Model interpreter frameworks: A foundation for the analysis of domain-specific software architectures Prediction of the quality attributes of software architectures requires technologies that enable the application of analytic theories to component models. However, available analytic techniques generally operate on formal models specified in notations that cannot flexibly and intuitively capture the architectures of large-scale distributed systems. The construction of model interpreters that transform architectural models into analysis models has proved to be a complex and difficult task. This paper ( 1) describes a methodology for performing automated analysis of architectural models that simplifies the development of model interpreters and enables effective reuse of interpreter logic, and ( 2) demonstrates how a framework that utilizes the methodology can be designed, implemented, utilized, and evaluated.

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

software architecture
model-driven engineering
component-based systems


Correlation clustering in general weighted graphs We consider the following general correlation-clustering problem [N. Bansal, A. Blum, S. Chawla, Correlation clustering, in: Proc. 43rd Annu. IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, Vancouver, Canada, November 2002, pp. 238-250]: given a graph with real nonnegative edge weights and a (+)/(-) edge labelling, partition the vertices into clusters to minimize the total weight of cut (+) edges and uncut (-) edges. Thus, (+) edges with large weights (representing strong correlations between endpoints) encourage those endpoints to belong to a common cluster while (-) edges with large weights encourage the endpoints to belong to different clusters. In contrast to most clustering problems, correlation clustering specifies neither the desired number of clusters nor a distance threshold for clustering; both of these parameters are effectively chosen to be the best possible by the problem definition. Correlation clustering was introduced by Bansal et al. [Correlation clustering, in: Proc. 43rd Annu. IEEE Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, Vancouver, Canada, November 2002, pp. 238-250], motivated by both document clustering and agnostic learning. They proved NP-hardness and gave constant-factor approximation algorithms for the special case in which the graph is complete (full information) and every edge has the same weight. We give an 0 (log n) -approximation algorithm for the general case based on a linear-programming rounding and the "region-growing" technique. We also prove that this linear program has a gap of Omega(log n), and therefore our approximation is tight under this approach. We also give an O(r(3))-approximation algorithm for K-r,K-r-minor-free graphs. On the other hand, we show that the problem is equivalent to minimum multicut, and therefore APX-hard and difficult to approximate better than Theta(log n). (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

clustering
approximation algorithms
minimum multicut


New and improved level heuristics for the rectangular strip packing and variable-sized bin packing problems We consider two types of orthogonal, oriented, rectangular, two-dimensional packing problems. The first is the strip packing problem, for which four new and improved level-packing algorithms are presented. Two of these algorithms guarantee a packing that may be disentangled by guillotine cuts. These are combined with a two-stage heuristic designed to find a solution to the variable-sized bin packing problem, where the aim is to pack all items into bins so as to minimise the packing area. This heuristic packs the levels of a solution to the strip packing problem into large bins and then attempts to repack the items in those bins into smaller bins in order to reduce wasted space. The results of the algorithms are compared to those of seven level-packing heuristics from the literature by means of a large number of strip-packing benchmark instances. It is found that the new algorithms are an improvement over known level-packing heuristics for the strip packing problem. The advancements made by the new and improved algorithms are limited in terms of utilised space when applied to the variable-sized bin packing problem. However, they do provide results faster than many existing algorithms.

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


Adaptive cascade of boosted ensembles for face detection in concept drift We propose an adaptive learning algorithm for cascades of boosted ensembles that is designed to handle the problem of concept drift in nonstationary environments. The goal was to create a real-time adaptive algorithm for dynamic environments that exhibit varying degrees of drift in high-volume streaming data. This we achieved using a hybrid of and approaches. The uniqueness of our method is found in two aspects of our framework. The first is the manner in which individual weak classifiers within each cascade layer of an ensemble are clustered during training and assigned a competence value. Secondly, the idea of learning optimal cascade-layer thresholds during runtime, which enables rapid adaptation to dynamic environments. The proposed adaptive learning method was applied to a binary-class problem with rare-event detection characteristics. For this, we chose the domain of face detection and demonstrate experimentally the ability of our algorithm to achieve an effective trade-off between accuracy and speed of adaptations in dense data streams with unknown rates of change.

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

adaptive learning
concept drift
nonstationary environments
cascades
face detection

ensemble-based learning
boosting
adaboost


A Platform for High Performance and Flexible Virtual Routers on Commodity Hardware Multi-core CPUs, along with recent advances in memory and buses, render commodity hardware a strong candidate for software router virtualization. In this context, we present the design of a new platform for virtual routers on modern PC hardware. We further discuss our design choices in order to achieve both high performance and flexibility for packet processing.

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

design
virtualization
routers
commodity hardware


usability context analysis for virtual reality training in south african mines The usability of any tool or system has to be viewed in terms of the context in which it is used, and its appropriateness to that context. According to the ISO definition of usability, the context of use includes the users, tasks, equipment (hardware, software and materials), and the physical and social environments in which a product is used. Context analysis provides a framework to ensure that all factors which may affect the usability of a product are considered. Safety in the South African mining industry is a vital issue. On average, one worker dies every working day, and about 16 are injured in mine-related accidents. Inadequate or insufficient training is often cited as a root cause for many mining fatalities. However, training outside the direct working environment provides only limited real-life opportunities and may fail to make a significant impact within the tense working environment itself. Virtual reality-based training tools can, by contrast, provide simulated exposure to real-world working conditions without the associated risks. This paper discusses contextual analysis for virtual reality (VR) application development, applied to safety training in mines. This contextual analysis has been conducted to contribute to the usability of future system design. It also provides a basis for designing subsequent usability evaluations. The results of the context analysis were applied to the design of a prototype, which was used and evaluated at two large platinum mines.

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

context of use
usability
context analysis
safety training
virtual reality


A cloud computing platform for ERP applications A CloudERP platform was proposed. Customers can select web services and customize an ERP system. The proposed process builds on the GA and incorporates with the rough set theory. A prototype was built on the Google App Engine to verify the proposed process.

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

web services composition
genetic algorithms


Recognition of control chart patterns using an intelligent technique Control chart patterns (CCPs) are important statistical process control tools for determining whether a process is run in its intended mode or in the presence of unnatural patterns. Automatic recognition of abnormal patterns in control charts has seen increasing demands nowadays in the manufacturing processes. This paper presents a novel hybrid intelligent method for recognition of common types of CCP. The proposed method includes three main modules: the feature extraction module, the classifier module and optimization module. In the feature extraction module, a proper set of the shape features and statistical features is proposed as the efficient characteristic of the patterns. In the classifier module multilayer perceptron neural network and support vector machine (SVM) are investigated. In support vector machine training, the hyper-parameters have very important roles for its recognition accuracy. Therefore, in the optimization module, improved bees algorithm is proposed for selecting of appropriate parameters of the classifier. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has very high recognition accuracy.

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

control chart patterns
shape features
support vector machine


Cyclic constructions of distance-preserving maps Distance-preserving maps (DPMs) from binary vectors to permutations are useful for the construction of permutation arrays. A new construction of DPMs is presented. We study the distance increasing property of the new DPMs that this construction yields. Then we show that new DPMs contain a class of nicely structured DPMs of even length with good distance increasing property.

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

distance-preserving maps (dpms)
hamming distance


Can we predict the failure point of a loaded composite material? As a model of composite material, the fiber bundle model has been chosen where a bundle of fibers is subjected to external load and fibers have distributed thresholds. For different loading conditions, such a system shows few precursors which indicate that the complete failure is imminent. When external load is increased quasi-statically bursts (number of failing fibers) of different sizes are produced. The burst statistics shows a robust crossover behavior near the failure point, around which the average burst size seems to diverge. If the load is increased by discrete steps, susceptibility and relaxation time diverge as failure point is approached. When the bundle is overloaded (external load is more than critical load) the rate of breaking shows a minimum at half way to the collapse point. The pattern and statistics of energy emission bursts show characteristic difference for below-critical and over-critical load levels.

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

fiber bundle model
susceptibility
relaxation time

burst distribution
breaking rate
energy burst


Liner ship fleet deployment with week-dependent container shipment demand This paper addresses a practical liner ship fleet deployment problem with week-dependent container shipment demand and transit time constraint, namely, maximum allowable transit time in container routing between a pair of ports. It first uses the spacetime network approach to generate practical container routes subject to the transit time constraints. This paper proceeds to formulate the fleet deployment problem based on the practical container routes generated. In view of the intractability of the formulation, two relaxation models providing lower bounds are built: one requires known container shipment demand at the fleet deployment stage, and the other assumes constant container shipment demand over the planning horizon. An efficient global optimization algorithm is subsequently proposed. Extensive numerical experiments on the shipping data of a global liner shipping company demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and algorithm.

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

liner ship fleet deployment
transit time constraint


High-order linear multistep methods with general monotonicity and boundedness properties We consider linear multistep methods that possess general monotonicity and boundedness properties. Strict monotonicity, in terms of arbitrary starting values for the multistep schemes, is only valid for a small class of methods, under very stringent step size restrictions. This makes them uncompetitive with the strong-stability-preserving (SSP) RungeKutta methods. By relaxing these strict monotonicity requirements a larger class of methods can be considered, including many methods of practical interest. In this paper we construct linear multistep methods of high-order (up to six) that possess relaxed monotonicity or boundedness properties with optimal step size conditions. Numerical experiments show that the new schemes perform much better than the classical monotonicity-preserving multistep schemes. Moreover there is a substantial gain in efficiency compared to recently constructed SSP RungeKutta (SSPRK) 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


3d sound interactive environments for problem solving Audio-based virtual environments have been increasingly used to foster cognitive and learning skills. A number of studies have also highlighted that the use of technology can help learners to develop affective skills such as motivation and self-esteem. This study presents the design and usability of 3D interactive environments for children with visual disabilities to help them to solve problems related with the Chilean geography and culture. We introduce AudioChile, a virtual environment that can be navigated through 3D sound to enhance spatiality and immersion throughout the environment. 3D sound is used to orientate, avoid obstacles, and identify the position of diverse personages and objects within the environment. We have found during usability evaluation that sound can be fundamental for attention and motivation purposes during interaction. Learners identified and differentiated clearly environmental sounds to solve everyday problems, spatial orientation, and laterality.

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

hyperstories
role-playing game
virtual world


A schedule cache for data parallel unstructured computations High Performance Fortran (HPF) is the de facto standard language for writing data parallel programs. This study describes a dynamic approach for optimizing unstructured communication in codes with indirect addressing. The basic idea is that the run-time data reflecting the communication patterns will be reused if possible. The user has only to specify which data in the program have to be traced for modifications. The experiments and results show the effectiveness of the chosen approach.

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


Sliding windows over uncertain data streams Uncertain data streams can have tuples with both value and existential uncertainty. A tuple has value uncertainty when it can assume multiple possible values. A tuple is existentially uncertain when the sum of the probabilities of its possible values is \(<\)1. A situation where existential uncertainty can arise is when applying relational operators to streams with value uncertainty. Several prior works have focused on querying and mining data streams with both value and existential uncertainty. However, none of them have studied, in depth, the implications of existential uncertainty on sliding window processing, even though it naturally arises when processing uncertain data. In this work, we study the challenges arising from existential uncertainty, more specifically the management of count-based sliding windows, which are a basic building block of stream processing applications. We extend the semantics of sliding window to define the novel concept of uncertain sliding windows and provide both exact and approximate algorithms for managing windows under existential uncertainty. We also show how current state-of-the-art techniques for answering similarity join queries can be easily adapted to be used with uncertain sliding windows. We evaluate our proposed techniques under a variety of configurations using real data. The results show that the algorithms used to maintain uncertain sliding windows can efficiently operate while providing a high-quality approximation in query answering. In addition, we show that sort-based similarity join algorithms can perform better than index-based techniques (on 17 real datasets) when the number of possible values per tuple is low, as in many real-world applications.

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

data stream processing
uncertainty management


Investigation of atomic vapour deposited TiN/HfO2/SiO2 gate stacks for MOSFET devices HfO2 films were grown by atomic vapour deposition (AVD) on SiO2/Si (100) substrates. The positive shift of the flat band voltage of the HfO2 based metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) devices indicates the presence of negative fixed charges with a density of 51012cm?2. The interface trap charge density of HfO2/SiO2 stacks can be reduced to 31011eV?1cm?2 near mid gap, by forming gas annealing. The extracted work function of 4.7eV preferred the use of TiN as metal gate for PMOS transistors. TiN/HfO2/SiO2 gate stacks were integrated into gate-last-formed MOSFET structures. The extracted maximum effective mobility of HfO2 based PMOS transistors is 56cm2/Vs.

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


A compromise solution for the multiobjective stochastic linear programming under partial uncertainty This paper solves the multiobjective stochastic linear program with partially known probability. We address the case where the probability distribution is defined by crisp inequalities. We propose a chance constrained approach and a compromise programming approach to transform the multiobjective stochastic linear program with linear partial information on probability distribution into its equivalent uniobjective problem. The resulting program is then solved using the modified L-shaped method. We illustrate our results by an example.

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

compromise programming
chance constrained approach

multiobjective stochastic programming
modified l-shaped method


Numerical modeling of long sub-wavelength patterned structures The modeling of Cavity Resonator Integrated Grating Filter (CRIGF) structures, which are long but finite sub wavelength-patterned structures composed with a grating in-out coupler flanked with two Bragg reflectors, is challenging for any numerical method. We show how a numerical code based on RCWA, usually dedicated to model periodic structures, can be used, with minor modifications, to model CRIGFs within a reasonable time of calculation with a personal computer. Our results are in agreement with the calculations based on the FDTD method published in the literature.

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

rigorous coupled waves analysis
fourier modal method
bragg reflector


Multidimensional taxonomy of learners cognitive processing in discourse synthesis with hypermedia An exploratory study was undertaken to quantify the cognitive process of discourse synthesis within a hypermedia learning environment. The focus was on learners discourse synthesis and the cognitive processing that was activated while using the Perseus database. The data for the study was transcribed from tape recordings of thinking aloud protocols as the learners worked on their tasks. All protocols were transcribed verbatim and categorized according to the strategy of the content. A functional model and taxonomy were developed to characterize the cognitive operations and thinking processes of the learners interactions with Perseus. The proposed taxonomy characterized their cognitive engagement within hypermedia from a broader context. The study showed that the learners electronic discourse synthesis is a problem-solving activity, which calls into play a variety of cognitive processes. It is a multifaceted construct that entails thick cognition with many highly correlated factors, such as the learners cognitive and metacognitive processes, physical operations, affective responses, reasoning and inter-textual interpreting. It is emphasized that the taxonomy is not discrete or stand-alone, but complexly intertwined and complementary. The study concludes with practical and theoretical concerns that emerged from this focus on discourse synthesis within hypermedia.

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

cognitive processing
discourse synthesis
thinking aloud


Proposal for preprogrammed control applied to a current-sensorless PFC boost converter The development of front-end converters for power factor correction and DC link voltage control of power electronics converters such as, UPS, Inverters, and Switched Power Supplies, has been attracting great interest from the scientific community that works toward the achievements of cost reduction, high efficiency, and reliability. In this context, this paper proposes a microprocessed control technique for sinusoidal input line current imposition in front-end acdc converters. This gave rise to an innovative sensorless boost converter, named in this work as PFC-Boost-CSL. The proposed method is based on experimental acquisition of gate-drive signal sequences for different load conditions. These signals correspond to a complete cycle of the AC input voltage and are recorded in the microcontroller memory in order to be reproduced when used in a boost converter without current sensor. In the operation of PFC-Boost-CSL, a suitable switching sequence is sent to drive the power switch in order to minimize output voltage error and maintain a sinusoidal input current. Aiming to prove the proposed control concept, a 600W PFC-Boost-CSL prototype was built and analyzed in laboratory and the main experimental results are presented herein.

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


Experimental analysis of heuristics for the bottleneck traveling salesman problem In this paper we develop efficient heuristic algorithms to solve the bottleneck traveling salesman problem (BTSP). Results of extensive computational experiments are reported. Our heuristics produced optimal solutions for all the test problems considered from TSPLIB, JM-instances, National TSP instances, and VLSI TSP instances in very reasonable running time. We also conducted experiments with specially constructed hard instances of the BTSP that produced optimal solutions for all but seven problems. Some fast construction heuristics are also discussed. Our algorithms could easily be modified to solve related problems such as the maximum scatter TSP and testing hamiltonicity of a graph.

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

traveling salesman problem
experimental analysis
maximum scatter tsp
heuristic algorithms


HBV-encoded microRNA candidate and its target MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of short (?22nt) noncoding RNAs that specifically regulate cellular gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs), which are imperfect stem loop structures of ?70nt, are processed into mature miRNAs by cellular RNases III. To date, hundreds of miRNAs and their corresponding targets have been reported in kinds of species. Although only a few of these miRNA/target pairs have been functionally verified, some do play important roles in regulating normal development and physiology. Several viruses (e.g. the Epstein-Barr virus and human herpesvirus Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus) has been reported to encode miRNAs. Here, we extend the analysis of miRNA-encoding potential to the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). Using computational approaches, we found that HBV putatively encodes only one candidate pre-miRNA. We then matched deduced mature miRNA sequence from this pre-miRNA against a database of 3? untranslated sequences (UTR) from the human genome. Surprisingly, none of cellular transcripts could potentially be targeted by the viral miRNA (vmiRNA) sequence. However, one viral mRNA was found to be targeted by the vmiRNA when we searched the target from viral mRNAs. We propose that HBV has evolved to use vmiRNAs as a means to regulate its own gene expression for its benefit.

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


supporting software history exploration Software developers often confront questions such as "Why was the code implemented this way"? To answer such questions, developers make use of information in a software system's bug and source repositories. In this paper, we consider two user interfaces for helping a developer explore information from such repositories. One user interface, from Holmes and Begel's Deep Intellisense tool, exposes historical information across several integrated views, favouring exploration from a single code element to all of that element's historical information. The second user interface, in a tool called Rationalizer that we introduce in this paper, integrates historical information into the source code editor, favouring exploration from a particular code line to its immediate history. We introduce a model to express how software repository information is connected and use this model to compare the two interfaces. Through a lab experiment, we found that our model can help predict which interface is helpful for a particular kind of historical question. We also found deficiencies in the interfaces that hindered users in the exploration of historical information. These results can help inform tool developers who are presenting historical information either directly from or mined from software repositories.

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


Resource Reservation Schemes for IEEE 802.11-Based Wireless Networks: A Survey IEEE 802.11-based wireless technology is widely applied in many areas, supporting communications where wired devices are not available. However, providing satisfactory QoS is still a challenging topic in 802.11-based wireless networks because of the problems such as error-prone wireless channel condition, power consumption, short of centralised facility, mobility as well as channel contention. For addressing these issues, one feasible solution can be to implement resource reservation for the sessions that require QoS assurances. The responsibility of resource reservation scheme is to make sure that QoS-sensitive sessions get sufficient bandwidth in order to sustain their high performance. Difficulties are already identified for designing resource reservation schemes in both network and MAC layers. However, there is no profound investigation outcome for this kind of QoS mechanism. Therefore, in this paper, we intend to produce a comprehensive survey of resource reservation approaches for IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks. The associated research works are summarised and also classified. Moreover, both the drawbacks and the merits of each kind of resource reservation scheme are highlighted.

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


Dynamic Pricing of Primary Products and Ancillary Services Analyze multi-period dynamic pricing problem Derive expression regarding expected total revenue Analyze sales of primary and ancillary service to heterogeneous customers Derive algorithm for deriving optimal prices of primary and ancillary service Numerical analysis when dual pricing strategy outperforms single bundle price

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

revenue management
single-leg flight
customer choice
markov decision process


Multifunctional and autonomous, high performance architecture: application to a wheelchair for disabled people that integrates different control and guidance strategies This article describes a DSP-based electronic board, designed for use in applications requiring high performance, in terms of processing times, ease of interface with other systems and flexibility. The board has been designed especially to be used on a wheelchair for disabled people that includes different guidance strategies and safety sensors. An architecture joining the fundamental characteristics of high speed and flexibility is needed due to the following factors: the complexity and variety of the wheelchair's guidance modes, the need for processing a large amount of information in real-time, and adapting the system to the user's needs. The functions that the board needs to be able to carry out include the following: position and speed control, processing of information coming from ultrasonic and infrared sensors, path planning and control interfaces with the user. Communication between the several blocks of the wheelchair is performed using the serial protocol of the Echelon bus.

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

wheelchair architecture
communications protocols
tms320 dsp family
real time


AU-inspired Deep Networks for Facial Expression Feature Learning Most existing technologies for facial expression recognition utilize off-the-shelf feature extraction methods for classification. In this paper, aiming at learning better features specific for expression representation, we propose to construct a deep architecture, AU-inspired Deep Networks (AUDN), inspired by the psychological theory that expressions can be decomposed into multiple facial Action Units (AUs). To fully exploit this inspiration but avoid detecting AUs, we propose to automatically learn: (1) informative local appearance variation; (2) optimal way to combining local variation and (3) high level representation for final expression recognition. Accordingly, the proposed AUDN is composed of three sequential modules. Firstly, we build a convolutional layer and a max-pooling layer to learn the Micro-Action-Pattern (MAP) representation, which can explicitly depict local appearance variations caused by facial expressions. Secondly, feature grouping is applied to simulate larger receptive fields by combining correlated MAPs adaptively, aiming to generate more abstract mid-level semantics. Finally, a multi-layer learning process is employed in each receptive field respectively to construct group-wise sub-networks for higher-level representations. Experiments on three expression databases CK+, MMI and SFEW demonstrate that, by simply applying linear classifiers on the learned features, our method can achieve state-of-the-art results on all the databases, which validates the effectiveness of AUDN in both lab-controlled and wild environments.

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

facial expression recognition
receptive field

au-inspired deep networks (audn)
micro-action-pattern
group-wise sub-network learning


On the bridge to learn: Analysing the social organization of nautical instruction in a ship simulator Research on simulator training has rarely focused on the way simulated contexts are constructed collaboratively. This study sheds light on how structuring role-play and fostering social interactions may prove fruitful for designing simulator training. The article reports on a qualitative study of nautical students training in a ship simulator. The study examines how a group of students, together with a professional maritime pilot, enacted professional roles and collaboratively constructed a simulated context for learning to navigate. Their activities on the bridge were framed within the maritime professions hierarchical system of captain and officers, and we examine in detail how these institutionally defined positions become important resources for meaning-making during role-play. The article portrays how two competing activity contexts were constructed, and how the role-play provided opportunities for enacting professional roles and work tasks. However, it also shows that it is challenging to pick up on what is significant to learn and to confront this in debriefing. The article concludes that the students collaboration and meaning-making is an entity of training that may be more efficiently addressed.

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

role-play
simulations
interaction analysis


Sketch guided solid texturing Compared to 2D textures, solid textures can represent not only the bounding surfaces, but also their interiors. Existing solid texture synthesis methods pay little attention to the generation of conforming textures that capture geometric structures or reflect the artists' design intentions. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to synthesizing solid textures using 2D exemplars. The generated textures locally agree with a tensor field derived from user sketching curves. We use a deterministic approach and only a small portion of the voxels needs to be synthesized on demand. Correction is fundamental in deterministic texture synthesis. We propose a history windows representation, which is general enough to unifiedly represent various previous correction schemes, and a dual grid scheme based on it to significantly reduce the dependent voxels while still producing high quality results. Experiments demonstrate that our method produces significantly improved solid textures with a small amount of user interaction. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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


Approximation algorithms for sweep coverage in wireless sensor networks Proposed point sweep coverage algorithm with the best possible approximation factor 2. Proposed a distributed 2-approximation algorithm for the same problem. Introduced area sweep coverage problem and proved it is NP-Complete. 2 2 -approximation algorithm is proposed for a square and then improved the factor for a rectangle.

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

mobile sensor
mst
euler tour
tsp
wireless networks


Identification and authentication of integrated circuits This paper describes a technique to reliably and securely identify individual integrated circuits (ICs) based on the precise measurement of circuit delays and a simple challenge-response protocol. This technique could be used to produce key-cards that are more difficult to clone than ones involving digital keys on the IC. We consider potential venues of attack against our system, and present candidate implementations. Experiments on Field Programmable Gate Arrays show that the technique is viable, but that our current implementations could require some strengthening before it can be considered as secure. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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

physical random function
physical security
smartcard
tamper resistance
unclonability


trunk decomposition based global routing optimization We present global routing optimization methods which are not based on rip-up and re-route framework. In particular, the routing optimization is based on trunk decomposition [13] of the global routing. In this framework, the route of a net is decomposed into sets of wiring segments. By viewing a wiring segment as an "atomic object" of perturbation, we can efficiently evaluate the effect of routing tree perturbation. We propose two complementary routing optimization methods, namely segment partitioning and segment migration . These targeted optimizers can improve congestion related routing objectives by quickly shuffling wiring segments across different routing channels. Our routing approach produces better results compared to rip-up and re-route method based router Labyrinth [14] with average total overflow reduction of more than 88\% while taking only 61\% of runtime required by ripup and reroute phase of Labyrinth. When applied to the output of Labyrinth, the approach, on average, reduces the total overflow by more than 97\% with complete overflow elimination for four circuits, while requiring additional runtime of just 33\%. On a larger benchmark suite, the total overflow reduction of more than 86\% is obtained, with complete overflow elimination for eight circuits, while requiring only 19\% additional runtime.

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

decomposition framework tree method benchmark reduction router object routing runtime effect congestion circuits

atom
optimality
segmentation
global routing
evaluation
completeness


Wireless tracking of cotton modules. Part 2: Automatic machine identification and system testing The ability to map profit across a cotton field would enable producers to determine where money is being made or lost on their farms and to implement precise field management practices to facilitate the highest return possible on each portion of a field. Mapping profit requires knowledge of site-specific costs and revenues, including yield and price. Price varies site-specifically because fiber quality varies, so mapping fiber quality is an important component of profit mapping. To map fiber quality, the harvest location of individual cotton bales must be known, and thus a system to track the harvest location of cotton modules must be available. To this end, a wireless module-tracking system was recently developed, but automation of the system is required before it will find practical use on the farm. In Part 1 of this report, research to develop automatic triggering of wireless messages is described. In Part 2, research to enable the system to function with multiple harvesting machines of the same type in the same field a common situation in commercial cotton farming is described along with testing of the entire automated wireless module-tracking system (WMTS). An RFID system was incorporated, and it enabled the WMTS to correctly and consistently differentiate among various harvesting vehicles. The improved WMTS subsequently sent wireless messages to the correct machines when cotton transfers were made in the presence of multiple harvest machines. Overall testing proved that the automated WMTS worked largely as designed. When both complete and partial cotton basket dumps were simulated, the correct wireless-messaging decision was made 100% of the time.

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

cotton
fiber quality
wireless
profit mapping

fiber quality mapping
precision agriculture
gps
yield mapping


Categorical perception of voicing, colors and facial expressions: A developmental study The aim of the present paper was to compare the development of perceptual categorization of voicing, colors and facial expressions in French-speaking children (from 6 to 8 years) and adults. Differences in both categorical perception, i.e. the correspondence between identification and discrimination performances, and in boundary precision, indexed by the steepness of the identification slope, were investigated. Whereas there was no significant effect of age on categorical perception, boundary precision increased with age, both for voicing and facial expressions though not for colors. These results suggest that the development of boundary precision arises from a general cognitive maturation across different perceptual domains. However, this is not without domain specific effects since we found (1) a correlation between the development of voicing perception and some reading performances and (2) an earlier maturation of boundary precision for colors compared to voicing and facial expressions. These comparative data indicate that whereas general cognitive maturation has some influence on the development of perceptual categorization, this is not without domain-specific effects, the structural complexity of the categories being one of them.

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

categorical perception
boundary precision
development
colors
facial expressions


relationships between reading, tracing and writing skills in introductory programming This study analyzed student responses to an examination, after the students had completed one semester of instruction in programming. The performance of students on code tracing tasks correlated with their performance on code writing tasks. A correlation was also found between performance on "explain in plain English" tasks and code writing. A stepwise regression, with performance on code writing as the dependent variable, was used to construct a path diagram. The diagram suggests the possibility of a hierarchy of programming related tasks. Knowledge of programming constructs forms the bottom of the hierarchy, with "explain in English", Parson's puzzles, and the tracing of iterative code forming one or more intermediate levels in the hierarchy.

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

cs1
novice programmers
comprehension
solo taxonomy


Ktter interpolation in skew polynomial rings Skew polynomials are a noncommutative generalization of ordinary polynomials that, in recent years, have found applications in coding theory and cryptography. Viewed as functions, skew polynomials have a well-defined evaluation map; however, little is known about skew-polynomial interpolation. In this work, we apply Ktters interpolation framework to free modules over skew polynomial rings. As a special case, we introduce a simple interpolation algorithm akin to Newton interpolation for ordinary polynomials.

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

skew polynomials
ktter interpolation
newton interpolation


An optimized authentication protocol for mobile networks Practical secure communication of mobile systems with low communication cost has become one of the major research directions. An established public key infrastructure (PKI) provides key management and key distribution mechanisms, which can lead to authentication and secure communication. Adding public key cryptography to Kerberos provides a nice congruence to public key protocols, which can obviate the human users burden to manage strong passwords. This paper emphasizes on authentication as a considerable issue related to security. Additionally, an efficient and secure hybrid authentication protocol for large mobile network is proposed. Its infrastructure accommodates explosive growth of the large mobile network. It reduces the communication cost for providing secure network access in inter-domain communication. This method is based on symmetric cryptosystem, PKI, challengeresponse and hash chaining.

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


A model for revocation forecasting in public-key infrastructures One of the hardest tasks of a certification infrastructure is to manage revocation. This process consists in collecting and making the revocation status of certificates available to users. Research on this topic has focused on the trade-offs that different revocation mechanisms offer. Much less effort has been conducted to understand and model real-world revocation processes. For this reason, in this paper, we present a novel analysis of real-world collected revocation data and we propose a revocation prediction model. The model uses an autoregressive integrated moving average model. Our prediction model enables certification authorities to forecast the number of revoked certificates in short term.

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


Perturbation analysis of fuzzy linear systems This paper deals with the perturbation analysis of fuzzy linear systems Three cases of perturbation are considered. (a) the right hand side is perturbed while the coefficient matrix remains unchanged, (b) the coefficient matrix is perturbed while the right hand side remains unchanged, and (c) both the coefficient matrix and the right hand side are perturbed. For all of the three cases, the respective relative error bounds for solutions of fuzzy linear system are derived. The results are illustrated by numerical examples. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy linear systems
perturbation analysis


Meaning- and ontology-based technologies for high-precision language an information-processing computational systems The paper addresses the need for an ontology- and meaning-based approach for natural-language-understanding and information-processing computational systems. After a discussion of an oft-ignored form/content dichotomy that offers an explicit understanding of what meaning is and is not, a specific approach, the Ontological Semantic Technology, is introduced and several aspects of meaning representation are addressed in its terms, including how the 1977 Tenerife fatal aircrash could have been prevented with its help.

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

ontology
ontological semantic technology


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


Classification of fuzzy mathematical morphologies based on concepts of inclusion measure and duality Mathematical morphology was originally conceived as a set theoretic approach for the processing of binary images. Extensions of classical binary morphology to gray-scale morphology include approaches based on fuzzy set theory. This paper discusses and compares several well-known and new approaches towards gray-scale and fuzzy mathematical morphology. We show in particular that a certain approach to fuzzy mathematical morphology ultimately depends on the choice of a fuzzy inclusion measure and on a notion of duality. This fact gives rise to a clearly defined scheme for classifying fuzzy mathematical morphologies. The umbra and the level set approach, an extension of the threshold approach to gray-scale mathematical morphology, can also be embedded in this scheme since they can be identified with certain fuzzy approaches.

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

fuzzy set theory
fuzzy mathematical morphology
fuzzy inclusion measure
duality

morphological image operator
complete lattice
negation
adjunction


Fitting generated aggregation operators to empirical data This paper treats the problem of fitting general aggregation operators with unfixed number of arguments to empirical data. We discuss methods applicable to associative operators (t-norms, t-conorms, uninorms and nullnorms), means and Choquet integral based operators with respect to a universal fuzzy measure. Special attention is paid to k-order additive symmetric fuzzy measures.

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

aggregation operators
uninorms
choquet integral


symmetric composition of musical concerns Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) describes a range of techniques that enable the separation, organisation and composition of various programming concerns that cannot be adequately encapsulated using the principal decomposition mechanisms available to modern programming languages.Naturally, most AOP-related research is focussed on its application to the development of computer software. However, we believe that it is worthwhile considering whether AOP and cognate techniques might be usefully adapted as a means for an end-user to organise, represent and compose information in computer systems that support application domains in which scattering and tangling are present.Music is notoriously rich in deeply tangled relationships. Moreover, there is no universally accepted representation of music that simultaneously represents all dimensions of interest to the composer.In this paper we describe Aspect Oriented Music Representation, an approach to the organisation, representation and composition of musical materials based on MDSOC. Our approach extends MDSOC by adding a dynamic hyperspace and by allowing users to write detailed composition expressions using an extensible set of compositors. We introduce the concept of composition history, enabling symmetric composition to be related to joinpoints, demonstrating a way to combine symmetric and asymmetric aspect approaches.

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

music composition
aspect-oriented programming


geographic signatures for semantic retrieval Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) systems rely on the identification and disambiguation of place names in documents to determine the region about which they are relevant. The place names are mapped into geographic concepts and used to assign an encompassing concept (a scope) to each document. However, sometimes a single scope is too restrictive and insufficient for capturing the geographic semantics of a document. We propose as an alternative to abstract the geographic semantics of a document as a geographic signature, which is a list of maximally disambiguated geographic references found in a document. A signature can be used in multiple GIR applications, such as in building a geographic index for a document collection. We perform the disambiguation of the possible geographic meanings using semantic similarity measures.

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

semantic similarity
geographic information retrieval


SmartGW: Enabling Bandwidth-Efficient Group Watching in Cloud Social TV Systems Social TV is emerging as a new paradigm to transform the traditional TV viewing experience. The integration of social networks enables a set of salient social features in the TV system, among which group watching is the most attractive one. However, a simple implementation of group watching incurs significant amount of bandwidth cost in a cloud social TV system. In this paper, we propose a group-aware bandwidth management scheme called SmartGW, aiming to minimize the operational cost of the social TV service provider when delivering the group watching service and improve user QoE simultaneously. We formulate the problem into a constrained stochastic optimization problem and exploit the Lyapunov optimization theory to derive the online bandwidth provisioning and allocation strategies. We also conduct extensive trace-driven simulations to verify the effectiveness of our proposed strategies. The results show that SmartGW can cut down bandwidth cost by over 15 % compared with two alternative approaches and improve the user experience at the same time. Our work can provide useful guidelines for social TV service providers to provision their services more effectively.

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

cloud social tv
group watching
bandwidth management


Image bilevel thresholding based on stable transition region set We utilize the linear system theory to establish a theory model of transition region. With the model, we reveal an important property of transition region, namely the gray level distribution symmetry. Utilizing the property, we propose a new thresholding framework based on stable transition region set. The elements of the stable transition region set are equal or close to each other in the average gray level. As an example of the proposed framework, we have shown that the feature transformation based on the multiscale gradient multiplication technology is an effective means of estimating the threshold. We have performed subjective and objective comparisons on both synthetic and real images. The experimental results show the segmentation quality of the proposed approach is superior to three conventional transition region-based thresholding methods.

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

transition region
multiscale gradient multiplication


towards automated optimisation of tool-generated hw/sw sopc designs (abstract only) Currently C-to-hardware (C2H) compilation tools have the potential to generate high-performing and efficient hardware functions from application source code. But often this is not realised without expensive manual code modifications to massage the input source code into a form whereby the compiler can extract maximum meaning from it, thus improving the quality of generated hardware. These modifications represent a significant hurdle for software developers; to improve this we present our work towards a semi-automated compilation framework that attempts to streamline this design flow. The proposed framework consists of an extensible analysis phase of input source code and automated generation of code-mutations that serve as trial candidates. These are then automatically combined within the greater SoPC environment and passed through a parallel compilation stage through the C2H tool. Based on the compilation results the process can be refined and re-executed after manually-assisted candidate pruning. In experimental results, a significant performance speedup has been demonstrated when applying these techniques to simple examples which were compiled out-of-the-box with the same C2H tool. Moreover, minimal extra development effort was necessary to achieve these results. Open challenges still remain, but we believe the promise of such an augmented approach to tool-generated SoPC designs is clear.

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 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 B O O O

fpga
design space exploration
c-to-hardware
compilers


Properties and performance modelling of finite buffer M/G/1/K networks Finite buffer, single-server queueing systems and networks are difficult to analyze since the length of time a customer spends in the system does not follow the Markovian property. A two-moment approximation schema is developed for the probability distribution of M/G/1/K systems and extended to the analysis of M/G/1/K queueing networks. The general purpose of this paper is to develop a flexible and practical transform-free approach for computing the probability distribution and performance measures of the system as well as identify the underlying properties of these systems. It is shown that for most performance measures, a sigmoid or S-shaped curve with an inflection point at ?=1 ? = 1 appears as K?? K ? ? . This has direct implications for the analysis and optimization of such systems. The performance modelling of the M/G/1/K queueing networks of general topologies along with extensive numerical results accompany the paper along with the linear concave performance measures for these systems.

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


BoltzTraP. A code for calculating band-structure dependent quantities A program for calculating the semi-classic transport coefficients is described. It is based on a smoothed Fourier interpolation of the bands. From this analytical representation we calculate the derivatives necessary for the transport distributions. The method is compared to earlier calculations, which in principle should be exact within Boltzmann theory, and a very convincing agreement is found.

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

conductivity
hall effect
thermopower
fourier expansion


Influence of non-linearity to the Optimal Experimental Design demonstrated by a biological system A precise estimation of parameters is essential to generate mathematical models with a highly predictive power. A framework that attempts to reduce parameter uncertainties caused by measurement errors is known as Optimal Experimental Design (OED). The Fisher Information Matrix (FIM), which is commonly used to define a cost function for OED, provides at the best only a lower bound of parameter uncertainties for models that are non-linear in their parameters. In this work, the Sigma Point method is used instead, because it enables a more reliable approximation of the parameter statistics accompanied by a manageable computational effort. Moreover, it is shown that Sigma Points can also be used to define design criteria for OED that incorporate the influence of parameter uncertainties on the simulated model states, i.e. mean square error of prediction. To reduce the computational effort of OED further, the Kriging Interpolation approach is applied leading to an easily evaluable surrogate cost function. The advantages of the Sigma Point method combined with the Kriging Interpolation in the framework of OED are demonstrated for the example of a biological two-substrate uptake model.

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

optimal experimental design
sigma point method
fisher information matrix
mean square error
kriging interpolation


Machine-to-machine communication for agricultural systems: An XML-based auxiliary language to enhance semantic interoperability This paper puts forth an Internet-based architecture for machine-to-machine communication and computation that enhances bio-productivity in agriculture. The approach utilizes an auxiliary language to enable data interoperability in a synthetic computing environment and to make connections between data and mathematical models. The approach also includes some aspects of cloud and context aware computing. At the prototype level, a practical application from the Florida citrus industry demonstrates the concept. In general, future agricultural systems will be Internet-based thus reducing cost and increasing capability. Standards organizations are certain to play an important role in this development, which might continue for the next decade or longer.

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

agricultural computation
m language
precision agriculture
machine-to-machine communication
internet


Computer attitude as a moderator in the relationship between computer anxiety, satisfaction, and stress The present study empirically examines the relationship between computer anxiety, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and stress. Based on self-efficacy theory and self-worth theory of achievement-motivation, it is hypothesized that the relationship between computer anxiety and job satisfaction is curvilinear and attitude towards computer moderates such relationship. The relationship between computer anxiety and career satisfaction and job stress were empirically examined in this study. Two hundred and thirty undergraduate students (125 female and 105 male students) at a university in south-western part of Louisiana completed computer anxiety, computer attitude, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and stress surveys. Hierarchical moderated regression results support that the attitude towards computer acts as a moderator in the relationship between (i) computer anxiety and stress, (ii) computer anxiety and job satisfaction, and (iii) computer anxiety and career satisfaction. Implications for management are discussed.

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

computer anxiety
job satisfaction
career satisfaction
stress


Computer vision on Mars Increasing the level of spacecraft autonomy is essential for broadening the reach of solar system exploration. Computer vision has and will continue to play an important role in increasing autonomy of both spacecraft and Earth-based robotic vehicles. This article addresses progress on computer vision for planetary rovers and landers and has four main parts. First, we review major milestones in the development of computer vision for robotic vehicles over the last four decades. Since research on applications for Earth and space has often been closely intertwined, the review includes elements of both. Second, we summarize the design and performance of computer vision algorithms used on Mars in the NASA/JPL Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which was a major step forward in the use of computer vision in space. These algorithms did stereo vision and visual odometry for rover navigation and feature tracking for horizontal velocity estimation for the landers. Third, we summarize ongoing research to improve vision systems for planetary rovers, which includes various aspects of noise reduction, FPGA implementation, and vision-based slip perception. Finally, we briefly survey other opportunities for computer vision to impact rovers, landers, and orbiters in future solar system exploration missions.

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

obstacle detection
visual velocity estimation
slip prediction
planetary exploration


Atmospheric environmental information - an overview with Canadian examples The study of meteorology has been revolutionized by modem computing. In this paper, an overview of the handling of meteorological, climatological and air quality data is provided. Some suggestions are given as to a framework for designing systems to handle atmospheric environmental data. Several examples of Canadian systems that are in use now are presented, some of which illustrate application of the framework. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

research data management and quality control (rdmq) system


Mathematical modeling and computational analysis of neuronal cell images: Application to dendritic arborization of Golgi-impregnated neurons in dorsal horns of the rat spinal cord Neurons of the rat spinal cord have been stained using the Golgi impregnation method. Successfully impregnated neurons from laminae I to VI were subjected to a computational analysis for complexity of dendritic tree structure. The analysis was performed using ruler-counting and circle-counting techniques. Our analysis aimed to support quantitatively the general concept of Rexed's laminar scheme of the dorsal horn of mammals. For that purpose, we have developed two mathematical models of neuronal arborization patterns, whose solutions yielded the inverse power-law and generalized power-law scaling. The latter comprises two main parameters: (i) the anfractuosity, characterizing the degree of dendritic complexity and (ii) an estimate of the total length of arbor dendrites. The anfractuosity can distinguish among the sets of drawings over all six laminae.

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

dendritic arborization
mathematical modeling
rat spinal cord


relational parametricity and local variables J. C. Reynolds suggested that Strachey's intuitive concept of parametric (i.e., uniform) polymorphism is closely linked to representation independence , and used logical relations to formalize this principle in languages with type variables and user-defined types. Here, we use relational parametricity to address long-standing problems with the semantics of local-variable declarations, by showing that interactions between local and non-local entities satisfy certain relational criteria. The new model is based on a cartesian closed category of relation-preserving functors and natural transformations which is induced by a suitable category of possible worlds with relations assigned to its objects and morphisms. The semantic interpretation supports straightforward validations of all the test equivalences that have been proposed in the literature, and encompasses standard methods of reasoning about data representations; however, it is not known whether it is fully abstract.

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

reasoning use semantic test interpretation parametric types concept data model

interaction variability method abstraction language polymorphic standardization object addressing relation user locality


VisRuption: Intuitive and Efficient Visualization of Temporal Airline Disruption Data The operation of an airline is a very complex task and disruptions to the planned operation can occur on very short notice. Already a small disruption like a delay of some minutes can cost the airline a tremendous amount of money. Hence, it is crucial to proactively control all operations of the airline and efficiently prioritize and handle disruptions. Due to the complex setting and the need for ad hoc decisions this task can only be carried out by human operation controllers. In the field of airline operations control there exists already a vast variety of different software in productive use. We analyze the different approaches from two of the market leaders and identify problematic design choices. We take into account this analysis and develop a set of rules for an intuitive visualization of airline disruption data. Finally, we introduce our tool for visualizing such data which complies to these rules. The visualization enables the user to gain a fast overview over the current problem situation and to intuitively prioritize different problems and problem hierarchies. The efficiency of the design is evaluated with the help of a user study which shows that the new system significantly outperforms the current state of the art. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.8 [Computer Graphics]: Applications-

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 Cooperative Localization Algorithm for UWB Indoor Sensor Networks This paper deals with range-based localization in ultra wideband sensor networks, allowing for the possibility of large range measurement errors because of a failure to detect the direct paths between some nodes. A novel algorithm is proposed that uses only partial knowledge of the service area topology, particularly of the positions of objects which are capable of causing undetected direct path (UDP) propagation conditions. Although the spirit of the proposed approach, because of the lack of information on the range error statistics, is to remove measurements performed under UDP conditions from the computation of the location estimate, these measurements are used implicitly by the algorithm to contribute to the erroneous trial locations being discarded. A cooperative stage is included that allows the probability of localization of a target with an insufficient initial number of accurate range measurements to increase. The proposed algorithm outperforms a variety of alternative positioning techniques, and thus illustrates the capability of this topology knowledge to mitigate the UDP problem, even in the absence of any knowledge about the range error statistics.

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


Negative Regulation of Otic Capsule Chondrogenesis The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-?) superfamily, including TGF-?1 and bone morphogenetic protein (BmP2, BmP4), participates in the regulation of the developing cartilaginous otic capsule, which prefigures the endochondral bony labyrinth of the inner ear. This study investigates Smad-6 and -7, downstream components of the TGF-?/BMP signaling pathway, in otic capsule chondrogenic control, and supports a function for these inhibitory Smads as negative regulators of capsule chondrogenesis. The importance of otic capsule chondrogenic control and implications of Smad signaling for otosclerosis, a disease affecting the endochondral bony labyrinth, are indicated

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

otic capsule chondrogenesis
negative regulation


TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF A DISTRIBUTED RLC INTERCONNECT BASED ON DIRECT POLE EXTRACTION With higher operating frequencies, transmission lines are required to model global on-chip interconnects. In this paper, an accurate and efficient solution for the transient response at the far end of a transmission line based on a direct pole extraction of the system is proposed. Closed form expressions of the poles are developed for two special interconnect systems: an RC interconnect and an RLC interconnect with zero driver resistance. By performing a system conversion, the poles of an interconnect system with general circuit parameters are solved. The Newton-Raphson method is used to further improve the accuracy of the poles. Based on these poles, closed form expressions for the step and ramp response are determined. Higher accuracy can be obtained with additional pairs of poles. The computational complexity of the model is proportional to the number of pole pairs. With two pairs of poles, the average error of the 50% delay is 1% as compared with Spectre simulations. With ten pairs of poles, the average error of the 10%-to-90% rise time and the overshoots is 2% and 1.9%, respectively. Frequency dependent effects are also successfully included in the proposed method and excellent match is observed between the proposed model and Spectre simulations.

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


A Scalable Formulation of Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis: Applied to Face Recognition In this paper, we present a scalable and exact solution for probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). PLDA is a probabilistic model that has been shown to provide state-of-the-art performance for both face and speaker recognition. However, it has one major drawback: At training time estimating the latent variables requires the inversion and storage of a matrix whose size grows quadratically with the number of samples for the identity (class). To date, two approaches have been taken to deal with this problem, to 1) use an exact solution that calculates this large matrix and is obviously not scalable with the number of samples or 2) derive a variational approximation to the problem. We present a scalable derivation which is theoretically equivalent to the previous nonscalable solution and thus obviates the need for a variational approximation. Experimentally, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in two ways. First, on labeled faces in the wild, we illustrate the equivalence of our scalable implementation with previously published work. Second, on the large Multi-PIE database, we illustrate the gain in performance when using more training samples per identity (class), which is made possible by the proposed scalable formulation of PLDA.

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

probablistic model
expectation maximization
face verification


Accurate volumetric measurements of anatomical cavities Objectives: The volumetric assessment of anatomical cavities is of high relevance for various applications in medicine. Based on 3D scanning (i.e., CT) of theses cavities, the volume can be determined by counting the volume elements of a segmentation of that cavity. Unfortunately, elements on the boundary of the segmentation require special treatment to obtain accurate volumetric measurements. In this paper, we propose a novel technique that in particular increases the accuracy of the volume estimation for the boundary elements of segmented anatomical objects. Methods: Based on a 3D segmentation of an anatomical cavity, we recursively subdivide boundary volume elements into a set of simple situations, where the volume can be estimated easily. Results: We performed volumetric measurements on seven datasets of phantom models made of plexiglass (see Fig. 1) scanned by a biplane angiography unit and assessed the quality of our method by comparing the measured volume by our novel method and by the fluid required to fill the phantom cavities. Conclusions: Our method calculates a significantly more accurate volume of the segmented cavities than previous methods. Nevertheless, it is only slightly more computationally expensive.

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


Use of artificial neural networks for prediction of discharge coefficient of triangular labyrinth side weir in curved channels Side weirs have been extensively used in hydraulic and environmental engineering applications. The discharge coefficient of the triangular labyrinth side weirs is 1.54.5 times higher than that of rectangular side weirs. This study aims to estimate the discharge coefficient (Cd) of triangular labyrinth side weir in curved channel by using artificial neural networks (ANN). In this study, 7963 laboratory test results are used for determining the Cd. The performance of the ANN model is compared with multiple nonlinear and linear regression models. Root mean square errors (RMSE), mean absolute errors (MAE) and correlation coefficient (R) statistics are used as comparing criteria for the evaluation of the models performances. Based on the comparisons, it was found that the neural computing technique could be employed successfully in modeling discharge coefficient from the available experimental data. There were good agreements between the measured values and the values obtained using the ANN model. It was found that the ANN model with RMSE of 0.1658 in validation stage is superior in estimation of discharge coefficient than the multiple nonlinear and linear regression models with RMSE of 0.2054 and 0.2926, respectively.

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

side weir
discharge coefficient
labyrinth
curved channel
neural networks
hydraulic


Subjective multimedia quality assessment The Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) is preparing a programme of subjective multimedia quality tests. The results from these tests will be used to evaluate the performance of competing objective multimedia quality metrics. The reliability of the subjective test data is of great importance for VQEG's task. This paper provides an overview of VQEG's multimedia ad-hoc group. The work of this group will require subjective tests to be performed by laboratories located in Europe, Asia and North America. For VQEG's multimedia work to be successful, the subjective assessment methodology must be precisely defined and produce reliable and repeatable subjective quality data. Although international standards covering multimedia quality assessment methods are in force, there remains some uncertainty regarding the most effective approach to assessing the subjective quality of multimedia. A review of existing methods is provided. Two experiments are presented investigating the suitability of alternative subjective assessment methods (single-stimulus ACR and SAMVIQ). The results of these experiments are discussed within the context of the VQEG multimedia testing programme.

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

subjective assessment
multimedia quality
vqeg


Enabling network inference methods to handle missing data and outliers The inference of complex networks from data is a challenging problem in biological sciences, as well as in a wide range of disciplines such as chemistry, technology, economics, or sociology. The quantity and quality of the data greatly affect the results. While many methodologies have been developed for this task, they seldom take into account issues such as missing data or outlier detection and correction, which need to be properly addressed before network inference.

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

network inference
missing data
outlier detection

projection to latent structures
trimmed scores regression
information theory
mutual information


Experimenting with IDA* search algorithm in heterogeneous pervasive environments Today, mobile and smart phones are often viewed as enablers of pervasive computing systems because they provide anytime and anywhere access to information services and computational resources. However, mobile devices are inherently constrained in their computational power and battery capacity making them mere "dumb terminals" connected to a resource-rich pervasive environment. If they are ever to play a more prominent role as true elements of a pervasive environment, mobile devices must be able to embed more application logic and delegate processing requests to pervasive infrastructure. In this paper we discuss distribution and offloading of computationally intensive tasks in pervasive environments populated by mobile devices. This approach is illustrated by experimenting with a distributed version of iterative deepening A* search algorithm. In our approach, the solution space of a problem being solved is partitioned and distributed among heterogeneous mobile devices, which yields a significant increase in the time of finding an optimal solution. Distributed IDA* search algorithm does not require any coordination or communication between mobile devices, but added inter-processor communication through shared memory further increases the efficiency of the algorithm. This paper presents the results of our experiments with the algorithm and discusses a number of issues related to its implementation.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 architecture and performance of a stochastic competitive evolutionary neural tree network A new dynamic tree structured network-the Stochastic Competitive Evolutionary Neural Tree (SCENT) is introduced. The network is able to provide a hierarchical classification of unlabelled data sets. The main advantage that SCENT offers over other hierarchical competitive networks is its ability to self-determine the number and structure of the competitive nodes in the network without the need for externally set parameters. The network produces stable classificatory structures by halting its growth using locally calculated, stochastically controlled, heuristics. The performance of the network is analysed by comparing its results with that of a good non-hierarchical clusterer, and with three other hierarchical clusterers and its non stochastic predecessor. SCENT's classificatory capabilities are demonstrated by its ability to produce a representative hierarchical structure to classify a broad range of data sets.

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

dynamic neural tree
self organising
hierarchical clustering
structured knowledge


Entropy-based markov chains for multisensor fusion This paper proposes an entropy based Markov chain (EMC) fusion technique and demonstrates its applications in multisensor fusion. Self-entropy and conditional entropy, which measure how uncertain a sensor is about its own observation and joint observations respectively, are adopted. We use Markov chain as an observation combination process because of two major reasons: (a) the consensus output is a linear combination of the weighted local observations; and (b) the weight is the transition probability assigned by one sensor to another sensor. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can reduce the measurement uncertainty by aggregating multiple observations. The major benefits of this approach are: (a) single observation distributions and joint observation distributions between any two sensors are represented in polynomial form; (b) the consensus output is the Linear combination of the weighted observations; and (c) the approach suppresses noisy and unreliable observations in the combination process.

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

entropy
markov chains
multisensor fusion
uncertainty


Unsupervised real-time constrained linear discriminant analysis to hyperspectral image classification We have proposed a constrained linear discriminant analysis (CLDA) approach for classifying the remotely sensed hyperspectral images. Its basic idea is to design an optimal linear transformation operator which can maximize the ratio of inter-class to intra-class distance while satisfying the constraint that the different class centers after transformation are aligned along different directions. Its major advantage over the traditional Fisher's linear discriminant analysis is that the classification can be achieved simultaneously with the transformation. The CLDA is a supervised approach, i.e., the class spectral signatures need to be known a priori. But, in practice, these informations may be difficult or even impossible to obtain. So in this paper we will extend the CLDA algorithm into an unsupervised version, where the class spectral signatures are to be directly generated from an unknown image scene. Computer simulation is used to evaluate how well the algorithm performs in terms of finding the pure signatures. We will also discuss how to implement the unsupervised CLDA algorithm in real-time for resolving the critical situations when the immediate data analysis results are required.

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

unsupervised constrained linear discriminant analysis