysis, and planning. Our combinatorial approach (two-level hierarchical morphological design) consists of two problems: (i) multi-criteria analysis of primitives (design alternatives), and (ii) combinatorial synthesis. The hierarchical combinatorial synthesis is based on a "design morphology" which corresponds to an initial hierarchical knowledge structure (design alternatives, their estimates, etc.). Ordinal scales for initial information are used. Two basic numerical examples illustrate the approach: (i) modular analysis, adaptation, and improvement of HCSs; (ii) series planning the user interfaces for knowledge engineering.

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

system design
design & modeling
planning & scheduling
system adaptation
knowledge-based methodologies
optimization problems
human-computer systems


The influence of the base boundary condition in modelling filling of a metal silo The effects of different assumptions about the boundary conditions in a finite element model of a circular planform flat-bottomed slender silo are reported. The predicted wall pressure near the transition of an axisymmetric metal silo is examined. Different assumptions in various models lead to significant variation in the resulting pressure predictions and these phenomena are explained. The effects of changing base inclination and hopper angle are investigated, and an initial explanation of the importance of hopper stiffness to the prediction of hopper pressures is proposed.

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


Next Generation Wireless Mobile System Efficient, Fair, Class Based Packet Scheduling Algorithm Efficient utilization of network resources is a key goal for emerging broadband wireless access systems (BWAS). This is a complex goal to achieve due to the heterogeneous service nature and diverse quality of service (QoS) requirements of various applications that BWAS support. Packet scheduling is an important activity that affects BWAS QoS outcomes. This paper proposes a novel packet scheduling mechanism that improves QoS in mobile wireless networks which exploit IP as a transport technology for data transfer between BWAS base stations and mobile users at the radio transmission layer. In order to improve BWAS QoS the new packet algorithm makes changes at both the IP and the radio layers. The new packet scheduling algorithm exploits handoff priority scheduling principles and takes into account buffer occupancy and channel conditions. The packet scheduling mechanism also incorporates the concept of fairness. Performance results were obtained by computer simulation and compared to the well known algorithms. Results show that by exploiting the new packet scheduling algorithm, the transport system is able to provide a low handoff packet drop rate, low packet forwarding rate, low packet delay and ensure fairness amongst the users of different services.

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

packet scheduling
broadband wireless access systems
quality of service


Effects of passing lanes on highway traffic flow In this paper, the effects of passing lanes on traffic flow on a single-lane highway are investigated based on a cellular-automaton (CA) model proposed by Lee et al. (2004) with periodic boundary conditions. A new driving strategy for the diverging and interacting processes are proposed by considering dual-time-headways (an interaction headway and a safe headway) as the criteria for a vehicle to select a lane or change lane. The proposed dual-headway rule has a clear physical sense and can be calibrated in the real world. We can see that (i) At low- (or high-) densities, there are no obvious increases of flux due to very weak (or very strong) interactions between vehicles. However, flux has an obvious increase at intermediate-density regions with the increase of the length of a passing lane; (ii) the space-time patterns before a passing lane are different from that after a passing lane, which is caused from vehicular reconfigurations on a passing zone; (iii) passing lanes can merge several narrow jams into one or few wide jams when increasing the length of passing lanes; (iv) if vehicles are allowed to travel with even higher speed, traffic can be further improved.

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

cellular automata
traffic flow modeling.


General Solutions to Functional and Kinematic Redundancy A systematic and general approach to represent functional redundancy is presented. It is shown how this approach allows the freedom provided by functional redundancy to be integrated into the inverse geometric problem for real-time applications and how it can be utilised to improve performance. A set of new iterative solutions to the inverse geometric problem, well suited for kinematically redundant manipulators, is also presented.

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


A cloud-based MODFLOW service for aquifer management decision support We developed a cloud-based tool for running MODFLOW models. The model simulates the impact of proposed changes to groundwater withdrawal permits. The system uses a web interface layered on top of ArcGIS geoprocessing workflows. The code can be customized to support multiple models with different impact criteria. The system allows modeling to be used more extensively in aquifer management.

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

groundwater management
groundwater modeling
cloud computing


framework for security and privacy in automotive telematics Automotive telematics may be defined as the information-intensive applications that are being enabled for vehicles by a combination of telecommunications and computing technology. Telematics by its nature requires the capture of sensor data, storage and exchange of data to obtain remote services. In order for automotive telematics to grow to its full potential, telematics data must be protected. Data protection must include privacy and security for end-users, service providers and application providers. In this paper, we propose a new framework for data protection that is built on the foundation of privacy and security technologies. The privacy technology enables users and service providers to define flexible data model and policy models. The security technology provides traditional capabilities such as encryption, authentication, non-repudiation. In addition, it provides secure environments for protected execution, which is essential to limiting data access to specific purposes.

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

sensor
framework
applications
security
order
policy
encryption
protection
authentication
service
access
model
paper
automotive telematics
capabilities
technologies
environments
users
storage
data
privacy

privacy policies
computation
flexibility
end-user
informal
combinational
data models
telecommunication
automotive


Vignette and Exposure Calibration and Compensation We discuss calibration and removal of "vignetting" (radial falloff) and exposure (gain) variations from sequences of images. Even when the response curve is known, spatially varying ambiguities prevent us from recovering the vignetting, exposure, and scene radiances uniquely. However, the vignetting and exposure variations can nonetheless be removed from the images without resolving these ambiguities or the previously known scale and gamma ambiguities. Applications include panoramic image mosaics, photometry for material reconstruction, image-based rendering, and preprocessing for correlation-based vision algorithms.

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


Strategic interactions in a supply chain game The TAC 2003 supply-chain game presented automated trading agents with a challenging strategic problem. Embedded within a high-dimensional stochastic environment was a pivotal strategic decision about initial procurement of components. Early evidence suggested that the entrant field was headed toward a self-destructive, mutually unprofitable equilibrium. Our agent, Deep Maize, introduced a preemptive strategy designed to neutralize aggressive procurement, perturbing the field to a more profitable equilibrium; it worked. Not only did preemption improve Deep Maize's profitability, it improved profitability for the whole field. Whereas it is perhaps counterintuitive that action designed to prevent others from achieving their goals actually helps them, strategic analysis employing an empirical game-theoretic methodology verifies and provides insight about this outcome.

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

supply chain management
strategic reasoning
empirical game theory


Relationships among Internet use, personality, and social support Competing claims have been presented in the literature regarding the impact of Internet use on social support. Some theorists have suggested that Internet use increases social interaction and support (Silverman, 1999, American Psychologist 54, 780781), while others have argued that it leads to decreased interaction and support (Kiesler & Kraut, 1999, American Psychologist 54, 783784). This study was designed to address this issue by examining the relationships among Internet use, personality, and perceived social support. Two-hundred and six participants completed questionnaires that assessed Internet use, personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness), and perceived social support. Using principal components analysis, individual computer activities were combined into three primary factors: Technical, Information Exchange, and Leisure. Correlation and regression analyses revealed only a marginal relationship between computer use and social support. Similarly, only modest associations were found between personality and computer use. However, personality did moderate the relationship between computer use and social support. That is, on two occasions, high computer use coupled with high personality was associated with decreased perceived social support and on a third occasion this combination resulted in increased perceived social support. These results help to address some of the inconsistencies that have been reported in the literature.

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

internet
computer use
social support
personality


The use of meta-heuristics for airport gate assignment Improper assignment of gates may result in flight delays, inefficient use of the resource, customers dissatisfaction. A typical metropolitan airport handles hundreds of flights a day. Solving the gate assignment problem (GAP) to optimality is often impractical. Meta-heuristics have recently been proposed to generate good solutions within a reasonable timeframe. In this work, we attempt to assess the performance of three meta-heuristics, namely, genetic algorithm (GA), tabu search (TS), simulated annealing (SA) and a hybrid approach based on SA and TS. Flight data from Incheon International Airport are collected to carry out the computational comparison. Although the literature has documented these algorithms, this work may be a first attempt to evaluate their performance using a set of realistic flight data.

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

airport gate assignment
genetic algorithm
tabu search
simulated annealing


understanding design and control for media-centric service composition experiments Service composition provides easy and flexible ways to build media-centric networked applications that integrate dispersed media contents and tools. To explore the possibility of media-centric service composition in Future Internet testbeds, we introduce an ongoing effort to understand the design and control of media-centric service composition experiments. We explain how to select and assemble component services in feasible combinations and verify its feasibility via an HD media delivery experiment within real testbed environments.

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

future internet services
networked media applications
media-centric service composition
experimental testbed


automated application of fault tolerance mechanisms in a component-based system Due to the reduction of structure sizes in modern embedded systems, tolerating soft errors presenting itself as bit flips becomes a mandatory task even for moderate critical applications. Accordingly, software-based fault tolerance mechanisms recently gained in popularity and a multitude of approaches that differ in the number and frequency of tolerated errors as well as their associated overhead have been proposed. As a consequence, an application- and environment-tailored selection of mechanisms is required to balance protection and costs. Accounting the diverse solution space, we propose to make software-based fault tolerance a matter of configuration that should be transparent to the applications. While this would be cumbersome when using an unsafe programming language, we show that in the context of KESO, a JVM for deeply embedded systems, this can be achieved by utilizing the Java type system and static code analysis. As an initial technique we decided to add redundant execution to KESO, which enables us to selectively and transparently replicate an application. This essentially builds a first step to a JVM, which offers reliable execution of components as demanded by the system configuration.

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 B 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 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


Constraint satisfaction techniques in planning and scheduling Over the last few years constraint satisfaction, planning, and scheduling have received increased attention, and substantial effort has been invested in exploiting constraint satisfaction techniques when solving real life planning and scheduling problems. Constraint satisfaction is the process of finding a solution to a set of constraints. Planning is the process of finding a sequence of actions that transfer the world from some initial state to a desired state. Scheduling is the problem of assigning a set of tasks to a set of resources subject to a set of constraints. In this paper, we introduce the main definitions and techniques of constraint satisfaction, planning and scheduling from the Artificial Intelligence point of view.

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

constraint satisfaction
planning
scheduling


Assessing effort estimation models for corrective maintenance through empirical studies We present an empirical assessment and improvement of the effort estimation model for corrective maintenance adopted in a major international software enterprise. Our study was composed of two phases. In the first phase we used multiple linear regression analysis to construct effort estimation models validated against real data collected from five corrective maintenance projects. The model previously adopted by the subject company used as predictors the size of the system being maintained and the number of maintenance tasks. While this model was not linear, we show that a linear model including the same variables achieved better performances. Also we show that greater improvements in the model performances can be achieved if the types of the different maintenance tasks is taken into account. In the second phase we performed a replicated assessment of the effort prediction models built in the previous phase on a new corrective maintenance project conducted by the subject company on a software system of the same type as the systems of the previous maintenance projects. The data available for the new project were finer grained, according to the indications devised in the first study. This allowed to improve the confidence in our previous empirical analysis by confirming most of the hypotheses made. The new data also provided other useful indications to better understand the maintenance process of the company in a quantitative way.

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

management
measurement
experimentation
corrective software maintenance
cost estimation models


The role of attachment style in building social capital from a social networking site: The interplay of anxiety and avoidance Drawing on attachment theory, the present study examines the attachment styles of individuals relative to two ways of building social capital bonding social capital and bridging social capital. In trying to relate attachment theory to the use of SNS, the present study argues that bonding social capital is reflected in the use of SNS for forming attachment bonds from trust-based strong ties, while bridging social capital is reflected in the use of SNS for causal affiliations among more socially distant people. The conceptual model was validated through an online survey completed by 368 Facebook users. Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated several results. First, avoidance attachment was significant and negatively predictive of both bonding social and bridging social capital. Second, both bonding social capital and bridging social capital reported by respondents appeared to be greatest under conditions of low anxiety attachment coupled with low avoidance attachment. Third, levels of Facebook usage were significant and independently predictive of bridging social capital.

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

attachment theory
attachment style
social capital


Hedonic prices in the German market for mobile phones This paper provides a hedonic price analysis of mobile telephones for the German market, based on data of 302 different handsets from 25 manufacturers over the period from May 1998 to November 2003. By measuring shadow prices for different product characteristics, the authors find that volume, for example, has a negative effect on the price of a mobile handset, while the number of ringtones and the talk time battery life relative to the handset's weight positively affect mobile phone prices. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, radiation is statistically insignificant. Also handsets have become cheaper over time, and handsets with additional features, such as MMS, MP3 or Bluetooth, command a higher price. In addition, there are positive brand name effects for some brands. According to the estimations presented in this paper the brand name premiums may range from 57 to 172 euro.

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


towards an axiomatization of statistical privacy and utility "Privacy" and "utility" are words that frequently appear in the literature on statistical privacy. But what do these words really mean? In recent years, many problems with intuitive notions of privacy and utility have been uncovered. Thus more formal notions of privacy and utility, which are amenable to mathematical analysis, are needed. In this paper we present our initial work on an axiomatization of privacy and utility. In particular, we study how these concepts are affected by randomized algorithms. Our analysis yields new insights into the construction of both privacy definitions and mechanisms that generate data according to such definitions. In particular, it characterizes a class of relaxations of differential privacy and shows that desirable outputs of a differentially private mechanism are best interpreted as certain graphs rather than query answers or synthetic data.

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


precise interprocedural dataflow analysis via graph reachability The paper shows how a large class of interprocedural dataflow-analysis problems can be solved precisely in polynomial time by transforming them into a special kind of graph-reachability problem. The only restrictions are that the set of dataflow facts must be a finite set, and that the dataflow functions must distribute over the confluence operator (either union or intersection). This class of probable problems includesbut is not limited tothe classical separable problems (also known as gen/kill or bit-vector problems) e.g. , reaching definitions, available expressions, and live variables. In addition, the class of problems that our techniques handle includes many non-separable problems, including truly-live variables, copy constant propagation, and possibly-uninitialized variables. Results are reported from a preliminary experimental study of C programs (for the problem of finding possibly-uninitialized variables).

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

precise intersection live polynomial graph paper dataflow reachability class propagation

program
variability
vectorization
experimentation
definition
express
operability
timing
dataflow analysis


Expected values of functions of fuzzy variables Based on the expected value of a fuzzy variable, the expected value of function of a fuzzy variable is studied. A fuzzy expected value model is solved by an intelligent algorithm mixed integral sum approximation and genetic algorithm. As applications of results derived, a merchandize apportionment problem is investigated.

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

fuzzy variable
expected value
intelligent algorithm


Computing the correct Increment of Induction Pointers with application to loop unrolling Induction pointers (IPs) are the analogue of induction variables (IVs), namely, pointers that are advanced by a fixed amount every iteration of a loop (e.g., p=p?next?next p = p ? next ? next ). Although IPs have been considered in previous works, there is no algorithm to properly compute the correct amount of pointer jumping (AOPJ) by which IPs should be advanced if loop unrolling is to be applied to loops of the form while ( p ) { p = p ? next ? next ; } . The main difficulty in computing the correct AOPJ of IPs is that pointers can be used to modify the data structure that is traversed by the loop (e.g., adding/removing/by-passing elements). Consequently, a simple advancement p=p?next p = p ? next in a loop does not necessarily mean that p p is advanced by one element every iteration. This situation contrasts with the use of IVs, which cannot change the structure of arrays that are traversed by loops. Hence, if i i is an IV, A[i+1] A [ i + 1 ] will always mean the next element of A[] A [ ] , while if p=p?next; p = p ? next ; is preceded by p?next=q; p ? next = q ; it may be advanced by k>1 k > 1 elements at every iteration. The proposed method for computing the correct AOPJ of IPs and an accompanying loop unrolling technique were implemented in the SUIF compiler for C programs. Our experiments with automatic unrolling of loops with pointers yielded an improvement of 35% for a set of SPEC2000 programs. Experiments with a VLIW IA-64 machine also verified the usefulness of this approach for embedded systems.

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


Towards improving usage and management of supplies in healthcare: An ontology-based solution for sharing knowledge An ontology-based system is proposed to model items included in a hospital health catalog. The proposed ontology-based system can be used for sharing and acquiring knowledge by clinical and administrative personnel. Correct usage of medical supplies has a positive impact both on hospital economics and personnel safety.

O O O O 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


(t, k)-Diagnosable system: A generalization of the PMC models In this paper, we introduce a new model for diagnosable systems called (t. k)-diagnosable system which guarantees that at least k faulty units (processors) in a system are detected provided that the number of faulty units does not exceed t. This system includes classical one-step diagnosable systems and sequentially diagnosable systems. We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for (t, k)-diagnosable system, and discuss a lower bound for diagnosability. Finally, we deal with a relation between (t, k)-diagnosability and diagnosability of classical basic models.

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

fault diagnosis
pmc model
one-step t-diagnosis
sequential t-diagnosis
cartesian product


Objects and their lambda calculus A kind of parallel typed lambda calculus is presented based on the language and structure of objects. The term "object" is used here in a sense different from that related to the expression "object-oriented language (presamming)". By "objects" here we mean any class of entities which (a) are resource dependent and (b) combine to each other (via some fitness relation) to form more complex ones. Two operators, lambda and its dual )over bar>, are used, and two operations, a binary one, circle dot, for juxtaposition, and an n-ary one, \, for every n, for branching. The construct lambda vx represents, roughly, a receiving scheme producing copies of x when fed with proper objects y to fill the empty place v of x, while the dual construct )over bar>yz represents a sending scheme that throws y out z in proper surroundings. The interaction of these two constructs takes place when they are matched together by circle dot and yields an exchange of resources in a way that preserves the total amount of them. The calculus captures such notions as concurrency, interaction and branching in a way analogous to that of (Berry and Boudol, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 96 (1992) 217-248; Boudol, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 351, Springer, Berlin. pp. 149-161) [3,4], but with a quite different meaning of the operations. What is described here is "situations" of coexisting entities rather than computations, and resource-preserving transformations between them. The terms are shown to have unique normal forms. Object structures that model the simple theory of objects are extended here in suitable graph structures that provide sound and complete semantics of the calculus. (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 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 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 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

structure of objects
concurrency
branching


Direct Forcing for Lagrangian Rigid-Fluid Coupling We propose a novel boundary handling algorithm for particle-based fluids. Based on a predictor-corrector scheme for both velocity and position, one- and two-way coupling with rigid bodies can be realized. The proposed algorithm offers significant improvements over existing penalty-based approaches. Different slip conditions can be realized and nonpenetration is enforced. Direct forcing is employed to meet the desired boundary conditions and to ensure valid states after each simulation step. We have performed various experiments in 2D and 3D. They illustrate one- and two-way coupling of rigid bodies and fluids, the effects of hydrostatic and dynamic forces on a rigid body, as well as different slip conditions. Numerical experiments and performance measurements are provided.

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 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

physically-based simulation
fluid dynamics
smoothed particle hydrodynamics


Some structural measures of API usability In this age of collaborative software development, the importance of usable APIs is well recognized. There already exists a rich body of literature that addresses issues ranging from how to design usable APIs to assessing qualitatively the usability of a given API. However, there does not yet exist a set of general-purpose metrics that can be pressed into service for a more quantitative assessment of API usability. The goal of this paper is to remedy this shortcoming in the literature. Our work presents a set of formulas that examine the API method declarations from the perspective of several commonly held beliefs regarding what makes APIs difficult to use. We validate the numerical characterizations of API usability as produced by our metrics through the APIs of several software systems. Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


Connection between kinetic methods for fluid-dynamic equations and macroscopic finite-difference schemes The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for the incompressible NavierStokes (NS) equations and the gas kinetic scheme for the compressible NS equations are based on the kinetic theory of gases. In the latter case, however, it is shown that the kinetic formulation is necessary only in the discontinuous reconstruction of fluid-dynamic variables for shock capturing. Analogously we will discuss the reduction of a kinetic method for the incompressible case, where the LBM scheme will be shown to shrink to an artificial compressibility type finite-difference scheme. We will prove first that a simple and compact LBM scheme cannot catch rarefied effects beyond NavierStokes and hence that it is worth the effort to develop kinetic-based FD alternatives. Finally we will propose two improvements to existing kinetic-based FD schemes: first of all, (a) the proposed scheme is formulated purely in terms of macroscopic quantities on a compact stencil; secondly (b) the semi-implicit formulation is proposed in order to increase the stability. We think that this work may be useful to others in realizing the actual possibilities of simple LBM schemes beyond NavierStokes and in adopting the suggested improvements in their actual FD codes.

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 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

artificial compressibility
lattice boltzmann method


FAST POLYNOMIAL FACTORIZATION AND MODULAR COMPOSITION We obtain randomized algorithms for factoring degree n univariate polynomials over F-q requiring O(n(1.5+o(1)) log(1+o(1)) q + n(1+o(1)) log(2+o(1)) q) bit operations. When log q = n, it matches the asymptotic running time of the best known algorithms. The improvements come from new algorithms for modular composition of degree n univariate polynomials, which is the asymptotic bottleneck in fast algorithms for factoring polynomials over finite fields. The best previous algorithms for modular composition use O(n((omega+1)/2)) field operations, where. is the exponent of matrix multiplication [R. P. Brent and H. T. Kung, J. Assoc. Comput. Mach., 25 (1978), pp. 581-595], with a slight improvement in the exponent achieved by employing fast rectangular matrix multiplication [X. Huang and V. Y. Pan, J. Complexity, 14 (1998), pp. 257-299]. We show that modular composition and multipoint evaluation of multivariate polynomials are essentially equivalent, in the sense that an algorithm for one achieving exponent a implies an algorithm for the other with exponent alpha+o(1), and vice versa. We then give two new algorithms that solve the problem near-optimally: an algebraic algorithm for fields of characteristic at most n(o)(1), and a nonalgebraic algorithm that works in arbitrary characteristic. The latter algorithm works by lifting to characteristic 0, applying a small number of rounds of multimodular reduction, and finishing with a small number of multidimensional FFTs. The final evaluations are reconstructed using the Chinese remainder theorem. As a bonus, this algorithm produces a very efficient data structure supporting polynomial evaluation queries, which is of independent interest. Our algorithms use techniques that are commonly employed in practice, in contrast to all previous subquadratic algorithms for these problems, which relied on fast matrix multiplication.

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

modular composition
multimodular reduction
polynomial factorization


Secure and efficient key management in mobile ad hoc networks In mobile ad hoc networks, due to unreliable wireless media, host mobility and lack of infrastructure, providing secure communications is a big challenge. Usually, cryptographic techniques are used for secure communications in wired and wireless networks. Symmetric and asymmetric cryptography have their advantages and disadvantages. In fact, any cryptographic means is ineffective if its key management is weak. Key management is also a central aspect for security in mobile ad hoc networks. In mobile ad hoc networks, the computational load and complexity for key management are strongly subject to restriction by the node's available resources and the dynamic nature of network topology. We propose a secure and efficient key management (SEKM) framework for mobile ad hoc networks. SEKM builds a public key infrastructure (PKI) by applying a secret sharing scheme and using an underlying multi-cast server groups. We give detailed information on the formation and maintenance of the server groups. In SEKM, each server group creates a view of the certificate authority (CA) and provides certificate update service for all nodes, including the servers themselves. A ticket scheme is introduced for efficient certificate service. In addition, an efficient server group updating scheme is proposed. The performance of SEKM is evaluated through simulation.

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

mobile ad hoc networks
key management
secret sharing
security
server group


Derivation of extracellular fluid volume fraction and equivalent dielectric constant of the cell membrane from dielectric properties of the human body. Part 2: A preliminary study for tracking the progression of surgical tissue injury A study is conducted to determine whether the extracellular fluid (ECF) volume fraction and equivalent dielectric constant of the cell membrane epsilon(m), derived from the dielectric properties of the human body can track the progression of surgical tissue injury. Frequency-dependent dielectric constants and electrical conductivities of body segments are obtained at surgical (trunk) and non-surgical sites (arm and leg) from five patients who have undergone oesophageal resections, before and at the end of surgery and on the day after the operation. The ECF volume fraction and the equivalent epsilon(m) of body segments are estimated by fitting the dielectric data for body segments to the cell suspension model incorporating fat tissue, and their time-course changes are compared between body segments. By the day after the operation, the estimated ECF volume fraction has increased in all body segments compared with that before surgery, by 0.13 in the arm, 0.16 in the trunk and 0.14 in the leg (p < 0.05), indicating postoperative fluid accumulation in the extracellular space. In contrast, the estimated equivalent epsilon(m) shows a different rime course between body segments on the day after the operation, characterised by a higher change ratio of epsilon(m) of the trunk (1.34 +/- 0.66, p < 0.05), from that of the arm (0.66 +/- 0.34) and leg (0.61 +/- 0.11). The results suggest that the equivalent epsilon(m) of a body segment at a surgical site can track pathophysiological cell changes following surgical tissue injury.

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

dielectric constant
cell membrane
extracellular fluid
surgery

impedance spectroscopy
clinical monitoring


Multilayer Markov Random Field models for change detection in optical remote sensing images In this paper, we give a comparative study on three Multilayer Markov Random Field (MRF) based solutions proposed for change detection in optical remote sensing images, called Multicue MRF, Conditional Mixed Markov model, and Fusion MRF. Our purposes are twofold. On one hand, we highlight the significance of the focused model family and we set them against various state-of-the-art approaches through a thematic analysis and quantitative tests. We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of class comparison vs. direct approaches, usage of training data, various targeted application fields and different ways of Ground Truth generation, meantime informing the Reader in which roles the Multilayer MRFs can be efficiently applied. On the other hand we also emphasize the differences between the three focused models at various levels, considering the model structures, feature extraction, layer interpretation, change concept definition, parameter tuning and performance. We provide qualitative and quantitative comparison results using principally a publicly available change detection database which contains aerial image pairs and Ground Truth change masks. We conclude that the discussed models are competitive against alternative state-of-the-art solutions, if one uses them as pre-processing filters in multitemporal optical image analysis. In addition, they cover together a large range of applications, considering the different usage options of the three approaches.

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


Multi-objective optimization with artificial weed colonies Invasive Weed Optimization (IWO) was recently proposed as a simple but powerful metaheuristic algorithm for real parameter optimization. IWO draws inspiration from the ecological process of weeds colonization and distribution and is capable of solving general multi-dimensional, linear and nonlinear optimization problems with appreciable efficiency. This article extends the basic IWO for tackling multi-objective optimization problems that aim at achieving two or more objectives (very often conflicting) simultaneously. The concept of fuzzy dominance has been used to sort the promising candidate solutions at each iteration. The new algorithm has been shown to be statistically significantly better than some state of the art existing evolutionary multi-objective algorithms, namely NSGAIILS, DECMOSA-SQP, MOEP, Clustering MOEA, GDE3, and MOEADGM on a 12-function test-suite (including both unconstrained and constrained problems) from the IEEE CEC (Congress on Evolutionary Computation) 2009 competition and special session on multi-objective optimization algorithms. The following performance metrics were considered: IGD, Spacing, and Minimum Spacing. Our experimental results suggest that IWO holds immense promise to appear as an efficient metaheuristic for multi-objective optimization.

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

invasive weed optimization (iwo)
metaheuristics
multi-objective optimization (moo)
pareto-front
swarm intelligence
artificial weeds


measuring motor actions and psychophysiology for task difficulty estimation in human-robot interaction In this paper, we describe a method for estimating task difficulty in human-robot interaction using a combination of motor actions and psychophysiology. A number of variables are calculated from kinematics, dynamics, heart rate, skin conductance, respiration and skin temperature. Discriminant analysis of the variables is used to determine whether the user finds the task too easy or too hard. The discriminant function is recursively updated with Kalman filtering in order to better adapt to the current user. The method was tested offline in a task with 20 subjects. In cross-validation, nonadaptive discriminant analysis yielded a classification accuracy of 80.2\% while adaptive discriminant analysis yielded a classification accuracy of 84.3\%.

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

sensor fusion
human-robot interaction
virtual reality
biocooperative robotics


implicit experiences as a determinant of perceptual quality and aesthetic appreciation Since the Dadaist refusal of the conventional standards in art, followed by Fluxus` rejection of art as a commodity, and recently, the popularity of Internet and technology in art, artworks have become difficult to recognize as artworks in themselves. Modern works of art are no longer readily only seen today, more often fully experienced. The processing of an aesthetic experience needs a new understanding in terms of the changing context of art and the experiential perspective of art recipients. In the multimedia arena, the valid assumption is that, evaluations of aesthetic experiences are mostly based on the accessible information on the surface of the medium. Several research groups in psychology question the singularity of exterior-level assumptions demonstrating that there are modulating factors that affect aesthetic experiences and one of these is implicit experience. In this paper, we review the significance of empirical aesthetics in psychology and from the artistic point of view combined with a technical and experiential perspective. We also discuss our approach of considering the implications of implicit experiences to the modelling of Quality of Experience (QoE) where this is used as a measurement of perception and aesthetic judgment of contemporary and modern works of art.

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

qoe
aesthetic experience
implicit experiences
art

aesthetics of digital error
empirical aesthetic


Boundary scan test scheme for IP core identification via watermarking This paper proposes a novel boundary scan test scheme for intellectual property (IP) core identification via watermarking. The core concept is embedding a watermark identification circuit (WIC) and a test circuit into the IP core at the behavior design level. The procedure depends on current IP-based design flow. This scheme can detect the identification of the IP provider without the need to examine the microphotograph after the chip has been manufactured and packaged. This scheme can successfully survive synthesis, placement, and routing and identify the IP core at various design levels. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed approach has the potential to solve the IP identification problem.

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 O O O O O O O O O

intellectual property (ip) identification


On the Amortized Complexity of Zero-Knowledge Protocols We propose a general technique that allows improving the complexity of zero-knowledge protocols for a large class of problems where previously the best known solution was a simple cut-and-choose style protocol, i.e., where the size of a proof for problem instance x and error probability 2?n was O(|x|n) bits. By using our technique to prove ninstances simultaneously, we can bring down the proof size per instance to O(|x|+n) bits for the same error probability while using no computational assumptions. Examples where our technique applies include proofs for quadratic residuosity, proofs of subgroup membership and knowledge of discrete logarithms in groups of unknown order, interval proofs of the latter, and proofs of plaintext knowledge for various types of homomorphic encryption schemes. We first propose our protocols as ?-protocols and extend them later to zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge.

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

?-protocols
zero-knowledge
proof of knowledge
random self-reducible problems


Collaborative multimedia presentations in mobile environments Distributed multimedia documents systems, distributed video servers are examples of multimedia presentations involving collaboration among multiple information sources. In such applications, objects have to be retrieved from their sources and presented to users according to specified temporal relationships. Objects retrieval in these collaborative applications is influenced by their presentation times, durations, and network throughput available to their sources. Replication of objects amongst the set of collaborating systems gives a choice for object retrieval. Client going through a multimedia presentation can be in a mobile environment. Here, object retrievals from collaborating servers are carried out by base stations to which the client is attached. Mobile client then downloads objects from the base station. In this paper, we present a graph-search based algorithm for computing and negotiating throughput requirements of collaborating multimedia presentations with replicated objects in a mobile environment. This algorithm maximizes the number of cached objects (that have already been played) for handling operations such as reverse presentation.

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

multimedia presentations
mobile environments

retrieval scheduling
graph-search strategy
resource reservation


(Phi, Phi*) Image Decomposition Models and Minimization Algorithms We propose in this paper minimization algorithms for image restoration using dual functionals and dual norms. In order to extract a clean image u from a degraded version f = Ku + n (where f is the observation, K is a blurring operator and n represents additive noise), we impose a standard regularization penalty Phi(u) = integral phi(vertical bar Du vertical bar)dx < infinity on u, where phi is positive, increasing and has at most linear growth at infinity. However, on the residual f - Ku we impose a dual penalty Phi*(f - Ku) < infinity, instead of the more standard parallel to f - Ku parallel to(2)(L2) fidelity term. In particular, when phi is convex, homogeneous of degree one, and with linear growth (for instance the total variation of u), we recover the (BV, BV*) decomposition of the data f, as suggested by Y. Meyer (Oscillating Patterns in Image Processing and Nonlinear Evolution Equations, University Lecture Series, vol. 22, Am. Math. Soc., Providence, 2001). Practical minimization methods are presented, together with theoretical, experimental results and comparisons to illustrate the validity of the proposed models. Moreover, we also show that by a slight modification of the associated Euler-Lagrange equations, we obtain well-behaved approximations and improved results.

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


learning from labeled features using generalized expectation criteria It is difficult to apply machine learning to new domains because often we lack labeled problem instances. In this paper, we provide a solution to this problem that leverages domain knowledge in the form of affinities between input features and classes. For example, in a baseball vs. hockey text classification problem, even without any labeled data, we know that the presence of the word puck is a strong indicator of hockey . We refer to this type of domain knowledge as a labeled feature . In this paper, we propose a method for training discriminative probabilistic models with labeled features and unlabeled instances. Unlike previous approaches that use labeled features to create labeled pseudo-instances, we use labeled features directly to constrain the model's predictions on unlabeled instances. We express these soft constraints using generalized expectation (GE) criteria --- terms in a parameter estimation objective function that express preferences on values of a model expectation. In this paper we train multinomial logistic regression models using GE criteria, but the method we develop is applicable to other discriminative probabilistic models. The complete objective function also includes a Gaussian prior on parameters, which encourages generalization by spreading parameter weight to unlabeled features. Experimental results on text classification data sets show that this method outperforms heuristic approaches to training classifiers with labeled features. Experiments with human annotators show that it is more beneficial to spend limited annotation time labeling features rather than labeling instances. For example, after only one minute of labeling features, we can achieve 80\% accuracy on the ibm vs. mac text classification problem using GE-FL, whereas ten minutes labeling documents results in an accuracy of only 77\%

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

semi-supervised learning
learning with domain knowledge


Interference Decoding for Deterministic Channels An inner bound to the capacity region of a class of deterministic interference channels with three user pairs is presented. The key idea is to simultaneously decode the combined interference signal and the intended message at each receiver. It is shown that this interference-decoding inner bound is tight under certain strong interference conditions. The inner bound is also shown to strictly contain the inner bound obtained by treating interference as noise, which includes interference alignment for deterministic channels. The gain comes from judicious analysis of the number of combined interference sequences in different regimes of input distributions and message rates. Finally, the inner bound is generalized to the case where each channel output is observed through a noisy channel.

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

deterministic model
interference channel
multiuser information theory
network information theory
simultaneous non-unique decoding


Deep Web adaptive crawling based on minimum executable pattern The key to Deep Web Crawling is to submit valid input values to a query form and retrieve Deep Web content efficiently. In the literature, related work focus only on generic text boxes or entire query forms, causing the problem of data islands or inferior validity of query submission. This paper proposes the concept of Minimum Executable Pattern (MEP), a minimal combination of elements in a query form that can conduct a successful query, and then presents a MEPGeneration method and a MEP-based Deep Web adaptive crawling method. The query form is parsed and partitioned into MEP set, and then local-optimal queries are generated by choosing a MEP in the MEP set and a keyword vector of the MEP. Furthermore, the crawler can make a decision on its termination to balance the trade-off between high coverage of the content and resource consumption. The adoption of MEP is expected to improve the validity of query submission, and adaptive selection of multiple MEPs shows good effect for overcoming the problem of data islands. We present a set of experiments to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the state of art methods in terms of query capability and applicability, and on average, it achieves good coverage by issuing only a few hundred queries.

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

deep web
minimum executable pattern
adaptive crawling


research on stronger convergence in probability of immune genetic algorithm Immune Genetic Algorithm (IGA) is a new optimization strategy by simulating the behavior of biological immune system. Aiming at the relatively scarce work on the discussion of convergence on IGA, strong convergence in probability of IGA was proved on the condition that the time tended to infinity comparing to the previous conclusion that IGA was weak convergence in probability by (1)modeling the immune operators and optimization process and (2)introducing a lemma with 2 immune parameters to analyze some characteristics of the complement set of global optima set. This conclusion will be helpful to understand the performance of IGA and set better immune parameters.

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

model
strong convergence in probability
parameter analysis


Entry strategies in an emerging technology: a pilot web-based study of graphene firms We explore pilot web-based methods to probe the strategies followed by new small and medium-sized technology-based firms as they seek to commercialize emerging technologies. Tracking and understanding the behavior of such early commercial entrants is not straightforward because smaller firms with limited resources do not always widely engage in readily visible and accessible activities such as publishing and patenting. However, many new firms, even if small, present information about themselves that is available online. Focusing on the early commercialization of novel graphene technologies, we introduce a web scraping approach to systematically capture information contained in the online web pages of a sample of small and medium-sized high technology graphene firms in the US, UK, and China. We analyze this information and devise measures that gauge how firm specialization in the target technology impacts overall market orientation. Three groups of graphene enterprises are identified which vary by their focus on product development, materials development, and integration into existing product portfolios. Country-level factors are important in understanding these early diverging commercial approaches in the nascent graphene market. We consider management and policy implications of our findings, and discuss the value, including strengths and weaknesses, of web scraping as an additional information source on enterprise strategies in emerging technologies.

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

emerging technology
graphene
commercialization
web scraping
china


An improved direct-forcing immersed-boundary method for finite difference applications A modified immersed-boundary method is developed using the direct-forcing concept. An improved bilinear interpolation/extrapolation algorithm is implemented for more accurate boundary forcing expressions and easier implementation. Detailed discussions of the method are presented on the stability, velocity interpolation on the immersed boundary, direct-forcing extrapolation to the grid points, resolution of the immersed boundary points, and internal treatment. The method can achieve second-order accurate solutions. The method is then applied to a finite-difference scheme to compute flow over a stationary cylinder, an oscillating cylinder, and a stationary sphere. The accuracy of the computational results is verified using numerous computational and experimental results in the literature. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

immersed-boundary method
flow over a cylinder
flow over a sphere


deriving hierarchically combined queueing petri nets for performance prediction of distributed component system In this paper we propose the performance analysis and improvement methodology based on Hierarchically Combined Queueing Petri Nets (HQPNs). To accomplish the goal, in this paper, we firstly propose architecture design and performance profiling methodology by using UML. Secondly, we propose transformation algorithm from the UML based software architecture into HQPNs model. Lastly we offers performance analysis tool to identify potential bottleneck and critical component from the derived HQPNs model. We validate the accuracy of performance prediction by applying real system development scenario. We compare the predicted performance results with the performance data of the real system. This approach reduces the time and the cost caused by developing the HQPNs model at the software architecture design phase.

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

performance analysis
software architecture


The new territory of mobile agreement The fault-tolerance is an important research topic in the study of distributed systems. To cope with the influence from faulty processors, reaching a common agreement at the presence of faults before performing some special tasks is essential. Therefore, the Byzantine Agreement (BA) problem has drawn more and more of the researchers' attention as they explore deeper and deeper into the world of distributed systems. Traditionally, the BA problem is solved in the fully connected network or in the broadcast network. However, the technology of network continues to grow at high-speed, it promotes the wireless and mobile computer to become increasingly popular. It can also provide support for mobile computing. This environment encourages distributed system design and practice to support mobile processors greatly. The mobile network is different from the fully connected network or broadcast network; processors in mobile environment have high mobility. The processors may immigrate into or move away from the network at any time. How the processors reach an agreement in the mobile network must also be concerned deeply. In this paper, BA problem is reexamined under the mobile network. The proposed protocol Byzantine Agreement under Mobile Network (BAMN) uses the minimum number of message exchanges to reach an agreement while tolerating the maximum number of faulty processors in a mobile environment. It makes all the healthy processors reach a common value to keep the system from the influences of processor failures.

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


Capturing relative motion and finding modes for action recognition in the wild ? ?? To recognise actions solely on motion observed in the video. A quaternary representation of the interest point node test. Extensive experimental analysis throughout the approach. State of the art performance on in the wild datasets. Performance gains independent of the features or classification architecture.

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

relative motion descriptor
mode finding
outlier detection
ransac


A secured, automated, and dynamic end-to-end service level negotiation Today, the emerging new services like voice over IP and video on demand require some guarantees in terms of QoS. These services can be accessed using wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi or WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). This may make the service delivery vulnerable to security attacks because of the open medium on which wireless technologies are based. Thus, in addition to QoS level, security level must also be guaranteed for the provided services. In this paper, we present the service level negotiation protocol, which ensures a dynamic negotiation of a service level covering both QoS and security. Moreover, the negotiation flow itself could be the target of some malicious attacks. Indeed, these attacks can aim to degrade the service level (QoS and / or security) or to make an entity, which is involved in a negotiation, unavailable, etc. Thus, the objective of this paper is to study the security of the flow corresponding to the negotiation provided by service level negotiation protocol. In fact, the security required by this flow will be provided through the use of three different mechanisms: Web services security, secure sockets layer, and IP security protocol. Because these security mechanisms may have an impact on the negotiation protocol performances, we will also evaluate this impact to adopt the security solution that allows minimizing it. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

service level
negotiation protocol
web services

security protocols
performances evaluation


Information-theory based optimal location management schemes for integrated multi-system wireless networks In a multi-system environment where a mobile node can utilize multiple interfaces and simultaneously connect to multiple providers, new opportunities exist for efficient location management strategies spanning heterogeneous cellular wireless networks. In this paper, an integrated framework is developed for location management in such a multi-system, fourth generation (4G) wireless networks. This information-theoretic framework allows each individual sub-system to operate fairly independently, and does not require the knowledge of individual sub-network topologies. An efficient location management in such a loosely coupled network is designed by having a mobile node view its movement as a vector-valued sequence, and then transmit this sequence in an entropy coded form to the network. We demonstrate how an intelligent, integrated paging strategy must consider the joint residence probability distribution of a mobile node in multiple sub-networks. We prove that the determination of an optimal paging sequence is NP-complete, and also propose an efficient greedy heuristic to compute the paging sequence, both without and with bounds on the paging delay. Three different location tracking strategies are proposed and evaluated; they differ in their degrees of centralized control and provide tradeoff between the location update and paging costs. Simulation experiments demonstrate that our proposed schemes can result in more than 50% savings in both update and paging costs, in comparison with the basic movement-based, multi-system location management strategy.

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

multi-system
cellular networks
information theory
lz compression


A new approach to estimating valueincome ratios with income growth and time-varying yields The paper proposes a new type of present value model with income growth and time-varying yields. The valueincome ratio should be adjusted by yields of the asset and growth in income. The use of a simple pricedividend ratio in assessing market behavior should be avoided in practice.

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

valueincome ratio
income growth
present value model


approximate embedding-based subsequence matching of time series A method for approximate subsequence matching is introduced, that significantly improves the efficiency of subsequence matching in large time series data sets under the dynamic time warping (DTW) distance measure. Our method is called EBSM, shorthand for Embedding-Based Subsequence Matching. The key idea is to convert subsequence matching to vector matching using an embedding. This embedding maps each database time series into a sequence of vectors, so that every step of every time series in the database is mapped to a vector. The embedding is computed by applying full dynamic time warping between reference objects and each database time series. At runtime, given a query object, an embedding of that object is computed in the same manner, by running dynamic time warping between the reference objects and the query. Comparing the embedding of the query with the database vectors is used to efficiently identify relatively few areas of interest in the database sequences. Those areas of interest are then fully explored using the exact DTW-based subsequence matching algorithm. Experiments on a large, public time series data set produce speedups of over one order of magnitude compared to brute-force search, with very small losses (

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

subsequence matching
dynamic time warping
time series

similarity indexing
embeddings
filter-and-refine retrieval


Page migration with dynamic space-sharing scheduling policies: The case of the SGI O2000 In this paper, we claim that memory migration mechanism is a useful approach to improve the execution of parallel applications in dynamic execution environments, but that their performance depends on related system components such as the processor scheduling. To show that, we evaluate the automatic memory migration mechanism provided by IRIX in Origin systems, under different dynamic processor allocation policies when executing OpenMP parallel multiprogrammed workloads. We have focused the evaluation on the effects of the page migration mechanism on the CPU time consumed by each application, the processor allocation received, and the speedup. Results demonstrate that, if the processor scheduler is memory conscious, that is, it maintains as much as possible the system stable, the automatic memory page migration mechanism provided by IRIX improves the CPU time consumed by OpenMP applications.

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

cc-numa
dynamic processor allocation policy
multiprogrammed workload


FAIL-FCI: Versatile fault injection One of the topics of paramount importance in the development of Grid middleware is the impact of faults, since their probability of occurrence in a Grid infrastructure and in large-scale distributed systems is actually very high. In this paper, we explore the versatility of a new tool for fault injection in distributed applications: FAIL-FCI. In particular, we show that not only are we able to fault-load existing distributed applications (as used in most current papers that address fault-tolerance issues), we are also able to inject qualitative faults, i.e. inject specific faults at very specific moments in the program code of the application under test. Finally, and although this was not the primary purpose of the tool, we are also able to inject specific patterns of workload, in order to stress test the application under test. Interestingly enough, the whole process is driven by a simple unified description language that is totally independent from the language of the application, so that no code changes or recompilation are needed on the application side.

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

fault-tolerance
fault-injection
stress testing


Ranking retrieval systems with partial relevance judgements Some measures such as mean average precision and recall level precision are considered as good system-oriented measures, because they concern both precision and recall that are two important aspects for effectiveness evaluation of information retrieval systems. However, such good system-oriented measures suffer from some shortcomings when partial relevance judgments are used. In this paper, we discuss how to rank retrieval systems in the condition of partial relevance judgments, which is common in major retrieval evaluation events such as TREC conferences and NTCIR workshops. Four system-oriented measures, which are mean average precision, recall level precision, normalized discount cumulative gain, and normalized average precision over all documents, are discussed. Our investigation shows that averaging values over a set of queries may not be the most reliable approach to rank a group of retrieval systems. Some alternatives such as Borda count, Condorcet voting, and the Zero-one normalization method, are investigated. Experimental results are also presented for the evaluation of these methods.

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


supporting young children's communication with adult relatives across time zones Regular contact between children and their adult relatives can be a problem if they live in different time zones. In this situation, finding an agreed time to contact each other can be both confusing and complicated. This paper presents a study of the effect of time zone differences on communication between grandparents and grandchildren living in different time zones. We deployed a system between time zone distributed families to study this effect and analysed its use based on four parameters of time and events based theory: rigid sequential structures (that some events cannot occur before others), fixed durations (that most events always last the same time), standard temporal locations (that events have a standard time when they occur during the day) and uniform rates of recurrence (that some events always reoccur at a uniform rate). Our findings highlight the importance of: the need to consider the parents' role in facilitating contact and making the technology easy to use by children independently; the advantage of concurrent synchronous and asynchronous interaction forms; and the need to respect people's private time. These findings can inform the design of technology for supporting young children's communications with adult relatives across time zones.

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

storytelling
intergenerational play
play across distance
communication across time zones


A survey on computing Lvy stable distributions and a new MATLAB toolbox Lvy stable distributions have been playing an increasing role in many diverse scientific and engineering fields. However, it is well known that its analytical expression is largely not available, and thus numerical solution becomes essential in the use of Lvy statistics. This article makes a survey on various numerical approaches available today to calculate statistical quantities of Lvy stable distributions. And then based on this investigation, we introduce a new MATLAB toolbox, called LSD, to evaluate statistical quantities of Lvy stable distributions, such as density and distribution functions, random numbers, parameters estimate, and goodness of data fitting. The LSD, first developed using GUI of MATLAB, is very easy to use with a friendly graphical user interface and can provide extremely precise calculations of high significant figures. As a powerful toolbox for signal processing, the LSD is also an open source software package and meets the high demand of easy, accurate and precise evaluation of various quantities of Lvy stable distributions.

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

lvy stable distributions
matlab toolbox
graphical user interface
signal processing


An interactive 3D medical visualization system based on a light field display We present a prototype medical data visualization system exploiting a light field display and custom direct volume rendering techniques to enhance understanding of massive volumetric data, such as CT, MRI, and PET scans. The system can be integrated with standard medical image archives and extends the capabilities of current radiology workstations by supporting real-time rendering of volumes of potentially unlimited size on light field displays generating dynamic observer-independent light fields. The system allows multiple untracked naked-eye users in a sufficiently large interaction area to coherently perceive rendered volumes as real objects, with stereo and motion parallax cues. In this way, an effective collaborative analysis of volumetric data can be achieved. Evaluation tests demonstrate the usefulness of the generated depth cues and the improved performance in understanding complex spatial structures with respect to standard techniques.

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 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

volume rendering
medical data visualization


Using a GIS to enhance grain size trend analysis This paper introduces GisedTrend, a plugin of the QGIS geographical information system that implements the Grain Sized Trend Analysis (GSTA) method. It is advantageous to incorporate the GSTA method in a GIS since it can directly access: (i) environmental information such as bathymetry, coastline, etc., (ii)spatial analysis tools available in such working environments, (iii) input/output data management; all these features are provided by standard GIS software. The paper also presents two case studies: the first case is based on an artificial dataset to focus on effects of obstacles on GSTA computed vector fields. The second case is based on a dataset acquired in the western part of the NW Mediterranean sea (Gulf of Lions, France). In this area, rocky formations, more or less continuous, outcrop directly on the seafloor, modifying the local hydrographic context and thus the sedimentary dynamic.

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

grain size
geographical information system

sediment trend
transport vector
object-oriented software
opensource
mediterranean continental shelf


automatic image annotation and retrieval using cross-media relevance models Libraries have traditionally used manual image annotation for indexing and then later retrieving their image collections. However, manual image annotation is an expensive and labor intensive procedure and hence there has been great interest in coming up with automatic ways to retrieve images based on content. Here, we propose an automatic approach to annotating and retrieving images based on a training set of images. We assume that regions in an image can be described using a small vocabulary of blobs. Blobs are generated from image features using clustering. Given a training set of images with annotations, we show that probabilistic models allow us to predict the probability of generating a word given the blobs in an image. This may be used to automatically annotate and retrieve images given a word as a query. We show that relevance models allow us to derive these probabilities in a natural way. Experiments show that the annotation performance of this cross-media relevance model is almost six times as good (in terms of mean precision) than a model based on word-blob co-occurrence model and twice as good as a state of the art model derived from machine translation. Our approach shows the usefulness of using formal information retrieval models for the task of image annotation and retrieval.

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

task
relevance models
performance
probability
relevance
art
model
libraries
predict
indexing
training
machine translation
image annotation
mean
annotation
retrieval
image
query

precise
media
use
collect
experience
imaging
contention
formalism
image retrieval
region
automatic image annotation
feature
information retrieval
cluster


progress and challenges for e-government in the dominican republic This paper presents the progress and challenges encountered in the development of e-government in the Dominican Republic since September 2004.

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

digital divide
best practice
dominican republic e-government
optic
caribbean
latin america


A sparse nonnegative matrix factorization technique for graph matching problems We present a graph matching method based on NMF with sparse constraints. Our sparse model can incorporate the mapping constraints approximately. We show the link between the sparsity of the solution and its effectiveness. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our graph matching method.

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

graph matching
nonnegative matrix factorization
sparse model


Bluetooth-assisted context-awareness in educational data networks In this paper, we propose an auxiliary location network, to support user-independent context-awareness in educational data networks; for example, to help visitors in a museum. We assume that, in such scenarios, there exist service servers that need to be aware of user location in real-time. Specifically, we propose the implementation of a Bluetooth Location Network (BLN). The BLN is composed of small wireless nodes, which establish an spontaneous network topology at system initialization, and interact with Bluetooth-enabled user terminals (WLAN or GPRS PDAs, or WAP phones) or independent Bluetooth modems (badges). The BLN may coexist with any data protocol (IP over IEEE 802.11b or GPRS, WAP). We do not impose specialized terminal programming for location purposes, since we rely on basic Bluetooth signaling (responses to inquiry cycles). We evaluate BLN feasibility in two real educational scenarios, a school and a museum. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

location-awareness
context-driven services
user positioning


A solution to the problem of determining X-points in magnetic induction fields A procedure which exploits a sufficient condition for determining X-points in quasi-static magnetic induction fields characterized by traditional or axisymmertical geometry is presented. The validity of the procedure and usefulness of the theorem are illustrated via a numerical example.

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 O O O O O O O