Fuzzy efficiency measures in fuzzy DEA/AR with application to university libraries Data envelopment analysis (DEA) allows individual decision-making unit (DMU) to select the weights that are most favorable to them in calculating the ratio of the aggregated output to the aggregated input. The concept of the assurance region (AR) is restricting the ratio of any two weights to some range to avoid the evaluated DMUs from ignoring or relying too much on any criterion in evaluation. In this paper we develop a fuzzy DEA/AR method that is able to calculate the fuzzy efficiency score when the input and output data are represented as convex fuzzy numbers. Based on Zadehs extension principle, a pair of two-level mathematical programs is formulated to calculate the lower and upper bounds of the fuzzy efficiency score. We transform this pair of two-level mathematical programs into a pair of conventional DEA/AR method to derive the bounds of the efficiency. The dual models of the fuzzy DEA/AR for efficiency improvement are also considered. To illustrate how the proposed method is applied, the measurement of the efficiency of the university libraries in Taiwan with fuzzy observations is exemplified.

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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 envelopment analysis
assurance region


Nonconvex sparse regularizer based speckle noise removal ? This paper focuses on the problem of speckle noise removal. A new variational model is proposed for this task. In the model, a nonconvex regularizer rather than the classical convex total variation is used to preserve edges/details of images. The advantage of the nonconvex regularizer is pointed out in the sparse framework. In order to solve the model, a new fast iteration algorithm is designed. In the algorithm, to overcome the disadvantage of the nonconvexity of the model, both the augmented Lagrange multiplier method and the iteratively reweighted method are introduced to resolve the original nonconvex problem into several convex ones. From the algorithm, we can obtain restored images as well as edge indicator of the images. Comprehensive experiments are conducted to measure the performance of the algorithm in terms of visual evaluation and a variety of quantitative indices for the task of speckle noise removal.

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

speckle noise
nonconvex
sparse
augmented lagrange multiplier
iteratively reweighted method


Adaptive learning in service operations We propose a decision analytics approach that leverages adaptive learning in the refinement of service operations. We aim to integrate service design and service pricing with downstream operational decision-making related to service provision. This approach involves: collecting consumer data and establishing consumer behavior models; integrating consumer behavior models with models for service operation decision-making; and iteratively evaluating service designs based on service delivery performance that evolves over time due to learning. We discuss how this approach enables service providers to set time-differentiated prices and evaluate the impact on transportation network performance. We use agent-based simulation to illustrate the application of our approach to the operations of a public rail transportation firm in a European urban setting. Our findings suggest that knowing the impacts of consumer responses in service operations is essential for devising cost-effective and value-bearing service designs. Our approach can support service providers who wish to adjust their pricing, consumer demand and capacity management models, and to develop more effective market forecasts of performance through adaptive learning, in the presence of big data from consumers and operations.

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

adaptive learning
consumer behavior
pricing
public rail transportation
service operations


X-tolerant test data compression for SOC with enhanced diagnosis capability In this paper, a complete X-tolerant test data compression solution is proposed for system-on-a-chip (SOC) testing. The solution achieves low-cost testing by employing not only selective Huffman vertical coding (SHVC) for test stimulus compression but also MISR-based time compactor for test response compaction. Moreover, the solution is non-intrusive, since it can tolerate any number of unknown states (also called X state) in test responses such that it does not require modifying the logic of core to eliminate or block the sources of unknown states. Furthermore, the solution achieves enhanced diagnosis capability over conventional MISR. The enhanced diagnosis requires the least hardware overhead by reusing the existing masking logic and achieves significant saving in diagnostic time. Experimental results for ISCAS 89 benchmarks as well as the evaluation of hardware implementation have proven the efficiency of the proposed test solution.

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

test cost reduction
unknown state
test diagnosis


web application security assessment by fault injection and behavior monitoring As a large and complex application platform, the World Wide Web is capable of delivering a broad range of sophisticated applications. However, many Web applications go through rapid development phases with extremely short turnaround time, making it difficult to eliminate vulnerabilities. Here we analyze the design of Web application security assessment mechanisms in order to identify poor coding practices that render Web applications vulnerable to attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. We describe the use of a number of software-testing techniques (including dynamic analysis, black-box testing, fault injection, and behavior monitoring), and suggest mechanisms for applying these techniques to Web applications. Real-world situations are used to test a tool we named the Web Application Vulnerability and Error Scanner (WAVES, an open-source project available at http://waves.sourceforge.net) and to compare it with other tools. Our results show that WAVES is a feasible platform for assessing Web application security.

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

assessment
applications
order
use
platform
design
tool
project
web application
fault injection
world wide web
vulnerabilities
test
behavior
sql
dynamic analysis
tools

cross-site scripting
open-source
black-box testing
developer
timing
practical
errors
situated
software testing
rendering
code
web application testing
complete crawling
security assessment
complexity
secure
monitor
attack


Minimal change list for Lucas strings and some graph theoretic consequences We give a minimal change list for the set of order p length-n Lucas strings, i.e., the set of Iength-n binary strings with no p consecutive 1's nor a 1(e) prefix and a 1(m) suffix with e + m >= p. The construction of this list proves also that the order p n-dimensional Lucas cube has a Hamiltonian path if and only if n is not a multiple of p + 1, and its second power always has a Hamiltonian path. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

minimal change list
lucas cube
hamiltonian path


Minimum Weakly Fundamental Cycle Bases Are Hard To Find In the last years, new variants of the minimum cycle basis (MCB) problem and new classes of cycle bases have been introduced, as motivated by several applications from disparate areas of scientific and technological inquiry. At present, the complexity status of the MCB problem is settled only for undirected, directed, and strictly fundamental cycle bases (SFCB's). Weakly fundamental cycle bases (WFCB's) form a natural superclass of SFCB's. A cycle basis C = {C(1), C(2), ... , C(nu)} of a graph G is a WFCB iff nu = 0 or there exists an edge e of G and a circuit C(i) in C such that C \ C(i) is a WFCB of G \ e. WFCB's still possess several of the nice properties offered by SFCB's. At the same time, several classes of graphs enjoying WFCB's of cost asymptotically inferior to the cost of the cheapest SFCB's have been found and exhibited in the literature. Considered also the computational difficulty of finding cheap SFCB's, these works advocated an in-depth study of WFCB's. In this paper, we settle the complexity status of the MCB problem for WFCB's (the MWFCB problem). The problem turns out to be APX-hard. However, in this paper, we also offer a simple and practical 2inverted right perpendicularlog(2) ninverted left perpendicular-approximation algorithm for the MWFCB problem. In O(n nu) time, this algorithm actually returns a WFCB whose cost is at most 2inverted right perpendicularlog(2)ninverted left perpendicular Sigma(e is an element of E(G)) w(e), thus allowing a fast 2inverted right perpendicularlog(2)ninverted left perpendicular-approximation also for the MCB problem. With this algorithm, we provide tight bounds on the cost of any MCB and MWFCB.

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

combinatorial optimization
minimum cycle basis problem
weakly fundamental cycle basis
fundamental cycle basis
approximation algorithm
computational complexity


Fuzzy set-valued stochastic Lebesgue integral This paper studies Lebesgue integral of a fuzzy closed set-valued stochastic process with respect to the time t. Firstly, a progressively measurable fuzzy closed set-valued stochastic process is discussed and an almost everywhere problem in the former Aumann type Lebesgue integral of the level-set process is pointed out. Secondly, a new definition of the Lebesgue integral by decomposable closure is given, focusing on Aumann representation theorem, representation theorem and property of convexity. It is proved that the fuzzy closed set-valued stochastic Lebesgue integral is a fuzzy closed set-valued stochastic process which is widely used in the fuzzy world with randomness. Finally, the fuzzy closed set-valued stochastic Lebeseue integral in LP-space is studied, especially on an almost everywhere problem. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy number
fuzzy set-valued stochastic process
fuzzy random variable
fuzzy stochastic lebesgue integral
level set process


Architecture design and implementation of an ad-hoc network for disaster relief operations This paper presents an ad-hoc sensor network especially developed for a disaster relief application that provides the rescue teams with a quickly deployable, cost-effective, and reliable tool to collect information about the presence of people in a collapsed building space and the state of the ruins. The hardware/software architecture of the wireless sensor nodes is developed for a low-cost design implementation. Energy efficiency is another objective of this paper, achieved by the combination of a low-power-mode algorithm and a power-aware routing strategy. A selected set of simulation studies indicate a reduction in energy consumption and a significant increase in node lifetime whereas network performance is not affected significantly. Finally, a lightweight management architecture is presented to facilitate autonomous management of ad-hoc sensor networks.

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

ad-hoc wireless network
embedded systems
network management
power-aware routing protocol
protocol design
system on chip (soc) design


Standards, innovation, and latecomer economic development: Conceptual issues and policy challenges ? For latecomer countries, standardization provides an enabling platform for innovation and latecomer economic development. Latecomer economies face different opportunities and challenges in their standards and innovation policies than todays advanced economies. One should not always apply the same criteria in judging performance of latecomers as one would to the advanced industrial economies. Countries like Korea and China will need to find their own institutional and legal approaches to develop a standards system.

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

standardization
economic development
latecomers


A Filter Bank Based Approach for Rotation Invariant Fingerprint Recognition This paper presents a systematic approach for image-based fingerprint recognition. The proposed method first enhances an input fingerprint image using a contextual filtering based method in the frequency domain. Complex filters are used for the detection of the core point, and a region of interest (ROI) of a predefined size centered at the detected core point is extracted. The resulting ROI is rotated based on the angle of the detected core point to ensure rotation invariance. Subsequently, the proposed system extracts the average absolute deviation (AAD) from the outputs of a Gabor filter bank. To reduce the dimensionality of the extracted features whilst generating more discriminatory representation, this paper compares the unsupervised Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the supervised Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) methods for dimensionality reduction. User-specific thresholding schemes are investigated to improve the verification performance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through extensive experimentation on the FVC2002 set_a public database, in both identification and verification scenarios.

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

complex filter
gabor filters
average absolute deviation (aad)
linear discriminant analysis (lda)
principal component analysis (pca)


Combination of machine scores for automatic grading of pronunciation quality This work is part of an effort aimed at developing computer-based systems for language instruction; we address the task of grading the pronunciation quality of the speech of a student of a foreign language. The automatic grading system uses SRI's DecipherTM continuous speech recognition system to generate phonetic segmentations. Based on these segmentations and probabilistic models we produce different pronunciation scores for individual or groups of sentences that can be used as predictors of the pronunciation quality. Different types of these machine scores can be combined to obtain a better prediction of the overall pronunciation quality. In this paper we review some of the best-performing machine scores and discuss the application of several methods based on linear and nonlinear mapping and combination of individual machine scores to predict the pronunciation quality grade that a human expert would have given. We evaluate these methods in a database that consists of pronunciation-quality-graded speech from American students speaking French. With predictors based on spectral match and on durational characteristics, we find that the combination of scores improved the prediction of the human grades and that nonlinear mapping and combination methods performed better than linear ones. Characteristics of the different nonlinear methods studied are discussed.

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

combination of scores
speech recognition

automatic pronunciation scoring
hidden markov models
pronunciation quality assessment
language instruction systems
computer aided language learning


Development of an advanced microclimate controller for naturally ventilated pig building The control of airflow inside a pig building for fattened pigs equipped with an advanced system for controlled natural ventilation is presented in the paper. The influence of wind upon airflow patterns in the building for winter and summer operation modes of the ventilation system is investigated. The investigation was carried out through a scale (1:50) physical model of the livestock building, situated in a device called a water table, which allowed simulation of wind blowing of the livestock building through water movement and the observation of the airflow movement within the building. On the basis of the results of the observations, an algorithm for combined control of the ventilation in dependence on the velocity and the direction of wind and temperature of air inside the building was developed. Two modes for implementation of the proposed algorithm are suggested on the basis of an integrated management and control system called MACQU.

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

livestock buildings
airflow control
temperature control
microprocessor control


iSurveillance: Intelligent framework for multiple events detection in surveillance videos It is essential to automate the video surveillance systems due to human limitation. Based on the principle of compositionality, this paper proposed the iSurveillance. Our work shows good results in detecting multiple events under a unified framework. Our work is opposed to prior methods that are tailor-made and designed to work in specific area. Future work focus on new domain knowledge, dataset and improve variables complexity.

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

video surveillance
multiple events detection


A NewtonSchur alternative to the consistent tangent approach in computational plasticity We introduce a NewtonSchur alternative to the consistent tangent approach in plasticity computations and show that the structure of the consistent tangent approach is preserved in the new NewtonSchur approach. However, the local constitutive iterations used in the conventional computational plasticity analyses are eliminated when using the NewtonSchur approach. Two numerical examples are presented which illustrate the efficiencies gained by the new approach.

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

consistent tangent approach
computational plasticity


Maximizing the predictivity of smooth deformable image warps through cross-validation Estimating smooth image warps from landmarks is an important problem in computer vision and medical image analysis. The standard paradigm is to find the model parameters by minimizing a compound energy including a data term and a smoother, balanced by a 'smoothing parameter' that is usually fixed by trial and error. We point out that warp estimation is an instance of the general supervised machine learning problem of fitting a flexible model to data, and propose to learn the smoothing parameter while estimating the warp. The leading idea is to depart from the usual paradigm of minimizing the energy to the one of maximizing the predictivity of the warp, i.e. its ability to do well on the entire image, rather than only on the given landmarks. We use cross-validation to measure predictivity, and propose a complete framework to solve for the desired warp. We point out that the well-known non-iterative closed-form for the leave-one-out cross-validation score is actually a good approximation to the true score and show that it extends to the warp estimation problem by replacing the usual vector two-norm by the matrix Frobenius norm. Experimental results on real data show that the procedure selects sensible smoothing parameters, very close to user selected ones.

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


application mapping for chip multiprocessors The problem attacked in this paper is one of automatically mapping an application onto a Network-on-Chip (NoC) based chip multiprocessor (CMP) architecture in a locality-aware fashion. The proposed compiler approach has four major steps: task scheduling, processor mapping, data mapping, and packet routing. In the first step, the application code is parallelized and the resulting parallel threads are assigned to virtual processors. The second step implements a virtual processor-to-physical processor mapping. The goal of this mapping is to ensure that the threads that are expected to communicate frequently with each other are assigned to neighboring processors as much as possible. In the third step, data elements are mapped to memories attached to CMP nodes. The main objective of this mapping is to place a given data item into a node which is close to the nodes that access it. The last step of our approach determines the paths (between memories and processors) for data to travel in an energy efficient manner. In this paper, we describe the compiler algorithms we implemented in detail and present an experimental evaluation of the framework. In our evaluation, we test our entire framework as well as the impact of omitting some of its steps. This experimental analysis clearly shows that the proposed framework reduces energy consumption of our applications significantly (27.41\% on average over a pure performance oriented application mapping strategy) as a result of improved locality of data accesses.

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

noc (network on chip)
chip multiprocessing
power optimization
compilers


The neuroprotective effect of a traditional herbal (kyung-ok-ko) on transient middle cerebral artery occlusion-Induced ischemic rat brain Kyung-ok-ko (KOK) has been used for the treatment of central nervous system disorders such as amnesia, dementia, and cerebral ischemia. However, the effects of KOK on transient ischemic-induced neuronal damage are still unclear. We examined whether KOK improves functional recovery and has a neuroprotective effect on infarction volume after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). KOK (50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) was administered orally following reperfusion and twice per day for 14 days post-MCAO. Infarction volume was measured using 2% 2-3-5 triphenylterazolium (TTC) staining at 14 days post-MCAO and alteration in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) after KOK treatment was monitored. Functional improvement was evaluated using adhesive removal and treadmill tests at 1, 7, and 14 days post-MCAO. Also, apoptotic cell death was assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase mediated d-UTP-biotin nick end (TUNEL) in the peri-infarction region. The protein level of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-? (TNF-?), interleukin-1? (IL-1?), and interleukin-1? (IL-1?) was measured in the ischemic core, ischemic border zone, and contralateral hemisphere regions. The KOK-treated group showed both reduced infarction volume and behavior tests demonstrated a significant improvement as compared to the control. Also, in the KOK-treated group, rCBF was recovered to near normal levels. The apoptotic cells were significantly decreased as compared with the control group in the ischemic peri-infarction area. Furthermore, the level of TNF-?, IL-1?, and IL-1? was decreased. These results suggest that KOK may improve functional outcome by inhibiting inflammatory cytokines (TNF-?, IL-1?, and IL-1?) in neuronal injury such as ischemic stroke.

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

transient ischemia
kyung-ok-ko
herb medicine


Agent Negotiation on Resources with Nonlinear Utility Functions To date, researches on agent multi-issue negotiation are mostly based on linear utility functions. However, the relationship between utilities and resources is usually saturated nonlinear. To this end, we expand linear utility functions to nonlinear cases according to the law of diminishing marginal utility. Furthermore, we propose a negotiation model on multiple divisible resources with two phases to realize Pareto optimal results. The computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is polynomial order. Experimental results show that the optimized efficiency of the proposed algorithm is distinctly higher than prior work.

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

nonlinear utility function
multi-agent systems
multi-issue negotiation
resources allocation
incomplete information


Shared Input Multimodal Mobile Interfaces: Interaction Modality Effects on Menu Selection in Single-Task and Dual-Task Environments(dagger) Audio and visual modalities are two common output channels in the user interfaces embedded in today's mobile devices. However, these user interfaces are typically centered on the visual modality as the primary output channel, with audio output serving a secondary role. This paper argues for an increased need for shared input multimodal user interfaces for mobile devices. A shared input multimodal interface can be operated independently using a specific output modality, leaving users to choose the preferred method of interaction in different scenarios. We evaluate the value of a shared input multimodal menu system both in a single-task desktop setting and in a dynamic dual-task setting, in which the user was required to interact with the shared input multimodal menu system while driving a simulated vehicle. Results indicate that users were faster at locating a target item in the menu when visual feedback was provided in the single-task desktop setting, but in the dual-task driving setting, visual output presented a significant source of visual distraction that interfered with driving performance. In contrast, auditory output mitigated some of the risk associated with menu selection while driving. A shared input multimodal interface allows users to take advantage of multiple feedback modalities properly, providing a better overall experience.

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

earpod
eyes-free
shared-input multimodal interfaces


wireless symbolic positioning using support vector machines This paper introduces a novel symbolic positioning system based on wireless access points and Support Vector Machines. The system works both indoors and outdoors and is cost-effective since it can even work with widely deployed 802.11 access points as infrastructure. The system requires minimal setup time, which makes it readily available for real-world applications.

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

rssi
wimax
gps
location algorithms
802.11
radio mapping
ofdm
lbs
location-based services
wi-fi


Entropic lattice Boltzmann method for simulation of thermal flows A new thermal entropic lattice Boltzmann model on the standard two-dimensional nine-velocity lattice is introduced for simulation of weakly compressible flows. The new model covers a wider range of flows than the standard isothermal model on the same lattice, and is computationally efficient and stable. (c) 2006 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

entropic lattice boltzmann method
thermal flows


Treatment-Seeking Behavior and Compliance of Diabetic Patients in a Rural Area of South India India, being a rural country, has unique problems regarding the treatment compliance of diabetic patients. This community-based study was undertaken in a rural primary health center area near Chennai (Madras) in order to better understand treatment-seeking behavior, compliance patterns, and reasons for noncompliance among rural diabetics. Compliance was indirectly measured through patient interviews and drug use charts. Of the 112 patients interviewed, 72% had some symptoms at the time of diagnosis, and the majority of them were diagnosed in government health centers. Noncompliance was seen in 57% of the 112 patients interviewed, and reasons were elicited. Interruption of treatment was significantly associated with lack of education. The study identified the lack of a patient-friendly, flexible health care system as the primary reason for noncompliance.

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

diabetes
rural health care
government health care
private health care


SAS macros for estimation of direct adjusted cumulative incidence curves under proportional subdistribution hazards models The cumulative incidence function is commonly reported in studies with competing risks. The aim of this paper is to compute the treatment-specific cumulative incidence functions, adjusting for potentially imbalanced prognostic factors among treatment groups. The underlying regression model considered in this study is the proportional hazards model for a subdistribution function [1]. We propose estimating the direct adjusted cumulative incidences for each treatment using the pooled samples as the reference population. We develop two SAS macros for estimating the direct adjusted cumulative incidence function for each treatment based on two regression models. One model assumes the constant subdistribution hazard ratios between the treatments and the alternative model allows each treatment to have its own baseline subdistribution hazard function. The macros compute the standard errors for the direct adjusted cumulative incidence estimates, as well as the standard errors for the differences of adjusted cumulative incidence functions between any two treatments. Based on the macros output, one can assess treatment effects at predetermined time points. A real bone marrow transplant data example illustrates the practical utility of the SAS macros.

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

competing risks
cumulative incidence function
subdistribution


Exact three-wave solutions for the (3+1) ( 3 + 1 ) -dimensional JimboMiwa equation ? Exact three-wave solutions including periodic cross-kink wave solutions, doubly periodic solitary wave solutions and breather type of two-solitary wave solutions for the (3+1)-dimensional JimboMiwa equation are obtained using the generalized three-wave method. It is shown that the generalized three-wave method, with the help of symbolic computation, provides an effective and powerful mathematical tool for solving high-dimensional nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics.

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


Towards an efficient and robust foot classification from pedobarographic images This paper presents a new computational framework for automatic foot classification from digital plantar pressure images. It classifies the foot as left or right and simultaneously calculates two well-known footprint indices: the Cavanagh's arch index (AI) and the modified AI. The accuracy of the framework was evaluated using a set of plantar pressure images from two common pedobarographic devices. The results were outstanding, as all feet under analysis were correctly classified as left or right and no significant differences were observed between the footprint indices calculated using the computational solution and the traditional manual method. The robustness of the proposed framework to arbitrary foot orientations and to the acquisition device was also tested and confirmed.

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

plantar pressure images
footprint indices

biomechanics
computational methods
image analysis
image alignment


An ant colony optimization approach for the multidimensional knapsack problem Ant colony optimization is a metaheuristic that has been applied to a variety of combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, an ant colony optimization approach is proposed to deal with the multidimensional knapsack problem. It is an extension of Max Min Ant System which imposes lower and upper trail limits on pheromone values to avoid stagnation. In order to choose the lower trail limit, we provide a new method which takes into account the influence of heuristic information. Furthermore, a local search procedure is proposed to improve the solutions constructed by ants. Computational experiments on benchmark problems are carried out. The results show that the proposed algorithm can compete efficiently with other promising approaches to the problem.

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

ant colony optimization
metaheuristic
multidimensional knapsack problem


The impact of dynamic pricing on the economic order decision This paper analyzes the impact of dynamic pricing on the single product economic order decision of a monopolist retailer. Items are procured from an external supplier according to the economic order quantity (EOQ) model and are sold to customers on a single market without competition following the simple monopolist pricing problem. Coordinated decision making of optimal pricing and ordering is influenced by operating costs including ordering and inventory holding costs and the demand rate obtained from a price response function. The retailer is allowed to vary the selling price, either in a fixed number of discrete points in time or continuously. While constant and continuous pricing have received much attention in the literature, problems with a limited number of price changes are rather rare. This paper illustrates the benefit of dynamically changing prices to achieve operational efficiency in the EOQ model, that is to trigger high demand rates when inventories are high. We provide structural properties of the optimal time instants when the price should be changed. Taking into account costs for changes in price, it provides numerical guidance on number, timing, and size of price changes during an order cycle. Numerical examples show that the benefits of dynamic pricing in an EOQ framework can be achieved with only a few price changes and that products being unprofitable under static pricing may become profitable under dynamic pricing.

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

procurement-inventory policies
marketing-operations interface


Analysis of multi-hop traffic grooming in WDM mesh networks Traffic grooming is an essential functionality of WDM optical networks to provision multi-granularity subwavelength connections. Depending on the number of lightpaths allowed in a connection route, traffic grooming can be classified as single-hop traffic grooming (SH-TG) and multi-hop traffic grooming (MH-TG). MH-TG is more general and resource-efficient than SH-TG, because it allows connections from different sourcedestination pairs to share the bandwidth of a lightpath. In this paper, we propose a MH-TG algorithm, namely the fixed-order multi-hop (FOMH) grooming algorithm, based on the fixed-alternate routing approach. We introduce the grooming node selection (GNS) problem in MH-TG and propose three grooming policies, namely exhaustive sequential (ES), limited-hop sequential (LHS) and load sharing (LS) policies, to address the GNS problem. These policies represent different trade-offs among blocking probability, computational complexity and transceiver requirements. Given that the analysis of MH-TG is a relatively unexplored area, we propose an analytical model to evaluate the blocking performance of MH-TG using FOMH and the LS grooming policy. To address the multi-layered routing and multi-rate connection characteristics of traffic grooming, we introduce a novel multi-level decomposition approach in our analytical model which decomposes traffic at four different levels, namely alternate path, connection route, lightpath and link levels. The model also addresses various factors that affect connection blocking probability. These factors include wavelength continuity constraint, channel continuity constraint and route dependence. The Erlang fixed-point approximation method is used to solve the analytical model. Numerical results show that analytical results match well with simulation results. We also evaluate the effect of the grooming policies, the number of virtual hops (lightpaths) within a connection route and the number of alternate paths on the performance of the grooming algorithm.

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

performance analysis
stochastic process
fixed-point erlang approximation


Computer-aided inspection for substrate design Substrate design is one of the major tasks involved in packaging design. In current business practice, the circuits of a substrate design are mostly designed by professional designers and produced by suppliers. Due to manufacturing limitations, some features of the circuit need to be modified before manufacturing. The original design and the modified design must be compared in order to ensure the desired functions. However, the circuits of a substrate design are highly complex and embedded in several physical layers. This makes the comparison task difficult, even for experienced individuals.

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

computer-aided inspection
dxf
feature extraction


algebraic factoring and rational function integration This paper presents a new, simple, and efficient algorithm for factoring polynomials in several variables over an algebraic number field. The algorithm is then used iteratively, to construct the splitting field of a polynomial over the integers. Finally the factorization and splitting field algorithms are applied to the problem of determining the transcendental part of the integral of a rational function. In particular, a constructive procedure is given for finding the least degree extension field in which the integral can be expressed.

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

variability extensibility efficiency factor integrability functional


Currency hedging strategies using dynamic multivariate GARCH This paper examines the effectiveness of using futures contracts as hedging instruments of: (1) alternative models of volatility for estimating conditional variances and covariances; (2) alternative currencies; and (3) alternative maturities of futures contracts. For this purpose. daily data of futures and spot exchange rates of three major international currencies, Euro, British pound and Japanese yen, against the American dollar, are used to analyze hedge ratios and hedging effectiveness resulting from using two different maturity currency contracts, near-month and next-to-near-month contract. We estimate four multivariate volatility models (namely CCC, VARMA-AGARCH, DCC and BEKK), and calculate optimal portfolio weights and optimal hedge ratios to identify appropriate currency hedging strategies. The hedging effectiveness index suggests that the best results in terms of reducing the variance of the portfolio are for the USD/GBP exchange rate. The empirical results show that futures hedging strategies are slightly more effective when the near-month future contract is used for the USD/GBP and USD/JPY currencies. Moreover, the CCC and AGARCH models provide similar hedging effectiveness, which suggests that dynamic asymmetry may not be crucial empirically, although some differences appear when the DCC and BEKK models are used. (C) 2012 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multivariate garch
exchange rates
hedging


confessions of a used programming language salesman For many years I had been fruitlessly trying to sell functional programming and Haskell to solve real world problems such as scripting and data-intensive three-tier distributed web applications. The lack of widespread adoption of Haskell is a real pity. Functional programming concepts are key to curing many of the headaches that plague the majority of programmers, who today are forced to use imperative languages. If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain, and so I left academia to join industry. Instead of trying to convince imperative programmers to forget everything they already know and learn something completely new, I decided to infuse existing imperative object-oriented programming languages with functional programming features. As a result, functional programming has finally reached the masses, except that it is called Visual Basic 9 instead of Haskell 98.

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

haskell
use
language
distributed
functional programming

object-oriented programming
visualization
script
industrial
concept
data
web application
adopt
learning
feature
programmer
programming language


Generalization in the XCSF classifier system: Analysis, improvement, and extension We analyze generalization in XCSF and introduce three improvements. We begin by showing that the types of generalizations evolved by XCSF can be influenced by the input range. To explain these results we present a theoretical analysis of the convergence of classifier weights in XCSF which highlights a broader issue. In XCSF, because of the mathematical properties of the Widrow-Hoff update, the convergence of classifier weights in a given subspace can be slow when the spread of the eigenvalues of the autocorrelation matrix associated with each classifier is large. As a major consequence, the system's accuracy pressure may act before classifier weights are adequately updated, so that XCSF may evolve piecewise constant approximations, instead of the intended, and more efficient, piecewise linear ones. We propose three different ways to update classifier weights in XCSF so as to increase the generalization capabilities of XCSF: one based on a condition-based normalization of the inputs, one based on linear least squares, and one based on the recursive version of linear least squares. Through a series of experiments we show that while all three approaches significantly improve XCSF, least squares approaches appear to be best performing and most robust. Finally we show how XCSF can be extended to include polynomial approximations.

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

learning classifier systems
computed prediction
xcs


New heuristic approaches for the dominating tree problem Given an undirected, connected and edge-weighted graph, the dominating tree problem (DTP) seeks on this graph a tree with minimum total edge weight such that each vertex of the graph is either in this tree or adjacent to a vertex in this tree. The DTP is a NP NP -Hard problem. In the literature only two heuristics for this problem are proposed so far in spite of the fact that it has several practical applications in the field of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose one heuristic and two swarm intelligence techniques, viz. an artificial bee colony algorithm and an ant colony optimization algorithm for the DTP. Computational results show the effectiveness of our approaches.

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

artificial bee colony algorithm
ant colony optimization algorithm
dominating tree
heuristic
swarm intelligence
wireless sensor networks


doublecheck your theorems Theorem proving in ACL2 is a complex undertaking. Initial attempts to admit a lemma often fail, in which case the programmer must either redirect ACL2's efforts or change the lemma. ACL2's output does not always indicate whether the formulation of the lemma or the proof process is at fault. In this paper we present the automated testing framework DoubleCheck as an extension of Dracula, the ACL2 development environment for DrScheme. DoubleCheck creates randomized inputs for ACL2 conjectures and uses those to test the conjecture. If these tests fail, the programmer is presented with a list of counterexamples to the conjecture. DoubleCheck can be used to guide the theorem proving process or, in a classroom setting, as a gentle introduction to automated program verification.

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


Identifying codes and locatingdominating sets on paths and cycles ? Let G=(V,E) G = ( V , E ) be a graph and let r?1 r ? 1 be an integer. For a set D?V D ? V , define Nr[x]={y?V:d(x,y)?r} N r [ x ] = { y ? V : d ( x , y ) ? r } and Dr(x)=Nr[x]?D D r ( x ) = N r [ x ] ? D , where d(x,y) d ( x , y ) denotes the number of edges in any shortest path between x x and y y . D D is known as an r r -identifying code (r r -locating-dominating set, respectively), if for all vertices x?V x ? V (x?V?D x ? V ? D , respectively), Dr(x) D r ( x ) are all nonempty and different. Roberts and Roberts [D.L. Roberts, F.S. Roberts, Locating sensors in paths and cycles: the case of 2-identifying codes, European Journal of Combinatorics 29 (2008) 7282] provided complete results for the paths and cycles when r=2 r = 2 . In this paper, we provide results for a remaining open case in cycles and complete results in paths for r r -identifying codes; we also give complete results for 2-locating-dominating sets in cycles, which completes the results of Bertrand etal. [N. Bertrand, I. Charon, O. Hudry, A. Lobstein, Identifying and locatingdominating codes on chains and cycles, European Journal of Combinatorics 25 (2004) 969987].

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

r r -identifying codes r r r r r
r r -locating-dominating sets r r r r r


Negotiating wisely: Considerations based on MCDM/MAUT Negotiation, both an art and a science, is important in business and in personal life. To negotiate intelligently, we need a strategy to help identify when, for what, and how we should negotiate. We consider a one-to-many negotiation problem such as a house-purchase process in which there is one buyer and many sellers. The alternatives are evaluated using multiple criteria, but only one criterion (such as price) is to be settled by negotiation. We use the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) as a dynamic measure of negotiating strength, and develop a systematic quantitative iterative approach to assist in the negotiation process. We explore using simulation the efficacy of negotiating for more than one alternative at the same time. The objective of our approach is to help a negotiator achieve a good, hopefully an optimal, result effectively.

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

best alternative to a negotiated agreement (batna)


Diagnosis of lung nodule using Morans index and Gearys coefficient in computerized tomography images This paper analyzes the application of Morans index and Gearys coefficient to the characterization of lung nodules as malignant or benign in computerized tomography images. The characterization method is based on a process that verifies which combination of measures, from the proposed measures, has been best able to discriminate between the benign and malignant nodules using stepwise discriminant analysis. Then, a linear discriminant analysis procedure was performed using the selected features to evaluate the ability of these in predicting the classification for each nodule. In order to verify this application we also describe tests that were carried out using a sample of 36 nodules: 29 benign and 7 malignant. A leave-one-out procedure was used to provide a less biased estimate of the linear discriminators performance. The two analyzed functions and its combinations have provided above 90% of accuracy and a value area under receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve above 0.85, that indicates a promising potential to be used as nodules signature measures. The preliminary results of this approach are very encouraging in characterizing nodules using the two functions presented.

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

diagnosis of lung nodule
morans index
gearys coefficient


Variability and misclassification of worker estimated hand force Ergonomic studies often use worker estimated hand force reproduced on a dynamometer to quantify force exposures but this method has not been well-studied in real work settings. This study evaluated the validity of worker estimates of hand force in a field study and determined the misclassification of worker estimated hand force exposures compared to directly measured forces. Eight experienced sheet metal assemblers completed -inch diameter fastener installations using 6 different pneumatic tools. Grip forces were recorded by a pressure mat and were compared to worker estimated forces demonstrated on a dynamometer. Directly measured and worker estimated readings showed moderate correlations (0.530.67) for four installation tools and fair to moderate for two tools. The coefficient for variation of force estimates was 65% within repeated subject trials and 78% between averaged subject trials but 69% between subject trials during actual tool installations. Misclassification of worker estimated exposures varied by two cut-points: 29% using 4.0kg and 49% using 6.0kg. The force match procedure may provide adequate differentiation of high and low exposures in some settings, but is likely to result in substantial misclassification in other settings.

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


TCP performance and behaviors with local retransmissions TCP has been the dominant transport protocol over the global Internet, and its performance over a hybrid wireless/wireline network has attracted much attention in recent years. This paper investigates the end-to-end TCP performance, in terms of normalized throughput, effective goodput, and packet delay, over wireless lossy links with local retransmissions. The results reveal that local retransmissions can increase the normalized TCP throughput in different wireless bandwidth, delay, and error settings, at the cost of a decrease in effective goodput and an increased packet delay. The performance observation is explained by the explored TCP endpoint behaviors, including the spurious timeout and duplicated acknowledgment. Analysis shows that spurious timeouts with local retransmissions are rare due to the conservative TCP timeout algorithm. However, spurious duplicated acknowledgments have negative impact and a further improvement with the D-SACK proposal is evaluated.

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

cellular systems
local retransmission
tcp performance and behavior
simulation


adaptive value function approximations in classifier systems Considerable attention has been paid to the issue of value function approximation in the reinforcement learning literature [3]. One of the fundamental assumptions underlying algorithms for solving reinforcement learning problems is that states and state-action pairs have well-defined values that can be approximated and used to help determine an optimal policy. The quality of those approximations is a critical factor in determining the success of many algorithms in solving reinforcement learning problems. In most classifier systems, the information about the value function is stored and computed by individual rules. Each rule maintains an independent estimate of the value of taking its designated action in the states that match its condition. From this standpoint, each rule is treated as a separate function approximator. The quality of the approximations that can be achieved by simple estimates like this is not very good. Even when those estimates are pooled together to compute a more reliable collective estimate, it is still questionable how good the overall approximation will be. It is also not clear what the best way is to improve the quality of those approximations. One approach to improving approximation quality is to increase the computational abilities of individual rules so that they become more capable function approximators [4]. Another idea is to look back to the original concepts underlying the classifier system framework and seek to take advantage of the properties of distributed representations in classifier systems [2]. This paper follows in the spirit of the latter approach, looking for ways to tap the distributed representational power present in a collection of rules to improve the quality of value function approximations. Previous work [1] introduced a new approach to value function approximation in classifier systems called hyperplane coding. Hyperplane coding is a closely related variation of tile coding [3] in which classifier rule conditions fill the role of tiles, and there are few restrictions on the way those "tiles" are organised. The basic idea is to treat rules as features that collectively specify a linear gradient-descent function approximator. The hypothesis behind this idea is that classifier rules can be more effective as function approximators if they work together to implement a distributed, coarse-coded representation of the value function. Experiments with hyperplane coding have shown that by carefully using the resources available in a random population of classifiers, continuous value functions can be approximated with a high degree of accuracy. This approach computes much better approximations than more conventional classifier system methods in which individual rules compute approximations independently. The results to date also demonstrate that hyperplane coding can achieve levels of performance comparable to those achieved by more wellknown approaches to function approximation such as tile coding. High quality value function approximations that provide both data recovery and generalisation are a critically important component of most approaches to solving reinforcement learning problems. Because hyperplane coding substantially improves the quality of the approximations that can be computed by a classifier system using relatively small populations of classifiers, it may provide the foundation for significant improvements in classifier system performance. One open question remaining about hyperplane coding is how the quality of the approximation is affected by the set of classifiers in the population. A random population of classifiers is sufficient to obtain good results. Would a more carefully chosen population do even better? The obvious next step in this research is to use the approximation resources available in a random population as a starting point for a more refined approach to approximation that reallocates resources adaptively to gain greater precision in those regions of the input space where it is needed. This paper shows how to compute such an adaptive function approximation. The goal is learn a population of classifiers that reflects the structure of the input space (Dean & Wellman, 1991). This means more rules (ie. more tiles) should be used to approximate regions which are sampled often and in which the function values vary a great deal. Fewer rules should be used in regions which are rarely sampled and in which the function is nearly constant. We discuss how to adaptively manage the space in the population, as well as how to structure the search for tiles that reduce the approximation error.

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

hyperplane coding
tile coding
reinforcement learning
function approximation


A novel IT infrastructure for reverse logistics operations of end-of-life pharmaceutical products End-of-life (EOL) is a term used to indicate that a product has completed its service lifetime and has reached the end of its useful life. A number of reasons can cause the product to complete its service life time including deterioration or obsolescence. Deterioration implies that the performance and hence the reliability of the product has significantly lessened making it no longer suitable for use due to disintegration or degeneration. Obsolescence is often used to describe the products that are rendered invalid due to systemic, functional, and style mismatch or due to notification of expiration. Lack of deterioration implies that the obsolete products are likely to preserve their functionality. The duration of shelf life varies due to numerous product-specific factors for each product. Prescription drugs, a major product class in drugs and pharmaceuticals, are one product category that is likely to complete its service life time prior to deterioration. The gap between the shelf life and the actual obsolescence date leads to storage or disposal of growing number of EOL pharmaceutical products. This fact, coupled with the significant hazard potential of these products require a well-established reverse logistics system capable of handling EOL operations such as take back, reuse, recycle, and proper disposal of these products. With these motivations, this study proposes a reverse logistics framework that embodies environmental, economical, and physical concerns for EOL pharmaceutical products. An radio frequency identification-based information technology infrastructure for the proposed system along with a comprehensive overview of the existing drug take-back regulations worldwide is also provided.

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

information technology
reverse logistics

end-of-life
rfid
pharmaceuticals industry
take-back programs


A region-based P300 speller for brain-computer interface A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a system that conveys messages and commands directly from the human brain to a computer. The BCI system described in this work is based on the P300 wave. The P300 is a positive peak of fan event-related potential (ERP) that occurs 300ms after a stimulus. One of the best-known and most widely used P300 applications is the P300 speller designed by Farwell-Donchin in 1988. The Farwell-Donchin paradigm has been a benchmark for P300 BCIs. In this paradigm, a 6 X 6 matrix of letters and numbers is displayed. and the subject focuses on a target character while rows and columns of characters flash. Through detection of P300 for one row and one column, the target character can be identified. In this paper, it is shown that there is a human perceptual error in the Farwell-Donchin paradigm. To eliminate this error, a new region-based paradigm is presented. Using experimental results, it is shown that the new paradigm has several advantages over the Farwell-Donchin paradigm and achieves better accuracy.

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 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 B O O O B 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 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

brain-computer interface
event-related potentials


getting more oomph from programming exercises Much attention has been given to the content of introductory computer science courses, but based upon a perusal of introductory textbooks, it appears that somewhat less attention has been given to the programming exercises to be used in these courses. Programming exercises can be modified to provide a better educational experience for the student. An example of how atypical programming exercises were incorporated into an introductory programming language course is described.

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

computer science
attention
introductory programming
language
experience
programming exercises

education
program
contention
applications
examples
introductory courses
motivation
new technology
practical knowledge
exercise


Curcumin as a Possible Lead Compound against Hormone-Independent, Multidrug-Resistant Breast Cancer We examine the possible evidence that the phytochemical curcumin may overcome resistance to hormonal and cytotoxic agents in breast cancer. We present our observations on MCF-7R, a multidrug-resistant (MDR) variant of the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. In contrast to MCF-7, MCF-7R lacks aromatase and estrogen receptor ? (ER?) and overexpresses the multidrug transporter ABCB1 and the products of different genes implicated in cell proliferation and survival, like c-IAP-1, NAIP, survivin, and COX-2. Nevertheless, in cytotoxicity and cell death induction assays, we found that the antitumor activity of curcumin is substantial both in MCF-7 and in MCF-7R. We elaborated the diketone system of curcumin into different analogues; the benzyloxime and the isoxazole and pyrazole heterocycles showed remarkable increases in the antitumor potency both in the parental and in the MDR MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, curcumin or, more potently, the isoxazole analogue, produced early reductions in the amounts of relevant gene transcripts that were diverse (i.e., they were relative to Bcl-2 and Bcl-XL in MCF-7 and the inhibitory of apoptosis proteins and COX-2 in MCF-7R) in the two cell lines. Thus, the two compounds exhibited the remarkable property of being able to modify their molecular activities according to the distinct characteristics of the parental and MDR cells. We discuss also how curcumin may (1) exert antitumor effects in breast cancer through ER-dependent and ER-independent mechanisms; and (2) act as a drug transporter-mediated MDR reversal agent. Overall, the structure of curcumin may represent the basis for the development of new, effective anticancer agents in hormone-independent MDR breast cancer.

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


Reducing redundancy in wireless capsule endoscopy videos We eliminate similar frames from a wireless capsule endoscopy video of the human intestines to maximize spatial coverage and minimize the redundancy in images. We combine an intensity correction method with a method based an optical flow and features to detect and reduce near-duplicate images acquired during the repetitive backward and forward egomotions due to peristalsis. In experiments, this technique reduced duplicate image of 52.3% from images of the small intestine.

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

wireless capsule endoscopy (wce)
optical flow estimation
regional egomotion analysis
reducing diagnosis time
motion classification


morphogenesis as an amorphous computation In this paper, we present a programming language viewpoint for morphogenesis, the process of shape formation during embryological development. Specifically, we model morphogenesis as a self-organizing, self-repairing amorphous computation and describe a framework through which we can program large-scale shape formation by giving local instructions to cell-like objects. Then, using this programmatic perspective, we specify some example developmental processes and discuss the characteristics that make them suitable candidates for evolutionary variation and selection. Consistent with the theory of facilitated variation from evolutionary biology, we find that variation in developmental processes can be introduced and conserved due to the hierarchical organization of growth specification.

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


Fair electronic cash based on double signatures In order to decrease crimes such as money laundering, blackmailing etc, in electronic cash systems, fair electronic cash has been a major focus of academic research in electronic commence. When a bank finds some dubious cash or owner, the trusted entity or trustee can help him to revoke the anonymity of the cash. In the previous protocols, the trustee knows all the information of the cash whether he is trusted or not, that is, he can trace the user or cash unconditionally. Furthermore, the dishonest trustee may deceive a user, which means that he may withdraw cash while tracing other users. Such cases are unfair to the honest users. A new fair electronic cash protocol based on untrustworthy trustees is proposed in this paper. The key idea is that the coin structure should include the signatures of both the trustee and the bank so that the trustee shares the information of the cash with the bank, while we do not use the secret sharing scheme. In contrast with the previous protocols, neither the trustee nor the bank can trace the money without the help of the other entity. In this way, the privacy of the user is protected furthest. Also, the trustee is off-line in the protocol, which means that he will not be involved in withdrawing the cash. Therefore, the protocol is efficient for implementation.

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


Intelligent drowsy eye detection using image mining Cell phones, MP4 players, and GPS all distract drivers, forcing them to divide their attention to what is happening outside and what is happening inside the vehicle. Preventing drivers from falling asleep at the wheel and drifting off on the road is an increasingly hard task but a solution can be achieved with todays technology: by capturing drivers eye gaze and thus the level of their exhaustion, the potential for safer roads is real. Today, image mining systems can automatically extract important information from an image dataset which can then be used to classify images and image relationship that been applied in different areas. The basic challenge in image mining research area is to determine how image level pixel representation in an original image can be used and constructed to then identify meaningful information or form relationships. In this research Intelligent Drowsy Eye Detection, using an Image Mining (IDEDIM) system is proposed. The proposed architecture would use different feature extraction techniques and three data mining classification techniques to aid with accurate information collection. Two thousand left and right eye images were used to test the developed system by Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Statistical features, and Local binary pattern (LBP) feature extraction techniques. The extracted features were used as input for Decisions Tree C5.0, K Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) Classifier. After several experimental sets, the C5.0 and KNN classifier were performing better than SVM classifier. Based on the results, we recommend the inclusion of LBP and DWT in conjunction with C5.0 with KNN as a classification technique. To validate the achieved results, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve is used to compare among the proposed classifiers. The proposed system can be integrated with the existing subsystem into real time Drowsy Detection System to achieve excellent accuracy and performance.

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

image mining
feature extraction
classification

eye image mining
decisions tree c5.0
k nearest neighbor (knn)
support vector machine (svm)


Stability of elliptic optimal control problems We consider optimal control problems governed by elliptic equations depending on parameters and give sufficient conditions for the continuous dependence of the solutions on the parameters. The techniques are based on variational methods. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

elliptic systems
dependence on parameters


Practical statistical methods for call centres with a case study addressing urgent medical care delivery Our interest is in forecasting for call centres, and in particular out-of-hours call centres (OOHCC) which deal with patient requests for medical advice outside normal working hours. Planning needs accurate forecasts of incoming call volumes. These vary by hour, day, and season, and must account for calendar effects such as Christmas. Using historical data, we explain how to use simple regression models to forecast call volumes arriving on specified days, taking into account calendar effects. We then show how we forecast the pattern of arrivals of calls during a specified day. These result in predictions for volumes of calls arriving for each day of the year, and their pattern of arrival during the day. We show how simulation models may then be used for resource allocation, uncertainty analysis, and staff scheduling. The data are details of call numbers and queue lengths from all parts of the patient-advice process for around five years, for a call centre based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There are around 350,000 complete cases in total. The methods are easily extended to other kinds of call centre. We describe the impact Swine flu had on call volumes in the summer of 2009, and our reactions to amend models in order to maintain forecast quality.

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

call-centre forecasting
prediction interval
daily arrival pattern
nonhomogeneous poisson process
patient queue
nurse scheduling


Automatic pool allocation: Improving performance by controlling data structure layout in the heap This paper describes Automatic Pool Allocation, a transformation framework that segregates distinct instances of heap-based data structures into seperate memory pools and allows heuristics to be used to partially control the internal layout of those data structures. The primary goal of this work is performance improvement, not automatic memory management, and the paper makes several new contributions. The key contribution is a new compiler algorithm for partitioning heap objects in imperative programs based on a context-sensitive pointer analysis, including a novel strategy for correct handling of indirect (and potentially unsafe) function calls. The transformation does not require type safe programs and works for the full generality of C and C++. Second, the paper describes several optimizations that exploit data structure partitioning to further improve program performance. Third, the paper evaluates how memory hierarchy behavior and overall program performance are impacted by the new transformations. Using a number of benchmarks and a few applications, we find that compilation times are extremely low, and overall running times for heap intensive programs speed up by 10-25% in many cases, about 2x in two cases, and more than 10x in two small benchmarks. Overall, we believe this work provides a new framework for optimizing pointer intensive programs by segregating and controlling the layout of heap-based data structures.

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

recursive data structure
data layout
cache
static analysis


Reactive transport benchmark of MoMaS We present here the definition of the reactive transport benchmark of Groupement Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Simulation for Nuclear Waste Management Problems. The aim of this benchmark is to propose a challenging test for numerical methods used for reactive transport modeling in porous media. In order to focus on numerical methods, the problem presented here is of quite a small size, both from a hydrodynamical and from a geochemical point of view. Though the chemical coefficients used in this benchmark are not taken from a real chemical system, they are realistic, and the test case is quite challenging.

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

reactive transport
porous media
benchmark
momas


Semisimple multivariable \(\mathbb {F}_q\)-linear codes over \(\mathbb {F}_{q^l}\) Let \(\mathbb {F}_q\) be a finite field of cardinality \(q\), \(l\) a prime number and \(\mathbb {F}_{q^l}\) an extension field of \(\mathbb {F}_q\) with degree \(l\). The structure and canonical form decompositions of semisimple multivariable \(\mathbb {F}_q\)-linear codes over \(\mathbb {F}_{q^l}\) are presented. Enumeration and construction of these codes are then investigated. Especially, dual codes, self-orthogonality and self-duality of semisimple abelian \(\mathbb {F}_q\)-linear codes over \(\mathbb {F}_{q^l}\) are studied. Furthermore, self-dual and \(\gamma \)-self dual semisimple abelian \(\mathbb {F}_q\)-linear codes over \(\mathbb {F}_{q^2}\) are considered.

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

semisimple multivariable \(\mathbb {f}_q\)-linear code

semisimple abelian \(\mathbb {f}_q\)-linear code


Visualization of three-dimensional flow structures in the wake of an inclined circular cylinder In the previous measurements of the aerodynamic sound generated from an inclined circular cylinder, it is reported that the sound pressure level (SPL) changes with the aspect ratio and the inclined angle. Therefore, we have investigated the changes in the vortex structure of the wake considered as one of the causes of the SPL variation. Using the low-noise wind tunnel, the velocity fluctuation in the wake is measured to obtain the correlation length. Moreover, the flow visualization is performed with a hydrogen bubble method and a numerical analysis method in order to clarify how the wake structure changes by variations of aspect ratio and inclined angle. As a result of this investigation, it is shown that the spanwise structure of Karman's vortex is highly influenced by the interference of Karman's vortex with the bottom endplate, and that the influence on the spanwise structure in the wake becomes greater as the aspect ratio decreases and the inclined angle increases.

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

wake
aerodynamic sound
correlation length
hydrogen bubble method
numerical analysis
flow visualization


Architecture for Building Conversational Agents that Support Collaborative Learning Tutorial Dialog Systems that employ Conversational Agents (CAs) to deliver instructional content to learners in one-on-one tutoring settings have been shown to be effective in multiple learning domains by multiple research groups. Our work focuses on extending this successful learning technology to collaborative learning settings involving two or more learners interacting with one or more agents. Experience from extending existing techniques for developing conversational agents into multiple-learner settings highlights two underlying assumptions from the one-learner setting that do not generalize well to the multiuser setting, and thus cause difficulties. These assumptions include what we refer to as the near-even participation assumption and the known addressee assumption. A new software architecture called Basilica that allows us to address and overcome these limitations is a major contribution of this article. The Basilica architecture adopts an object-oriented approach to represent agents as a network composed of what we refer to as behavioral components because they enable the agents to engage in rich conversational behaviors. Additionally, we describe three specific conversational agents built using Basilica in order to illustrate the desirable properties of this new architecture.

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

intelligent agents
natural language interfaces
software architectures


Robust foreground detection in video using pixel layers A framework for robust foreground detection that works under difficult conditions such as dynamic background and moderately moving camera is presented in this paper. The proposed method includes two main components: coarse scene representation as the union of pixel layers, and foreground detection in video by propagating these layers using a maximum-likelihood assignment. We first cluster into "layers" those pixels that share similar statistics. The entire scene is then modeled as the union of such nonparametric layer-models. An incoming pixel is detected as foreground if it does not adhere to these adaptive models of the background. A principled way of computing thresholds is used to achieve robust detection performance with a prespecified number of false alarms. Correlation between pixels in the spatial vicinity is exploited to deal with camera motion without precise registration or optical flow. The proposed technique adapts to changes in the scene, and allows to automatically convert persistent foreground objects to background and reconvert them to foreground when they become interesting. This simple framework addresses the important problem of robust foreground and unusual region detection, at about 10 frames per second on a standard laptop computer. The presentation of the proposed approach is complemented by results on challenging real data and comparisons with other standard techniques.

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

video analysis
scene analysis
surveillance
background subtraction
layer tracking


Generation and characterization of polymeric tridimensional microstructures for micromachine application In this work, we use the thick layer of polymethylmethacrylate polymer, for micromachining development. In the development of the structures, a three layer process is used. In a silicon wafer is deposited the thick layer spin coating. Over this layer is deposited a thin layer of silicon. The third layer is 1.5 ?m of e-beam resist deposited by spin coating. After the deposition of the layers, we perform the e-beam lithography in the top layer resist. This pattern is transferred by plasma etching for the silicon layer. The resolution limits of this process is the resolution of the electron resist and is increased to 0.25 ?m (nanometric resolution), using an electron beam spot size of 50 nm and dry development.

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

tridimensional structures
polymer micromachine


Perceptions of credibility of scholarly information on the web The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing students' perception of the credibility of scholarly information on the web. In addition to the four types of source credibility proposed by previous studies (presumed credibility, reputed credibility, surface credibility, and experienced credibility), this study shows that two other types of source credibility (verifiable credibility and cost-effort credibility) play a significant role in shaping students' perceptions of credibility. Circumstances that affect students' willingness to accept scholarly information on the web are identified. Implications for web system design are also discussed.

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

credibility assessment
the world wide web


Contextual modulation via low-level vision processing ? Gabor wavelets are well established as being useful for modeling neuronal response properties of the primary visual cortex. However, current Gabor models do not account for long-range contextual modulation. This paper introduces a new model which extends a state-of-the-art model of contextual modulation by incorporating long-range convolution at the scale of the visual field. The significance of this new mechanism is that it accounts for perceptual filling-in of occluded receptive fields with purely low-level vision processing.

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

contextual modulation
primary visual cortex

gabor wavelet
computational model
orientation pinwheels


USING GENETIC PROGRAMMING TO SELECT THE INFORMATIVE EEG-BASED FEATURES TO DISTINGUISH SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS There is growing interest to analyze electroencephalogram (EEG) signals with the objective of classifying schizophrenic patients from the control subjects. In this study, EEG signals of 15 schizophrenic patients and 19 age-matched control subjects are recorded using twenty surface electrodes. After the preprocessing phase, several features including autoregressive (AR) model coefficients, band power and fractal dimension were extracted from their recorded signals. Three classifiers including Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Multi-LDA (MLDA) and Adaptive Boosting (Adaboost) were implemented to classify the EEG features of schizophrenic and normal subjects. Leave-one (participant)-out cross validation is performed in the training phase and finally in the test phase; the results of applying the LDA. MLDA and Adaboost respectively provided 78%, 81% and 82% classification accuracies between the two groups. For further improvement, Genetic Programming (GP) is employed to select more informative features and remove the redundant ones. After applying GP on the feature vectors, the results are remarkably improved so that the classification rate of the two groups with LDA, MLDA and Adaboost classifiers yielded 82%, 84% and 93% accuracies, respectively.

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


Low-Complexity Hybrid-Domain H.264/SVC to H.264/AVC Spatial Transcoding with Drift Compensation for Videoconferencing As an extension of H.264/AVC, Scalable Video Coding (SVC) provides the ability to adapt to heterogeneous networks and user-end requirements, which offers great scalability in multi-point applications such as videoconferencing. However, transcoding between SVC and AVC becomes necessary due to the existence of legacy AVC-based systems. The straightforward full re-encoding method requires great computational cost, and the fast SVC-to-AVC spatial transcoding techniques have not been thoroughly investigated yet. This paper proposes a low-complexity hybrid-domain SVC-to-AVC spatial transcoder with drift compensation, which provides even better coding efficiency than the full re-encoding method. The macroblocks (MBs) of input SVC bitstream are divided into two types, and each type is suitable for pixel- or transform-domain processing respectively. In the pixel-domain transcoding, a fast re-encoding method is proposed based on mode mapping and motion vector (MV) refinement. In the transform-domain transcoding, the quantized transform coefficients together with other motion data are reused directly to avoid re-quantization loss. The drift problem caused by proposed transcoder is solved by compensation techniques for I frame and P frame respectively. Simulation results show that proposed transcoder achieves averagely 96.4% time reduction compared with the full re-encoding method, and outperforms the reference methods in coding efficiency.

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

svc-to-avc transcoding
spatial scalability
hybrid-domain