Integrating clinical research with the Healthcare Enterprise: From the RE-USE project to the EHR4CR platform ? There are different approaches for repurposing clinical data collected in the Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) for use in clinical research. Semantic integration of siloed applications across domain boundaries is the raison dtre of the standards-based profiles developed by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry promoting the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. In particular, the combination of two IHE profiles the integration profile Retrieve Form for Data Capture (RFD), and the IHE content profile Clinical Research Document (CRD) offers a straightforward approach to repurposing EHR data by enabling the pre-population of the case report forms (eCRF) used for clinical research data capture by Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMS) with previously collected EHR data. Implement an alternative solution of the RFDCRD integration profile centered around two approaches: (i) Use of the EHR as the single-source data-entry and persistence point in order to ensure that all the clinical data for a given patient could be found in a single source irrespective of the data collection context, i.e. patient care or clinical research; and (ii) Maximize the automatic pre-population process through the use of a semantic interoperability services that identify duplicate or semantically-equivalent eCRF/EHR data elements as they were collected in the EHR context. The RE-USE architecture and associated profiles are focused on defining a set of scalable, standards-based, IHE-compliant profiles that can enable single-source data collection/entry and cross-system data reuse through semantic integration. Specifically, data reuse is realized through the semantic mapping of data collection fields in electronic Case Report Forms (eCRFs) to data elements previously defined as part of patient care-centric templates in the EHR context. The approach was evaluated in the context of a multi-center clinical trial conducted in a large, multi-disciplinary hospital with an installed EHR. Data elements of seven eCRFs used in a multi-center clinical trial were mapped to data elements of patient care-centric templates in use in the EHR at the George Pompidou hospital. 13.4% of the data elements of the eCRFs were found to be represented in EHR templates and were therefore candidate for pre-population. During the execution phase of the clinical study, the semantic mapping architecture enabled data persisted in the EHR context as part of clinical care to be used to pre-populate eCRFS for use without secondary data entry. To ensure that the pre-populated data is viable for use in the clinical research context, all pre-populated eCRF data needs to be first approved by a trial investigator prior to being persisted in a research data store within a CDMS. Single-source data entry in the clinical care context for use in the clinical research context a process enabled through the use of the EHR as single point of data entry, can if demonstrated to be a viable strategy not only significantly reduce data collection efforts while simultaneously increasing data collection accuracy secondary to elimination of transcription or double-entry errors between the two contexts but also ensure that all the clinical data for a given patient, irrespective of the data collection context, are available in the EHR for decision support and treatment planning. The RE-USE approach used mapping algorithms to identify semantic coherence between clinical care and clinical research data elements and pre-populate eCRFs. The RE-USE project utilized SNOMED International v.3.5 as its pivot reference terminology to support EHR-to-eCRF mapping, a decision that likely enhanced the recall of the mapping algorithms. The RE-USE results demonstrate the difficult challenges involved in semantic integration between the clinical care and clinical research contexts.

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

terminology
semantic interoperability
hl7
ihe

translational research
clinical protocols
information systems
controlled vocabulary
cdise


Histogram equalization utilizing window-based smoothed CDF estimation for feature compensation In this letter, we propose a new histogram equalization method to compensate for acoustic mismatches mainly caused by corruption of additive noise and channel distortion in speech recognition. The proposed method employs an improved test cumulative distribution function (CDF) by more accurately smoothing the conventional order statistics-based test CDF with the use of window functions for robust feature compensation. Experiments on the AURORA 2 framework confirmed that the proposed method is effective in compensating speech recognition features by reducing the averaged relative error by 13.12% over the order statistics-based conventional histogram equalization method and by 58.02% over the mel-cepstral-based features for the three test sets.

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

feature compensation
histogram equalization

robust speech recognition
window-based cdf estimation


anti-forensics of contrast enhancement in digital images The blind detection of contrast enhancement in digital images has attracted much attention of the forensic analyzers. In this paper, we propose new variants of contrast enhancement operators which are undetectable by the existing contrast enhancement detectors based on the peak-gap artifacts of the pixel graylevel histogram. Local random dithering is introduced into the design of contrast enhancement mapping for removing such artifacts. Effectiveness of the proposed anti-forensic scheme is validated by experimental results on a large image database for various parameter settings. Both detectability and the resulting image quality are evaluated via comparison with the traditional contrast enhancement. The developed anti-forensic techniques could verify the reliability of existing contrast enhancement forensic tools against sophisticated attackers and serve as the targets for developing more reliable and secure forensic techniques.

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

digital image forensics
anti-forensics
undetectable contrast enhancement
forgery detection


Effects of mild hypoxia in aviation on mood and complex cognition Mild hypoxia equivalent to 8000 ft does not appear to impair complex cognition. Aircrew and passengers may feel more fatigued and less vigorous at a cabin altitude of 12,000 ft. This may be restored by breathing supplementary oxygen.

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


Numerical analysis and computing for option pricing models in illiquid markets Nowadays market liquidity has become an issue of very high concern in financial risk management. This paper deals with the numerical analysis and computing of nonlinear models of option pricing that appear when illiquid market effects are taken into account. A consistent monotone finite difference scheme is proposed and a relationship between the discretization step size is obtained, ensuring nonnegative and stable numerical solutions and avoiding spurious oscillations. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

finite difference
numerical analysis
illiquid markets


Approximation for overflow moments of a multiservice link with trunk reservation ? In this paper we propose an approximation for individual overflow moments of a multiservice link with differing arrival rates, capacity requirements and mean holding times, where trunk reservation is used. The approximation is a generalization of Roberts well-known approximation for individual blocking probabilities of a multiservice link to higher moments. It can be computed very efficiently. The quality of the approximation for the second moment (variance) is comparable to Roberts approximation for the individual blocking probabilities. Thus the results provide an efficient algorithm for computing the two moment characterization of the individual overflow streams and hence can be used for the design and analysis of circuit switched alternate routing networks with trunk reservation links.

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

loss system
bandwidth
link overflow moments


Query Processing in DHT Based RDF Stores Implementing scalable RDF triple stores that can store many triples and process many queries concurrently is challenging. Several projects have investigated the use of distributed hash tables for this task. This paper gives an overview of the BabelPeers architecture and presents six heuristics to process queries while addressing the issue of network traffic between the peers and data locality in such a highly distributed system. The heuristics are evaluated with the Lehigh University Benchmark.

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


Exact enumeration of rooted 3-connected triangular maps on the projective plane We study the relation between rooted 3-connected triangular maps and rooted 2-connected triangular maps on the projective plane. We then use this relation to derive a simple parametric expression for the generating function of rooted 3-connected triangular maps on the projective plane. We believe that this is the first simple exact result for 3-connected nonplanar maps.

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


Cellular CDMA capacity with out-of-band multihop relaying In this paper, we consider the capacity of cellular code division multiple access (CDMA) when there is out-of-band ad hoc traffic relaying. The mobile stations (MSs) are dual-mode, having both ad hoc and cellular CDMA radios. An active MS is free to choose any available relay station (RS) within its ad hoc radio coverage area for dual-hop communication with the CDMA base station (BS). Communications between the RSs and the MSs use bandwidth which is available to the ad hoc radio and does not consume the CDMA capacity. Using this mechanism, CDMA interference can be reduced by dynamically selecting RSs which have more favorable CDMA link characteristics. Several relay station selection criteria are considered, namely, ad hoc relaying with low relative interference ( ARRI), with best link gain (ARLG), and with shortest distance (ARSD). The relay station selection protocols are compatible with existing wireless local area network (WLAN) standards such as IEEE 802.11. An analytic model is used to compute the effects on uplink and downlink CDMA capacities when out-of-band relaying is added. The results show that very significant capacity improvements are possible by using these criteria compared with conventional CDMA with hard or soft handoff. Ad hoc relaying which dynamically tracks CDMA link quality can achieve greater capacity improvements than that using a distance-based relay station selection. Relaying, which considers both signal and interference conditions, achieves better capacity than that based on signal link quality alone.

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

wireless communication networks
capacity analysis


Dynamic modelling of a rotary kiln for calcination of titanium dioxide white pigment A rigorous one-dimensional dynamic model of a rotary kiln for calcination of titanium dioxide white pigment is developed. The regenerative heat transfer in the kiln wall is described by a new mixed numerical/analytical approach. The model is validated by means of a dynamic test case representing a 15-day period of plant operation. The required process data are captured within a measurement campaign on a kiln run by TRONOX Pigments GmbH, Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany. The predictive accuracy of the model is estimated by means of a sensitivity analysis considering uncertainties of model parameters and measured input values. The actual agreement between simulation and measurement results is significantly better than indicated by the sensitivity analysis. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

titanium dioxide
calcination
rotary kiln
dynamic modelling


Co-op advertising and pricing models in manufacturer-retailer supply chains Cooperative (co-op) advertising plays a significant role in marketing programs in conventional supply chains and makes up the majority of promotional budgets in many product lines for both manufacturers and retailers. Nevertheless, most studies to date on co-op advertising have only assumed that the market demand is only influenced by the advertising level but not in any way by the retail price. That is why our work is concerned with co-op advertising and pricing strategies in distribution channels consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer. Four different models are discussed which are based on three non-cooperative games (i.e., Nash, Stackelberg retailer and Stackelberg manufacturer) and one cooperative game. We identify optimal co-op advertising and pricing strategies for both firms mostly analytically but we have to resort to numerical simulations in one case. Comparisons are then made about various outcomes, especially the profits, for all cases. This leads to consider more specifically the cooperation case in which profits are the highest for both the retailer and the manufacturer, and how they should share the extra joint profit achieved by moving to cooperation. We solve this bargain problem using the Nash bargaining model. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

co-op advertising
supply chain
game theory


Changes in publication languages and citation practices and their effect on the scientific impact of Russian science (19932010) This article analyzes the effects of publication language on the international scientific visibility of Russia using the Web of Science (WoS). Like other developing and transition countries, it is subject to a growing pressure to internationalize its scientific activities, which primarily means a shift to English as a language of scientific communication. But to what extent does the transition to English improve the impact of research? The case of Russia is of interest in this respect as the existence of many combinations of national journals and languages of publications (namely, Russian and English, including translated journals) provide a kind of natural I experiment to test the effects of language and publisher's country on the international visibility of research through citations as well as on the referencing practices of authors. Our analysis points to the conclusion that the production of original English-language papers in foreign journals is a more efficient strategy of internationalization than the mere translation of domestic journals. If the objective of a country is to maximize the international visibility of its scientific work, then the efforts should go into the promotion of publication in reputed English-language journals to profit from the added effect provided by the Matthew effect of these venues.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 new geometric approach to data analysis using the Minkowski polytope ? We introduce a new approach to the analysis of random samples in , based on a geometric transformation called the Minkowski polytope (MP). We describe how a theorem by Minkowski guarantees the existence and uniqueness of such a transformation, discuss its construction, and state a result about the almost sure convergence of a scaled version of the MP in . We show how the shape of the MP is sensitive to the presence of outliers and correlation in the sample. Finally, we use the MP to develop a new Monte Carlo test for spatial randomness over non-uniform populations, and illustrate its application on a well-known dataset of leukemia cases in the state of New York.

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

exploratory data analysis
clustering of disease
flatness


using spatio-temporal information in api calls with machine learning algorithms for malware detection Run-time monitoring of program execution behavior is widely used to discriminate between benign and malicious processes running on an end-host. Towards this end, most of the existing run-time intrusion or malware detection techniques utilize information available in Windows Application Programming Interface (API) call arguments or sequences. In comparison, the key novelty of our proposed tool is the use of statistical features which are extracted from both spatial arguments) and temporal (sequences) information available in Windows API calls. We provide this composite feature set as an input to standard machine learning algorithms to raise the final alarm. The results of our experiments show that the concurrent analysis of spatio-temporal features improves the detection accuracy of all classifiers. We also perform the scalability analysis to identify a minimal subset of API categories to be monitored whilst maintaining high detection accuracy.

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

malware detection
api calls
machine learning algorithms


The role of readiness factors in E-learning outcomes: An empirical study Although many researchers have studied different factors which affect E-Learning outcomes, there is little research on assessment of the intervening role of readiness factors in E-Learning outcomes. This study proposes a conceptual model to determine the role of readiness factors in the relationship between E-Learning factors and E-Learning outcomes. Readiness factors are divided into three main groups including: technical, organizational and social. A questionnaire was completed by 96 respondents. This sample consists of teachers at Tehran high schools who are utilizing a technology-based educating. Hierarchical regression analysis is done and its results strongly support the appropriateness of the proposed model and prove that readiness factors variable plays a moderating role in the relationship between E-Learning factors and outcomes. Also latent moderated structuring (LMS) technique and MPLUS3 software are used to determine each variable's ranking. Results show that organizational readiness factors have the most important effect on E-Learning outcomes. Also teachers' motivation and training is the most important factor in E-Learning. Findings of this research will be helpful for both academics and practitioners of E-Learning systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

e-learning
evaluation methodologies
iran


Rapid door number recognition by a humanoid mobile robot A static door number recognition system for mobile robots in office buildings is presented. The motivation behind the development of such a system is to update the localization results of dead reckoning or improve other distance-sensor based localization. Emphasis is placed on how to reduce the processing time of a template-matching based recognition method to enable real-time image-base localization for a mobile robot. A gap-based heuristic idea is put forward to increase the recognition accuracy. The experimental results show that door numbers can be rapidly and correctly identified under different environmental conditions and postures of the camera.

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

door number plate
template matching
image processing


Pharmacophore modeling of human adenosine receptor A(2A) antagonists Three-dimensional pharmacophore models of human adenosine receptor A(2A) antagonists were developed based on 23 diverse compounds selected from a large number of A(2A) antagonists. The best pharmacophore model, Hypo1, contained five features: one hydrogen bond donor , three hydrophobic points and one ring aromatic. Its correlation coefficient, root mean square deviation, and cost difference values were 0.955, 0.921 and 84.4, respectively, suggested that the Hypo1 model was reasonable and reliable. This model was validated by three methods: a test set of 106 diverse compounds, a simulated virtual screening, and superimposition with the crystal structure of A(2A) receptor. The results showed that Hypo1 was not only in agreement with the A(2A) crystal structure and literature reports, but also well identified active A(2A) antagonists from the virtual database. This methodology provides helpful information and a robust tool for the discovery of potent A(2A) antagonists.

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

pharmacophore modeling
adenosine receptor

a(2a) antagonist
a(2a) crystal structure
g-protein coupled receptor


Limits of the BRSIM/UC soundness of Dolev-Yao-style XOR The abstraction of cryptographic operations by term algebras, called Dolev-Yao models, is essential in almost all tool-supported methods for proving security protocols. Recently significant progress was made in proving that Dolev-Yao models can be sound with respect to actual cryptographic realizations and security definitions. The strongest results show this in the sense of blackbox reactive simulatability (BRSIM)/UC, a notion that essentially means the preservation of arbitrary security properties under arbitrary active attacks and in arbitrary protocol environments, with only small changes to the Dolev-Yao models and natural implementations. However, these results are so far restricted to core cryptographic systems like encryption and signatures. Typical modern tools and complexity results around Dolev-Yao models also allow operations with more algebraic properties, in particular XOR because of its clear structure and cryptographic usefulness. We show that it is not possible to extend the strong BRSIM/UC results to XOR, at least not with remotely the same generality and naturalness as for the core cryptographic systems. We also show that for every potential soundness result for XOR with secrecy implications, one significant change to typical Dolev-Yao models must be made. On the positive side, we show the soundness of a rather general Dolev-Yao model with XOR and its realization in the sense of BRSIM/UC under passive attacks.

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

computational soundness
dolev-yao-style
limitations
uc


the importance of objectives and strategic lagging and leading indicators in the chain import and export process using the fuzzy logic system The Brazilian Industry's profile has suffered several changes along the years upon going through many economic stagnation processes to an actual growth process. Brazil has opened its borders for the international market and consequently has increased competitiveness, productivity and the innovation capacity. Through all these changes, the Brazilian companies are getting a more flexible management, and in terms of strategic planning, the companies need to get more flexible tools to help in the decision making process. In this work, the importance of the definition of objectives and strategic lagging and leading indicators in the chain import and export process in the light of strategic planning through the use of Fuzzy Logic System is presented. The referring system is mathematically detailed in Espin and Vanti (2005) and Espin; Becker and Vanti (2005). The system has been applied in a company active in the import and export segment, which is located in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil for 48 years. Therefore, the question is: What's the order of importance of lagging and leading indicators and objectives in the chains import and export process.

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

import and export
indicators
strategic planning
objectives
fuzzy logic


Notes on Hit-And-Run enables efficient weight generation for simulation-based multiple criteria decision analysis Hit-And-Run enables efficient sampling of weights with linear inequality constraints. A generalized change-of-basis can extend the method to handling equality constraints. A flawed seedpoint generating method should be replaced by a linear program.

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

multiple criteria analysis
simulation
uncertainty modeling


Computing contour generators of evolving implicit surfaces The contour generator is an important visibility feature of a smooth object seen under parallel projection. It is the curve on the surface which seperates front-facing from back-facing regions. The apparent contour is the projection of the contour generator onto a plane perpendicular to the view direction. Both curves play an important role in computer graphics. Our goal is to obtain fast and robust algorithms that compute the contour generator with a guarantee of topological correctness. To this end, we first study the singularities of the contour generator and apparent contour for both generic views and generic time-dependent projections, for example, when the surface is rotated or deformed. The singularities indicate when components of the contour generator merge or split as time evolves. We present an algorithm to compute an initial contour generator by using a dynamic step size. An interval test guarantees the topological correctness. This initial contour generator can thus be maintained under a time-dependent projection by examining its singularities.

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

algorithms
implicit surfaces
contour generators
contour
singularities

theory
silhouette
guaranteed topology
interval arithmetic
evolving surfaces


On rough set and fuzzy sublattice Let L be a lattice with the least element 0 and the greatest element 1 and let ? be a full congruence relation on L. In this paper, the notion of ?-upper and ?-lower approximations of a fuzzy subset of L is introduced and some important properties will be studied.

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

rough set
upper and lower approximations
lattice
fuzzy sublattice


OPTIMIZATION OF DYNAMIC OUTPUT FEEDBACK CONTROLLER FOR PIECEWISE AFFINE SYSTEMS: AN LMI APPROACH This note proposes a systematic method to optimizing dynamic output feedback controller for continuous-time hybrid systems in the Piecewise Affine (PWA) form. In this note, design of the dynamic output feedback controller is shown in the frame of L(2) gain synthesis for PWA systems. Matrix inequalities derived from dynamic output feedback controller is not usually linear. Using a congruence transformation, the nonlinear matrix inequalities are mapped into linear matrix inequalities, whose solutions are quite feasible using commercially available software. The proposed techniques satisfy features such as: globally quadratic stability, continuity of control signal, and tracking a reference input. A numerical example is included to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed technique.

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

piecewise affine systems
dynamic output feedback controller
quadratic stability

l(2) gain synthesis
convex optimization
linear matrix inequality


Applying Web accessibility to Internet portals Internet portals are becoming a very popular entry point to the Web. Users utilise them because of the large amount of information available. This paper aims to highlight the major hurdles disabled and/or older users encounter in Web portals, and to issue recommendations for portals layout and structure, based upon the results of a user requirements collection carried out by the authors. The findings point out that provision of a powerful search engine is essential for successful information retrieval. Moreover, due to the diverse and sometimes contradictory needs of the user groups under consideration, the customisation of information presentation plays an important role in ensuring accessibility and usability of Internet portals. The paper also includes a brief overview of the results in relation to the actual working draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

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

accessibility
internet portals
usability

older people
people with disabilities
universal access


Collaborative image retrieval via regularized metric learning In content-based image retrieval (CBIR), relevant images are identified based on their similarities to query images. Most CBIR algorithms are hindered by the semantic gap between the low-level image features used for computing image similarity and the high-level semantic concepts conveyed in images. One way to reduce the semantic gap is to utilize the log data of users' feedback that has been collected by CBIR systems in history, which is also called "collaborative image retrieval." In this paper, we present a novel metric learning approach, named "regularized metric learning," for collaborative image retrieval, which learns a distance metric by exploring the correlation between low-level image features and the log data of users' relevance judgments. Compared to the previous research, a regularization mechanism is used in our algorithm to effectively prevent overfitting. Meanwhile, we formulate the proposed learning algorithm into a semidefinite programming problem, which can be solved very efficiently by existing software packages and is scalable to the size of log data. An extensive set of experiments has been conducted to show that the new algorithm can substantially improve the retrieval accuracy of a baseline CBIR system using Euclidean distance metric, even with a modest amount of log data. The experiment also indicates that the new algorithm is more effective and more efficient than two alternative algorithms, which exploit log data for image retrieval.

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

users
semantic gap
metric learning
regularization
semidefinite programming

content-based image retrieval
relevance feedback
log-based relevance feedback
relevance feedback log


Synovial Joint Formation during Mouse Limb Skeletogenesis Indian hedgehog (Ihh) has been previously found to regulate synovial joint formation. To analyze mechanisms, we carried out morphological, molecular, and cell fate map analyses of interzone and joint development in wild-type and Ihh?/? mouse embryo long bones. We found that Ihh?/? cartilaginous digit anlagen remained fused and lacked interzones or mature joints, whereas wrist skeletal elements were not fused but their joints were morphologically abnormal. E14.5 and E17.5 wild-type digit and ankle prospective joints expressed hedgehog target genes including Gli1 and Gli2 and interzone-associated genes including Gdf5, Erg, and tenascin-C, but expression of all these genes was barely detectable in mutant joints. For cell fate map analysis of joint progenitor cells, we mated Gdf5-Cre+/?/Rosa R26R+/? double transgenic mice with heterozygous Ihh+/? mice and monitored reporter ?-galactosidase activity and gene expression in triple-transgenic progeny. In control Gdf5-Cre+/?/R26R+/?/Ihh+/? limbs, reporter-positive cells were present in developing interzones, articulating layers, and synovial lining tissue and absent from underlying growth plates. In mutant Gdf5-Cre+/?/R26R+/?/Ihh?/? specimens, reporter-positive cells were present also. However, the cells were mostly located around the prospective and uninterrupted digit joint sites and, interestingly, still expressed Erg, tenascin-C, and Gdf5. Topographical analysis revealed that interzone and associated cells were not uniformly distributed, but were much more numerous ventrally. A similar topographical bias was seen for cavitation process and capsule primordia formation. In sum, Ihh is a critical and possibly direct regulator of joint development. In its absence, distribution and function of Gdf5-expressing interzone-associated cells are abnormal, but their patterning at prospective joint sites still occurs. The joint-forming functions of the cells appear to normally involve a previously unsuspected asymmetric distribution along the ventral-to-dorsal plane of the developing joint

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

synovial joint formation
limb skeletogenesis
indian hedgehog
interzone
joint progenitor cells

hedgehog signaling
gli proteins
transcription factor erg


an optical residue arithmetic unit The residue number system is used to partition addition, subtraction, multiplication, or integer polynomial transforms into several simpler calculations, each of which can be processed in parallel with complete independence. These segments are computationally simple such that all the arithmetic interactions can be enumerated as mathematical mappings. By routing signals through various mappings a number may be encoded into residue form, processed in various ways, and eventually decoded back to a normal number system. The signals may be routed in a manner to reflect calculations involving a plurality of operands and operations. By routing several signals in close sequence calculations may be pipelined. By routing different types of signals independently several calculations may be multiplexed. Detection of abnormalities in a segment's signal may be used to exclude the segment from the decoding process, thus preserving the correctness of the calculations. By reducing and conveniently deferring the signal detections necessary, a greater variety of phenomena may be considered for digital computation. Optical implementations are of particular interest.

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

mixed radix
error correction
multiplexing
multivalued logic
optical communications
optical computing
pipelining


Scaling up cosine interesting pattern discovery: A depth-first method This paper presents an efficient algorithm called CosMinert CosMiner t for interesting pattern discovery. The widely used cosine similarity, found to possess the null-invariance property and the anti-cross-support-pattern property, is adopted as the interestingness measure in CosMinert CosMiner t . CosMinert CosMiner t is generally an FP-growth-like depth-first traversal algorithm that rests on an important property of the cosine similarity: the conditional anti-monotone property (CAMP). The combined use of CAMP and the depth-first support-ascending traversal strategy enables the pre-pruning of uninteresting patterns during the mining process of CosMinert CosMiner t . Extensive experiments demonstrate the high efficiency of CosMinert CosMiner t in interesting pattern discovery, in comparison to the breath-first strategy and the post-evaluation strategy. In particular, CosMinert CosMiner t shows its capability in suppressing the generation of cross-support patterns and discovering rare but truly interesting patterns. Finally, an interesting case of landmark recognition is presented to illustrate the value of cosine interesting patterns found by CosMinert CosMiner t in real-world applications.

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

interesting pattern discovery
interestingness measure
cosine similarity


A Multibank Memory-Based VLSI Architecture of DVB Symbol Deinterleaver In this paper, an efficient symbol-deinterleaver architecture compliant with the digital-video-broadcasting (DVB) standard is proposed. By partitioning the entire symbol buffer into four separate parts with a special low-conflict access control strategy, the symbol deinterleaver can be implemented with four-bank single-port on-chip memory blocks with slight overhead. The experimental result shows that 30% savings of hardware cost can be achieved compared with the conventional double-buffer approach. In addition, a lookahead online circuit of a symbol permutation-address generator is also proposed, which can provide the required permutation addresses every cycle to avoid either the use of a lookup table or an extra temporary buffer. Being the major part of the entire DVB forward-error-correction decoder, the proposed symbol deinterleaver can contribute a great saving of the overall decoder cost.

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

digital video broadcasting (dvb)
symbol interleaving


a new room decoration assistance system based on 3d reconstruction and integrated service This paper introduces a room decoration assistance system that delivers a new interactive 3D service to mobile customers. First we analyze the requirements of room decoration system. Then an intelligent solution base on an efficient 3D reconstruction algorithm and integrated network are provided. The new approach makes use of the mobility property of the wireless service and the computing power of the home multimedia terminal. Visual results on real images are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new 3D reconstruction algorithm. This new system brings new richly interactive 3D experience to customers and takes advantage of the intergraded network such as three screen services to deliver the service.

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

home multimedia terminal
room decoration system
3d reconstruction


A new receiver for additive white Gaussian noise channels In this paper we study the performance of a wavelet-based receiver for the various digital communications modulation techniques, when the channel corrupts the transmitted signal by the addition of additive white gaussian noise (AWGN). This receiver is similar to the well-known optimum receiver in that it uses a correlator (matched filter) and a maximum likelihood decision stage to decide which signal was transmitted. The key difference lies in the correlation part where the De-Noised wavelet coefficients of the received signal are multiplied with M sets (M-ary system) of wavelet coefficients that correspond to M prototype signals. We derive the probability density function of the decision variable, for the simplest case, Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), and then arrive at an expression for the probability of error. We use simulations to compare the performance of this receiver to that of the classical optimal receiver. We do this for the four modulation techniques; coherent M-ary Phase Shift Keying (MPSK), differential M-ary Phase Shift Keying (differential MPSK), coherent M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (coherent MFSK), and non-coherent M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (non-coherent MFSK). We show an improvement, in terms of probability of error versus signal to noise ratio (SNR), for all four cases. This improvement ranges between 1/4 dB in the case of differential MPSK to as much as 3/4 dB in the other cases at high SNR values.

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

wavelet transform
white noise
signal de-noising


A provision-aware fair bandwidth distribution marker algorithm for DiffServ networks The rise in demand for real-time applications on the Internet necessitates Quality of Service (QoS). Differentiated Services (DiffServ) is one of the technologies used currently to provide QoS and service differentiation. It is simple and scalable. It provides service differentiation to aggregates, mainly through the Assured Forwarding (AF) per-hop behaviour. Previous work on fair sharing of network bandwidth did not adequately address the Under-Provisioned Network (UPN) condition. In this paper, we propose a new three-colour marker, named paItswTCM (provision-aware Improved TSW based Three-Colour Marker). We compare our new algorithm with both time-sliding window markers and token-bucket-based markers using simulations. Results show that our new provision-aware marker outperforms these previous algorithms not only in the UPN condition but also for low to medium network provision levels. We conclude that to achieve proportional sharing of bandwidth, no packet type should be injected at the expense of others.

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

quality of service
differentiated services
paitswtcm


A local discontinuous Galerkin method for directly solving Hamilton-Jacobi equations In this paper we propose a new local discontinuous Galerkin method to directly solve Hamilton-Jacobi equations. The scheme is a natural extension of the monotone scheme. For the linear case with constant coefficients, the method is equivalent to the discontinuous Galerkin method for conservation laws. Thus, stability and error analysis are obtained under the framework of conservation laws. For both convex and noneconvex Hamiltonian, optimal (k + 1)th order of accuracy for smooth solutions are obtained with piecewise kth order polynomial approximations. The scheme is numerically tested on a variety of one and two dimensional problems. The method works well to capture sharp corners (discontinuous derivatives) and have the solution converges to the viscosity solution. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

O O B I I 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 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


P-FCM: a proximity-based fuzzy clustering for user-centered web applications In last years, the Internet and the web have been evolved in an astonishing way. Standard web search services play an important role as useful tools for the Internet community even though they suffer from a certain difficulty. The web continues its growth, making the reliability of Internet-based information and retrieval systems more complex. Nevertheless there has been a substantial analysis of the gap between the expected information and the returned information, the work of web search engine is still very hard. There are different problems concerning web searching activity, one among these falls in the query phase. Each engine provide an interface which the user is forced to learn. Often, the searching process returns a huge list of answers that are irrelevant, unavailable, or outdated. The tediosity of querying, due to the fact the queries are too weak to cope with the user's expressiveness, has stimulated the designers to enrich the human-system interaction with new searching metaphors. One of these is the searching of "similar" pages, as offered by Google, Yahoo and others. The idea is very good, since the similarity gives an easy and intuitive mechanism to express a complex relation. We believe that this approach could become more effective if the user can rely on major flexibility in expressing the similarity dependencies with respect the current and available possibilities. In this paper we introduce a novel method for considering and processing the user-driven similarity during web navigation. We define an extension of fuzzy C-means algorithm, namely proximity fuzzy C-means (P-FCM) incorporating a measure of similarity or dissimilarity as user's feedback on the clusters. We present the theoretical framework of this extension and then we observe, through a suite of web-based experiments, how significant is the impact of user's feedback during P-FCM functioning. These observations suggest that the P-FCM approach can offer a relatively simple way of improving the web page classification according with the user interaction with the search engine. (C) 2003 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

search engines
fuzzy logic
fuzzy c-mean algorithm
human-computer interaction


On the Error Performance of the A(n) Lattices We consider the root lattice A(n) and derive explicit recursive formulas for the moments of its Voronoi cell. These formulas enable accurate prediction of the error probability of lattice codes constructed from A(n).

O O O O O O O B 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


deciding security of protocols against off-line guessing attacks We provide an effective procedure for deciding the existence of off-line guessing attacks on security protocols, for a bounded number of sessions.The procedure consists of a constraint solving algorithm for determining satisfiability and equivalence of a class of second-order E -unification problems, where the equational theory E is presented by a convergent subterm rewriting system.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first decidability result to use the generic definition of off-line guessing attacks due to Corin et al. based on static equivalence in the applied pi calculus.

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

second-order e-unification
formal methods


Quantization, Channel Compensation, and Optimal Energy Allocation for Estimation in Sensor Networks In clustered networks of wireless sensors, each sensor collects noisy observations of the environment, quantizes these observations into a local estimate of finite length, and forwards them through one or more noisy wireless channels to the cluster head (CH). The measurement noise is assumed to be zero-mean and have finite variance, and each wireless hop is modeled as a binary symmetric channel (BSC) with a known crossover probability. A novel scheme is proposed that uses dithered quantization and channel compensation to ensure that each sensor's local estimate received by the CH is unbiased. The CH fuses these unbiased local estimates into a global one, using a best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE). Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve much smaller mean square error (MSE) than two other common schemes, while using the same amount of energy. The sensitivity of the proposed scheme to errors in estimates of the crossover probability of the BSC channel is studied by both analysis and simulation. We then determine both the minimum energy required for the network to produce an estimate with a prescribed error variance and how this energy must be allocated amongst the sensors in the multihop network.

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

dithered quantization
channel compensation
energy allocation
sensor networks

performance
design
algorithms
distributed estimation
best linear unbiased estimator (blue)


Tools for channels: moving towards molecular calculations of gating and permeation in ion channel biophysics Recent X-ray structures of voltage gated potassium channels provide an exciting opportunity to connect molecular structures with measured biological function. Two of the most important connections for these channels are: first, to the molecular basis behind selectivity and the associated free energy profile underlying ionic current flow and, second, to a true molecular understanding of the large-scale conformational transitions that underlie voltage dependent gating. But, existing computational tools need to be further developed to reach these goals. In this contribution to the symposia on sampling methods we outline our dynamic importance sampling method for sampling large-scale conformational transitions as well as our studies with non-equilibrium work events and equilibrium overlap sampling (OS) methods for sampling events related to the calculation of relative free energies.

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 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

importance sampling
permeation
overlap sampling

molecular dynamics
ion channels
kinetics
relative free energy
non-equilibrium free energy


Relaxation methods and coupling procedures This paper Studies a global relaxation method to ensure the conservative coupling at a fixed interface of two Euler systems with different pressure laws. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

hyperbolic system
finite volume methods
riemann solver


Conjugate-gradient preconditioning methods for shift-variant PET image reconstruction Gradient-based iterative methods often converge slowly for tomographic image reconstruction and image restoration problems, but can be accelerated by suitable preconditioners, Diagonal preconditioners offer some improvement in convergence rate, but do not incorporate the structure of the Hessian matrices in imaging problems. Circulant preconditioners can provide remarkable acceleration for inverse problems that are approximately shift-invariant, i.e., for those with approximately block-Toeplitz or block-circulant Hessians, However, in applications with nonuniform noise variance, such as arises from Poisson statistics in emission tomography and in quantum-limited optical imaging, the Hessian of the weighted least-squares objective function is quite shift-variant, and circulant preconditioners perform poorly, Additional shift-variance is caused by edge-preserving regularization methods based on nonquadratic penalty functions. This paper describes new preconditioners that approximate more accurately the Hessian matrices of shift-variant imaging problems. Compared to diagonal or circulant preconditioning, the new preconditioners lead to significantly faster convergence rates for the unconstrained conjugate-gradient (CG) iteration. We also propose a new efficient method for the line-search step required by CG methods. Applications to positron emission tomography (PET) illustrate the method.

O O O O O B 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 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 B O O O


Binding modes of CCR5-targetting HIV entry inhibitors: Partial and full antagonists Since the CC-chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) was identified as a major co-receptor for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) entry into a host cell, CCR5-targetting HIV entry inhibitors have been developed and some of them are currently in clinical trials. Most of these inhibitors also inhibit the physiological chemokine reaction function of CCR5, which is so far considered to be safe to patients based on the observation that individuals that naturally lack CCR5 do not show apparent health problems. Nevertheless, to minimize the toxicity and side effects, it would be ideal to preserve the chemokine receptor activity. In this work, we simulated the flexible docking of two small molecule inhibitors to CCR5 in a solvated phospholipid bilayer environment. One of the inhibitors, aplaviroc has a unique feature of preserving two of the natural chemokine ligands binding to CCR5 and subsequent activation whereas the other one, SCH-C fully blocks chemokine-CCR5 interactions. Our results revealed significantly different binding modes of these two inhibitors although both established extensive interaction networks with CCR5. Comparison of the different binding modes suggests that avoiding the deep insertion of inhibitors into the transmembrane helix bundle may be able to preserve chemokine-CCR5 interactions. These results could help design HIV co-receptor activity-specific inhibitors.

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

hiv entry inhibitors
antagonists
flexible docking

cc-chemokine receptor 5 (ccr5)
molecular dynamics simulation


Valuations in Godel Logic, and the Euler Characteristic Using the lattice-theoretic version of the Euler characteristic introduced by V. Klee and G.-C. Rota in the Sixties, we define the Euler characteristic of a formula in Godel logic (over finitely or infinitely many truth-values). We then prove that the information encoded by the Euler characteristic is classical, i.e. coincides with the analogous notion defined over Boolean logic. Building on this, we define many-valued versions of the Euler characteristic of a formula phi, and prove that they indeed provide information about the logical status of phi in Godel logic. Specifically, our first main result shows that the many-valued Euler characteristics are invariants that separate many-valued tautologies from non-tautologies. Further, we offer an initial investigation of the linear structure of these generalised characteristics. Our second main result is that the collection of many-valued characteristics forms a linearly independent set in the real vector space of all valuations of Godel logic over finitely many propositional variables.

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

godel algebra
distributive lattice
valuation
vector space of valuations


Internationalization of Linked Data: The case of the Greek DBpedia edition This paper describes the deployment of the Greek DBpedia and the contribution to the DBpedia information extraction framework with regard to internationalization (I18n) and multilingual support. I18n filters are proposed as pluggable components in order to address issues when extracting knowledge from non-English Wikipedia editions. We report on our strategy for supporting the International Resource Identifier (IRI) and introduce two new extractors to complement the I18n filters. Additionally, the paper discusses the definition of Transparent Content Negotiation (TCN) rules for IRIs to address de-referencing and IRI serialization problems. The aim of this research is to establish best practices (complemented by software) to allow the DBpedia community to easily generate, maintain and properly interlink language-specific DBpedia editions. Furthermore, these best practices can be applied for the publication of Linked Data in non-Latin languages in general.

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

dbpedia
multilingual
internationalization
linked data
iri


A block-based evolutionary algorithm for flow-shop scheduling problem A block-based evolutionary algorithm (BBEA) is developed. Blocks can evolve generation after generation. New chromosomes are generated by recombining blocks and the rest of jobs. BBM can solve large size of combinatorial problems.

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

gene linkage
combinatorial optimization problem
building blocks
recombination


An anti-windup design for polytopic systems by a parameter-dependent Lyapunov function approach This paper presents an anti-windup compensation design for polytopic systems. A parameter-dependent Lyapunov function approach is first proposed to reduce the conservatism in estimating the performance of the closed-loop system under a given anti-windup design. An iterative algorithm is then proposed to design the anti-windup compensation gain. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach.

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

actuator saturation
anti-windup
parameter
dependent lyapunov function


Crossing-Preserving Coherence-Enhancing Diffusion on Invertible Orientation Scores Many image processing problems require the enhancement of crossing elongated structures. These problems cannot easily be solved by commonly used coherence-enhancing diffusion methods. Therefore, we propose a method for coherence-enhancing diffusion on the invertible orientation score of a 2D image. In an orientation score, the local orientation is represented by an additional third dimension, ensuring that crossing elongated structures are separated from each other. We consider orientation scores as functions on the Euclidean motion group, and use the group structure to apply left-invariant diffusion equations on orientation scores. We describe how we can calculate regularized left-invariant derivatives, and use the Hessian to estimate three descriptive local features: curvature, deviation from horizontality, and orientation confidence. These local features are used to adapt a nonlinear coherence-enhancing, crossing-preserving, diffusion equation on the orientation score. We propose two explicit finite-difference schemes to apply the nonlinear diffusion in the orientation score and provide a stability analysis. Experiments on both artificial and medical images show that preservation of crossings is the main advantage compared to standard coherence-enhancing diffusion. The use of curvature leads to improved enhancement of curves with high curvature. Furthermore, the use of deviation from horizontality makes it feasible to reduce the number of sampled orientations while still preserving crossings.

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

crossing elongated structures
orientation scores
nonlinear diffusion
euclidean motion group

image enhancement
coherence-enhancing diffusion


experiment management support for performance tuning The development of a high-performance parallel system or application is an evolutionary process. It may begin with models or simulations, followed by an initial implementation of the program. The code is then incrementally modified to tune its performance and continues to evolve throughout the applications's life span. At each step, the key question for developers is: how and how much did the performance change? This question arises comparing an implementation to models or simulations; considering versions of an implementation that use a different algorithm, communication or numeric library, or language; studying code behavior by varying number or type of processors, type of network, type of processes, input data set or work load, or scheduling algorithm; and in benchmarking or regression testing. Despite the broad utility of this type of comparison, no existing performance tool provides the necessary functionality to answer it; even state of the art research tools such as Paradyn[2] and Pablo[3] focus instead on measuring the performance of a single program execution. We describe an infrastructure for answering this question at all stages of the life of an application. We view each program run, simulation result, or program model as an experiment, and provide this functionality in an Experiment Management system. Our project has three parts: (1) a representation for the space of executions, (2) techniques for quantitatively and automatically comparing two or more executions, and (3) enhanced performance diagnosis abilities based on historic performance data. In this paper we present initial results on the first two parts. The measure of success of this project is that an activity that was complex and cumbersome to do manually, we can automate. The first part is a concise representation for the set of executions collected over the life of an application. We store information about each experiment in a Program Event, which enumerates the components of the code executed and the execution environment, and stores the performance data collected. The possible combinations of code and execution environment form the multi-dimensional Program Space, with one dimension for each axis of variation and one point for each Program Event. We enable exploration of this space with a simple naming mechanism, a selection and query facility, and a set of interactive visualizations. Queries on a Program Space may be made both on the contents of the performance data and on the metadata that describes the multi-dimensional program space. A graphical representation of the Program Space serves as the user interface to the Experiment Management system. The second part of the project is to develop techniques for automating comparison between experiments. Performance tuning across multiple executions must answer the deceptively simple question: what changed in this run of the program? We have developed techniques for determining the "difference" between two or more program runs, automatically describing both the structural differences (differences in program execution structure and resources used), and the performance variation (how were the resources used and how did this change from one run to the next). We can apply our technique to compare an actual execution with a predicted or desired performance measure for the application, and to compare distinct time intervals of a single program execution. Uses for this include performance tuning efforts, automated scalability studies, resource allocation for metacomputing [4], performance model validation studies, and dynamic execution models where processes are created, destroyed, migrated [5], communication patterns and use of distributed shared memory may be optimized [6,9], or data values or code may be changed by steering [7,8]. The difference information is not necessarily a simple measure such as total execution time, but may be a more complex measure derived from details of the program structure, an analytical performance prediction, an actual previous execution of the code, a set of performance thresholds that the application is required to meet or exceed, or an incomplete set of data from selected intervals of an execution. The third part of this research is to investigate the use of the predicted, summary, and historical data contained in the Program Events and Program Space for performance diagnosis. We are exploring novel opportunities for exploiting this collection of data to focus data gathering and analysis efforts to the critical sections of a large application, and for isolating spurious effects from interesting performance variations. Details of this are outside of the scope of this paper.

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

metadata
network
point
use
simulation
event
analysis
performance
tool
project
infrastructure
representation
paper
distributed shared memory
change
research
regression testing
dynamic
behavior
code
variation
implementation
process
queries
support
algorithm
utility
tools
query
data gathering
communication
diagnosis
scheduling
resource allocation
input
model
management
structure
values
space
parallel
user interface
data

activation
applications
experience
timing
graphics
informal
comparisons
automation
interval
environments
performance model
functional
version
measurement
developer
collect
high-performance
libraries
component
processor
threshold
systems
performance measurement
complexity
performance tuning


A contrast maximization method for color-to-grayscale conversion In this paper, we study how to convert a color image to a grayscale image, and consider an effective contrast maximization method for color-to-grayscale conversion. Our method is based on the combination of red, green and blue channels pixel values. The optimization problem involves the maximization of the variance of the output grayscale image, the data-fitting term between the brightness of the input and output images. A regularization term is also added to make the resulting objective function to be convex and obtain a stable combination of red, green and blue pixel values. Experimental results on a set of benchmark color images are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and that its performance is better than those obtained by the other testing methods.

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


Activity preserving graph simplification We study the problem of simplifying a given directed graph by keeping a small subset of its arcs. Our goal is to maintain the connectivity required to explain a set of observed traces of information propagation across the graph. Unlike previous work, we do not make any assumption about an underlying model of information propagation. Instead, we approach the task as a combinatorial problem. We prove that the resulting optimization problem is \(\mathbf{NP}\)-hard. We show that a standard greedy algorithm performs very well in practice, even though it does not have theoretical guarantees. Additionally, if the activity traces have a tree structure, we show that the objective function is supermodular, and experimentally verify that the approach for size-constrained submodular minimization recently proposed by Nagano et al. (28th International Conference on Machine Learning, 2011) produces very good results. Moreover, when applied to the task of reconstructing an unobserved graph, our methods perform comparably to a state-of-the-art algorithm devised specifically for this task.

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

information propagation
submodular minimization


Searching for the dimension of valued preference relations The more information a preference structure gives, the more sophisticated representation techniques are necessary, so decision makers can have a global view of data and therefore a comprehensive understanding of the problem they are faced with. In this paper we propose to explore valued preference relations by means of a search for the number of underlying criteria allowing its representation in real space. A general representation theorem for arbitrary crisp binary relations is obtained, showing the difference in representation between incomparability-related to the intersection operator-and other inconsistencies-related to the union operator. A new concept of dimension is therefore proposed, taking into account inconsistencies in source of information. Such a result is then applied to each alpha-cut of valued preference relations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

multicriteria decision analysis
valued relations
dimension theory


Multi-phase correlator-based realistic clock synchronization for IEEE 802.15.4 networks Clock synchronization is one of the most crucial and fundamental issues in distributed networks. Inaccurate factors in synchronizing clocks between nodes in the network can occur at any point in the network layers. Most uncertainties caused at the upper layers can be eliminated by hardware-assisted time stamping. However, eliminating the uncertainty of a physical layer is difficult.

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


The design and implementation of Visuel performance monitoring and analysis toolkit for cluster and grid environments The computing power provided by high performance and low-cost PC-based clusters with Grid platforms are attractive and they are equal or superior to supercomputers and mainframes. In this paper, we present implementation and design rationale of Visuel toolkit for MPI parallel program performance measurement and analysis in cluster and grid environments. Most of performance visualization tools available today for high-performance platforms show solely system performance data (e.g., CPU load, memory usage, network bandwidth, server average load), and thus, being suitable for computing system activity visualization. The Visuel (Visuel (in French language) = to visualize) toolkit is web-based interface designed to show performance activities of all computing nodes of a distributed environment involved in the execution of MPI parallel program, such as CPU load level and memory usage of each computing node. In addition. this toolkit is able to display comparative performance data charts of MPI parallel applications and multiple executions under investigation. The usage of this toolkit shows that it outperforms in easing the process of investigation of parallel applications.

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

monitoring
mpi parallel program
performance visualization


VITAL: An electromagnetic integrated tactile display VITAL is an acronym for VIbro-TActiLe display concepts and devices. The new tactile displays presented are based on an integrated electromagnetic actuator arranged in a (88) pin matrix. A multilayer approach with a simple assembly procedure enables the development of a new generation of competitively priced tactile matrices with potentially high micro-actuator density. The independent amplitude and frequency control of each pin facilitates displaying various haptic patterns; hence, the displays can be used as haptic communication media. VITAL aims to satisfy both market and haptic research requirements. This paper uses a haptic communication scenario to detail the research and technological development of the first prototype (VITAL1) and its validating experiment results. Extensions of the VITAL display technology through two additional variants and other applications perspectives are also discussed.

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

tactile displays
vibrotactile
haptic communication

haptics
multi-layer electromagnetic design


Effects of different technical coordinate system definitions on the three dimensional representation of the glenohumeral joint centre This study aimed to find the most appropriate marker location, or combination thereof, for the centre of the humeral head (Wang et al. in J Biomech 31: 899908, 1998) location representation during humeral motion. Ten male participants underwent three MRI scans in three different humeral postures. Seven technical coordinate systems (TCS) were defined from various combinations of an acromion, distal upper arm and proximal upper arm clusters of markers in a custom Matlab program. The CHH location was transformed between postures and then compared with the original MRI CHH location. The results demonstrated that following the performance of two near 180 humeral elevations, a combined acromion TCS and proximal upper arm TCS produced an average error of 239mm, and 184mm, which was significantly smaller (p<0.01) than any other TCS. A combination of acromion and proximal upper arm TCSs should therefore be used to reference the CHH location when analysing movements incorporating large ranges of shoulder motion.

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

shoulder joint centre
motion analysis error
data validity


Combining empirical results in software engineering In this paper we investigate the techniques used in medical research to combine results from independent empirical studies of a particular phenomenon: meta-analysis and vote-counting. We use an example to illustrate the benefits and limitations of each technique and to indicate the criteria that should be used to guide your choice of technique. Meta-analysis is appropriate for homogeneous studies when raw data or quantitative summary information, e.g. correlation coefficient, are available. It can also be used for heterogeneous studies where the cause of the heterogeneity is due to well-understood partitions in the subject population. In other circumstances, meta-analysis is usually invalid. Although intuitively appealing, vote-counting has a number of serious limitations and should usually be avoided. We suggest that combining study results is unlikely to solve all the problems encountered in empirical software engineering studies, but some of the infrastructure and controls used by medical researchers to improve the quality of their empirical studies would be useful in the field of software engineering.

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


Estimation of parameters for trend-renewal processes Methods of estimating unknown parameters of a trend function for trend-renewal processes are investigated in the case when the renewal distribution function is unknown. If the renewal distribution is unknown, then the likelihood function of the trend-renewal process is unknown and consequently the maximum likelihood method cannot be used. In such a situation we propose three other methods of estimating the trend parameters. The methods proposed can also be used to predict future occurrence times. The performance of the estimators based on these methods is illustrated numerically for some trend-renewal processes for which the statistical inference is analytically intractable.

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

parameter estimation
trend-renewal process
power-law process
weibull-power-law trend-renewal process


The single publication H-index of papers in the Hirsch-core of a researcher and the indirect H-index The single publication H-index of Schubert is applied to the papers in the Hirsch-core of a researcher, journal or topic. Four practical examples are given and regularities are explained: the regression line of the single publication H-index of the ranked papers in the Hirsch-core is decreasing. We propose two measures of indirect citation impact: the average of the single publication H-indices of the papers in the Hirsch-core and the H-index of these single publication H-indices, defined as the indirect H-index. Formulae for these indirect citation impact measures are given in the Lotkaian context.

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

single publication h-index
hirsch core
indirect impact measure
indirect h-index


Process algebra for performance evaluation This paper surveys the theoretical developments in the field of stochastic process algebras, process algebras where action occurrences may be subject to a delay that is determined by a random variable. A huge class of resource-sharing systems - like large-scale computers, client-server architectures, networks - can accurately be described using such stochastic specification formalisms. The main emphasis of this paper is the treatment of operational semantics, notions of equivalence, and (sound and complete) axiomatisations of these equivalences for different types of Markovian process algebras, where delays are governed by exponential distributions. Starting from a simple actionless algebra for describing time-homogeneous continuous-time Markov chains, we consider the integration of actions and random delays both as a single entity (like in known Markovian process algebras like TIPP, PEPA and EMPA) and as separate entities (like in the timed process algebras timed CSP and TCCS). In total we consider four related calculi and investigate their relationship to existing Markovian process algebras. We also briefly indicate how one can profit from the separation of time and actions when incorporating more general, non-Markovian distributions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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

performance evaluation
process algebra
semantics

axiomatisation
bisimulation
continuous-time markov chain
lumpability
resource-sharing systems


Fault resiliency of Cayley graphs generated by transpositions The star graph S., proposed by [1], has many advantages over the n-cube. It is shown in [2] that when a large number of vertices are deleted from S., the resulting graph can have at most two components, one of which is small. In this paper, we show that Cayley graphs generated by transpositions have this property.

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


Start-up flow of a viscoelastic fluid in a pipe with a fractional Maxwells model Unidirectional start-up flow of a viscoelastic fluid in a pipe with a fractional Maxwells model is studied. The flow starting from rest is driven by a constant pressure gradient in an infinite long straight pipe. By employing the method of variable separations and Heaviside operational calculus, we obtain the exact solution, from which the flow characteristics are investigated. It is found that the start-up motion of a fractional Maxwells fluid with parameters ? ? and ? ? , tends to be at rest as time goes to infinity, except the case of ?=1 ? = 1 . This observation, which also can be predicted from the mechanics analogue of fractional Maxwells model, agrees with the classical work of Friedrich and it indicates that a fractional Maxwells fluid presents solid-like behavior if ??1 ? ? 1 and fluid-like behavior if ?=1 ? = 1 . For an arbitrary viscoelastic model, a conjecture is proposed to give an intuitive way judging whether it presents fluid-like or solid-like behavior. Also oscillations may occur before the fluid tends to the asymptotic behavior stated above, which is a common phenomenon for viscoelastic fluids.

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

viscoelastic fluid
fractional maxwells model
heaviside operational calculus


Runtime monitoring for next generation Java ME platform Many modern mobile devices, such as mobile phones or Personal digital assistants (PDAs), are able to run Java applications, such as games, Internet browsers, chat tools and so on. These applications perform some operations on the mobile device, that are critical from the security point of view, such as connecting to the Internet, sending and receiving SMS messages, connecting to other devices through the Bluetooth interface, browsing the user's contact list, and so on. Hence, an adequate security support is required to protect the device from malicious applications. This paper proposes an enhanced security support for next generation Java Micro Edition platform. This support performs a runtime monitoring of the operations performed by the Java applications, and enforces a security policy that defines which operations applications are allowed to perform. Two possible design approaches for the security support are presented and compared. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

java runtime environment
program in-lining
performance


Development and application of efficient pathway enumeration algorithms for metabolic engineering applications Paper reviews the main (hyper)graph based algorithms for metabolic pathway enumeration. The FindPath and SSG revealed limitations in metabolic engineering case studies. These algorithms were improved to boost computational efficiency and scalability. Improved versions of the algorithms were able to find previously known pathways from literature. There is still room for improvement in the computational efficiency of the algorithms.

O O O O O B I O O B I 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

pathway enumeration
metabolic engineering

synthetic biology
optimal pathway design
hypergraphs
constraint-based modeling


Distributed rate allocation for inelastic flows A common assumption behind most of the recent research on network rate allocation is that traffic flows are elastic, which means that their utility functions are concave and continuous and that there is no hard limit on the rate allocated to each flow. These critical assumptions lead to the tractability of the analytic models for rate allocation based on network utility maximization, but also limit the applicability of the resulting rate allocation protocols. This paper focuses on inelastic flows and removes these restrictive and often invalid assumptions. First, we consider nonconcave utility functions, which turn utility maximization into difficult, nonconvex optimization problems. We present conditions under which the standard price-based distributed algorithm can still converge to the globally optimal rate allocation despite nonconcavity of utility functions. In particular, continuity of price-based rate allocation at all the optimal prices is a sufficient condition for global convergence of rate allocation by the standard algorithm, and continuity at at least one optimal price is a necessary condition. We then show how to provision link capacity to guarantee convergence of the standard distributed algorithm. Second, we model real-time flow utilities as discontinuous functions. We show how link capacity can be provisioned to allow admission of all real-time flows, then propose a price-based admission control heuristics when such link capacity provisioning is impossible, and finally develop an optimal distributed algorithm to allocate rates between elastic and real-time flows.

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

capacity provisioning
network utility maximization
optimization

congestion control
inelastic flow
network control by pricing
resource allocation


Broadband and rural areas in the EU: From technology to applications and use The paper examines current trends and policy issues related to broadband access and use in the rural areas of European Union (EU) member states. It draws selectively on the findings of a recently completed, multi-country project focused on current and future trends in broadband provision, applications and use in the enlarged European Union. The paper reviews key aspects and examples of the research literature and policy initiatives related to socio-economic and policy aspects of broadband, especially those focused on spatial inequalities of network rollout, access and use. It presents the main trends and issues related to broadband access and use in rural areas in EU countries and considers some related implications and conclusions.

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

rural telecommunications
telecommunications policy
broadband applications
regional inequalities