Brightness Preserving Image Contrast Enhancement Using Weighted Mixture of Global and Local Transformation Functions Transformation functions utilizing the global information content of an input image have been long serving contrast enhancement by stretching the dynamic range of intensity levels Other transformation functions focus on local information content to correct image details such as edges and texture In this paper an effective method for image contrast enhancement is presented with a mapping function which is a mixture of global and local transformation functions that improve both the brightness and fine details of the input image The final mapping function incorporates a local intensity-pair distribution generated expansion function from each image block to control the enhancement of image details' that the global transformation function alone may fail to improve Contribution from the global transformation function preserves the overall image brightness and contrast stretching Experiments show that the proposed method competes well with the crating enhancement methods' both subjectively and quantitatively

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

contrast enhancement
global transformation function

local transformation function
intensity pair


Statistical inference for the geometric distribution based on ? ? -records New inferential procedures for the geometric distribution, based on ? ? -records, are developed. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches for parameter estimation and prediction of future records are considered. The performance of the estimators is compared with those based solely on record-breaking data by means of Monte Carlo simulations, concluding that the use of ? ? -records is clearly advantageous. An example using real data is also discussed.

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

? ? -records ? ? ? ? ?
maximum likelihood estimation
bayes estimation
empirical bayes
maximum likelihood prediction
bayes prediction


Data envelopment analysis with discrete-valued inputs and outputs The conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) measures the relative efficiencies of a set of decision making units, which has real-valued inputs and outputs. In many real occasions, there are cases in which some inputs and/or outputs must only take some particularised real or integer values. These values are referred to as discrete data. The need to deal with discrete-valued data in DEA naturally occurs when we use real-valued or integer-valued DEA, but the reduced inputs and outputs of an inefficient decision making unit are restricted to some particular real or integer values. In this case, axioms such as unbounded ray, convexity and free disposability as discussed in the conventional DEA are violated. In this paper, an alternative extension of DEA in the case of discrete-valued data has been faced. An axiomatic foundation is proposed to define the new production possibility set. In order to exemplify the method, a case of 25 Iranian gas companies' activities are illustrated.

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

discrete-valued data
efficiency
mixed integer linear program
msc: 90b50


Shifting-level process as a LRD video traffic model and related queuing results Recently it has been reported that variable bit rate (VBR) video traffic exhibits long-range dependence (LRD). Various processes have been proposed for modeling traffic with LRD and analyzing its effects on network performance. However, in the previous models it is not possible to identify the effects of short- and long-term correlation of video traffic on queuing performance, and thus many seemingly contradictory arguments on the importance of LRD in VER video traffic can be found in the literature. In this paper, we present a video traffic model based on the shifting-level (SL) process. We observe that the autocorrelation function (ACF) of an empirical video trace is accurately captured by a shifting-level process with compound correlation (SLCC): an exponential decay for small lags and a hyperbolic one for large lags. Especially, we present a parameter matching algorithm for video traffic. The continuous-time first-order discrete auto-regressive (C-DAR(1)) model, which is a short-range dependent (SRD) video traffic model, can be considered a kind of SLCC process with an exponential correlation term only. Thus, comparing the queuing performances of the C-DAR(1) model and the SLCC with that of a real video trace, it is possible to identify the effects of SRD and LRD in VER video traffic on queuing performance. From simulation results, we find that LRD may have a significant effect on queuing behavior under heavy traffic loads and large buffer conditions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

vbr video traffic model
shifting-level process
long-range dependence
short-range dependence


robust camera pose estimation using 2d fiducials tracking for real-time augmented reality systems Augmented reality (AR) deals with the problem of dynamically and accurately align virtual objects with the real world. Among the used methods, vision-based techniques have advantages for AR applications, their registration can be very accurate, and there is no delay between the motion of real and virtual scenes. However, the downfall of these approaches is their high computational cost and lack of robustness. To address these shortcomings we propose a robust camera pose estimation method based on tracking calibrated fiducials in a known 3D environment, the camera location is dynamically computed by the Orthogonal Iteration Algorithm. Experimental results show the robustness and the effectiveness of our approach in the context of real-time AR tracking.

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

augmented reality
camera pose estimation
fiducials tracking


Variations on a Theme by Schalkwijk and Kailath Schalkwijk and Kailath (1966) developed a class of block codes for Gaussian channels with ideal feedback for which the probability of decoding error decreases as a second-order exponent in block length for rates below capacity. This well-known but surprising result is explained and simply derived here in terms of a result by Elias (1956) concerning the minimum mean-square distortion achievable in transmitting a single Gaussian random variable over multiple uses of the same Gaussian channel. A simple modification of the Schalkwijk-Kailath scheme is then shown to have an error probability that decreases with an exponential order which is linearly increasing with block length. In the infinite bandwidth limit, this scheme produces zero error probability using bounded expected energy at all rates below capacity. A lower bound on error probability for the finite bandwidth case is then derived in which the error probability decreases with an exponential order which is linearly increasing in block length at the same rate as the upper bound.

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

additive memoryless gaussian noise channel


the case for simple, visible cache coherency The shared memory research community has proposed many complex communication protocols that aim to eliminate specific performance bottlenecks, while still providing an easy-to-use communication interface. Although tailored protocols can eliminate some bottlenecks that arise in real applications, removing the cause of the bottleneck through software optimizations and bug fixes is cheaper to implement, faster to fix (once found), and requires no additional support by the hardware beyond a simple shared memory interface. In fact, in our experience, the choice of coherence protocol is much less important than providing an efficient hardware feedback that indentifies the source of the problem. Future cache-coherence research should focus efforts on illuminating memory system behavior, providing smarter tools to identify bottlenecks, and helping to eliminate them through software optimizations.

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

coherence protocol
performance bottlenecks

specomp2001
software optimization
shared-memory multiprocessor
cc-numa
flash


A Theoretical Study of Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Axis Dynamics Abstract: Does the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis itself generate oscillations? The affirmative answer to this question is commonly assumed, because a regular daily rhythm of its hormones is observed. We offer another plausible explanation of the origin of this pattern: HPA just responds to an external pacemaker. A qualitative mathematical model is constructed wherein all the terms in the equations are physicochemically interpretable. Linear stability analysis shows that this system does not generate oscillations. Computer simulation yields oscillations that are the system's response to an external pulsing activator, implying that the observed pattern does not have to be an intrinsic property of this system.

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


Gesture-based interaction with voice feedback for a tour-guide robot ? We describe a guide robot with advanced humanrobot interaction. The robot includes a laser scanner, a range camera and a RGB camera. We describe the human detection, tracking, recognition and interaction capabilities. Its quality in use is evaluated with over 20 users at real world environments. The robot participates in four events with successful 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

tour-guide robot
gesture interface
human-robot interaction
gesture recognition
human following
human identification
human tracking


Automated Marsh-like classification of celiac disease in children using local texture operators Automated classification of duodenal texture patches with histological ground truth in case of pediatric celiac disease is proposed. The classical focus of classification in this context is a two-class problem: mucosa affected by celiac disease and unaffected duodenal tissue. We extend this focus and apply classification according to a modified Marsh scheme into four classes. In addition to other techniques used previously for classification of endoscopic imagery, we apply local binary pattern (LBP) operators and propose two new operator types, one of which adapts to the different properties of wavelet transform subbands. The achieved results are promising in that operators based on LBP turn out to achieve better results compared to many other texture classification techniques as used in earlier work. Specifically, the proposed wavelet-based LBP scheme achieved the best overall accuracy of all feature extraction techniques considered in the two-class case and was among the best in the four-class scheme. Results also show that a classification into four classes is feasible in principle however when compared to the two-class case we note that there is still room for improvement due to various reasons discussed.

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

computer-aided classification
endoscopy
marsh classification


DECOMPOSITION-BASED LOGIC SYNTHESIS FOR PAL-BASED CPLDs The paper presents one concept of decomposition methods dedicated to PAL-based CPLDs. The proposed approach is an alternative to the classical one, which is based on two-level minimization of separate single-output functions. The key idea of the algorithm is to search for free blocks that could be implemented in PAL-based logic blocks containing a limited number of product terms. In order to better exploit the number of product terms, two-stage decomposition and BDD-based decomposition are to be used. In BDD-based decomposition methods, functions are represented by Reduced Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (ROBDDs). The results of experiments prove that the proposed solution is more effective, in terms of the usage of programmable device resources, compared with the classical ones.

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

technology mapping
logic optimization
bdd
cpld


Online resource for theoretical study of hydration of biopolymers An online resource has been developed for the theoretical study of hydration of biopolymers by the RISM (Reference Interaction Site Model) method, deriving from the integral equation theory of liquids. The online resource is based upon original software developed by the authors and includes all steps in studying a biopolymer with a given spatial structure and force field. It prepares the input data and carries out the RISM calculation yielding the atom-atom correlation functions of the biopolymer with water as solvent. From these functions the algorithm finds atomic partial contributions to the hydration free energy using various free energy expressions from integral equation theory. The calculated results are automatically recorded in a database, and become available on the website as tables of partial thermodynamic quantities. In addition, the website displays an interactive 3D model of a given molecule, the atoms of which can be painted in different colors in accordance with their partial contributions to the thermodynamic quantity chosen by the user. The user can interactively choose atoms on this molecule and their correlation functions will be displayed. The aim of our work was to develop and present a publicly-accessible resource on the basis of original software which could be used for scientific and educational purposes.

O O O O O O B O B O O O O O O O O O O O B O B O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 modular and parameterized presentation of pregroup calculus The concept of pregroup was introduced by Lambek for natural language analysis, with a close link to non-commutative linear logic. We reformulate the pregroup calculus so as to extend it by composition with other logics and calculi. The cut elimination property and the decidability property of the sequent calculus proposed in the article are shown. Properties of composed calculi are also discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

pregroups
lambek categorial grammars
logic functor
logic component


Products of Mealy-type fuzzy finite state machines We introduce seven ways of constructing products for Mealy-type fuzzy finite state machines as well as the concept of covering. The properties of transition functions and output functions are discussed. Furthermore, we investigate the covering properties and mutual relationship with regard to these products. We also prove that the covering relationship holds in the product of factor machines. (C) 2009 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

algebra
fuzzy finite automata
mealy-type fuzzy finite automata
cascade product
wreath product


automatic code generation and solution estimate for object-oriented embedded software This work tailors an Alloy model translator to Java code and an estimate tool for physical resources optimization into a design-flow. Experimental results show distinct implementation strategies only varying data structures used in generated Java code.

O B I 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 B O

design space exploration
software automation
embedded systems
modeling languages


Three-Dimensional Structure Determination from Common Lines in Cryo-EM by Eigenvectors and Semidefinite Programming The cryo-electron microscopy reconstruction problem is to find the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a macromolecule given noisy samples of its two-dimensional projection images at unknown random directions. Present algorithms for finding an initial 3D structure model are based on the "angular reconstitution" method in which a coordinate system is established from three projections, and the orientation of the particle giving rise to each image is deduced from common lines among the images. However, a reliable detection of common lines is difficult due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of the images. In this paper we describe two algorithms for finding the unknown imaging directions of all projections by minimizing global self-consistency errors. In the first algorithm, the minimizer is obtained by computing the three largest eigenvectors of a specially designed symmetric matrix derived from the common lines, while the second algorithm is based on semidefinite programming (SDP). Compared with existing algorithms, the advantages of our algorithms are five-fold: first, they accurately estimate all orientations at very low common-line detection rates; second, they are extremely fast, as they involve only the computation of a few top eigenvectors or a sparse SDP; third, they are nonsequential and use the information in all common lines at once; fourth, they are amenable to a rigorous mathematical analysis using spectral analysis and random matrix theory; and finally, the algorithms are optimal in the sense that they reach the information theoretic Shannon bound up to a constant for an idealized probabilistic model.

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

angular reconstitution
semidefinite programming

cryo-electron microscopy
random matrices
semicircle law
rotation group so(3)
tomography


Research Themes and Trends in Health Information Systems Objectives: The health information systems (HIS) field is characterized as being associated with health care and information systems. Drawing on several disciplines, a body of knowledge has come together that help define the core internal structure of the field. This study attempts to identify the emerging sub-fields using the bibliometric technique of author-cocitation analysis. Methods. Co-citation data for members of editorial boards of several health information systems journals for the period of 1998-2006 was collected and analyzed (N = 166). We performed numerous multivariate analyses, including cluster analysis, factor analysis and multidimensional scaling to extract the sub-fields. Results. Our findings indicate the presence of several strong sub-fields, including HIS evaluation, communication and e-health, and clinical DSS. In addition, we identified other sub-fields that are distinct but still emerging, such as adoption, outcome and policy, and use and impact of HIS. The study also confirms the existence of several historical sub-fields and contrasts technology-oriented sub-fields with management-oriented sub-fields. Topics on the periphery of HIS provide links to other disciplines as well. Conclusions. The study provides a unique perspective on the field of HIS, and the results indicate opportunities for further research that explores collaborations and social networks among the sub-fields.

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

author co-citation analysis (aca)
bibliometrics
health information system (his)
sub-field


A standardized blood sampling scheme in quantitative FDG-PET studies Quantitative estimation of brain glucose metabolism (rCMRGlc) with positron emission tomography and fluorodeoxyglucose involves arterial blood sampling to estimate the delivery of radioactivity to the brain. Usually, for an intravenous injection of 30 s duration, an accurate input curve requires a frequency of one sample every 5 s or less to determine the peak activity in arterial plasma during the first 2 min after injection. In this work, 13 standardized sampling times were shown to be sufficient to accurately define the input curve. This standardized input curve was subsequently fitted by a polynomial function for its rising part and by spectral analysis for its decreasing part. Using the measured, the standardized, and the fitted input curves, rCMRGlc was estimated in 32 cerebral regions of interest in 20 normal volunteers, Comparison of rCMRGlc values obtained with the measured and the fitted input curves showed that both procedures gave consistent results, with a maximal relative error in mean rCMRGlc of 1% when using the autoradiographic method and 2% using kinetic analysis of dynamic data, This input-curve-fitting technique, which is not dependent on the peak time occurrence, allows an accurate determination of the input-curve shape from reduced sampling schemes.

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


Reynolds stress modelling of rectangular open-channel flow A Reynolds stress model for the numerical simulation of uniform 3D turbulent open-channel flows is described. The finite volume method is used for the numerical solution of the flow equations and transport equations of the Reynolds stress components. The overall solution strategy is the SIMPLER algorithm, and the power-law scheme is used to discretize the convection and diffusion terms in the governing equations. The developed model is applied to a flow at a Reynolds number of 77000 in a rectangular channel with a width to depth ratio of 2. The simulated mean flow and turbulence structures are compared with measured and computed data from the literature. The computed flow vectors in the plane normal to the streamwise direction show a small vortex, called inner secondary currents, located at the juncture of the sidewall and the free surface as well as the free surface and bottom vortices. This small vortex causes a significant increase in the wall shear stress in the vicinity of the free surface. A budget analysis of the streamwise vorticity is carried out. It is found that both production terms by anisotropy of Reynolds normal stress and by Reynolds shear stress contribute to the generation of secondary currents. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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 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 B I O O O O O O O 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

turbulence
reynolds stress model
secondary currents
budget analysis

open-channel flows
inner secondary currents


Loss of phase-locking in non-weakly coupled inhibitory networks of type-I model neurons Synchronization of excitable cells coupled by reciprocal inhibition is a topic of significant interest due to the important role that inhibitory synaptic interaction plays in the generation and regulation of coherent rhythmic activity in a variety of neural systems. While recent work revealed the synchronizing influence of inhibitory coupling on the dynamics of many networks, it is known that strong coupling can destabilize phase-locked firing. Here we examine the loss of synchrony caused by an increase in inhibitory coupling in networks of type-I MorrisLecar model oscillators, which is characterized by a period-doubling cascade and leads to mode-locked states with alternation in the firing order of the two cells, as reported recently by Maran and Canavier (J Comput Nerosci, 2008) for a network of Wang-Buzski model neurons. Although alternating-order firing has been previously reported as a near-synchronous state, we show that the stable phase difference between the spikes of the two MorrisLecar cells can constitute as much as 70% of the unperturbed oscillation period. Further, we examine the generality of this phenomenon for a class of type-I oscillators that are close to their excitation thresholds, and provide an intuitive geometric description of such leap-frog dynamics. In the MorrisLecar model network, the alternation in the firing order arises under the condition of fast closing of K?+? channels at hyperpolarized potentials, which leads to slow dynamics of membrane potential upon synaptic inhibition, allowing the presynaptic cell to advance past the postsynaptic cell in each cycle of the oscillation. Further, we show that non-zero synaptic decay time is crucial for the existence of leap-frog firing in networks of phase oscillators. However, we demonstrate that leap-frog spiking can also be obtained in pulse-coupled inhibitory networks of one-dimensional oscillators with a multi-branched phase domain, for instance in a network of quadratic integrate-and-fire model cells. Finally, for the case of a homogeneous network, we establish quantitative conditions on the phase resetting properties of each cell necessary for stable alternating-order spiking, complementing the analysis of Goel and Ermentrout (Physica D 163:191216, 2002) of the order-preserving phase transition map.

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

synchronization
synaptic inhibition
phase resetting

non-weak coupling
non-synchronous dynamics
inhibitory network
type-i excitability
leader switching
spike-time response


An application of SHEPWM technique in a cascade multilevel inverter Purpose - In this paper, a new application of the Selected Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation (SHEPWM) technique used in the cascade multilevel inverter topology which is formed by series connections of one-phase bridge type inverters (H-bridge) is introduced. The advantage of the SHEPWM technique is its ability to operate in low switching frequency that makes it suitable for high power applications. Design/methodology/approach - First, the switching angles are calculated using constrained optimization technique. By using these switching angles, the fundamental harmonic can be controlled and the selected harmonics can be eliminated. Then, using these calculated switching angles, a set of equation is formed which calculate the switching angles with respect to the modulation index. The switching angles at any modulation index can be easily obtained by solving the equation set. In this study, this equation set has been solved online using dSPACE DS1103 controller board. Using this technique, three-phase voltages have been obtained from a five-level cascade inverter. These voltages are applied to an induction motor. Findings - The simulation results are verified by the experimental results. The results show that selected harmonics can be eliminated and an ac voltage with variable amplitude and frequency can be obtained using the proposed technique. Originality/value - This paper presents a new application of the (SHEPWM) technique for multilevel inverters.

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

electric converters
optimization techniques


A simple and robust three-dimensional cracking-particle method without enrichment A new robust and efficient approach for modeling discrete cracks in meshfree methods is described. The method is motivated by the cracking-particle method (Rabczuk T., Belytschko T., International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 2004) where the crack is modeled by a set of cracked segments. However, in contrast to the above mentioned paper, we do not introduce additional unknowns in the variational formulation to capture the displacement discontinuity. Instead, the crack is modeled by splitting particles located on opposite sides of the associated crack segments and we make use of the visibility method in order to describe the crack kinematics. We apply this method to several two- and three-dimensional problems in statics and dynamics and show through several numerical examples that the method does not show any mesh orientation bias.

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


Stability of small-scale UAV helicopters and quadrotors with added payload mass under PID control The application of rotorcraft to autonomous load carrying and transport is a new frontier for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This task requires that hovering vehicles remain stable and balanced in flight as payload mass is added to the vehicle. If payload is not loaded centered or the vehicle properly trimmed for offset loads, the robot will experience bias forces that must be rejected. In this paper, we explore the effect of dynamic load disturbances introduced by instantaneously increased payload mass and how those affect helicopters and quadrotors under Proportional-Integral-Derivative flight control. We determine stability bounds within which the changing mass-inertia parameters of the system due to the acquired object will not destabilize these aircraft with this standard flight controller. Additionally, we demonstrate experimentally the stability behavior of a helicopter undergoing a range of instantaneous step payload changes.

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

unmanned aerial vehicle
quadrotor
flight stability
aircraft dynamics


A multiscale discontinuous Galerkin method for convectiondiffusionreaction problems ? We provide a general framework of multiscale discontinuous Galerkin methods developed in Buffa etal. (2006), Hughes etal. (2006) for general second-order partial differential equations. We establish stability of the method and prove the error estimates.

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

multiscale discontinuous galerkin method


Three-dimensional thinning algorithms on graphics processing units and multicore CPUs Three-dimensional curve skeletons are a very compact representation of three-dimensional objects with many uses and applications in ?elds such as computer graphics, computer vision, and medical imaging. An important problem is that the calculation of the skeleton is a very time-consuming process. Thinning is a widely used technique for calculating the curve skeleton because of the properties it ensures and the ease of implementation. In this paper, we present parallel versions of a thinning algorithm for e?cient implementation in both graphics processing units and multicore CPUs. The parallel programming models used in our implementations are Compute Uni?ed Device Architecture (CUDA) and Open Computing Language (OpenCL). The speedup achieved with the optimized parallel algorithms for the graphics processing unit achieves 106.24x against the CPU single-process version and more than 19x over the CPU multithreaded version. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


SCIF-IRIS framework: a framework to facilitate interoperability in supply chains One approach that allows improving the collaboration among all the enterprises within a supply chain is interoperability. Interoperability allows the enterprises in the supply chain to collaborate in an efficient manner while preserving their own identities and their own ways of doing business through mechanisms that act as facilitators. However, there are few real practical examples of supply chain interoperability that can be used as a reference. In this paper, we present a framework that can facilitate supply chain interoperability and an example of how it can be applied to a food supply chain.

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


Global pairwise sequence alignment through mixed-integer linear programming: a template-free approach The problem of protein sequence alignment is the main starting point for biological analysis of genomic information. A new approach to global pairwise sequence alignment is proposed. This approach is formulated in a mathematically rigorous way, as a mixed integer linear optimization (MILP) problem. Not only does the proposed formulation guarantee the identification of the global optimal alignment, but it also allows for a complete rank-ordered list of any number of user specified top ranking pairwise alignments and for the incorporation of restraints based on restrictions necessary to maintain biological function. This approach has been applied to the alignment of transmembrane helices and serine proteases to demonstrate its utility and advantages over other algorithms.

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

mixed-integer linear optimization
theoretical guarantee
rank-ordered list of alignments


The sociological concept of autopoiesis - Biological and philosophical basics and governance relevance Purpose - To explore the sociological concept of autopoiesis (N. Luhmann), investigate its interdisciplinary roots and demonstrate its practical relevance. Design/methodology/approach - The biological concept of autopoiesis (H. Maturana/F. Varela) and the philosophical concept of meaning (E. Husserl) are first discussed with respect to their contribution to the development of the sociological concept of autopoiesis. The autopoietic mechanism of three different social systems is then described, and the practical relevance of the sociological concept of autopoiesis demonstrated using the example of governance. Findings - The scientific positioning of the sociological approach to autopoiesis is two-fold. On the one hand, it is firmly rooted in the scientific tradition and, on the other, its originality is determined by the adaptation and new combination of existing concepts. Although this adaptation-combination process has provoked some criticism, the result does matter because it enriches the theoretical and empirical analysis which we use to explain the dynamics of modem societies. Practical implications - The application of the sociological concept of autopoiesis to politics gives new insights into the opportunities and barriers of governance processes. Originality/value - Positioning of the sociological concept of autopoiesis within the scientific tradition and its application (beyond metaphorical usage) as an analytical tool.

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


General BE approach for three-dimensional dynamic fracture analysis A general mixed boundary element approach for three-dimensional dynamic fracture mechanics problems is presented in this paper. A mixed traction-displacement integral equation formulation in the frequency domain is used. The hypersingular and strongly singular kernels are regularized by analytical transformations yielding an easy to implement BE approach. Nine-node quadrilateral and six-node triangular continuous quadratic elements are used for external boundaries and crack surfaces. The crack front elements have their mid node at one quarter of the element length allowing for a proper representation of the crack surface displacement. The present approach is intended for the frequency domain analysis of fracture mechanics problems of any general 3D geometry; i.e. boundless or bounded regions, single or multiple, surface or internal cracks. Transient dynamic problems are studied using the FFT algorithm. The numerical results presented show the robustness and accuracy of the approach which requires a reasonable number of elements and degrees of freedom.

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

boundary elements
three-dimensional cracks
dynamics
hypersingular integral equations


Optimal design of axis symmetric linear oscillatory actuator using genetic algorithm The design optimization method of a linear oscillatory actuator (LOA) using a genetic algorithm (GA) is presented. In order to optimize the dynamic performance of the LOA, the motion analysis of the LOA is coupled with the magnetic field analysis using the finite element method (FEM). The bubble system is also adopted for the mesh regeneration to protect distorted meshes. It was found that the dynamic performances were greatly improved through GA optimization.

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

finite element method
design optimization


An evaluation scheme for assessing the worth of automatically generated design alternatives This paper introduces a tool called the designer preference modeler (DPM) that analyzes the designers decision making during concept evaluation, and constructs a designer preference model to be used for evaluation of automatically generated design alternatives. The method is based on establishing an interaction between a designer and a computational synthesis tool during conceptual design. The synthesis software generates design alternatives using a catalog of design knowledge formulated as grammar rules which describe how electromechanical designs are built. DPM carefully selects a set from these alternatives and presents it to the designer for evaluation. The designers evaluations are translated into a preference model that is subsequently used to search the solution space for best designs. Application of the method to the design of a consumer product shows DPMs range of capabilities.

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

concept generation
design automation
design selection


Gaussian random number generators Rapid generation of high quality Gaussian random numbers is a key capability for simulations across a wide range of disciplines. Advances in computing have brought the power to conduct simulations with very large numbers of random numbers and with it, the challenge of meeting increasingly stringent requirements on the quality of Gaussian random number generators (GRNG). This article describes the algorithms underlying various GRNGs, compares their computational requirements, and examines the quality of the random numbers with emphasis on the behaviour in the tail region of the Gaussian probability density function.

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


Time-integration of a hypoplastic constitutive equation in finite element modelling This paper presents the frame of a new method for the time-integration of a granular material's constitutive equation in finite element modelling. The constitutive equation considered here is a hypoplastic model developed by Wu. The paper compares the theoretical and numerical performances of the new method with two existing strategies for the integration of hypoplastic constitutive equations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science 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 B O O O O O O O O O O O O

finite element method
hypoplasticity
stability


Toward an explicit construction of nonlinear codes exceeding the Tsfasman-Vladut-Zink bound We consider asymptotically good nonlinear codes recently introduced by Xing. The original definition of these codes relies on a nonconstructive averaging argument. In this correspondence, it is first shown that in some cases, the codes can be constructed without using any averaging arguments. We then introduce an alternative construction of the codes, based on the union of a geometric Goppa code and its cosets. In some cases, the problem of explicitly describing the codes reduces to the problem of explicitly describing certain n elements of the relevant function field, where n is the code length. Moreover, the number of finite-field operations required to construct these n elements after the construction of the generator matrix of the geometric Goppa code is of the order of n(3).

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


Parametrizing Del Pezzo surfaces of degree 8 using Lie algebras For a Del Pezzo surface of degree 8 given over the rationals we decide whether there is a rational parametrization Of the Surface and construct one in the affirmative case. We define and use the Lie algebra of the surface to reach the aim. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

del pezzo surface
parametrization
lie algebra


The rough set theory and applications This paper presents a comprehensive review of the available literature on applications of the rough set theory. Concepts of the rough set theory are discussed for approximation, dependence and reduction of attributes, decision tables and decision rules. The applications of rough sets are discussed in pattern recognition, information processing, business and finance, industry, environment engineering, medical diagnosis and medical data analysis, system fault diagnosis and monitoring and intelligent control systems. Development trends and future efforts are outlined. An extensive list of references is also provided to encourage interested readers to pursue further investigations.

O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 data-driven study of image feature extraction and fusion Feature analysis is the extraction and comparison of signals from multimedia data, which can subsequently be semantically analyzed. Feature analysis is the foundation of many multimedia computing tasks such as object recognition, image annotation, and multimedia information retrieval. In recent decades, considerable work has been devoted to the research of feature analysis. In this work, we use large-scale datasets to conduct a comparative study of four state-of-the-art, representative feature extraction algorithms: color-texture codebook (CT), SIFT codebook, HMAX, and convolutional networks (ConvNet). Our comparative evaluation demonstrates that different feature extraction algorithms enjoy their own advantages, and excel in different image categories. We provide key observations to explain where these algorithms excel and why. Based on these observations, we recommend feature extraction principles and identify several pitfalls for researchers and practitioners to avoid. Furthermore, we determine that in a large training dataset with more than 10,000 instances per image category, the four evaluated algorithms can converge to the same high level of category-prediction accuracy. This result supports the effectiveness of the data-driven approach. Finally, based on learned clues from each algorithms confusion matrix, we devise a fusion algorithm to harvest synergies between these four algorithms and further improve class-prediction accuracy.

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


Deno: A decentralized, peer-to-peer object-replication system for weakly connected environments This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the replication framework of Deno, a decentralized, peer-to-peer object-replication system targeted for weakly connected environments. Deno uses weighted voting for availability and pair-wise, epidemic information flow for flexibility. This combination allows the protocols to operate with less than full connectivity, to easily adapt to changes in group membership, and to make few assumptions about the underlying network topology. We present two versions of Deno's protocol that differ in the consistency levels they support. We also propose security extensions to handle a class of malicious actions that involve misrepresentation of protocol information. Deno has been implemented and runs on top of Linux and Win32 platforms. We use the Deno prototype to characterize the performance of the Deno protocols and extensions. Our study reveals several interesting results that provide fundamental insight into the benefits of decentralization and the mechanics of epidemic protocols.

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

data replication
peer-to-peer systems
weak consistency


PMCNOC: A Pipelining Multi-channel Central Caching Network-on-chip Communication Architecture Design With the de facto transformation of technology into nano-technology, more and more functional components can be embedded on a single silicon die, thus enabling high degree pipelining operations such as those required for multimedia applications. In recent years, system-on-chip designs have migrated from fairly simple single processor and memory designs to relatively complicated systems with multiple processors, on-chip memories, standard peripherals, and other functional blocks. The communication between these IP blocks is becoming the dominant critical system path and performance bottleneck of system-on-chip designs. Network-on-chip architectures, such as Virtual Channel (2004), Black-bus (2004), Pirate (2004), AEthereal (2005), and VICHAR (2006) architectures, emerged as promising solutions for future system-on-chip communication architecture designs. However, these existing architectures all suffer from certain problems, including high area cost and communication latency and/or low network throughput. This paper presents a novel network-on-chip architecture, Pipelining Multi-channel Central Caching, to address the shortcomings of the existing architectures. By embedding a central cache into every switch of the network, blocked head packets can be removed from the input buffers and stored in the caches temporally, thus alleviating the effect of head-of-line and deadlock problems and achieving higher network throughput and lower communication latency without paying the price of higher area cost. Experimental results showed that the proposed architecture exhibits both hardware simplicity and system performance improvement compared to the existing network-on-chip architectures.

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

system-on-chip
network-on-chip
on-chip communication architecture
multi-channel central caching


Irreversible statistical mechanics from reversible motion: Q2R automata Q2R cellular automats are a nice pedagogical example for addressing a century-old question discussed at the 20th IUPAP Statistical Physics Conference in Paris last July: How is thermodynamic irreversibility, as seen in entropy increase, compatible with microscopic reversibility, as in Newton's equations of motion? The Boltzmann-Zermelo argument says that the times for returning to the low-entropy initial state of a large system are far longer than the age of the universe. How can we test this assertion? Molecular dynamics in its usual form is inadequate to address this question, since arithmetic rounding errors as well as discretization of space and time preclude return to the exact initial configuration, Monte Carlo simulations of Ising models avoid such errors but require random numbers and are therefore not reversible in the usual sense. The Q2R update rules of cellular automata for microcanonical Ising models are reversible and the system returns exactly to the initial configuration after an exponentially long time. Computer simulation of Q2R cellular automata help us to understand some very old fundamental problems. This property will br reviewed, as well well as unexplained critical exponents obtained in large-scale simulations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

teaching
recurrence
ergodicity
dynamical scaling


Simulation of complex pharmacokinetic models in Microsoft EXCEL With the arrival of powerful personal computers in the office numerical methods are accessible to everybody. Simulation of complex processes therefore has become an indispensible tool in research and education. In this paper Microsoft EXCEL is used as a platform for a universal differential equation solver. The software is designed as an add-in aiming at a minimum of required user input to perform a given task. Four examples are included to demonstrate both, the simplicity of use and the versatility of possible applications. While the layout of the program is admittedly geared to the needs of pharmacokineticists, it can be used in any field where sets of differential equations are involved. The software package is available upon request.

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


Multi-location production and delivery with job selection We study a problem of coordinating multi-location production with limited delivery capability and the option to select jobs. Each job has to be completed and delivered to a central warehouse, or customer, before its due-date to avoid incurring a job-dependent penalty. A single vehicle, capable of carrying an unlimited number of jobs, is available to transport processed jobs to the warehouse. The traveling times to and from the different production sites and the delivery costs are location-dependent. We assume equal processing time jobs and location dependent production speed. We develop several properties of an optimal scheduling and delivery policy, and show that the problem can be solved by reduction to a shortest-path problem in a corresponding network. The overall computational effort is O ( n 2 m 2 + 4 log n ) (where n and m are the number of jobs and the number of machines, respectively) by the application of the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) method. We test the algorithm numerically and show that the algorithm finds an optimal solution in reasonable time. For various special cases the computational effort reduces substantially.

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

uniform machines
multi-locations
batch delivery
weighted number of late jobs


group attention control for communication robots with wizard of oz approach This paper describes a group attention control (GAC) system that enables a communication robot to simultaneously interact with many people. GAC is based on controlling social situations and indicating explicit control to unify all purposes of attention. We implemented a semi-autonomous GAC system into a communication robot that guides visitors to exhibits in a science museum and engages in free-play interactions with them. The GAC system's effectiveness was demonstrated in a two-week experiment in the museum. We believe these results will allow us to develope interactive humanoid robots that can interact effectively with groups of people.

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

science museum robot
field trial
commutation robot
human-robot interaction


Optimization of setup times in the furniture industry The aim of this paper is to develop a scheduling policy oriented towards minimizing setup times in the made-to-order furniture industry. The task is treated as a dynamic job shop scheduling problem, with the exception that customers orders collected over aspecified period of time are combined into aproduction plan and released together. Asimulation of a production flow based on technological routes of real subassemblies was performed. The proposed method of calculating a setup time eliminates the need to determine machine setup time matrices. Among the tested priority rules the best performance was observed in the case of the hierarchical rule that combines similar setup, the earliest due date and the shortest processing time. This rule allowed the setup time per operation to be reduced by 58% compared to a combination of the earliest due date with the shortest setup and processing time rule and by over 70% compared to the single shortest processing time rule.

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

dispatching rule
dynamic scheduling
sequence-dependent setup


a power-optimized widely-tunable 5-ghz monolithic vco in a digital soi cmos technology on high resistivity substrate This paper describes the design and technology optimization of power-efficient monolithic VCOs with wide tuning range. Four 5-GHz LC-tank VCOs were fabricated in a 0.12-?m SOI CMOS technology that was not enhanced for RF applications. High and regular resistivity substrates were used, as were single-layer and multiple-layer copper inductors. Using a new figure-of-merit (FOMT) that encompasses power dissipation, phase noise and tuning range, our best VCO has an FOMT of -189 dBc/Hz. The measured frequency tuning range is 22 \% and the phase noise is -126 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset for 4.5-GHz. Oscillation was achieved at 5.4-GHz at a minimum power consumption of 500 ?W.

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


Mixing Fluids and Granular Materials Fluid animations in computer graphics show interactions with various kinds of objects. However, fluid flowing through a granular material such as sand is still not possible within current frameworks. In this paper, we present the simulation of fine granular materials interacting with fluids. We propose a unified Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics framework for the simulation of both fluid and granular material. The granular volume is simulated as a continuous material sampled by particles. By incorporating previous work on porous flow in this simulation framework we are able to fully couple fluid and sand. Fluid can now percolate between sand grains and influence the physical properties of the sand volume. Our method demonstrates various new effects such as dry soil transforming into mud pools by rain or rigid sand structures being eroded by waves.

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

computer graphics [i.3.7]: three-dimensional graphics and realism


Pinning a stochastic neural network to the synchronous state In this paper, the asymptotic stability of the pinning synchronous solution of stochastic neural networks with and without time-delays is analyzed. The delays are time-varying, and the uncertainties are norm-bounded that enter into all the parameters of network and control. The aim of this paper is not only to establish easily verifiable conditions under which the pinning synchronous solution of stochastic neural network is globally asymptotically stable but also to give a feasible way to offset the limitation of network itself in order to reach synchronization. In addition, a specific neurobiological network is also introduced, and some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the applicability of the proposed criteria.

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

synchronization
stochastic neural network


Local interaction and non-local coordination in agent social law diffusion ? There are always two kinds of forms in agent social law diffusion, which are local interaction and non-local coordination. This paper provides an integrated model to make a tradeoff between local diffusion and non-local diffusion. In the local interaction, each agent often interacts with a small set of social neighbors and imitates the locally most authoritative law; in the non-local coordination, agents may coordinate with others that are not in the neighboring places for some tasks, and will negotiate about their social laws according to the coordination strategy. With the presented model, the diffusions between local interaction and non-local coordination can be harmonized, and the diffusion impacts of different strategies in non-local coordination can also be addressed well.

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


A framework for performance measurement in the e-business environment The advent of networked economy calls for new understanding of business, and it is evidenced by the visible trend of traditional businesses either migrating to e-business or expanding to embrace electronic commerce. Constant change in the environment means continually evolving strategies, new products, new processes and new technologies to adopt. E-business metrics are needed to measure performance with the firm's strategic focus in mind, and they must go beyond the Web metrics that are discussed in the usual electronic commerce context. The basic objective of this paper is to present a framework for developing performance measurement metrics in the e-business environment. The proposed framework, designed by incorporating the balanced scorecard methodology with existing taxonomies of e-business models and the theories behind them, is intended to enable firms to develop new metrics that are needed to implement e-business strategies and tactics. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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

performance measurement
balanced scorecard

e-business strategies
e-business metrics
taxonomy of business models
nebic theory
c-suite issues
p-suite issues


A deteriorating inventory model with time-varying demand and shortage-dependent partial backlogging Recently, Chu et al. [P. Chu, K.L. Yang, S.K. Liang, T. Niu, Note on inventory model with a mixture of back orders and lost sales, European Journal of Operational Research 159 (2004) 470475] presented the necessary condition of the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solution of Padmanabhan and Vrat [G. Padmanabhan, P. Vrat, Inventory model with a mixture of back orders and lost sales, International Journal of Systems Science 21 (1990) 17211726]. However, they included neither the purchase cost nor the cost of lost sales into the total cost. In this paper, we complement the shortcoming of their model by adding not only the cost of lost sales but also the non-constant purchase cost, and then extend their model from a constant demand function to any log-concave demand function. We also provide a simple solution procedure to find the optimal replenishment schedule. Further, we use a couple of numerical examples to illustrate the results and conclude with suggestions for future research.

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


Decision making in stock trading: An application of PROMETHEE The key issue for decision making in stock trading is selection of the right stock at the right time. In order to select the superior stocks (alternatives) for investment, a finite number of alternatives have to be ranked considering several and sometimes conflicting criteria. Therefore, we are faced with a special multicriteria decision-making problem. The purpose of this paper is to develop a decision-making model for selecting superior stocks in stock exchange and a model is provided in order to structure this problem. The proposed model is structured around two pillars: Industry evaluation and Company evaluation. The preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) has been used for solving the problem. The model has been applied at Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) as a real case and a survey from the experts in order to determine the effective criteria for industry evaluation and company evaluation has been conducted.

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

industry evaluation
company evaluation
promethee

multicriteria decision making
tehran stock exchange (tse)


Fuzzy logic-based optimization for redundant manipulators Redundant manipulators have more degrees of freedom (DOF) than the DOF of the task space. This implies that the number of joint position variables is greater than the number of variables specifying the task. The problem of solving the kinematic equations for the joint variables is underspecified unless additional equations/constraints are introduced to obtain a well-posed problem, i.e., the redundancy is resolved. The redundancy resolution can be based on the kinematic or the dynamic equations of the manipulator. In this paper, a dynamic level redundancy resolution is proposed. The manipulator dynamical model in the joint space is first transformed to a reduced-order model in the pseudovelocity space. The elements of the foregoing transformation matrix indirectly determine the contribution of each joint to the total motion. These elements are selected using two fuzzy logic-based methods so as to minimize the instantaneous manipulator power: 1) in the velocity method, a nullspace vector in the velocity relationship between the two spaces is determined by imposing a constraint on the continuity of the joint velocities at the time instant when the elements of the transformation matrix experience a discontinuity and 2) in the torque method, an alternative approach introduced to reduce the computational complexity, the changes in the transformation matrix are made continuous with respect to time by the appropriate choice of a nullspace vector in the joint torque expression. The applications of these two methods to resolve the redundancy are illustrated by simulations. The methods are discussed with regard to their computational efficiency and are compared with other redundancy resolution approaches.

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


An online trained fuzzy neural network controller to improve stability of power systems The purpose of this paper is to improve the stability in a power system using a new intelligent controller. This controller is an online trained fuzzy neural network controller (OTFNNC) in which adaptive learning rates derived by the Lyapunov stability are employed to guarantee the convergence of the proposed controller. During the online control process, the identification of system is not necessary, because of learning ability of the proposed controller. One of the proposed controller features is robustness to different operating conditions and disturbances. Moreover, the Prony method is used to obtain the exponential damping of power system oscillations in this paper.The test power system is a two-area four-machine system power. The simulation results show that the oscillations are satisfactorily damped out by the OTFNNC. The proposed approach is effective to mitigate power system oscillations and improve the stability. Literature review show that no method is proposed to compute the damping of power system oscillation if adaptive and online controllers like fuzzy and neural network controller are utilized for damping power system oscillations. In this paper, the damping rate of power system oscillations is estimated by the Prony method.

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 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 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 B I

fuzzy neural network
adaptive learning rates
prony method

power system stabilizer (pss)
intelligent control system


How to Steer the IT Outsourcing Provider Development and Validation of a Reference Framework of IT Outsourcing Steering Processes IT executives entering into information technology (IT) outsourcing arrangements seek various strategic, economic, and technological benefits. However, although several cases of IT outsourcing are considered successful, cases of failure can also be observed. Problems and challenges associated with IT outsourcing often not only relate to the strategic decision whether or not to outsource, but to the operational level as well. Especially organizations with little experience of implementing larger IT outsourcing programs face problems with the steering of external outsourcing providers. In this paper, we propose a reference framework that structures the required processes for an effective steering of IT outsourcing relationships. The research is based on the design science paradigm in information systems research. In a first step, we derive a framework from related literature and knowledge in this particular area. We then undertake extensive fieldwork, including expert interviews and field studies to evaluate our framework and to develop it further. The suggested framework proves to be a viable instrument to support the systematic analysis of current processes and the definition of suitable target processes for the steering of IT outsourcing programs. This paper's primary contribution therefore lies in providing an applicable instrument for practitioners as well as in extending the existing body of knowledge on IT outsourcing governance.

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

it outsourcing
steering processes
design science


Thermal conductivity and heat transport properties of nitrogen-doped graphene EMD simulation based on GK method was employed to study the TC of N-graphene. A drastic decline in TC of graphene observed at very low N-doped concentration. TC of N-graphene approaches to each other as nitrogen concentration increases. TC of N-graphene is much less sensitive to temperature compared with graphene.

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

equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation


a polynomial time optimal diode insertion/routing algorithm for fixing antenna problem Antenna problem is a phenomenon of plasma induced gateoxide degradation. It directly affects manufacturability of VLSIcircuits, especially in deep-submicron technology using high density plasma. Diode insertion is a very effective way to solve thisproblem. Ideally diodes are inserted directly under the wires thatviolate antenna rules. But in today's high-density VLSI layouts,there is simply not enough room for iounder-the-wirel. diode insertion for all wires. Thus it is necessary to insert many diodesat legal ieoff-wirel- locations and extend the antenna-rule violating wires to connect to their respective diodes. Previously onlysimple heuristic algorithms were available for this diode insertionand routing problem. In this paper, we show that the diode insertion and routing problem for an arbitrary given number of routinglayers can be optimally solved in polynomial time. Our algorithmguarantees to find a feasible diode insertion and routing solutionwhenever one exists. Moreover, we can guarantee to find a feasible solution to minimize a cost function of the form \alpha\cdot L + \beta\cdot Nwhere \cdot L is the total length of extension wires and\cdot N is the total number of vias on the extension wires. Experimental results showthat our algorithm is very efficient.

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

polynomial manufacturability routing algorithm paper cost rules

heuristic algorithm
efficiency
experimentation
affect
technologies
optimality
functional
layout
extensibility
timing
connection
routing algorithm
effect


The impact of accounting for special methods in the measurement of object-oriented class cohesion on refactoring and fault prediction activities Class cohesion is a key attribute that is used to assess the design quality of a class, and it refers to the extent to which the attributes and methods of the class are related. Typically, classes contain special types of methods, such as constructors, destructors, and access methods. Each of these special methods has its own characteristics, which can artificially affect the class cohesion measurement. Several metrics have been proposed in the literature to indicate class cohesion during high- or low-level design phases. The impact of accounting for special methods in cohesion measurement has not been addressed for most of these metrics. This paper empirically explores the impact of including or excluding special methods on cohesion measurements that were performed using 20 existing class cohesion metrics. The empirical study applies the metrics that were considered to five open-source systems under four different scenarios, including (1) considering all special methods, (2) ignoring only constructors, (3) ignoring only access methods, and (4) ignoring all special methods. This study empirically explores the impact of including special methods in cohesion measurement for two applications of interest to software practitioners, including refactoring and predicting faulty classes. The results of the empirical studies show that the cohesion values for most of the metrics considered differ significantly across the four scenarios and that this difference significantly affects the refactoring decisions, but does not significantly affect the abilities of the metrics to predict faulty classes.

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

class cohesion
special methods
refactoring
fault prediction

object-oriented design
class quality
cohesion metric


The Relevance of Autoantigen Source and Cutoff Definition in Antichromatin (Nucleosome) Antibody Immunoassays Abstract: In the last few years, several reports have shown that chromatin (nucleosome) represents the main autoantigen-immunogen in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and that specific antibodies are an important marker of the disease. To verify the clinical sensitivity and specificity of antinucleosome autoantibodies (ANuAs), we evaluated three ELISA immunoassay methods using different autoantigen preparations: Quanta Lite Chromatin, Medizym Anti-nucleo, and Nucleosome IgG Elisa. We compared the results with those obtained using two ELISA assays for determining anti-native DNA (anti-nDNA) antibodies: Axis-Shield and EliA dsDNA. We tested sera from 321 patients: 101 with SLE and 220 controls48 with infectious diseases; 73 with autoimmune rheumatic disease (20 with rheumatoid arthritis, 30 with systemic sclerosis, and 23 with primary Sjgren's syndrome), and 99 healthy subjects. Using the manufacturer-recommended cutoff, the sensitivity for the three kits was 69%, 78%, and 74%, and specificity was 100%, 94.6%, and 95.0%, respectively. Using the cutoff corresponding to 95% specificity, the sensitivity of the methods for the ANuA assay was 86%, 77%, and 74%higher than obtained with the two ELISA methods for anti-nDNA (65% and 64%). This study demonstrates that (1) the commercial reagents employed in clinical laboratories for ANuA detection show good sensitivity and high specificity; (2) ANuAs are more sensitive than anti-nDNA antibodies for diagnosing SLE; and (3) different solid-phase antigen preparations and methods used to define cutoff levels may affect a test's clinical performance.

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

receiver operating characteristic (roc) curves


Alert correlation: Severe attack prediction and controlling false alarm rate tradeoffs Alert correlation plays an increasingly crucial role in nowadays computer security infrastructures. It is particularly needed for coping with the huge amounts of alerts which are daily triggered by intrusion detection systems (IDSs), fire-walls, etc. While the use of multiple IDSs, security tools and complementary approaches is fundamental and highly recommended in order to improve the overall detection rates, this however inevitably causes huge amounts of alerts most of which are redundant and false alarms making the manual analysis of these triggered alerts time-consuming and inefficient. This paper addresses three important issues related to predicting severe attacks (attacks with high dangerousness levels) by analyzing inoffensive and preparatory attacks. i) Firstly, we address the issue of preprocessing alerts reported by the multiple detection tools in order to eliminate the redundant and irrelevant alerts and format them so that they can be analyzed by a severe attack prediction model. ii) Then, we propose a novel prediction model based on a Bayesian network multi-net allowing on one hand to better model the severe attacks and on the other hand handle the reliability of IDSs when predicting severe attacks. iii) Finally, we provide a flexible and efficient approach especially designed to limit the false alarm rates by controlling the confidence of the prediction model. The main benefits of our approach is an integrated model guaranteeing very promising prediction/false alarm rate tradeoffs with minimum expert intervention. Our experimental studies are carried out on a real and representative alert corpus generated by the de facto network-based IDS Snort, and show very interesting performances regarding the tradeoffs between the prediction rates and the corresponding false alarm ones.

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

alert correlation
severe attack prediction

idss' reliability
bayesian multi-nets
reasoning with uncertain evidence
reject option


Diagnosability of star graphs with missing edges In this paper, we study the system diagnosis on an n-dimensional star under the comparison model. Following the concept of local diagnosability [3], the strong local diagnosability property [7] is discussed; this property describes the equivalence of the local diagnosability of a node and its degree. We prove that an n-dimensional star has this property, and it keeps this strong property even if there exist n - 3 missing edges in it. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. 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 B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

star graph
comparison diagnosis model
mm* diagnosis model
extended star structure
strong local diagnosability property


A novel methodology for the design of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs) using a machine description language The development of application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIP) is currently the exclusive domain of the semiconductor houses and core vendors. This is due to the fact that building such an architecture is a difficult task that requires expertise in different domains: application software development tools, processor hardware implementation, and system integration and verification. This article presents a retargetable framework for ASIP design which is based on machine descriptions in the LISA language. From that, software development tools can be generated automatically including high-level language C compiler, assembler, linker, simulator, and debugger frontend. Moreover, for architecture implementation, synthesizable hardware description language code can be derived, which can then be processed by standard synthesis tools. Implementation results for a low-power ASIP for digital video broadcasting terrestrial acquisition and tracking algorithms designed with the presented methodology will be given. To show the quality of the generated software development tools, they are compared in speed and functionality with commercially available tools of state-of-the-art digital signal processor and muC architectures.

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

architecture exploration
machine description languages
system-on-chip


On the greatest solutions to weakly linear systems of fuzzy relation inequalities and equations In this paper we study systems of fuzzy relation inequalities and equations of the form U circle V-i <= V-i circle U (i is an element of I), where U is an unknown and V-i (i is an element of I) are given fuzzy relations, the dual systems V-i circle U <= U circle V-i (i is an element of I), their conjunctions, the systems of the form U circle V-i = V-i circle (i is an element of I), and certain special types of these systems. We call them weakly linear systems. For each weakly linear system, with a complete residuated lattice as the underlying structure of truth values, we prove the existence of the greatest solution, and we provide an algorithm for computing the greatest solution, which works whenever the underlying complete residuated lattice is locally finite. Otherwise, we determine some sufficient conditions under which the algorithm works. The algorithm is iterative, and each its single step can be viewed as solving of a particular linear system. Weakly linear systems emerged from the fuzzy automata theory, but we show that they also have important applications in other fields, e.g. in the concurrency theory and social network analysis. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy relations
fuzzy relation inequalities

fuzzy relation equations
residuals of fuzzy relations
complete residuated lattices
fuzzy quasi-orders
fuzzy equivalences
regular fuzzy relations
post-fixed points


Revisiting the algebra of Petri net processes under the collective token philosophy Revisiting the view of "Petri nets as monoids" suggested by Meseguer and Montanari, we give a direct proof of the well-known result that the class of Best/Devillers processes, which represents the behavior of Petri nets under the collective token semantics, has a sound and complete axiomatization in terms of symmetric monoidal categories. Using membership equational logic for the axiomatization, we prove the result by an explicit construction of a natural isomorphism between suitable functors. Our interest in the collective token semantics is motivated by earlier work on the use of rewriting logic as a uniform framework for different Petri net classes, especially including high-level Petri nets, where individuality of tokens can be already expressed at the system level.

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

collective token philosophy
membership equational logic
rewriting logic

place/transition nets
best/devillers processes


M-MUSICS: an intelligent mobile music retrieval system Accurate voice humming transcription and efficient indexing and retrieval schemes are essential to a large-scale humming-based audio retrieval system. Although much research has been done to develop such schemes, their performance in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure, among all similarity metrics, are still unsatisfactory. In this paper, we propose a new voice query transcription scheme. It considers the following features: note onset detection using dynamic threshold methods, fundamental frequency (F0) acquisition of each frame, and frequency realignment using K-means. We use a popularity-adaptive indexing structure called frequently accessed index (FAI) based on frequently queried tunes for indexing purposes. In addition, we propose a semi-supervised relevance feedback and query reformulation scheme based on a genetic algorithm to improve retrieval efficiency. In this paper, we extend our efforts to mobile multimedia environments and develop a mobile audio retrieval system. Experiments show our system performs satisfactory in wireless mobile multimedia environments.

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

content-based audio retrieval
mobile platform
signal processing


Constructing Isosurfaces with Sharp Edges and Corners using Cube Merging A number of papers present algorithms to construct isosurfaces with sharp edges and corners from hermite data, i.e. the exact surface normals at the exact intersection of the surface and grid edges. We discuss some fundamental problems with the previous algorithms and describe a new approach, based on merging grid cubes near sharp edges, that produces significantly better results. Our algorithm requires only gradients at the grid vertices, not at each surface-edge intersection point. We also give a method for measuring the correctness of the resulting sharp edges and corners in the isosurface. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I. 3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling-Curve, surface, solid, and object representations

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

i.3.5 [computer graphics]: computational geometry and object modeling

curve, surface, solid, and object representations


A BioMEMS chip with integrated micro electromagnet array towards bio-particles manipulation A novel BioMEMS chip towards the manipulation of micro/nano magnetic particles is proposed. Electromagnets array and microfluidic structure are fabricated on a compact chip, without any post-fabrication process. A universal optimization method for the design of a planar microcoil array. A new tubeless method to introduce fluid onto MEMS chip.

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

planar microcoil array
magnetic particles
manipulation


Spectral Shape of Doubly-Generalized LDPC Codes: Efficient and Exact Evaluation This paper analyzes the asymptotic exponent of the weight spectrum for irregular doubly-generalized LDPC (D-GLDPC) codes. In the process, an efficient numerical technique for its evaluation is presented, involving the solution of a 4 x 4 system of polynomial equations. The expression is consistent with previous results, including the case where the normalized weight or stopping set size tends to zero. The spectral shape is shown to admit a particularly simple form in the special case where all variable nodes are repetition codes of the same degree, a case which includes Tanner codes; for this case it is also shown how certain symmetry properties of the local weight distribution at the CNs induce a symmetry in the overall weight spectral shape function. Finally, using these new results, weight and stopping set size spectral shapes are evaluated for some example generalized and doubly-generalized LDPC code ensembles.

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

doubly-generalized ldpc codes
irregular code ensembles
stopping set size distribution


ICTCP: Incast Congestion Control for TCP in Data-Center Networks Transport Control Protocol (TCP) incast congestion happens in high-bandwidth and low-latency networks when multiple synchronized servers send data to the same receiver in parallel. For many important data-center applications such as MapReduce and Search, this many-to-one traffic pattern is common. Hence TCP incast congestion may severely degrade their performances, e.g., by increasing response time. In this paper, we study TCP incast in detail by focusing on the relationships between TCP throughput, round-trip time (RTT), and receive window. Unlike previous approaches, which mitigate the impact of TCP incast congestion by using a fine-grained timeout value, our idea is to design an Incast congestion Control for TCP (ICTCP) scheme on the receiver side. In particular, our method adjusts the TCP receive window proactively before packet loss occurs. The implementation and experiments in our testbed demonstrate that we achieve almost zero timeouts and high goodput for TCP incast.

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


PACAP Inhibits Oxidative Stress-Induced Activation of MAP Kinase-Dependent Apoptotic Pathway in Cultured Cardiomyocytes The present article investigated the effect of pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) on oxidative stress-induced apoptosis in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Our results show that PACAP decreased the ratio of apoptotic cells following H2O2 treatment. PACAP also diminished the activity of apoptosis signal-regulating kinase. These effects of PACAP were counteracted by the PACAP antagonist PACAP6-38. In summary, our results show that PACAP is able to attenuate oxidative stress-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis and suggest that its cardioprotective effect is mediated through inhibition of the MAP kinase-dependent apoptotic pathway

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