Optimization of fiber orientations near a hole for increased load-carrying capacity of composite laminates In this paper, a procedure for optimizing the fiber orientations near a hole in a single layer of multilayer composite laminates for increased strength is presented. A symmetric six-layer [(C-0)/ + 45/ - 45](s) laminate with central hole is considered. Within the +/- 45 degrees layers, the fiber orientations are fixed. The C-0 layer is divided into two fields: a small near field around the hole and a relatively large far field away from the hole. In the far field, the fiber orientations are fixed at 0 degrees, and in the near field, the fiber orientations are assumed to have continuous distribution represented by piecewise bilinear interpolation functions. The Tsai-Wu-criterion-based failure load magnitudes of [(C-0)/ + 45/ - 45](s) and [C-0](6) designs are maximized by iteratively alternating between a gradient-based search and a genetic algorithm. The results show that the load-carrying capacity of composite laminates with hole can be greatly increased through the optimization of continuous fiber orientation distribution within a small area around the hole in the C-0 layer, and the optimum fiber orientation distribution pattern in the C-0 layer is similar to that of the corresponding principal stress orientation distribution. The [(C-0)/ + 45/ - 45](s) design is only a few percent weaker than the [C-0](6) design, which is important for carrying off-design loadings.

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 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 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 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

composite laminates
failure load
bilinear interpolation

fiber orientation (angle)
stress concentration


Evaluation of the asynchronous iterative algorithms in the context of distant heterogeneous clusters The subject of this paper is to show the high efficiency of asynchronism for parallel iterative algorithms in the context of grid computing, that is to say, with machines scattered on a broad geographical scale. The question is: does asynchronism help to reduce the communication penalty and the overall computation time of such a given algorithm? The asynchronous programming model is evaluated on two test problems representing two important classes of scientific applications: a stationary linear problem and a non-stationary non-linear problem. They are implemented with a multi-threaded environment and tested on a set of distant heterogeneous machines. Several experiments have been performed allowing us to compare the performances of such asynchronous algorithms and also to analyze their behavior and extract the main possible optimizations for their use in a grid computing context.

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

asynchronism
iterative algorithms
grid computing


Mechanisms of sulfate ionic diffusion in porous cement based composites The paper considers a theoretical model for the study of the process of transfer of sulfate ions in saturated porous media - mineral composites. In its turn, the model treats diffusion of sulfate ions into cement based composites, accounting for simultaneous effects such as filling of micro-capillaries with ions and chemical products and liquid push out of them. The proposed numerical algorithm enables one to account for those simultaneous effects, as well as to model the diffusive behavior of separate sections of the considered volume, such as inert fillers. The cases studied illustrate the capabilities of the proposed model and those of the algorithm developed to study diffusion, considering the specimen complex configuration. Computations show that the theoretical assumptions enable one to qualitatively estimate the experimental evidence and the capabilities of the studied composite. The results found can be used to both assess the sulfate corrosion in saturated systems and predict and estimate damage of structures built of cement-based mineral composites.

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

sulfate attack
cement paste
mathematcal model
numerical analysis


Automatic design and layout of 3D user interfaces The production of 3D user interfaces is complicated by the wide range of input and output devices used in 3D applications and the lack of software tools for their production. A 3D user interface that works well with one particular set of input and output devices could fail when another set of devices is used. To solve this problem the Grappl system automatically generates 3D user interfaces at run time. This paper presents the programmer interface to Grappl and some of the techniques used in its implementation. An important part of this process is placing user interface and application objects in 3D space. This is achieved by using policy techniques to automate the layout process. This paper presents some of the features and techniques that have been used in policy implementation, including relative position policy and grouping policy, with a few example applications. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

user interface layout techniques
virtual reality
user interface construction


hybrid logical-statistical simulation with thermal and ir-drop mapping for degradation and variation prediction We present a statistical life-time description for digital systems, which is characterised by short term functional simulation. Temperature and IR-drops for each hardware task of the system are regarded based on a coarse RT floorplan and a component wise prediction of the dynamic and leakage power. By iteratively updating threshold voltage and supply resistances, then dynamic and leakage power, then temperature and IR-drop distribution, electro-thermal coupling as well as long term degradation effects can be described.

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

electro-thermal coupling
ir-drop
system level estimation
thermal modelling
reliability


Experimental Characterization and Analysis for Ultra Wideband Outdoor Channel This paper reports on an experimental characterization of ultra wideband (UWB) outdoor channel over a frequency range of 3.15.3GHz. Time domain measurements were conducted for line-of-sight scenarios. The acquired measurement data are characterized in terms of path-loss exponents, root mean square (RMS) delay spread, K-factor and channel capacity. Results show that the path-loss exponents range between 1.4 and 2.1 for the log-distance propagation model and the RMS delay spread was found to be between 1.2 and 3.4ns. Different statistical distributions for the delay spread were also investigated. Results of the statistical analysis also show that the correlation between RMS delay spread and transmitter receiver separation distance is very low. The small-scale fading analysis indicated that UWB signals experience Rician fading, where the maximum value of K-factor is 11dB.

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

uwb channel measurement
time dispersion
path loss
ricean k-factor


Neural coding of categories: information efficiency and optimal population codes This paper deals with the analytical study of coding a discrete set of categories by a large assembly of neurons. We consider population coding schemes, which can also be seen as instances of exemplar models proposed in the literature to account for phenomena in the psychophysics of categorization. We quantify the coding efficiency by the mutual information between the set of categories and the neural code, and we characterize the properties of the most efficient codes, considering different regimes corresponding essentially to different signal-to-noise ratio. One main outcome is to find that, in a high signal-to-noise ratio limit, the Fisher information at the population level should be the greatest between categories, which is achieved by having many cells with the stimulus-discriminating parts (steepest slope) of their tuning curves placed in the transition regions between categories in stimulus space. We show that these properties are in good agreement with both psychophysical data and with the neurophysiology of the inferotemporal cortex in the monkey, a cortex area known to be specifically involved in classification tasks.

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

categorization
population coding
exemplar models
mutual information
inferotemporal cortex


anti-jamming timing channels for wireless networks Wireless communication is susceptible to radio interference, which prevents the reception of communications. Although evasion strategies have been proposed, such strategies are costly or ineffective against broadband jammers. In this paper, we explore an alternative to evasion strategies that involves the establishment of a timing channel that exists in spite of the presence of jamming. The timing channel is built using failed packet reception times. We first show that it is possible to detect failed packet events inspite of jamming. We then explore single sender and multisender timing channel constructions that may be used to build a low-rate overlay link-layer. We discuss implementation issues that we have overcome in constructing such jamming-resistant timing channel, and present the results of validation efforts using the MICA2 platform. Finally, we examine additional error correction and authentication mechanisms that may be used to cope with adversaries that both jam and seek to corrupt our timing channel.

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

timing channel
jamming
radio interference


Provision and maintenance of presence and immersion in hand-held virtual reality through motion based interaction Hand-held devices are also becoming computationally more powerful and being equipped with special sensors and non-traditional displays for diverse applications aside from just making phone calls. As such, it raises the question of whether realizing virtual reality, providing a minimum level of immersion and presence, might be possible on a hand-held device capable of only relatively "small'' display. In this paper, we propose that motion based interaction can widen the perceived field of view (FOV) more than the actual physical FOV, and in turn, increase the sense of presence and immersion up to a level comparable to that of a desktop or projection display based VR systems. We have implemented a prototype hand-held VR platform and conducted two experiments to verify our hypothesis. Our experimental study has revealed that when a motion based interaction was used, the FOV perceived by the user for the small hand held device was significantly greater than (around 50%) the actual. Other larger display platforms using the conventional button or mouse/keyboard interface did not exhibit such a phenomenon. In addition, the level of user felt presence in the hand-held platform was higher than or comparable to those in VR platforms with larger displays. We hypothesize that this phenomenon is related to and analogous to the way the human vision system compensates for differences in acuity resolution in the eye/retina through the saccadic activity. The paper demonstrates the distinct possibility of realizing reasonable virtual reality even with devices with a small visual FOV and limited processing power. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

motion based interaction
presence
immersion
perceived field of view

hand-held virtual reality
proprioception


A rank-metric approach to error control in random network coding The problem of error control in random linear network coding is addressed from a matrix perspective that is closely related to the subspace perspective of Kotter and Kschischang. A large class of constant-dimension subspace codes is investigated. It is shown that codes in this class can be easily constructed from rank-metric codes, while preserving their distance properties. Moreover, it is shown that minimum distance decoding of such subspace codes can be reformulated as a generalized decoding problem for rank-metric codes where partial information about the error is available. This partial information may be in the form of erasures (knowledge of an error location but not its value) and deviations (knowledge of an error value but not its location). Taking erasures and deviations into account (when they occur) strictly increases the error correction capability of a code: if mu erasures and delta deviations occur, then errors of rank t can always be corrected provided that 2t <= d - 1 + mu + delta, where d is the minimum rank distance of the code. For Gabidulin codes, an important family of maximum rank distance codes, an efficient decoding algorithm is proposed that can properly exploit erasures and deviations. In a network coding application, where n packets of length M over F(q) are transmitted, the complexity of the decoding algorithm is given by O(dM) operations in an extension field F(q)(n).

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

constant-dimension codes
linearized polynomials
rank-metric codes


Recommender System for Sport Videos Based on User Audiovisual Consumption This paper describes a recommender system for sport videos, transmitted over the Internet and/or broadcast, in the context of large-scale events, which has been tested for the Olympic Games. The recommender is based on audiovisual consumption and does not depend on the number of users, running only on the client side. This avoids the concurrence, computation and privacy problems of central server approaches in scenarios with a large number of users, such as the Olympic Games. The system has been designed to take advantage of the information available in the videos, which is used along with the implicit information of the user and the modeling of his/her audiovisual content consumption. The system is thus transparent to the user, who does not need to take any specific action. Another important characteristic is that the system can produce recommendations for both live and recorded events. Testing has showed advantages compared to previous systems, as will be shown in the results.

B I O B I O O O B I 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 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

audiovisual consumption
recommender system
sport videos


feature-preserving smoothing algorithm for polygons and meshes A feature-preserving smoothing algorithm for irregularly sampled meshes is presented in this paper. Low-pass bilateral filter is employed in this algorithm. The parameters of the filter are assigned adaptively for each vertex. Local first-order properties are also incorporated into the filter to further preserve the sharp features of the mesh. A similar technique is also used for polygon smoothing. Several examples are given to graphically and numerically demonstrate the quality of our results.

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


Nanoporous gold formation by dealloying: A Metropolis Monte Carlo study A Metropolis Monte Carlo study of the dealloying mechanism leading to the formation of nanoporous gold is presented. A simple lattice-gas model for gold, silver and acid particles, vacancies and products of chemical reactions is adopted. The influence of temperature, concentration and lattice defects on the dealloying process is investigated and the morphological properties are characterized in terms of the Euler characteristic, volume, surface area and the specific surface area. It is shown that a minimal three-parameter model suffices to yield nanoporous gold structures which have morphological properties akin to those found in the experiment. The salient features of the structures found by simulation are that the ligament size of the dealloyed material is of the order of 23 nm, the structure is disordered, percolating and entirely connected.

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

monte carlo simulation
nanoporous materials
catalysts
sensors
actuators


Computational performance of aggregated distillation models Compartmental and aggregated modeling is used to derive low-order (reduced) dynamic models from detailed models of staged processes. In this study, the aggregated modeling method of [Levine, J., & Rouchon, R(1991). Quality control of binary distillation columns via nonlinear aggregated models. Automatica, 27, 4631 is revised with the objective of deriving computationally efficient models for real-time control and optimization applications. A simple implementation of the original method not requiring the specification of compartments is presented. The resulting DAE models are converted into ODE models by pre-solving and substituting the algebraic equations resulting from the reduction procedure, which is the key step to increase simulation speed. To study this, the performances of several full and reduced distillation models, with and without base-layer controllers, are compared using different numerical integrators. It is found that while the reduced DAE models are computationally not advantageous, the reduced ODE models decrease the simulation time by a factor of 5-10. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

distillation
aggregated modeling
computational performance

model reduction
real-time optimization
singular perturbation


an annotation assistant for interactive debugging of programs with common synchronization idioms This paper explores an approach to improving the practical usability of static verification tools for debugging synchronization idioms. Synchronization idioms such as mutual exclusion and readers/writer locks are widely-used to ensure atomicity of critical regions. We present an annotation assistant that automatically generates program annotations. These annotations express noninterference between program statements, ensured by the synchronization idioms, and are used to identify atomic code regions. This allows the programmer to debug the use of the idioms in the program. We start by formalizing several well-known idioms by providing an abstract semantics for each idiom. For programs that use these idioms, we require the programmer to provide a few predicates linking the idiom with its realization in terms of program variables. From these, we automatically generate a proof script that is mechanically checked. These scripts include steps such as automatically generating assertions and annotating program actions with them, introducing auxiliary variables and invariants. We have successfully shown the applicability of this approach to several concurrent programs from the literature.

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 B I 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 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 B I O O O

synchronization idioms
atomicity
concurrent programs


A Probabilistic Graph-Theoretic Approach to Integrate Multiple Predictions for the ProteinProtein Subnetwork Prediction Challenge The proteinprotein subnetwork prediction challenge presented at the 2nd Dialogue for Reverse Engineering Assessments and Methods (DREAM2) conference is an important computational problem essential to proteomic research. Given a set of proteins from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) genome, the task is to rank all possible interactions between the proteins from the most likely to the least likely. To tackle this task, we adopt a graph-based strategy to combine multiple sources of biological data and computational predictions. Using training and testing sets extracted from existing yeast proteinprotein interactions, we evaluate our method and show that it can produce better predictions than any of the individual data sources. This technique is then used to produce our entry for the proteinprotein subnetwork prediction challenge.

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


Automating metadata Web service deployment for problem solving environments XML-based metadata information services are a crucial core service needed by problem solving environments built over emerging service-based, globally scaled distributed systems, as envisioned by the Open Grid Services Architecture and the Semantic Web. Developing user interfaces and service bindings for manipulating instances of particular schemas is thus extremely important and needs to be made as simple as possible. In this paper we describe procedures for automating the creation of Web service environments that can be used to simplify the creation and deployment of schema-based metadata services.

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


Marginalization in multidimensional compositional models Efficient computational algorithms are what made graphical Markov models so popular and successful. Similar algorithms can also be developed for computation with compositional models, which form an alternative to graphical Markov models. In this paper we present a theoretical basis as well as a scheme of an algorithm enabling computation of marginals for multidimensional distributions represented in the form of compositional models.

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


Gradient based optimal seismic retrofitting of 3D irregular buildings using multiple tuned mass dampers Multi-modal optimal seismic design methodology using MTMDs in 3D irregular buildings is presented. The methodology enables achieving a performance-based-design. The gradients required are efficiently derived analytically using the adjoint analytical method. MTMDs overcome some of the limitations of single TMDs in seismic control. MTMDs can mitigate both structural and nonstructural earthquake damage.

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

sensitivity analysis
earthquake engineering
performance based design
tuned-mass dampers


Construction of a Boolean model of gene and protein regulatory network with memory A Boolean model of gene and protein regulatory network with memory (GPBN) has recently attracted interest as a generalization of original random Boolean networks (BNs) for genetic and cellular networks. It is better suited to describe experimental data from the time-course microarray. Addressing construction problems in GPBNs may lead to a better understanding of the intrinsic dynamics in biological systems. Using the technique of the semi-tensor product (STP) of matrices, the dynamics of a GPBN can be expressed in an algebraic form and the attractors can be calculated. This paper investigates the issue of construction of GPBNs from prescribed attractors. Based on a rigorous theoretical analysis, some algebraic formulae and a computationally feasible algorithm are obtained to construct the least in-degree model with prescribed attractors. Illustrative examples are presented to show the validity of the theoretical results and the proposed algorithm.

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

decay time
semi-tensor product
construction from attractors
least in-degree model


human behaviour consistent relevance feedback model for image retrieval Due to the well known semantic gap, content based image retrieval is a difficult problem. To bridge it, relevance feedback as an effective solution has been extensively studied in literatures. However, existing methods follow a single-line searching philosophy, which may lead to a local optimum in search space. To address the problem, we propose a human behavior consistent relevance feedback model for image retrieval in this paper. Simulating human behaviors, the proposed model enable the user to perform relevance feedback in three manners: Follow up, Go back , and Restart . Each manner is a way for the user to provide the system with his or her opinions about search results. The accumulated feedback information can be used to refine the user query and regulate the similarity metric. We adopt the graph ranking algorithm to model the retrieval process. Experiments conducted on standard Corel dataset and Pascal VOC 2006 dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

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

graph ranking
relevance feedback
image retrieval


An incremental recovery cache supporting software fault tolerance mechanisms This paper focuses upon the requirement to save and restore application state as part of the execution of error recovery mechanisms. Using the object-oriented features of the revised Ada language, we present a portable implementation of a state recovery mechanism that is fully independent of application types. Results of the implementation of this mechanism are used to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of some of the object-oriented features of Ada 95, particularly user-defined assignment, in the light of our equivalent implementation in C++. We then show a reusable recovery block implementation to illustrate the use of the recovery mechanism.

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

fault-tolerant systems
checkpointing
user-defined assignment


Proposition and evaluation of a collision detection method for real time surgery simulation of opening a brain fissure In neurosurgery, opening a brain fissure allows an operator to access to the basis cranii and to treat a disease part safely, but the operator is required highly sophisticated techniques. In order to develop a neurosurgery simulator enabling surgeons to train themselves for opening a brain fissure procedure, it is required to detect collision between a thin instrument model and a deformable brain model and furthermore to compute feasible enforced displacements to deformable object. This paper proposes a new collision detection method which considers to the collision state of objects in previous loop of simulation. And simulation of opening a brain fissure is implemented using the proposed method which is accelerated by GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Finally the performance of the proposed method is evaluated.

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 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

operation simulator
software development
robomec2013


Channel State Feedback Over the MIMO-MAC In order to exploit the full multiplexing gain of multi-antenna multi-user downlink schemes, accurate channel state information at the transmitter (i.e., at the base station) is required. We consider the design of a closed-loop channel state information feedback scheme, where user terminals feed back their channel state information simultaneously to a multi-antenna base station. The underlying information theoretic problem consists of lossy source-channel coding of multiple independent analog sources (i.e., the users' channel coefficients) over a Gaussian multiple- input multiple-output multi-access channel (MIMO-MAC). Unlike the classical source-channel coding setting, this application requires low latency, otherwise the channel state information would be outdated. Hence, source-channel codewords can span only a single fading state of the uplink (feedback) channel. Furthermore, the transmitters are ignorant of the realization of the uplink channel coefficients. In this scenario, the scaling of the maximum of the estimated downlink channel mean-square errors with the SNR dominates the performance of the multiuser downlink. This scaling is described by the distortion SNR exponent, previously introduced in a single-user MIMO setting. This paper analyzes the max-min distortion SNR exponent of the MIMO-MAC for both separated source-channel coding, and a particular hybrid digital-analog joint source-channel coding scheme. For the case of single-antenna users, we prove that the distortion SNR exponent of separated source-channel coding can be achieved by the concatenation of scalar quantization and uncoded quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) transmission, with lattice decoding at the base-station receiver. The resulting scheme has very low encoding latency (only a few symbols of the uplink slot) and generally outperforms currently proposed channel state feedback schemes based on analog unquantized transmission or vector quantization with fixed codebooks.

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

multiple-antenna multiple-access channel (mimo-mac)


Sensor acceptance model - Measuring patient acceptance of wearable sensors Objectives: This project focuses on how patients respond to wearable biomedical sensors, since patient acceptance of this type of monitoring technology is essential for enhancing the quality of the data being measured. There is a lack of validated questionnaires measuring patient acceptance of telemedical solutions, and little information is known of how patients evaluate the use of wearable sensors. Methods: in information systems research, surveys are commonly used to evaluate the user satisfaction of software programs. Based on this tradition and adding measures of patient satisfaction and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), a Sensor Acceptance Model is developed. The model is made operational using two questionnaires developed for measuring the patients' perceived acceptance of wearable sensors. Results: The model is tested with 11 patients using a newly developed wearable ECG sensor, and with 25 patients in a reference group using a traditional "Holter Recorder". Construct validity is evaluated by confirmatory factor analysis, and internal consistency is calculated using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Sensor Acceptance Index (SAI) is calculated for each patient, showing reasonable dependencies and variance in scores. Conclusions: This study attempts to identify patients' acceptance of wearable sensors, describing a user acceptance model. Understanding the patients' behavior and motivation represents a step forward in designing suitable technical solutions, and calculations of SAI can, hopefully, be used to compare different wearable sensor solutions. However, this instrument needs more extensive testing with a broader sample size, with different types of sensors and by explorative follow-up interviews.

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

quality of life
questionnaires
patient satisfaction
user acceptance
wearable sensors


On the core of multiple longest traveling salesman games In this paper we introduce multiple longest traveling salesman (MLTS) games. An MLTS game arises from a network in which a salesman has to visit each node (player) precisely once, except to his home location, in such an order that maximizes the total reward. First it is shown that the value of a coalition of an MLTS game is determined by taking the maximum of suitable combinations of one and two person coalitions. Secondly it is shown that MLTS games with five or less players have a nonempty core. However, a six player MLTS game may have an empty core. For the special instance in which the reward between a pair of nodes is equal to 0 or 1, we provide relations between the structure of the core and the underlying network.

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

multiple longest traveling salesman problem/game


Supporting use case based requirements engineering Use cases that describe possible interactions involving a system and its environment are increasingly being accepted as effective means for functional requirements elicitation and analysis. In the current practice, informal definitions of use cases are used and the analysis process is manual. In this paper, we present an approach supported by a tool for use cases based requirements engineering. Our approach includes use cases formalization, a restricted form of natural language for use cases description, and the derivation of an executable specification as well as a simulation environment from use cases.

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


Regulators of Neurite Outgrowth: Role of Cell Adhesion Molecules Neuronal differentiation is a fundamental event in the development of the nervous system as well as in the regeneration of damaged nervous tissue. The initiation and guidance of a neurite are accomplished by positive (permissive or attractive), negative (inhibitory or repulsive), or guiding (affecting the advance of the growth cone) signals from the extracellular space. The signals may arise from either the extracellular matrix (ECM) or the surface of other cells, or be diffusible secreted factors. Based on this classification, we briefly describe selected positive, negative, and guiding signaling cues focusing on the role of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). CAMs not only regulate cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion mechanically, they also trigger intracellular signaling cascades launching neurite outgrowth. Here, we describe the structure, function, and signaling of three key CAMs found in the nervous system

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


A composed supervised/unsupervised approach to improve change detection from remote sensing In this paper a new approach to performing change detection analyses based on a combination of supervised and unsupervised techniques is presented. Two remotely sensed, independently classified images are compared. The change estimation is performed according to the Post Classification Comparison (PCC) method if the posterior probability values are sufficiently high; otherwise a land cover transition matrix, automatically obtained from data, is used. The proposed technique is compared with the traditional PCC approach. It is shown that the new approach correctly detects the true change without overestimating the false one, while PCC points out true change pixels together with a large number of false changes.

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


Dynamic multi-objective evolution of classifier ensembles for video face recognition Due to a limited control over changing operational conditions and personal physiology, systems used for video-based face recognition are confronted with complex and changing pattern recognition environments. Although a limited amount of reference data is initially available during enrollment, new samples often become available over time, through re-enrollment, post analysis and labeling of operational data, etc. Adaptive multi-classifier systems (AMCSs) are therefore desirable for the design and incremental update of facial models. For real time recognition of individuals appearing in video sequences, facial regions are captured with one or more cameras, and an AMCS must perform fast and efficient matching against the facial model of individual enrolled to the system. In this paper, an incremental learning strategy based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed to efficiently evolve heterogeneous classifier ensembles in response to new reference data. This strategy is applied to an AMCS where all parameters of a pool of fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural network classifiers (i.e., a swarm of classifiers), each one corresponding to a particle, are co-optimized such that both error rate and network size are minimized. To provide a high level of accuracy over time while minimizing the computational complexity, the AMCS integrates information from multiple diverse classifiers, where learning is guided by an aggregated dynamical niching PSO (ADNPSO) algorithm that optimizes networks according both these objectives. Moreover, pools of FAM networks are evolved to maintain (1) genotype diversity of solutions around local optima in the optimization search space and (2) phenotype diversity in the objective space. Accurate and low cost ensembles are thereby designed by selecting classifiers on the basis of accuracy, and both genotype and phenotype diversity. For proof-of-concept validation, the proposed strategy is compared to AMCSs where incremental learning of FAM networks is guided through mono- and multi-objective optimization. Performance is assessed in terms of video-based error rate and resource requirements under different incremental learning scenarios, where new data is extracted from real-world video streams (IIT-NRC and MoBo). Simulation results indicate that the proposed strategy provides a level of accuracy that is comparable to that of using mono-objective optimization and reference face recognition systems, yet requires a fraction of the computational cost (between 16% and 20% of a mono-objective strategy depending on the data base and scenario).

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

dynamic multi-objective optimization
multi-classifier systems
ensemble methods
artmap neural networks
face recognition in video
adaptive biometrics


Precomputed Safety Shapes for Efficient and Accurate Height-Field Rendering Height fields have become an important element of realistic real-time image synthesis to represent surface details. In this paper, we focus on the frequent case of static height-field data, for which we can precompute acceleration structures. While many rendering algorithms exist that impose tradeoffs between speed and accuracy, we show that even accurate rendering can be combined with high performance. A careful analysis of the surface defined by the height values, leads to an efficient and accurate precomputation method. As a result, each texel stores a safety shape inside which a ray cannot cross the surface twice. This property ensures that no intersections are missed during the efficient marching method. Our analysis is general and can even consider visibility constraints that are robustly integrated into the precomputation. Further, we propose a particular instance of safety shapes with little memory overhead, which results in a rendering algorithm that outperforms existing methods, both in terms of accuracy and performance.

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

computer graphics
3d graphics
realism
raytracing
color
shading
shadowing
texture


On the Origin of Language Thomas Sebeok and Noam Chomsky are the acknowledged founding fathers of two research fields which are known respectively as Biosemiotics and Biolinguistics and which have been developed in parallel during the past 50years. Both fields claim that language has biological roots and must be studied as a natural phenomenon, thus bringing to an end the old divide between nature and culture. In addition to this common goal, there are many other important similarities between them. Their definitions of language, for example, have much in common, despite the use of different terminologies. They both regard language as a faculty, or a modelling system, that appeared rapidly in the history of life and probably evolved as an exaptation from previous animal systems. Both accept that the fundamental characteristic of language is recursion, the ability to generate an unlimited number of structures from a finite set of elements (the property of discrete infinity). Both accept that human beings are born with a predisposition to acquire language in a few years and without apparent efforts (the innate component of language). In addition to similarities, however, there are also substantial differences between the two fields, and it is an historical fact that Sebeok and Chomsky made no attempt at resolving them. Biosemiotics and Biolinguistics have become two separate disciplines, and yet in the case of language they are studying the same phenomenon, so it should be possible to bring them together. Here it is shown that this is indeed the case. A convergence of the two fields does require a few basic readjustments in each of them, but leads to a unified framework that keeps the best of both disciplines and is in agreement with the experimental evidence. What is particularly important is that such a framework suggests immediately a new approach to the origin of language. More precisely, it suggests that the brain wiring processes that take place in all phases of human ontogenesis (embryonic, foetal, infant and child development) are based on organic codes, and it is the step-by-step appearance of these brain-wiring codes, in a condition that is referred to as cerebra bifida, that holds the key to the origin of language.

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

biolinguistics
biosemiotics
organic codes
origin of language


On the influence of the e-beam writer address grid on the optical quality of high-frequency gratings When using optical high-frequency gratings, the suppression of grating errors is essential for many applications. We investigate the influence of the address grid of e-beam writers on the formation of grating ghosts in the diffraction spectrum. If the grating period is not adapted to the address grid resolution, grating ghosts are obtained both in experiment and calculation. This can be avoided for gratings with lines parallel to one axis of the address grid if the period matches the address grid resolution. If the gratings are not parallel to the address grid axes, the adaption of the grating period has minor influence.

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

high-frequency gratings
electron beam lithography


A model-driven decision support system for product risk analysis The paper describes a model-driven decision support system for risk analysis in product development, based on an European Commission-funded project. The model can be used to simulate the life cycle of a large batch of products and track products in operation and service phases with consideration of design and manufacturing phases. This provides some useful benefits in particular, being able to generate composite results when the product life is subject to unpredictable events, which makes the system's behaviour non-linear. A case study is conducted through a domestic appliance in the field trial from a manufacturing company, and the results indicate that the model can enable developers or manufacturers to understand the behaviour and characteristics of products or systems in the future use and to predict the cost of any changes in the pattern of their life.

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


Finite element methods for unsaturated porous solids and their application to dam engineering problems This work presents a finite element formulation of equations proposed in a companion paper to describe the hyperelastic response of three-phase porous media. Attention is paid to the development of consistent tangents required by the NewtonRaphson procedure used to solve the highly non-linear finite element equations. Among several sources of non-linearity, we also model the permeability dependence on strain as typically observed in intensely jointed rock masses, thus introducing a further reason of hydro-mechanical coupling. Several numerical examples are presented to validate the considered poro-elastic laws and to assess the performance of the numerical formulation. These tests include comparisons with available experimental data relative to a sand column desaturation and with the Philips analytical solution for the propagation of a saturation front in an initially dry porous solid. Finally, the formulation is applied to problems of interest for dam engineering, namely the simulation of reservoir bank response to rapid drawdown and a three-dimensional study of concrete gravity dam interaction with foundation and abutment rock masses during reservoir operation.

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

multiphase porous media
concrete dams
hydro-mechanical coupling
unilateral constraints
rock mass permeability


Monitoring Obstructive Sleep Apnea by means of a real-time mobile system based on the automatic extraction of sets of rules through Differential Evolution A cheap and portable approach to monitor in real time patients with OSA is proposed. ECG data is gathered by a wearable sensor and sent to a mobile device. A set of IFTHEN rules is extracted from ECG monitored data. This set of rules can be used in our real-time mobile monitoring system. If occurrence of OSA is detected by a rule, an alarm is automatically produced.

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 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

obstructive sleep apnea
differential evolution
ifthen rules

knowledge extraction
real-time monitoring system
wearable sensors


Do there exist complete sets for promise classes? In this paper we investigate the following two questions:

computational complexity
optimal proof systems
promise classes.
msc (2010) 03f20
68q15


Numerical investigation of air suction through the louvers of a funnel due to high velocity air jet The present investigation predicts the suction flow rate from the atmosphere through the louvers of a funnel (used in naval and merchant ships) when the high velocity exhaust comes out from a nozzle or a set of nozzles placed inside the funnel. Conservation equations of mass and momentum have been solved for the funnel with a surrounding computational domain so that the suction can take place at the louvers entry. The resulting equations have been solved numerically using finite volume technique in an unstructured grid employing eddy viscosity based two equation k-epsilon turbulence model. It has been found from the computation that the air suction rate into the funnel increases with the increase in louvers opening area, nozzle flow rate and height of the funnel. There exists optimum protrusion of the nozzle into the funnel for which maximum suction of air can be achieved with a prescribed nozzle flow rate and all other parameters of the funnel remaining fixed. Similarly there also exists optimum funnel diameter where the suction rate of air becomes the highest with all other parameters remaining fixed. There also exists optimum louver opening area on the funnel where the suction rate becomes the maximum as a function of the funnel diameter. The inclination of the funnel with respect to the vertical has no effect on mass ingress of air into it. An optimum nozzle diameter could be decided for a particular funnel diameter by considering the funnel suction rate and the back pressure developed by the nozzle per meter length of the pipe containing the nozzle (intersection of the two curves gives the optimum point of operation). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Toward maximum-predictive-value classification We propose a method for high predictive value classification. The new method uses a nearest-prototype approach tuned by a genetic algorithm. We compare the method to several standard classifiers optimized for predictive value. All methods are tested using 27 real-world classification problems. The proposed method produces effective high-predictive-value classifiers.

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


A stabilized underintegrated enhanced assumed strain solid-shell element for geometrically nonlinear plate/shell analysis In this paper, an underintegrated solid-shell element is developed in the framework of explicit finite element based on the Hu-Washizu variational principle. The reduced in-plane integration with a physical stabilization procedure scheme is adopted to improve computational efficiency. For the underintegrated element, volumetric locking is avoided with the B-bar approach, while thickness locking is eliminated by adopting only one enhancing parameter. In the previous literatures, the assumed natural strain method or artificial stabilization parameters are usually employed to remedy transverse shell locking for the underintegrated element, here a six-parameter enhanced assumed strain method is used, leading to a more straightforward formulation. Several standard benchmark examples including linear and nonlinear problems are calculated. The solid-shell element is proved to be accurate in resolving plate/shell problems. At the end, an in-house program that incorporates the solid-shell element into the explicit finite element method is developed. An S-rail forming process from the NUMISHEET conference is analyzed. The final results are in good accordance with the experiment.

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

stabilization
enhanced assumed strain method
explicit finite element method


MULTIMODAL AFFECT DETECTION OF CAR DRIVERS The affective state of car drivers has a great impact on their driving behavior. In case of a high stress level, car drivers take more risk in turn over, car following and in neglecting traffic warning signs. In the paper we present first a list of factors which have an impact on the psychological state of the car driver with a focus on the affective state of car drivers. Next we give an outline of our multimodal system to assess the affective state of car drivers by analysis of facial expressions and speech signals. The output of our system is the basic input of a stress-o-meter providing the amount of the stress in a graphical way. We assume that this leads to a reduction of physical arousal and mental reappraisal of the situation. We present some experimental results of our assessment modules. So far we performed only lab experiments. At this moment we research noise canceling techniques in the car environment, which enable video and speech analysis in the car in real traffic environments.

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

multimodal interfaces
facial expression recognition
emotional speech analysis


Bus Network Optimization with a Time-Dependent Hybrid Algorithm This paper describes a new hybrid technique that combines a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) and a genetic algorithm with simulation features in order to solve the Bus-Network Scheduling Problem (BNSP). The GRASP is used as an initialization method to find the routes between bus stops. The Genetic Algorithm is used to find the whole configuration of the bus network, together with a simulation tool that finds the values of the environmentally dependent dynamic variables. The new method was tested with an academic case of study, and the results clearly satisfy the requirements of both the transport user and the transport operator.

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

hybrid genetic algorithms
bus network scheduling problem


Two approaches to direct block-support conditional co-simulation Change of support is a common issue in the geosciences when the volumetric support of the available data is smaller than that of the blocks on which numerical modeling is required. In this paper, we present two algorithms for the direct block-support simulation of cross-correlated random fields that are monotonic transforms of stationary Gaussian random fields. The first algorithm is a variation of sequential Gaussian co-simulation, in which each block value is simulated in turn, conditionally to the original data and to the previously simulated block values, while the second algorithm is based on spectral co-simulation in the framework of the discrete Gaussian change-of-support model. These two algorithms are implemented in computer programs and applied to a synthetic case study and to a mining case study. Their properties and performances are compared and discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

support effect
linear model of coregionalization
sequential gaussian simulation
spectral simulation
fast fourier transform
discrete gaussian model


spliceR: an R package for classification of alternative splicing and prediction of coding potential from RNA-seq data RNA-seq data is currently underutilized, in part because it is difficult to predict the functional impact of alternate transcription events. Recent software improvements in full-length transcript deconvolution prompted us to develop spliceR, an R package for classification of alternative splicing and prediction of coding potential.

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

rna-seq
nonsense mediated decay (nmd)
isoform switch


Machine tool capability profiles for representing machine tool health A data model for exchanging machine tool health information is proposed. Manufacturing resource capability profiles can represents state of the machine tool. Machine tool health data is stored and exchanged with ISO 10303 part-21 file format. Machine tool technological specifications are connected to the health information. Standardised machine tool health information offer interoperability advantages.

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

cnc
machine tools
resource information modelling
step-nc
machine tool testing standards


"Man-Computer symbiosis" revisited: Achieving natural communication and collaboration with computers In 1960, the famous computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider described a vision for human-computer interaction that he called "man-computer symbiosis." Licklider predicted the development of computer software that would allow people "to think in interaction with a computer in the same way that you think with a colleague whose competence supplements your own." More than 40 years later, one rarely encounters any computer application that comes close to capturing Licklider's notion of human-like communication and collaboration. We echo Licklider by arguing that true symbiotic interaction requires at least the following three elements: a complementary and effective division of labor between human and machine; an explicit representation in the computer of the user's abilities, intentions, and beliefs; and the utilization of nonverbal communication modalities. We illustrate this argument with various research prototypes currently under development at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (USA).

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

man-computer symbiosis
human-computer interaction
intelligent user interfaces
interactive optimization
natural-language processing
discourse processing


LevenbergMarquardt vs Powells dogleg method for GursonTvergaardNeedleman plasticity model The GTN continuous damage model is very popular in academia and industry for structural integrity assessment and ductile fracture simulation. Following Aravas influential 1987 paper, Newtons method has been used widely to solve the GTN equations. However, if the starting point is far from the solution, then Newtons method can fail to converge. Hybrid methods are preferred in such cases. In this work we translate the GTN equations into a non-linear minimization problem and then apply the LevenbergMarquardt and Powells dogleg hybrid methods to solve it. The methods are tested for accuracy and robustness on two simple single finite element models and two 3D models with complex deformation paths. In total nearly 137,000 different GTN problems were solved. We show that the LevenbergMarquardt method is more robust than Powells method. Our results are verified against the Abaqus own solver. The superior accuracy of the LevenbergMarquardt method allows for larger time increments in implicit time integration schemes.

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


Impact of electroplated copper thickness on copper CMP and Cu/Coral BEOL integration A study was carried out to establish the impact of electrochemical plated (ECP) Cu thickness on the effect of dishing during Cu chemical mechanical planarization and the electrical and reliability performance of 0.13?m Cu/Coral devices. The roughness of Cu films at the wafer edge was found to increase with increasing film thickness while it remained constant at the wafer centre. This resulted in different Cu grain morphology across the wafers. The reduction in sheet resistance (Rs) for the Cu film after annealing, as well as the as-deposited and post annealed film stresses were also found to be dependent on the ECP Cu thickness. As the thickness increased, the Rs reduction increased while the as-deposited and post annealed film stresses decreased. The different ECP Cu thickness did not show any significant difference in the amount of Cu dishing at the centre of the wafers. However, at the wafer edge, the Cu dishing amount was found to be significantly affected by the Cu thickness in which the amount of dishing increased as the thickness increased. The via chain, Kelvin via, M1 line and M2 line resistances also showed a strong dependence on the ECP Cu thickness. The thinnest Cu film of 0.7?m gave the lowest results with the tightest spread for the four resistances tested. For the via chain and M1 line resistance, it was followed by the 1.0?m Cu film and the 1.3?m film yielded the worst data. In the case of Kelvin via and M2 line resistance, the thicker plated Cu films gave similar worse results. All the electrical results showed good coincidence with the Cu dishing data. The voltage ramp (v-ramp) data showed no significant difference in the electrical field leading to dielectric breakdown at both M1 and M2 lines for all the three types of ECP Cu thickness split.

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


Evaluation of the comprehension of the dynamic modeling in UML There is a certain degree of difficulty in developing and understanding the diagrams used for representing the dynamic behavior of a software application, specified in the Unified Modeling Language (UML). In this paper we evaluate the comprehension of the dynamic modeling in UML designs by using two split-plot factorial experiments. The metrics used for assessing the results are the time spent and the scores obtained in answering a questionnaire. In the first study three factors were controlled: the diagram type (sequence, collaboration and state), the application domain of the UML designs and the order of presentation of the documents. We observe that state diagrams provide higher semantic comprehension of dynamic modeling in UML when the domain is real-time and sequence diagrams are better in the case of a management information application. In the second study two factors were controlled: the paired combination of dynamic diagrams and the application domain. The main conclusion of the second study is that regardless of the domain, a higher semantic comprehension of the UML designs is achieved when the dynamic behavior is modeled by using the pair SequenceState. Combining the results of both experiments we obtain the conditions which must concur to get an effective comprehension of the UML dynamic models: (a) if it is a management information application, the diagrams are sequence or the composition SequenceState or CollaborationState; (b) for a real-time non-reactive system the diagrams are collaboration or the pair CollaborationState or SequenceState; and (c) finally, when it is the design of the real-time reactive system, the best diagram is the State.

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

unified modeling language
dynamic modeling
semantic comprehension


GIS-stereoplot: an interactive stereonet plotting module for ArcView 3.0 geographic information system Equal-angle and equal-area stereonets provide a powerful means to display and analyze angular relationships between sets of directional data. However, they are limited in that they are unable to represent the potential spatial relationships which may exist between the sample points. Advances in affordable and user-friendly desk-top Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have allowed this deficiency of conventional stereonets to be addressed. A prototype interactive stereonet-plotting module for the desk top GIS ArcView 3.0, which allows the spatial aspects of directional data to be better appreciated, is presented. This module allows the spatial data selection tools of GIS to be used to select a subset of structural data points which can then be plotted, as points, planes, or poles to planes on either an equal-angle (Wulff) or equal-area (Schmidt) stereonet. Features selected on the stereonet can be related back to the original map data and vice versa.

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

graphical representation
3d visualization
stereographic projection


A new evaluation measure for color image segmentation based on genetic programming approach ? A genetic programming (GP) approach is proposed to design a combined evaluation measure for image segmentation algorithms. The proposed approach improved the performance of image segmentation evaluation. A new fitness evaluation scheme is proposed for GP. A new evaluation measure based on intra-region similarity and inter-region disparity is proposed in this paper.

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

image segmentation
evaluation measure
genetic programming


highly parallel computing in simulation on dynamic bond portfolio management The bond portfolio management problem is formulated as a stochastic program based on interest rate scenarios. It has been proved in Dupakov (1998) that small errors in constructing scenarios will not destroy the optimal solution. The aim of the contribution is to quantify, through carefully planned simulation studies, the magnitude of the above-mentioned errors and to give bounds, at a specified confidence level, for the optimal gap between the value related to the optimal first-stage solution of the unperturbed problem and the "true" optimal value. Parallel computer numerical results are presented.

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

term structure movements
high performance computing


Structural modelling with sparse kernels A widely acknowledged drawback of many statistical modelling techniques, commonly used in machine learning, is that the resulting model is extremely difficult to interpret. A number of new concepts and algorithms have been introduced by researchers to address this problem. They focus primarily on determining which inputs are relevant in predicting the output. This work describes a transparent, advanced non-linear modelling approach that enables the constructed predictive models to be visualised, allowing model validation and assisting in interpretation. The technique combines the representational advantage of a sparse ANOVA decomposition, with the good generalisation ability of a kernel machine. It achieves this by employing two forms of regularisation: a 1-norm based structural regulariser to enforce transparency, and a 2-norm based regulariser to control smoothness. The resulting model structure can be visualised showing the overall effects of different inputs, their interactions, and the strength of the interactions. The robustness of the technique is illustrated using a range of both artifical and "real world" datasets. The performance is compared to other modelling techniques, and it is shown to exhibit competitive generalisation performance together with improved interpretability.

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

kernel methods
model interpretability
sparse structure


Theory of aperture-coupled hemispherical dielectric resonator antennas with radiating elements A new approach based on hybrid volume-surface integral equation (VSIE) formulation in combination with spherical dyadic Green's function (DGF) is presented in this paper to analyze aperture-coupled multilayer hemispherical dielectric resonator antennas (DRA) with conformal conducting patches. Hybrid VSIE is used for the planar part of the structure and is solved with the aid of spatial-domain method of moments (MoM) in order to compute magnetic surface current in a slot cut in a finite planar perfect electric conductor (PEC) sheet. Multilayer spherical electromagnetic DGFs are used to compute loading effects of hemispherical dielectric resonators and conformal patches on antenna characteristics. The effects of variation in some parameters of the structure on the return loss of the antenna are studied. Accuracy of the presented method is validated by comparing the results obtained from the proposed method with those of CAD simulations.

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

aperture-coupled dielectric resonator antenna


Fast and precise points-to analysis Many software engineering applications require points-to analysis. These client applications range from optimizing compilers to integrated program development environments (IDEs) and from testing environments to reverse-engineering tools. Moreover, software engineering applications used in an edit-compile cycle need points-to analysis to be fast and precise. In this article, we present a new context- and flow-sensitive approach to points-to analysis where calling contexts are distinguished by the points-to sets analyzed for their call target expressions. Compared to other well-known context-sensitive techniques it is faster in practice, on average, twice as fast as the call string approach and by an order of magnitude faster than the object-sensitive technique. In fact, it shows to be only marginally slower than a context-insensitive baseline analysis. At the same time, it provides higher precision than the call string technique and is similar in precision to the object-sensitive technique. We confirm these statements with experiments using a number of abstract precision metrics and a concrete client application: escape analysis.

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


Understanding the behaviour and optimising the performance of back-propagation neural networks: an empirical study In recent years, back-propagation neural networks have become a popular tool for modelling environmental systems. However, as a result of the relative newness of the technique to this field, users appear to have limited knowledge about how ANNs operate and how to optimise their performance. In this paper, the stages observed when training a back-propagation neural network are examined in detail for a particular case study; the forecasting of salinity in the River Murray at Murray Bridge, South Australia, 14 days in advance. Particular attention is paid to the behaviour of the network as it approaches a local minimum in the error surface. The effect of the presence of infrequent patterns in the training set on generalisation ability is investigated. The nature of the error surface in the vicinity of local minima is examined and options for optimising network performance (i.e. training speed and generalisation ability) are presented for real time forecasting situations.

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

artificial neural networks
back-propagation algorithm
learning speed
optimisation
stages of learning


Automatic building detection based on Purposive FastICA (PFICA) algorithm using monocular high resolution Google Earth images This paper proposes an improved FastICA model named as Purposive FastICA (PFICA) with initializing by a simple color space transformation and a novel masking approach to automatically detect buildings from high resolution Google Earth imagery. ICA and FastICA algorithms are defined as Blind Source Separation (BSS) techniques for unmixing source signals using the reference data sets. In order to overcome the limitations of the ICA and FastICA algorithms and make them purposeful, we developed a novel method involving three main steps: 1-Improving the FastICA algorithm using MoorePenrose pseudo inverse matrix model, 2-Automated seeding of the PFICA algorithm based on LUV color space and proposed simple rules to split image into three regions; shadow+vegetation, baresoil+roads and buildings, respectively, 3-Masking out the final building detection results from PFICA outputs utilizing the K-means clustering algorithm with two number of clusters and conducting simple morphological operations to remove noises. Evaluation of the results illustrates that buildings detected from dense and suburban districts with divers characteristics and color combinations using our proposed method have 88.6% and 85.5% overall pixel-based and object-based precision performances, respectively.

O B I O O B I 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 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 B I 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

building detection
google earth images
ica
luv color space
purposive fastica


Pay bursts only once does not hold for non-FIFO guaranteed rate nodes We consider end-to-end delay bounds in a network of guaranteed rate (GR) nodes. We demonstrate that, contrary to what is generally believed, the existing end-to-end delay bounds apply only to GR nodes that are FIFO per flow. We show this by exhibiting a counter example. Then, we show that the proof of the existing bounds has a subtle, but important, dependency on the FIFO assumption, which was never noticed before. Finally, we give a tight delay bound that is valid in the non-FIFO case; it is noticeably higher that the existing one. In particular, the phenomenon known as pay bursts only once does not apply to non-FIFO nodes. These findings are important in the context of differentiated services. Indeed the existing bounds have been applied to cases where a flow (in the sense of the GR definition) is an aggregate of end-user microflows, and it is not generally true that a router is FIFO per aggregate; thus, the GR node model of a differentiated services router cannot always be assumed to be FIFO per flow.

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

quality-of-service
scheduling algorithm
network calculus
aggregate multiplexing


An introduction to smart assemblies for robust design Research conducted over the past decade has resulted in a suite of methods for robust design which can be applied during different design stages. These methods focus on reducing the sensitivity of the design to variation without removing its causes.

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

tolerance analysis
mechanical assemblies


LunchTime: a slow-casual game for long-term dietary behavior change Eating out has recently become part of our lifestyle. However, when eating out in restaurants, many people find it difficult to make meal choices consistent with their health goals. Bad eating choices and habits are in part responsible for the alarming increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure, which burden the health care system. Therefore, there is a need for an intervention that educates the public on how to make healthy choices while eating away from home. In this paper, we propose a goal-based slow-casual game approach that addresses this need. This approach acknowledges different groups of users with varying health goals and adopts slow technology to promote learning and reflection. We model two recognized determinants of well-being into dietary interventions and provide feedback accordingly. To demonstrate the suitability of our approach for long-term sustained learning, reflection, and attitude and/or behavior change, we develop and evaluate LunchTimea goal-based slow-casual game that educates players on how to make healthier meal choices. The result from the evaluation shows that LunchTime facilitates learning and reflection and promotes positive dietary attitude change.

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

behavior change
slow technology
health
attitude change

persuasive game
casual games
design
food
human factors
nutrition
diet
goal-based
theory


Three-mode partitioning The three-mode partitioning model is a clustering model for three-way three-mode data sets that implies a simultaneous partitioning of all three modes involved in the data. In the associated data analysis, a data array is approximated by a model array that can be represented by a three-mode partitioning model of a prespecified rank, minimizing a least squares loss function in terms of differences between data and model. Algorithms have been proposed for this minimization, but their performance is not yet clear. A framework for alternating least-squares methods is described in order to offset the performance problem. Furthermore, a number of both existing and novel algorithms are discussed within this framework. An extensive simulation study is reported in which these algorithms are evaluated and compared according to sensitivity to local optima. The recovery of the truth underlying the data is investigated in order to assess the optimal estimates. The ordering of the algorithms with respect to performance in finding the optimal solution appears to change as compared to the results obtained from the simulation study when a collection of four empirical data sets have been used. This finding is attributed to violations of the implicit stochastic model underlying both the least-squares loss function and the simulation study. Support for the latter attribution is found in a second simulation study.

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

three-way data
k-means
alternating least-squares algorithms


Using nondeterministic learners to alert on coffee rust disease Motivated by an agriculture case study, we discuss how to learn functions able to predict whether the value of a continuous target variable will be greater than a given threshold. In the application studied, the aim was to alert on high incidences of coffee rust, the main coffee crop disease in the world. The objective is to use chemical prevention of the disease only when necessary in order to obtain healthier quality products and reductions in costs and environmental impact. In this context, the costs of misclassifications are not symmetrical: false negative predictions may lead to the loss of coffee crops. The baseline approach for this problem is to learn a regressor from the variables that records the factors affecting the appearance and growth of the disease. However, the number of errors is too high to obtain a reliable alarm system. The approaches explored here try to learn hypotheses whose predictions are allowed to return intervals rather than single points. Thus, in addition to alarms and non-alarms, these predictors identify situations with uncertain classification, which we call warnings. We present three different implementations: one based on regression, and two more based on classifiers. These methods are compared using a framework where the costs of false negatives are higher than that of false positives, and both are higher than the cost of warning predictions.

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 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

machine learning
agriculture application
risk assesment


Eliciting and prioritizing quality requirements supported by ontologies: a case study using the ElicitO framework and tool As software complexity grows and clients demand higher quality software, quality requirements can no longer be considered to be of secondary importance. Thus, eliciting, specifying, prioritizing and validating quality requirements is a prerequisite to the development of effective and efficient information systems. Despite the critical importance of quality requirements, there is a considerable gap in the breadth and depth of quality requirements engineering (RE) support in most RE approaches. In practice, it is often the case to have quality requirements considered as an afterthought in the systems development process. While there is a wealth of modelling techniques and tools for functional requirements, there is very limited support for quality requirements in RE. Support for quality requirements is usually ad-hoc, without clear guidelines on how to capture, specify and manage quality requirements and also without proper usage of standardized terminologies based on established quality models such as the ISO/IEC 9126 quality model. In this paper, we discuss a quality-driven RE framework and tool that applies knowledge management techniques and quality ontologies to support RE activities. The ontology implements the quality characteristics and metrics prescribed by the ISO/9126 quality model, providing a common vocabulary to address quality concerns/aspects across RE activities. We empirically validate how the framework and tool can be used to effectively support the requirements elicitation and prioritization activities through a case study addressing the development of an intranet portal project at the University of Manchester.

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

requirements engineering
quality requirements
ontologies
case study


Second-order spectra for quadratic nonlinear systems by Volterra functional series: Analytical description and numerical simulation Higher-order spectral analysis techniques are often used to identify nonlinearities in complex dynamical systems. More specifically, the auto- and cross-bispectrum have proven to be useful tools in testing for the presence of quadratic nonlinearities based on knowledge of a system's input and output. In this paper, analytical expressions for the auto- and cross-bispectrum are developed using a Volterra functional approach under the assumption of a zero-mean, stationary Gaussian input; proper simplifications are presented when the whiteness of the input signal is also imposed. These formulae show the contributions of the bispectrum in terms of the system frequency response function and elementary physical properties of the system. Simulations based on a stochastic numerical integration technique accompany the analytical solutions for a mechanical massspringdamper system possessing quadratic damping and stiffness coefficients and subjected to Gaussian white noise excitation. Subsequent estimates of the bispectrum based on the simulated signals show excellent agreement with theory. These results show how modes may interact nonlinearly producing intermodulation components at the sum and/or difference frequency of the fundamental modes of oscillation. The presence and extent of nonlinear interactions between frequency components are identified. Advantages of using higher-order spectra techniques will be revealed and pertinent conclusions will be outlined.

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

auto- and cross-bispectrum
high-order frequency response functions
random gaussian noise


Convergence of Evolutionary Algorithms on the n-Dimensional Continuous Space Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are random optimization methods inspired by genetics and natural selection, resembling simulated annealing. We develop a method that can be used to find a meaningful tradeoff between the difficulty of the analysis and the algorithms' efficiency. Since the case of a discrete search space has been studied extensively, we develop a new stochastic model for the continuous n-dimensional case. Our model uses renewal processes to find global convergence conditions. A second goal of the paper is the analytical estimation of the computation time of EA with uniform mutation inside the (hyper)-sphere of volume 1, minimizing a quadratic function.

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

computational complexity
evolutionary computation
stochastic processes


local hoare reasoning about dom The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) specifies an XML update library. DOM is written in English, and is therefore not compositional and not complete. We provide a first step towards a compositional specification of DOM. Unlike DOM, we are able to work with a minimal set of commands and obtain a complete reasoning for straight-line code. Our work transfers O'Hearn, Reynolds and Yang's local Hoare reasoning for analysing heaps to XML, viewing XML as an in-place memory store as does DOM. In particular, we apply recent work by Calcagno, Gardner and Zarfaty on local Hoare reasoning about simple tree update to this real-world DOM application. Our reasoning not only formally specifies a significant subset of DOM Core Level 1, but can also be used to verify, for example, invariant properties of simple Javascript programs.

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