Vitamin Cmediated Maillard Reaction in the Lens Probed in a Transgenic-mouse Model Aging human lens crystallins are progressively modified by yellow glycation, oxidation, and cross-linked carbonyl compounds that have deleterious properties on protein structure and stability. In order to test the hypothesis that some of these compounds originate from oxidized vitamin C, we have overexpressed the human vitamin C transporter 2 (hSCVT2) in the mouse lens. We find that levels of ascorbic and dehydroascorbic acid are highly elevated compared to the wild type and that the lenses have accumulated yellow color and advanced Maillard reaction products identical with those of the human lens. Treatment of the mice with nucleophilic inhibitors can slow down the process, opening new avenues for the pharmacological prevention of senile cataractogenesis.

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


Source Code Prioritization Using Forward Slicing for Exposing Critical Elements in a Program Even after thorough testing, a few bugs still remain in a program with moderate complexity. These residual bugs are randomly distributed throughout the code. We have noticed that bugs in some parts of a program cause frequent and severe failures compared to those in other parts. Then, it is necessary to take a decision about what to test more and what to test less within the testing budget. It is possible to prioritize the methods and classes of an object-oriented program according to their potential to cause failures. For this, we propose a program metric called influence metric to find the influence of a program element on the source code. First, we represent the source code into an intermediate graph called extended system dependence graph. Then, forward slicing is applied on a node of the graph to get the influence of that node. The influence metric for a method m in a program shows the number of statements of the program which directly or indirectly use the result produced by method m. We compute the influence metric for a class c based on the influence metric of all its methods. As influence metric is computed statically, it does not show the expected behavior of a class at run time. It is already known that faults in highly executed parts tend to more failures. Therefore, we have considered operational profile} to find the average execution time of a class in a system. Then, classes are prioritized in the source code based on influence metric and average execution time. The priority of an element indicates the potential of the element to cause failures. Once all program elements have been prioritized, the testing effort can be apportioned so that the elements causing frequent failures will be tested thoroughly. We have conducted experiments for two well-known case studies - Library Management System and Trading Automation System - and successfully identified critical elements in the source code of each case study. We have also conducted experiments to compare our scheme with a related scheme. The experimental studies justify that our approach is more accurate than the existing ones in exposing critical elements at the implementation level.

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

program slice
influence of a class
test priority


Geometric characterization of multi-input lower-triangular forms This paper is concerned with the problem as to whether a multi-input nonlinear system is equivalent to the so-called low-triangular form. Two elemental forms of multi-input lower-triangular systems are proposed. Then, using the theory of singular distributions, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which multi-input nonlinear systems are locally feedback equivalent to these two lower-triangular systems are established. Furthermore, algorithms are provided to describe how to realize these equivalent transformations via state feedbacks and coordinate conversions.

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

multi-input system
lower-triangular system
feedback equivalence


A quadrilateral mesh generator for adaptive procedures in bulk forming processes The simulation of real industry metal forming processes often requires the presence of adaptive procedures. With that purpose a quadrilateral mesh generator was developed. The algorithm is based on the simple fact that it is always possible to subdivide a region into quadrilaterals whenever the polygonal line that forms its boundary has an even number of sides and that, by joining two contiguous triangles, a quadrilateral may be formed. Rather than using an advancing front technique a cloud of nodal points is initially formed based on error estimators and criteria to define an optimal element size. With this, procedure, using an adaptive process, the refinement is created where it will be needed.

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


Interoperability of EFCI and ERICA ATM switches for ABR services with VS/VD enhancements To improve network bandwidth utilization, the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) forum has standardized available bit rate (ABR) service which requires a number of parameters to be negotiated during connection setup. MCR is the minimum cell rate guaranteed by the network and can be used to provide an acceptable quality of service for applications. In this study, explicit forward congestion indication (EFCI) and explicit rate indication for congestion avoidance (ERICA) switches were adopted in a current transitional ATM network. First, we transfer traffic with ABR service to realize the interoperability of EFCI and ERICA switches. Second, we implemented the virtual source/virtual destination (VS/VD) feature into a homo or heterogeneous EFCI and ERICA switch environment in order to observe the performance. From the simulation results, a smaller queue length was obtained after the VS/VD was introduced into the EFCI and ERICA switches. The high link data transfer utilization with ABR service was also obtained.

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


inferring conceptual structures from pictorial input This paper discusses the mechanisms a program may use to learn conceptual structures that represent natural language meaning. A computer program named Moran is described that infers conceptual structures from simulated pictorial input data. Moran is presented snapshots of an environment and an English sentence describing the action that takes place between the snapshots. The learning task is to associate each root verb with a conceptual structure that represents the types of objects that participate in the action and the changes the objects undergo during the action. Four learning mechanisms are shown to be adequate to accomplish this learning task. The learning mechanisms are described along with the conditions under which each is invoked and the effect each has on existing memory structures.

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 B I O O O 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 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

inference
knowledge representation
natural language processing


QMOD: physically meaningful QSAR Computational methods for predicting ligand affinity where no protein structure is known generally take the form of regression analysis based on molecular features that have only a tangential relationship to a protein/ligand binding event. Such methods have utility in retrospective rationalization of activity patterns of substituents on a common scaffold, but are limited when either multiple scaffolds are present or when ligand alignment varies significantly based on structural changes. In addition, such methods generally assume independence and additivity of effect from scaffold substituents. Collectively, these non-physical modeling assumptions sharply limit the utility of widely used QSAR approaches for prospective prediction of ligand activity. The recently introduced Surflex-QMOD approach, by virtue of constructing physical models of binding sites, comes closer to a modeling approach that is congruent with protein ligand binding events. A set of congeneric CDK2 inhibitors showed that induced binding pockets can be quite congruent with the enzyme's active site but that model predictivity within a chemical series does not necessarily depend on congruence. Muscarinic antagonists were used to show that the QMOD approach is capable of making accurate predictions in cases where highly non-additive structure activity effects exist. The QMOD method offers a means to go beyond non-causative correlations in QSAR analysis.

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 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 B O

ligand based modeling
similarity
docking


Multimedia search capabilities of Chinese language search engines This paper reports results from a study exploring the multimedia search functionality of Chinese language search engines. Web searching in Chinese (Mandarin) is a growing research area and a technical challenge for popular commercial Web search engines. Few studies have been conducted on Chinese language search engines. We investigate two research questions: which Chinese language search engines provide multimedia searching, and what multimedia search functionalities are available in Chinese language Web search engines. Specifically, we examine each Web search engines (1) features permitting Chinese language multimedia searches, (2) extent of search personalization and user control of multimedia search variables, and (3) the relationships between Web search engines and their features in the Chinese context. Key findings show that Chinese language Web search engines offer limited multimedia search functionality, and general search engines provide a wider range of features than specialized multimedia search engines. Study results have implications for Chinese Web users, Website designers and Web search engine developers.

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

search engine
chinese language
multimedia


The simulation of binaural hearing caused by a moving sound source Auditory perception of the sound with respect to a moving sound source passing by the observer was investigated in this work. The sound pressure at the entrance of the external ear canal was calculated by the solution of the Ffowcs WilliamsHawkings equation. Furthermore, the Hilbert Huang transformation is used to find the instantaneous frequencies of acoustic signal. Results show that the Interaural Level Difference and the frequencies shifting are eventful cues to perceive the direction and the speed of the moving sound source. In addition, the perceived loudness level will be larger in the motional case than that found in the stationary cases.

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

moving sound source
ffowcs williamshawkings equation
hilbert huang transformation


Spatial-Temporal relation-based Energy-Efficient Reliable routing protocol in wireless sensor networks Delivering sensory data to the sink reliably in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) calls for a scalable, energy-efficient and error-resilient routing solution. In this paper, a Spatial-Temporal relation-based Energy-Efficient Reliable (STEER) routing protocol is proposed to achieve the above goals. As opposed to the next-hop-selection-first, data-relay-next approach, which is typical in traditional routing protocols in WSNs, STEER reverses these two steps. In STEER, each data packet is relayed by broadcasting, and, among the neighbours (closer to the sink) that receive the data, one next-hop node will be elected. In so doing, eligibility as a next hop is evaluated by temporal gradient, which is similar to backoff for channel access in IEEE 802.11 systems. The value of temporal gradient is determined locally by the spatial information of each neighbour. To quantify the temporal gradient systematically, a spatial-temporal mapping function is proposed. Comprehensive simulations show that STEER performs well to provide efficient and robust routing in highly unreliable WSNs.

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

energy efficient
multipath routing
reliability


A lossless image compression for medical images based on hierarchical sorting technique We propose new lossless medical image compression method based on hierarchical sorting technique. Hierarchical sorting is a technique to achieve high compression ratio by detecting the regions where image pattern varies abruptly and sorting pixel order by its value to increase predictability. In this method, we can control sorting accuracy along with size and complexity. As the result, we can reduce the sizes of the permutation-tables and rouse the tables to other image regions. Comparison using experimental implementation of this method shows better performance for medical image set measured by X-ray CT and MRI instruments where similar sub-block patterns appear frequently. This technique applies quad-tree division method to divide an image to blocks in order to support progressive decoding and fast preview of large images.

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

lossless compression
sorting algorithm
hierarchical coding


Recall of memory sequences by interaction of the dentate and CA3: A revised model of the phase precession Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence indicates that the hippocampus has a special role in the encoding and recall of memory sequences. Importantly, the hippocampal phase precession, a phenomenon recorded as a rat moves through place fields, can be interpreted as cued recall of the sequence of upcoming places. The phase precession can be recorded in all hippocampal regions, but the role of each region has been unclear. Here, we suggest how the dentate and CA3 regions can work together to learn sequences, recall sequences, and generate the phase precession. Our proposal is constrained by information regarding synaptic plasticity rules, network connectivity, timing delays and theta/gamma oscillations.

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


polymorphism and subtyping in interface RAPIDE is a programming language framework designed for the development of large, concurrent, real-time systems by prototyping. The framework consists of a type language and default executable, specification and architecture languages, along with associated programming tools. Interfaces are the central construct of the type system. This document describes RAPIDE interfaces, their expressiveness and their use as a typing construct.

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

type system
framework
use
language
architecture
interfaces
tools

program
association
developer
prototype
express
polymorphic
concurrency
real-time system
documentation
subtype
programming language


An on-line, real-time learning method for detecting anomalies in videos using spatio-temporal compositions ? A fast and accurate algorithm for anomalous event detection in videos. Densely sampling video to construct spatio-temporal video volumes. Handling uncertainties in codebook construction. Coding spatio-temporal composition of volumes by a probabilistic framework. Unsupervised and continuously learning new events.

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

video surveillance
on-line anomaly detection
suspicious event detection
spatio-temporal video volumes
spatio-temporal compositions


Altered Cellular Distribution of Phospho-Tau Proteins Coincides with Impaired Retrograde Axonal Transport in Neurons of Aged Rats Abstract: We hypothesize that the age-related degeneration of cytoskeleton in basal forebrain cholinergic neurons renders the NGF-TrkA signaling system non-functional and thereby impairs trophic support. Comparing young (4 months) and aged (28 months) rat brain, we examined immunohistochemically the compartmentalization of phosphorylated Tau protein using antibodies phospho-Tau404 and phospho-Tau231 of the GSK3? kinase, known to phosphorylate Tau, the neurotrophin NGF, and its receptor P-TrkA. Retrograde labeling of basal forebrain cholinergic cells after injection of fluorogold into multiple sites in cortex and hippocampus revealed a significantly lower number of fluorogold-positive cells in aged brain. Despite a lower density of P-TrkA immunoreactivity in cortex and hippocampus of aged rats, there was no difference in NGF expression. In young animals phospho-Tau404, phospho-Tau231, and GSK3 immunoreactivity was observed mainly in neuronal fibers with lower staining in somata both in cortex and hippocampus. By contrast, Tau and GSK3 labeling were confined to the cell bodies in aged rats. This is confirmation that aging leads to a redistribution of cytoskeletal proteins. Since a somatic localization of phospho-Tau is indicative of cytoskeletal breakdown, we suggest that failure of axonal trafficking may be responsible for the lack of trophic support in aged cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain.

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

ngf
tau protein
axonal transport
aging
rat

cholinergic system
hyperphosphorylation
neurodegeneration


a memetic algorithm for the low autocorrelation binary sequence problem Finding binary sequences with low auto correlation is a very hard problem with many practical applications. In this paper we analyze several meta heuristic approaches to tackle the construction of this kind of sequences. We focus on two different local search strategies, steepest descent local search (SDLS) and tabu search (TS), and their use both as stand-alone techniques and embedded within a memetic algorithm (MA). Plain evolutionary algorithms are shown to perform worse than stand-alone local search strategies. However, a MA endowed with TS turns out to be a state-of-the-art algorithm: it consistently finds optimal sequences in considerably less time than previous approaches reported in the literature.

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

autocorrelation binary sequences
memetic algorithms


From a B formal specification to an executable code: application to the relational database domain This paper presents a formal approach for the development of trustworthy database applications. This approach consists of three complementary steps. Designers start by modeling applications using UML diagrams dedicated to database applications domain. These diagrams are then automatically translated into B specifications suitable not only for reasoning about data integrity checking but also for the derivation of trustworthy implementations. In this paper, we present a process based on the B refinement technique for the derivation of a SQL relational implementation, embedded in the JAVA language (JAVA/SQL), from a B specification obtained by the first translation phase.

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

development methodologies
b formal method
coding


Load forecasting using a multivariate meta-learning system Although over a thousand scientific papers address the topic of load forecasting every year, only a few are dedicated to finding a general framework for load forecasting that improves the performance, without depending on the unique characteristics of a certain task such as geographical location. Meta-learning, a powerful approach for algorithm selection has so far been demonstrated only on univariate time-series forecasting. Multivariate time-series forecasting is known to have better performance in load forecasting. In this paper we propose a meta-learning system for multivariate time-series forecasting as a general framework for load forecasting model selection. We show that a meta-learning system built on 65 load forecasting tasks returns lower forecasting error than 10 well-known forecasting algorithms on 4 load forecasting tasks for a recurrent real-life simulation. We introduce new metafeatures of fickleness, traversity, granularity and highest ACF. The meta-learning framework is parallelized, component-based and easily extendable.

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

electricity consumption prediction
energy expert systems
industrial applications
short-term electric load forecasting
meta-learning
power demand estimation


The colored Eulerian descent algebra Using a new colored analogue of \(P\)-partitions, we prove the existence of a colored Eulerian descent algebra which is a subalgebra of the MantaciReutenauer algebra. This algebra has a basis consisting of formal sums of colored permutations with the same number of descents (using Steingrmssons definition of the descent set of a colored permutation). The colored Eulerian descent algebra extends familiar Eulerian descent algebras from the symmetric group algebra and the hyperoctahedral group algebra to colored permutation group algebras. We also describe orthogonal idempotents that span the colored Eulerian descent algebra and include, as a special case, the familiar Eulerian idempotents in the group algebra of the symmetric group.

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

colored eulerian descent algebra
mantacireutenauer algebra


Real-time signal processing of an intrauterine catheter's fetal electrocardiogram An original real-time maternal electrocardiogram (ECG) cancellation technique for the intrauterine catheter's (IC) ECG will be discussed in mathematical detail. The cancellation method is based on maternal ECG averaging and subtraction using modified maternal ECG complexes during averaging. Via the resulting fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) from maternal ECG cancellation of an intrauterine catheter's ECG, physician can determine fetal status since the resulting FECG contains fetal heart rate (HR) and electrophysiological information. In addition, fetal status could be determined with one non-invasive to the fetus catheter as compared to invasive to the fetus scalp electrode and intrauterine pressure catheter used currently. An analysis of clinical data indicates that a FECG with a favorable signal-to-noise ratio could be acquired in real-time from the IC after maternal ECG cancellation using the proposed method. The resulting IC's ECG could then be used for determining fetal HR and electrophysiological information.

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

fetal electrocardiogram
scalp electrode
intrauterine pressure catheter


The wandering token: Congestion avoidance of a shared resource In a distributed system where scalability is an issue, the problem of enforcing mutual exclusion often arises in a soft form: the infrequent failure of the mutual exclusion predicate is tolerated, without compromising the consistent operation of the overall system. For instance this occurs when the operation subject to mutual exclusion requires massive use of a shared resource. We introduce a scalable soft mutual exclusion algorithm, based on token passing: one distinguished feature of our algorithm is that instead of introducing an overlay topology we adopt a random walk approach. The consistency of our proposal is evaluated by simulation, and we exemplify its use in the coordination of large data transfers in a backbone based network. This algorithm is studied in the frame of the CoreGRID Institute of Grid Information, Resource and Workflow Monitoring Services, in cooperation with the FORTH Institute, in Greece.

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

congestion avoidance
random walk
soft mutual exclusion


Eminence of scientists in the light of the h-index and other scientometric indicators Scientometrics cannot offer a simple consistent method for measuring the scientific eminence of individuals. The h-index method introduced by Hirsch was found applicable for evaluating publications of senior scientists with similar publishing features, only. Some simple methods - using the number of citations and journal papers, and the number of citations obtained by the most frequently cited papers - are suggested and tested to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of such indexes. The results indicate that calculating scientometric indexes for individuals, self-citations should be excluded and the effect of the different bibliometric features of the field should be taken into account. The correctness of the indexes used for evaluating journal papers of individuals should be investigated also on the individual level.

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

hirsch index
bibliometric indicators
quality of information


Analysis and design of a hairpin-line bandpass filter Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a new way to analyze the hairpin-line bandpass filter and improve the stopband's attenuation of this filter. Design/methodology/approach - The even-odd and open-short circuit stub mode method is used to analyze the proposed filter and the simulation and optimization are done using the computer-aided design tools. A design example of a narrowband hairpin-line filter is provided. Findings - This improved structure is clearly increasing the stopband's attenuation, at the same time, the bandwidth is narrower. Originality/value - The paper presents useful analysis of the hairpin-line bandpass filter; proposes a simple method to analyze this structure, as well as optimization for stopband's attenuation of the hairpin-line filter.

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

microwave circuits
hairpin-line filter
full-wave em simulation
even and odd mode
open and short circuit stub mode


Parametric cost-effectiveness inference with skewed data Comparing treatment effects while taking into account the associated costs is an important goal of cost-effectiveness analyses. Several cost-effectiveness measures have been proposed to quantify these comparisons, including the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and the incremental net benefit (INB). Various approaches have been proposed for constructing confidence intervals for ICER and INB, including parametric methods (e.g. based on the Delta method or on Fiellers method), nonparametric methods (e.g. various bootstrap methods), as well as Bayesian methods. Skewed data are usually the norm in cost-effectiveness analyses, and accurate parametric confidence intervals in this context are lacking. Confidence intervals for both ICER and INB are constructed using the concept of a generalized pivotal quantity, which can be derived for various combinations of normal, lognormal, and other skewed distributions for costs and effectiveness. The proposed methodology is straightforward in terms of computation and implementation even in the presence of covariates, and the resulting confidence intervals compared favorably with existing methods in a simulation study. The approach is illustrated using data from three randomized trials.

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


a peer-to-peer environment for monitoring multiple wireless sensor networks In this work we present the basic concepts in the architecture of a peer-to-peer environment for monitoring multiple wireless sensor networks, called ShareSense. ShareSense, which is currently under development, uses JXTA as a peer-to-peer substrate. We demonstrate its basic functionalities using a simple application scenario, which utilizes multiple disparate wireless sensor networks. This application scenario involves monitoring of such networks using a separate management environment and a custom application GUI, as well as using Google Earth as an additional user interface.

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


Aggregation-based fuzzy dual-mode control for nonlinear systems with mixed constraints A new receding horizon dual-mode control method is proposed for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems represented by Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy models subject to mixed constraints including hard input constraint and soft state constraint. On the one hand, our receding horizon scheme is based upon an online optimisation that utilises optimised sequence plus local linear feedback. On the other hand, due to the consideration of computation burden, an amplitude decaying aggregation strategy is introduced to reduce the number of optimisation variables. The proposed controller is obtained using semi-definite programming, which can be easily solved by means of linear matrix inequalities. A numerical example is given to verify the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method.

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

t-s fuzzy model
dual-mode control
mixed constraint
invariant ellipsoid
semi-definite programming


Adaptive Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Adaptively Secure Oblivious Transfer In the setting of secure computation, a set of parties wish to securely compute some function of their inputs, in the presence of an adversary. The adversary in question may be static (meaning that it controls a predetermined subset of the parties) or adaptive (meaning that it can choose to corrupt parties during the protocol execution and based on what it sees). In this paper, we study two fundamental questions relating to the basic zero-knowledge and oblivious transfer protocol problems: Adaptive zero-knowledge proofs: We ask whether it is possible to construct adaptive zero-knowledge proofs (with unconditional soundness) for all of NP. Beaver (STOC [1996]) showed that known zero-knowledge proofs are not adaptively secure, and in addition showed how to construct zero-knowledge arguments (with computational soundness). Adaptively secure oblivious transfer: All known protocols for adaptively secure oblivious transfer rely on seemingly stronger hardness assumptions than for the case of static adversaries. We ask whether this is inherent, and in particular, whether it is possible to construct adaptively secure oblivious transfer from enhanced trapdoor permutations alone.

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

adaptive security
zero-knowledge proofs
black-box separations
minimal assumptions


Examining Presence and Lightweight Messaging in a Social Television Experience We report on a field evaluation of a prototype social television system (Social TV) that incorporates lightweight messaging as well as ambient awareness of user presence on the system. This evaluation was conducted over a two-week period and involved the participation of ten households. Participants appreciated the ability to see their buddies' presence on the system, the ability to see or suggest the programs they were currently watching, and the ability to send short messages to one another. The presence facilities available in Social TV also allowed participants to learn more about one another's TV viewing habits and preferences, and fostered a sense of connectedness between them. However, they also felt constrained by the limitations of the communication options available to them and demanded free-form text or voice chat to be able to fully express themselves.

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

design
experimentation
human factors
ambient displays
computer-mediated communication
awareness displays


heuristics for the automatic identification of irregularities in spreadsheets Spreadsheet programs turned out to be the most popular end-user programming environment that has ever been released. Important decisions are based on the results of spreadsheet programs and the list of known errors with large impact is growing daily- although it surely is only the top of an iceberg.One way out of the crisis might be the introduction of software engineering techniques into spreadsheet development. Suggestions for the improvement of spreadsheet development range back as far as into the late eighties, but none has been successful yet. We argue this is either because not enough effort is put into the roll-out of the technique to the users and, mainly, because they neglect the fact that spreadsheet programmers are end-users, not willing or not able to spend any time on learning software engineering methods. We found out that most end users are willing to verify their spreadsheets, but only view have the time and skills to do really systematic testing of spreadsheets.We developed an approach to generate two orthogonal abstract representations of spreadsheet programs that are then displayed to the user by different visualisation techniques to support the auditing process. Usually, irregularities in the visualisation point out hot-spots on the spreadsheet with a high likelihood of erroneous formulas. In this paper we present new heuristics for identifying hot spots that are very efficient for large spreadsheet programs.

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

program analysis
end user programming
spreadsheet visualization


Sequential variable sampling plan for normal distribution In this paper, a sequential variable sampling plan is studied. Suppose that the quality of an item in a batch is measured by a normally distributed random variable with a known variance, but the mean is unknown with a normal prior distribution. Then by using Bayesian approach and considering a Markov decision process, the optimality equations for the minimum total expected cost are formulated. We show that an optimal decision rule will have a control limit structure. An algorithm for a sequence of ?-optimal decisions is introduced. Then, the statistical procedure for conducting the sequential sampling plan is presented.

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

sequential sampling plans
optimality equation
?-optimal decision


RULE CORRELATION AND CHOQUET INTEGRATION IN FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEMS We propose an extension of the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy inference system, using Choquet integration for aggregating the single rule outputs. In the new Choquet-TSK fuzzy inference system, the pairwise synergies between rules are encoded in a rule correlation matrix computed from the activation pattern of the rule base. The rule correlation matrix is then used to modulate the parameters of the Choquet integration scheme in order to compensate for the effect of rule synergies, which are present in most rule bases to a higher or lesser extent. The standard TSK fuzzy inference system remains a particular instance of the proposed Choquet-TSK extension and corresponds to the ideal case of rule independence. However, when rule correlation is present, the Choquet-TSK fuzzy inference system takes it into account when computing the final output of the system. On the basis of the rule correlation matrix, the new aggregation scheme of the Choquet-TSK fuzzy inference system attenuates the effective weight of positively correlated rules and emphasizes that of negatively correlated rules. Some case studies are discussed in order to illustrate the proposed methodology.

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

fuzzy inference systems
rule correlation
choquet integration


Increasing threshold search for best-valued agents This paper investigates agent search for the agent with the best value in a multi-agent system, according to some value assignment. In the type of setting considered, agent values are independent of one another. Under this condition, classic state-space search methods are not very suitable solutions since they must probe the values of all agents in order to determine who the best-valued agent is. The method considered in this paper refines the number of agents that need to be probed by iteratively publishing thresholds on acceptable agent values. This kind of agent search is applicable to various domains, including auctions, first responders, and sensor networks. In the model considered, there is a fixed cost for publishing the thresholds and a variable cost for obtaining agent values that increases with the number of values obtained. By transforming the threshold-based sequence to a probability-based one, the sequence with minimum expected cost is proven to consist of either a single search round or an infinite sequence of increasing thresholds. This leads to a simplified characterization of the optimal thresholds sequence from which the sequence can be derived. The analysis is extended to the case of search for multiple agents. One important implication of this method is that it improves the performance of legacy economic-search methods that are commonly used in "search theory". Within this context, we show how a threshold-based search can be used to augment existing economic search techniques or as an economic search technique itself. The effectiveness of the methods for both best-value search and economic-search is demonstrated numerically using a synthetic environment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

expanding extent search
optimal stopping rule


Significant reach enhancement for dispersion limited direct detection systems using offset carrier and linear electrical equalizers A scheme utilizing an offset optical carrier transmission and adaptive linear equalizer in electrical domain is proposed to enhance the transmission reach of a direct detection optical transmission system. In the proposed scheme, the detection process becomes linear and thereby, a simple linear equalizer in electrical domain can undo the distortion due to linear dispersive effects.

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

adaptive equalizer
dispersion compensation
nonlinear fiber optics
optical fiber


Missing data imputation on the 5-year survival prediction of breast cancer patients with unknown discrete values A 5-year survival model is constructed in a real breast cancer context. The dataset is a challenge in terms of complexity due to its high missing data ratio. Several representative imputation and decision methods are analyzed. Obtained results are very interesting and accurate for this complex clinical dataset.

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

5-year survival prediction
discrete data


An ontology-based universal design knowledge support system An effective and efficient knowledge support system is crucial for universal design process, as it has become a major design issue in the last decade with the growth of the elderly population and disabled people. There are a limited number of CAD investigations on the nature of knowledge processing that supports the cognitive activities of universal design process. Therefore, this paper proposes an ontology-based computer-assisted universal design (CAUD) plug-in tool that supports designers in developing satisfactory universal design solutions in the conceptual design phase. The required knowledge processing and representation of the developed tool is motivated by the ontological language. It is based on the multiple divergenceconvergence cognitive strategies and cognitive needs of designers in the analysis/synthesis/evaluation operations. The CAUD plug-in tool is the first attempt to interface the universal design knowledge ontologically and respond to the requirements of conceptual design phase. According to the user acceptance study, the tool is assessed as useful, understandable, efficient, supportive and satisfactory.

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

conceptual design phase
universal design

computer-assisted design tool
cognitive design strategy
ontology


K-Clustered Tensor Approximation: A Sparse Multilinear Model for Real-Time Rendering With the increasing demands for photo-realistic image synthesis in real time, we propose a sparse multilinear model, which is named K-Clustered Tensor Approximation (K-CTA), to efficiently analyze and approximate large-scale multidimensional visual datasets, so that both storage space and rendering time are substantially reduced. K-CTA not only extends previous work on Clustered Tensor Approximation (CTA) to exploit inter-cluster coherence, but also allows a compact and sparse representation for high-dimensional datasets with just a few low-order factors and reduced multidimensional cluster core tensors. Thus, K-CTA can be regarded as a sparse extension of CTA and a multilinear generalization of sparse representation. Experimental results demonstrate that K-CTA can accurately approximate spatially varying visual datasets, such as bidirectional texture functions, view-dependent occlusion texture functions, and biscale radiance transfer functions for efficient rendering in real-time applications.

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

tensor approximation
sparse representation

algorithms
real-time rendering
multidimensional data analysis


A multi-sensor approach to creating accurate virtual environments1 Creating virtual environment models often requires geometric data from range sensors as well as photometric data from CCD cameras. The model must be geometrically correct, visually realistic, and small enough in size to allow real-time rendering. We present an approach based on 3D range sensor data, multiple CCD cameras, and a colour high-resolution digital still camera. The multiple CCD cameras provide images for a photogrammetric bundle adjustment with constraints. The results of the bundle adjustments are used to register the 3D images from the range sensor in one coordinate system. The images from the high-resolution still camera provide the texture for the final model. The paper describes the system, the techniques for the registration of the 3D images, the building of the efficient geometric model, and the registration and integration of the texture with a simplified geometric model.

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

virtual environments
geometric modeling
range images
texture mapping


Increasing base-station anonymity in wireless sensor networks Nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN) probe their surroundings and report their findings to a base-station over multi-hop paths. Given the important role of the base-station, an adversary who likes to disrupt the network operation would eagerly look for where the base-station could be and target it with attacks in order to inflict maximum damage. Unfortunately, the continuous flow of traffic towards the base-station creates a pronounced pattern of wireless links that may expose the base-station position and thus make the network more vulnerable. This paper investigates means for boosting the anonymity of the base-station. First, we adapt three models entropy based model, GSAT test and evidence theory model, to quantify anonymity of the base-station. Then, two novel approaches for boosting the anonymity of the base-station are proposed. One is for the base-station to disguise itself by transmitting some of the data packets it receives with varying intensity. The goal is to create a perception that the base-station node is just another sensor node sending some information and thus confuse the adversary. The second approach is for the base-station to relocate itself to a more concealed position within the network. Relocating the base-station completely scraps/nullifies the adversarys efforts to track it down and forces him to start his search from scratch. This paper investigates the problem of base-station relocation with respect to when to relocate, where to relocate and how to relocate. These approaches are validated through simulation. Our results show that the proposed measures not only safeguard base-station but also increases the lifetime of the WSN due to uniform energy depletion of sensor nodes.

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


The LOCKSS peer-to-peer digital preservation system The LOCKSS project has developed and deployed in a world-wide test a peer-to-peer system for preserving access to journals and other archival information published on the Web. It consists of a large number of independent, low-cost, persistent Web caches that cooperate to detect and repair damage to their content by voting in "opinion polls." Based on this experience, we present a design for and simulations of a novel protocol for voting in systems of this kind. It incorporates rate limitation and intrusion detection to ensure that even some very powerful adversaries attacking over many years have only a small probability of causing irrecoverable damage before being detected.

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

economics
reliability
rate limiting
replicated storage


Efficient time domain threshold for sparse channel estimation in OFDM system A novel efficient time domain threshold based sparse channel estimation technique is proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed method aims to realize effective channel estimation without prior knowledge of channel statistics and noise standard deviation within a comparatively wide range of sparsity. Firstly, classical least squares (LS) method is used to get an initial channel impulse response (CIR) estimate. Then, an effective threshold, estimated from the noise coefficients of the initial estimated CIR, is proposed. Finally, the obtained threshold is used to select the most significant taps. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed method achieves better performance in both BER (bit error rate) and NMSE (normalized mean square error) than the compared methods has good spectral efficiency and moderate computational complexity.

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

sparse channel estimation
least squares
ofdm
time domain threshold


Beyond pixels: Exploiting camera metadata for photo classification Semantic scene classification based only on low-level vision cues has had limited success on unconstrained image sets. On the other hand, camera metadata related to capture conditions provide cues independent of the captured scene content that can be used to improve classification performance. We consider three problems, indooroutdoor classification, sunset detection, and manmadenatural classification. Analysis of camera metadata statistics for images of each class revealed that metadata fields, such as exposure time, flash fired, and subject distance, are most discriminative for each problem. A Bayesian network is employed to fuse content-based and metadata cues in the probability domain and degrades gracefully even when specific metadata inputs are missing (a practical concern). Finally, we provide extensive experimental results on the three problems using content-based and metadata cues to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed integrated scene classification scheme.

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

semantic scene classification
camera metadata
exposure time
flash fired
subject distance


value-aware networking for mobile media delivery This talk describes an architectural framework to wireless media delivery, we call value aware networking in which the knowledge of relative value of data bits are used to best optimize application performance at different layers. The proposed techniques recognize the significance of mobile media content in the future Internet and explore how to optimize application performance natively at different layers, in a manner that is natural to the specific layer. While the concept is fairly general, in this talk, I will focus on specific mechanisms at the MAC and PHY layers, and discuss some technical challenges in implementing such a framework.

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

mobile networking
media communications
network architecture


Anti-periodic mild attractor of delayed hopfield neural networks systems with reactiondiffusion terms In this paper, reactiondiffusion Hopfield neural networks systems with time-varying delays and Dirichlet boundary conditions are investigated. The theorems on existence and global exponential stability of anti-periodic mild solution are established. Moreover, theoretical results further show that diffusion terms contribute to existence and stabilization of anti-periodic mild solution. Finally, an illustrative example and numerical simulations are given to show effectiveness of results in this paper.

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

reactiondiffusion neural networks
time-varying delays
anti-periodic mild solution


Contributions to the evaluation of ensembles of combinational logic gates This work presents an effective way for evaluating and validating ensembles of combinational CMOS gates and logic cell libraries. The major contributions include an innovative design methodology for such a kind of test vehicle, as well as a simple and flexible multi-operating mode circuit architecture. The resulting circuit is quite useful for cell library verification at different levels: in the EDA environment and on silicon prototyping. The proposed methodology can be applied for analysis taking into account the logic gate functionality, timing performance, power consumption and circuit operating impact of nanometer aging effects. Simulation results demonstrate the circuit operation, features and facilities described herein.

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

standard cell library
library validation
cmos logic gate
test circuit
validation methodology
digital ic design.


An empirical evaluation of probability estimation with neural networks Recent interest in neural networks by researchers across a wide spectrum of disciplines has provided convincing evidence of their ability to address classification problems. In this article, we consider the issue of evaluating the predictive capability of neural networks when the output values are to be treated as probabilities. We propose the use of a variant of a chi-square statistic, based on the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic from logistic regression, to measure the goodness-of-fit of neural network models for two-group membership problems. Through experimentation with a large real-world database, we demonstrate the application of this statistic, and examine the effects of varying the number of nodes in the hidden layer on its value. Our empirical results suggest that this statistic can be very useful in identifying significant differences in the probability estimation accuracy of neural network models.

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 B I O O O O O

chi-square statistic
goodness-of-fit tests
multilayer feedforward neural networks
quickprop


Optimal layered representation for adaptive interactive multiview video streaming ? We consider an interactive multiview video streaming (IMVS) system where clients select their preferred viewpoint in a given navigation window. To provide high quality IMVS, many high quality views should be transmitted to the clients. However, this is not always possible due to the limited and heterogeneous capabilities of the clients. In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive IMVS solution based on a layered multiview representation where camera views are organized into layered subsets to match the different clients constraints. We formulate an optimization problem for the joint selection of the views subsets and their encoding rates. Then, we propose an optimal and a reduced computational complexity greedy algorithms, both based on dynamic-programming. Simulation results show the good performance of our novel algorithms compared to a baseline algorithm, proving that an effective IMVS adaptive solution should consider the scene content and the client capabilities and their preferences in navigation.

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

multiview video
layered representation
navigation window

depth image based rendering (dibr)
depth maps
texture
view synthesis
dynamic programming


On the equitable total chromatic number of cubic graphs ? A total coloring is equitable if the number of elements colored with each color differs by at most one, and the least integer for which a graph has such a coloring is called its equitable total chromatic number. Wang conjectured that the equitable total chromatic number of a multigraph of maximum degree ? ? is at most ?+2 ? + 2 , and proved this for the case where ??3 ? ? 3 . Therefore, the equitable total chromatic number of a cubic graph is either 4 or 5, and in this work we prove that the problem of deciding whether it is 4 is NP-complete for bipartite cubic graphs. Furthermore, we present the first known Type1 cubic graphs with equitable total chromatic number5. All of them have, by construction, a small girth. We also find one infinite family of Type1 cubic graphs of girth5 having equitable total chromatic number 4. This motivates the following question: Does there exist Type1 cubic graphs of girth greater than5 and equitable total chromatic number5?

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 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 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


A dynamic model for optimally phasing in CO2 capture and storage infrastructure CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is a climate-change mitigation strategy that requires an investment of many billions of dollars and tens of thousands of miles of dedicated CO2 pipelines. To be effective, scientists, stakeholders, and policy makers will have to understand how as well as when to deploy large-scale CCS infrastructure. This will require comprehensive modeling that takes into account detailed costs, engineering, and environmental concerns. We introduce a new and comprehensive model, SimCCSTIME, that is capable of spatially and temporally optimizing CO2 managementcapture, transport, and storage of large quantities of CO2. The model minimizes CCS infrastructure costs while simultaneously deciding where, how much, and when to capture, transport, and store CO2. We demonstrate the SimCCSTIME model using real data from the Texas panhandle. Results show that the model minimizes CCS costs, while meeting rising demand to capture and store CO2, by gradually expanding the CCS network. The model identifies non-intuitive cost savings by overbuilding infrastructure in early time periods, and then fully utilizing this infrastructure in later years. Further, results show that there is significant benefit for planning a cooperative and integrated CCS system. Finally, we show how SimCCSTIME offers significant advantages over myopic models that cannot integrate infrastructure through time.

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

infrastructure modeling
spatiotemporal optimization
pipeline modeling
climate-change policy
simccs


Generic and Specific Compatibility Criteria for Web Service Composition: Formal Abstraction and Modular Verification Approach For automatically composing Web services in a correct manner, information about their behaviors (an abstract model) has to be published in a repository. This abstract model must be sufficient to decide whether two, or more, services are compatible (the composition is possible) is possible without including any additional information that can be used to disclose the privacy of these services. The compatibility between two Web services can be based either on some generic properties (e. g. deadlock freeness of the composite Web service) or on a specific property expressed with a formal logic. In this paper, the authors address this problem by considering these two kinds of compatibility criteria. The first criterion is defined by different variants of the well-known soundness property on open workflow nets. These properties guarantee the absence of livelocks, deadlocks and other anomalies that can be formulated without domain knowledge. The second criterion is defined by the designer formally by using the Linear Temporal Logic. The proposed approach addresses the automatic abstraction of Web services and the checking of their compatibility using their abstract models only. To abstract Web services, the authors use the symbolic observation graph (SOG) approach that preserves necessary information for service composition and hides private information. The authors show how the SOG can be adapted and used so that the verification of generic and specific compatibility criteria can be performed on the composition of the abstract models of Web services instead of the original composite service.

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

composition of wss
linear-time temporal logic
model checking
owf-nets


On Some Mathematical Structures of T-Fuzzy Rough Set Algebras in Infinite Universes of Discourse In this paper, a general framework for the study of fuzzy rough approximation operators determined by a triangular norm in infinite universes of discourse is investigated. Lower and upper approximations of fuzzy sets with respect to a fuzzy approximation space in infinite universes of discourse are first introduced. Essential properties of various types of T-fuzzy rough approximation operators are then examined. An operator-oriented characterization of fuzzy rough sets is also proposed, that is, T-fuzzy rough approximation operators are defined by axioms. Different axiom sets of upper and lower fuzzy set-theoretic operators guarantee the existence of different types of fuzzy relations which produce the same operators. A comparative study of T-fuzzy rough set algebras with some other mathematical structures are presented. It is proved that there exists a one-to-one correspondence between the set of all reflexive and T-transitive fuzzy approximation spaces and the set of all fuzzy Alexandrov spaces such that the lower and upper T-fuzzy rough approximation operators are, respectively, the fuzzy interior and closure operators. It is also shown that a reflexive fuzzy approximation space induces a measurable space such that the family of definable fuzzy sets in the fuzzy approximation space forms the fuzzy sigma-algebra of the measurable space. Finally, it is explored that the fuzzy belief functions in the Dempster-Shafer of evidence can be interpreted by the T-fuzzy rough approximation operators in the rough set theory, that is, for any fuzzy belief structure there must exist a probability fuzzy approximation space such that the derived probabilities of the lower and upper approximations of a fuzzy set are, respectively, the T-fuzzy belief and plausibility degrees of the fuzzy set in the given fuzzy belief structure.

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

approximation operators
fuzzy belief functions
fuzzy rough sets

fuzzy measurability sets
fuzzy rough set algebras
fuzzy topological spaces
rough sets
triangular norms


AN INFERENCE-ENABLED ACCESS CONTROL MODEL FOR RDF ONTOLOGY Although RDF ontologies are expressed based on XML syntax, existing methods to protect XML documents are not suitable for securing RDF ontologies. The graph style and inference feature of RDF ontologies demands new methods for access control. Driven by this goal, this paper proposes a query-oriented model for RDF ontology access control. The model adopts the concept of ontology view to rewrite user queries. In our approach, ontology views de. ne accessible ontology concepts and instances a user can visit, and enables a controlled inference capability for the user. The design of the views guarantees that the views are free of conflict. Based on that, the paper describes algorithms for rewriting queries according to different views, and provides a system architecture along with an implemented prototype. In the evaluation, the system exhibits a promising result in terms of effectiveness and soundness.

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


Fuzzy human motion analysis: A review A survey of fuzzy set oriented methods for human motion analysis is presented. This is the first time such a survey is presented in the fuzzy set literature. Categorization of existing approaches into three broad levels is performed. Insights and suggestions for future research are discussed.

O B I I 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


Scalable real-time energy-efficient EEG compression scheme for wireless body area sensor network We propose two adaptive compression paradigms for the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and compressive sensing (CS) compression techniques. Two optimization schemes have been developed for minimizing the total residual distortion for different channel conditions and encoder settings. Using the developed framework, the encoder can adaptively reconfigure the encoding parameters in order to match the energy constraint without performance degradation. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to the previously reported methods with different implementation choices and channel conditions.

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

wireless body area sensor network
compression


Video quality measurement based on 3-D. Singular value decomposition ? We proposed a new video quality measurement based on considering whole video as a 3-D tensor. The original video were decomposed to three orthogonal matrices used Tucker algorithm as its basis. The distorted video was reflected into original video basis. We proposed an equation to weight the difference between the original and reflected singular values. The experimental results showed a high correlation between subjective tests and the proposed algorithm results.

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

higher order singular value decomposition


Finite element analysis of vibratory roller response on layered soil systems The objective of this study is to quantify the relationships between continuous compaction control (CCC) roller soil stiffness measurements and subgrade and base lift moduli and thickness for quality control applications on fully compacted soils (e.g. proof rolls). This is done using plane strain, dynamic, time-domain finite element (FE) analyses. The FE model is calibrated against field data from two construction sites and is shown to capture the time-varying loading characteristics of the roller and the forcedeflection behaviors of the underlying soil surface. The model is then used to explore the effects of subgrade and base moduli and the thickness of the compacted base layer on roller-measured stiffness values. The roller-measured stiffness increases with lift thickness and with subgrade and base moduli, showing sensitivity to both changes in lift thickness and in soil materials commonly observed in practice. The time-varying contact area is shown to have negligible effects on the roller-measured values. This observation is justified using a plane strain analysis of a layered elastic medium subjected to a dynamic strip loading.

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

stiffness
finite element analysis
vibratory roller


Transformation and normal vector calculation of parametrically defined surfaces based on dual vectors and screw theory: Application to phong's shading model This paper presents a new approach for the transformation and normal vector calculation algorithms of parametrically defined surfaces via dual vectors and line transformations. The surface is defined via dual points, the transformation is performed by rotations and translations based on screw theory while normal vector calculation is utilized for shading based on Phong's illumination model. The main benefit of this approach lies into the compactness of the surface's representation since geometrical characteristics, such as tangent vectors, that are necessary for shading algorithms, are included within its definition. An extensive comparison is performed between the proposed approach and the traditional homogeneous model, presenting the merits of our approach. Analytical and experimental determination of the computational cost via computer implementation of 3D surface transformation and shading is presented. Point-based methods for the representation, transformation and shading of parametrically defined surfaces are compared to the introduced line-based methods (dual quaternions and dual orthogonal matrices). It is shown that the simplified rendering procedure of 3D objects, is considerably faster using screw theory over the traditional point-based structures.

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

shading
transformation
screw theory
dual quaternions
parametrically defined surfaces


open framework for conformance testing via scenarios Scenarios are vital for the specification of software systems. We are developing an open framework for the specification, execution, and conformance evaluation of scenarios. The scenarios define a contract which is bound to an implementation under test. The scenarios are executed by our framework to ensure conformance against the contract.

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

non-functional requirements
contracts
metrics


Practical considerations on the use of extreme sib-pairs for obesity Objectives: The extreme sib-pair approach has been shown to be a powerful strategy to identify susceptibility loci linked to quantitative traits. The body mass index is the usually assessed trait in genetic studies on human obesity. Environmental factors clearly play an important role for this trait. We hypothesized that the low weight of most sibs who were seemingly discordant to the obese index proband was influenced by other environmental and/or genetic factors like restrained eating or psychiatric disorders. Methods: A screening questionnaire was sent to parents of all consecutively admitted patients three weeks prior to referral of index probands for inpatient treatment of obesity. The first 320 families were further investigated. Twenty-seven seemingly extremely discordant sib-pairs (ED) were identified and examined in detail. Results: The low weight of most sibs who were seemingly discordant to the obese index proband and was influenced by factors like restrained eating or psychiatric disorders. Only 20% of the interviewed ED could be considered as genuine ED. Conclusion: We conclude that extensive medical evaluation is necessary if the aim is to guarantee genuine ED in family studies for human obesity. Non-paternity deserves specific attention in ED studies.

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

cost efficiency
extreme discordant sib-pair
extreme sib-pair
model-free linkage analysis
non-paternity
selected samples


A Key-Policy Attribute-Based Broadcast Encryption According to the broadcast encryption scheme with wide applications in the real world without considering its security and efficiency in the model simultaneausly an "unbounded", Key-Policy Attribute-Based Broadcast Encryption scherne(KP-ABBE) was proposed by combining with waters dual system encryption, attribute-based encryption and broadcast encryption system. Based on the standard model, the scheme can achieve constant-size public parameters, the public parameters do not impose additional limitations on the functionality of the systems (unbounded) and either a small universe size or a bound on the size of attribute sets avoid to fixed at setup. The scheme is proved by using the dual system encryption argument and the four static assumptions which do not depend on the number of queries the attacker makes. The analysis results show that the scheme of this paper is selective secure.

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

attribute-based encryption
kp-abbe
provably secure


Information security policy - what do international information security standards say? One of the most important information security controls, is the information security policy. This vital direction-giving document is, however, not always easy to develop and the authors thereof battle with questions such as what constitutes a policy. This results in the policy authors turning to existing sources for guidance. One of these sources is the various international information security standards. These standards are a good starting Point for determining what the information security policy should consist of, but should not be relied upon exclusively for guidance. Firstly, they are not comprehensive in their coverage and furthermore, tending to rather address the processes needed for successfully implementing the information security policy. It is far more important the information security policy must fit in with the organisation's culture and must therefore be developed with this in mind.

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

information security policy
information security

international standards
elements
characteristics


Regional cache organization for NoC based many-core processors As the number of Processing Elements (PEs) on a single chip keeps growing, we are now facing with slower memory references due to longer wire delay, intenser on-chip resource contention and higher network traffic congestion. Network on Chip (NoC) is now considered as a promising paradigm of inter-core connection for future many-core processors. In this paper, we examined how the regional cache organizations drastically reduce the average network latency, and proposed a regional cache architecture with Delegate Memory Management Units (D-MMUs) for NoC based processors. Experiments showed that the L2 cache access latency is largely determined by its organization and interconnection paradigm with PEs in the NoC, and that the regional organization is essentially important for better NoC cache performance. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.

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


Multithreaded derivative computation with generated libraries ? The computation of derivatives via automatic differentiation is a valuable technique in many science and engineering applications. While the implementation of automatic differentiation via source transformation yields the highest efficiency results, particularly for gradient computations, the implementation via operator overloading remains a viable alternative for some application contexts. Examples include the computation of higher order derivatives or cases where C++ as the language of choice still proves to be too complicated for the currently available source transformation tools. In this paper, we utilize a code generator to create libraries that overload intrinsics for derivative computation, and discuss approaches to improve the efficiency of the generated code. We first discuss the use of limited loop unrolling, but the main focus of the paper is multithreaded derivative computation, in particular an asynchronous scheme for C++ and a synchronous scheme for Fortran. We present test results obtained with a proof-of-concept implementation.

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

automatic differentiation
operator overloading
generated code
loop unrolling


application isolation in the java virtual machine To date, systems offering multitasking for the Java programming language either use one process or one class loader for each application. Both approaches are unsatisfactory. Using operating system processes is expensive, scales poorly and does not fully exploit the protection features inherent in a safe language. Class loaders replicate application code, obscure the type system, and non-uniformly treat 'trusted' and 'untrusted' classes, which leads to subtle, but nevertheless, potentially harmful forms of undesirable inter-application interaction.In this paper we propose a novel, simple yet powerful solution. The new model improves on existing designs in terms of resource utilization while offering strong isolation among applications. The approach is applicable both on high-end servers and on small devices. The main idea is to maintain only one copy of every class, regardless of how many applications use it. Classes are transparently and automatically modified, so that each application has a separate copy of its static fields. Two prototypes are described and selected performance data is analyzed. Various aspects of the proposed architectural changes to the Java Virtual Machine are discussed.

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

multitasking
applications
application isolation
use
protection
performance
virtual machine
paper
model
type system
systems
exploit
language
code
operating system
data
process
resource
class

replication
maintainability
design
change
interaction
java virtual machine
aspect
prototype
architecture
device
feature
server
isolates
programming language
trust


Java garbage collection - a generic solution? This paper first introduces the main approaches to garbage collection (GC) in modern high-level programming languages, and then focuses on how the 'new' language Java addresses GC. The object oriented nature of Java and the fact that it is designed to be used in networked/distributed systems poses additional GC related problems. Issues raised by these problems are discussed and suggestions made about ways in which the full advantages of GC in Java can be realized. The main conclusion is that while automatic GC in Java makes the writing of code easier, there is still the need for programmer awareness of Java memory management. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

garbage collection
java
memory management


Development of an Autonomous Distributed Control System for Optical Packet and Circuit Integrated Networks In this paper, we describe an autonomous distributed control system that we have been developing for an optical packet and circuit integrated network, and we experimentally evaluate its performance. Colored (i.e., multi-wavelength) optical packet-switched links transfer both control signals for circuit switching (e.g., signaling and routing) and best-effort packet data. We successfully transmitted high-definition uncompressed real-time video signals on two lightpaths established by our control system without degradation of video quality, simultaneously with other optical packet data transferred on the same optical fibers. Our developed control system not only achieved autonomous distributed signaling and routing but also has a function that can adjust wavelength resources for optical packet and circuit switching autonomously in each link at each node. Controllers achieved lightpath establishment within approximately 360 ms and dynamic resource adjustment within approximately 454 ms, in the best possible case in our experimental setup.

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

fiber optics communications
multiplexing
optical communications


Artificial intelligence approach to support statistical quality control teaching Statistical quality control - SQC (consisting of Statistical Process Control, Process Capability Studies, Acceptance Sampling and Design of Experiments) is a very important tool to obtain, maintain and improve the Quality level of goods and services produced by an organization. Despite its importance, and the fact that it is taught in technical and college courses, as well as in companies' training sectors, SQC has been largely misused. An inappropriate teaching approach may be the cause of such problem; therefore it has motivated the development of a model for SQC teaching, allowing its learners to correctly apply SQC techniques. After a survey regarding the concept needed to correctly apply SQC, its use and teaching/training methods, the model's contents and methodology were defined. We also realized the opportunity of incorporating a computer environment for the model, permitting the practice of the needed SQC concepts and skills. An Artificial Intelligence approach was used to develop the computer environment, resulting in an Intelligent Tutoring System, the STCEQ. The paper discusses the main characteristics of the system, its functioning, benefits of using such a system and the results we obtained while using this system. (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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

intelligent tutoring systems
applications in subject areas
post-secondary education


An integrated visualization environment for the virtual observatory: Current status and future directions Visual exploration and discovery applications are invaluable tools to provide prompt and intuitive insights into the intrinsic data characteristics of modern astronomy and astrophysics datasets. Due to the massively large and highly complex datasets, various technical challenges are involved to reach, e.g. interactivity, integration, navigation and collaboration. This paper describes a number of approaches to address these challenges, and focuses on the current status of VisIVO (Visualization Interface for the Virtual Observatory) concentrating on the provided tools ranging from a desktop application to a science gateway and a mobile application. We emphasize the latest developments made in the context of past and current international European funded projects and highlight planned future developments towards further integration within the framework of the Virtual Observatory.

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

scientific visualization
data analysis
workflows


Energy cost optimization by adequate transmission rate dividing in wireless communication system Energy cost is the main constraint in modem wireless communication system. A powerful scheme due to optimal energy cost is provided for a single node server in this paper. In wireless communications, the total energy for transmitting packets can be reduced by proper regulating the service rate due to different packet sizes. In our study, a generic method applying the Lagrange Multiplier methods for optimizations is proposed. We show the energy cost is a convex function and it is easy to achieve the optimization. Our contribution focused on minimizing the total energy cost induced by the transmission energy in a single server with multi-queues. The methodology presented in this paper can effectively save the energy cost due to energy consumption in wireless communication systems.

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


generating representative web workloads for network and server performance evaluation One role for workload generation is as a means for understanding how servers and networks respond to variation in load. This enables management and capacity planning based on current and projected usage. This paper applies a number of observations of Web server usage to create a realistic Web workload generation tool which mimics a set of real users accessing a server. The tool, called Surge (Scalable URL Reference Generator) generates references matching empirical measurements of 1) server file size distribution; 2) request size distribution; 3) relative file popularity; 4) embedded file references; 5) temporal locality of reference; and 6) idle periods of individual users. This paper reviews the essential elements required in the generation of a representative Web workload. It also addresses the technical challenges to satisfying this large set of simultaneous constraints on the properties of the reference stream, the solutions we adopted, and their associated accuracy. Finally, we present evidence that Surge exercises servers in a manner significantly different from other Web server benchmarks.

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

network
generation
web server
web
tool
temporal
evidence
paper
performance evaluation
management
locality
role
accuracy
users
workload
variation
size
matching
server

measurement challenge understandability streams scalability benchmark association constraint review capacity-planning observability exercise relation embedding


usability evaluation for enterprise soa apis SAP recently began offering access to web services through its Enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture (E-SOA) plat-form. It is in the best interest of SAP that its E-SOA service operations are easier for developers to use and understand, which will contribute to higher E-SOA adoption, and a more effective means of innovation on the part of business customers. To facilitate such a change, Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute is working with SAP's E-SOA and Business Process Reno-vation Teams to analyze the E-SOA interfaces using HCI techniques and determine means by which developers assigned to create SOA APIs in general, and Enterprise SOA APIs in particular, can design superior interfaces. The identification of usable design patterns, and methodologies to determine these patterns, can streamline SOA projects for API developers and programmers who use SOA APIs.

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

enterprise soa
sap
web services
usability

api design
service-oriented architecture


Feasibility of respiratory motion-compensated stereoscopic X-ray tracking for bronchoscopy Precise localization in bronchoscopy is challenging, particularly for peripheral lesions that cannot be reached by conventional bronchoscopes with a large working channel. Existing navigation methods are hampered by respiratory motion, e.g., in the lower lobes. We present an image-guided approach that considers respiratory motion and can localize instruments.

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

bronchoscopy
navigation
respiratory motion


Free-vibration analysis of shells via a linearly conforming radial point interpolation method (LC-RPIM) In this paper, free-vibration analysis of shells is carried out using a linearly conforming radial point interpolation method (LC-RPIM). The present formulation is based on the first-order shear deformation shell theory. A set of arbitrarily distributed nodes in local support domains is selected to perform interpolation, and radial and polynomial basis functions are employed to construct shape functions with Delta function property. Nodal integration, which is enforced by a strain-smoothing stabilization technique, is used to restore conformability and improve the accuracy of solutions. Comparisons of current solutions are made with existing results available in literature and good agreements are obtained. Numerical examples demonstrate that the present approach provides very stable and accurate results.

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 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 I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

shell
nodal integration
point interpolation