Effects of head size and morphology on dynamic responses to impact loading Head responses subjected to impact loading are studied using the finite element method. The dynamic responses of the stress, strain, strain energy density and the intracranial pressure govern the intracranial tissues and skull material failures, and therefore, the traumatic injuries. The objectivity and consistency of the prevailing head traumatic injury criteria, i.e., the energy absorption, the gravity centre acceleration and the head injury criterion (HIC), are examined with regard to the head dynamic responses. In particular, the structural intensity (STI) (the vector representation of energy flow rate) is calculated and discussed. From the simulations, the STI, instead of the gravity centre acceleration, the HIC and the energy absorption criteria, is found to be consistent with the dynamic response quantities. The different local skull curvatures at impact have a marginal effect whereas the locations of the impact loadings have significant effects on the dynamics responses or the head injury. The STI also shows the failure patterns.

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

head dynamic responses
head size
finite element method
structural intensity
head injury criterion


Stratified sampling of satellite images with a systematic grid of points Sampling satellite images presents some specific characteristics: images overlap and many of them fall partially outside the studied region. A careless sampling may introduce an important bias. This paper illustrates the risk of bias and the efficiency improvements of systematic, pps (probability proportional to size) and stratified sampling. A sampling method is proposed with the following criteria: (a) unbiased estimators are easy to compute; (b) it can be combined with stratification; (c) within each stratum, sampling probability is proportional to the area of the sampling unit; and (d) the geographic distribution of the sample is reasonably homogeneous. Thiessen polygons computed on image centres are sampled through a systematic grid of points. The sampling rates in different strata are tuned by dividing the systematic grid into subgrids or replicates and taking for each stratum a certain number of replicates. The approach is illustrated with an application to the estimation of the geometric accuracy of Image2000, a Landsat ETM+ mosaic of the European Union.

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


Toward coherent object detection and scene layout understanding ? Detecting objects in complex scenes while recovering the scene layout is a critical functionality in many vision-based applications. In this work, we advocate the importance of geometric contextual reasoning for object recognition. We start from the intuition that objects' location and pose in the 3D space are not arbitrarily distributed but rather constrained by the fact that objects must lie on one or multiple supporting surfaces. We model such supporting surfaces by means of hidden parameters (i.e. not explicitly observed) and formulate the problem of joint scene reconstruction and object recognition as the one of finding the set of parameters that maximizes the joint probability of having a number of detected objects on K supporting planes given the observations. As a key ingredient for solving this optimization problem, we have demonstrated a novel relationship between object location and pose in the image, and the scene layout parameters (i.e. normal of one or more supporting planes in 3D and camera pose, location and focal length). Using a novel probabilistic formulation and the above relationship our method has the unique ability to jointly: i) reduce false alarm and false negative object detection rate; ii) recover object location and supporting planes within the 3D camera reference system; iii) infer camera parameters (view point and the focal length) from just one single uncalibrated image. Quantitative and qualitative experimental evaluation on two datasets (desk-top dataset [1] and LabelMe [2]) demonstrates our theoretical claims.

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

focal length estimation
supporting surface estimation


Seismic events discrimination using a new FLVQ clustering model In this paper, the LVQ (Learning Vector Quantization) model and its variants are regarded as the clustering tools to discriminate the natural seismic events (earthquakes) from the artificial ones (nuclear explosions). The study is based on the six spectral features of the P-wave spectra computed from the short period teleseismic recordings. The conventional LVQ proposed by Kohenen [2] and also the Fuzzy LVQ (FLVQ) models proposed by Sakuraba [16] and Bezdek [2] are all tested on a set of 26 earthquakes and 24 nuclear explosions using the leave-one-out testing strategy. The primary experimental results have shown that the shapes, the number and also the overlaps of the clusters play an important role in seismic classification. The results also showed how an improper feature space partitioning would strongly weaken both the clustering and recognition phases. To improve the numerical results, a new combined FLVQ algorithm is employed in this paper. The algorithm is composed of two nested sub-algorithms. The inner sub-algorithm tries to generate a well-defined fuzzy partitioning with the fuzzy reference vectors in the feature space. To achieve this goal, a cost function is defined as a function of the number, the shapes and also the overlaps of the fuzzy reference vectors. The update rule tries to minimize this cost function in a stepwise learning algorithm. On the other hand, the outer sub-algorithm tries to find an optimum value for the number of the clusters, in each step. For this optimization in the outer loop, we have used two different criteria. In the first criterion, the newly defined "fuzzy entropy" is used while in the second criterion, a performance index is employed by generalizing the Huntsberger formula [10] for the learning rate, using the concept of fuzzy distance. The experimental results of the new model show a promising improvement in the error rate, an acceptable convergence time, and also more flexibility in boundary decision making.

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

seismic p-wave
short period recording
fuzzy logic


Determination of temperature difference in squeeze casting hot work tool steel The effects of process parameters on temperature difference (?TRECS) of the squeeze casting part were studied by employing artificial neural network (ANN) and Procast software when cooling up to recrystallization temperature, such as interface heat transfer coefficient of metal/cavity die (h1), applied pressure (Ap), interface heat transfer coefficient of metal/male die (h2), die pre-heat temperature (Dt) and pouring temperature (Pt). An ANN model on the relationship between the processing parameters and ?TRECS was constructed. The test results on performance of the trained network show that the ANN model can predict ?TRECS with reasonable accuracy. Employing the ANN model the following conclusions could be made from this work: as far as the influence of process parameters on ?TRECS are concerned, the most important and the secondary parameter are Dt and Ap. H1 and Ap increase within a certain range, ?TRECS are found to increase. When Ap and h1 are above their respective critical point, the ?TRECS decreased rapidly. Pt, h2 and Dp increase within a certain range, ?TRECS are found to decrease.

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

squeeze casting
artificial neural network
temperature difference


Temperature dependant flash memory erase transient simulation (Part II) We present a detailed and accurate physics based transient simulation for modeling flash memory erasing at ambient and non-ambient temperatures. Typical cells are erased by moving electrons from the floating gate to the drain, source or substrate. Part 1 of this paper derives the equations used to model substrate erasing. This paper addresses drain erase modeling using a simulation based on the solution to Poissons equation with temperature as an independent variable. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the derivation of an accurate erase simulation and show the effects of temperature on the threshold voltage during the erase process. Several papers have been published on this topic but fail to present detailed derivations and none using this exact set of equations to model the temperature dependent erasing process.

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

mos memory circuits
semiconductor device models


Some optimal parallel algorithms on interval and circular-arc graphs In this paper, we consider some shortest path related problems Iron interval and circular-arc graphs. For the all-pair shortest path query problem on interval and circular-arc graphs, instead of using the sophisticated technique, we propose simple parallel algorithms using only the parallel prefix and suffix computations and the Euler tour technique. Our preprocessing algorithms run in O(log n) time using O(nlog n) processors. Using the data structure constructed by our preprocessing algorithms, a query of the length of a shortest path between any two vertices can be answered n constant time by using a single processor. For the hinge vertex problem on interval graphs, we propose an O(log n) time algorithm using O(nlog n) processors. It leads to a linear time sequential algorithm. Our algorithms work on the EREW PRAM model.

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

parallel algorithms
erew pram
hinge vertex


A pneumotronic equipment for acoustic measurements The paper describes an original mechatronic unit conceived and designed for acoustic characterisation of industrial machines and noisy devices, integrating the automatic motion of acoustic probes to acquisition and elaboration modules for acoustic analyses. The performance optimisation achieved from the integration between innovative pneumatic actuators, flexible and low-cost position transducers, advanced modular PLC and original control software is, in particular, discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

pneumatics
acoustic measurement
mechatronics


Physical interpretation of inverse dynamics using bicausal bond graphs A physical interpretation of the inverse dynamics of linear and non-linear systems is given in terms of the bond graph of the inverse system. It is argued that this interpretation yields physical insight to guide the control engineer. Examples are drawn from both robotic and process systems.

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


the art of mathematics retrieval The design and architecture of MIaS (Math Indexer and Searcher), a system for mathematics retrieval is presented, and design decisions are discussed. We argue for an approach based on Presentation MathML using a similarity of math subformulae. The system was implemented as a math-aware search engine based on the state-of-the-art system Apache Lucene. Scalability issues were checked against more than 400,000 arXiv documents with 158 million mathematical formulae. Almost three billion MathML subformulae were indexed using a Solr-compatible Lucene.

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

digital mathematics libraries
math indexing and retrieval
information systems
webmias
mathematical content representation


Visual dynamic model based on self-organizing maps for supervision and fault detection in industrial processes Visual data mining techniques have experienced a growing interest for processing and interpretation of the large amounts of multidimensional data available in current industrial processes. One of the approaches to visualize data is based on self-organizing maps (SOM), which define a projection of the input space onto a 2D or 3D space that can be used to obtain visual representations. Although these techniques have been usually applied to visualize static relations among the process variables, they have proven to be very useful to display dynamic features of the processes. In this work, an approach based on the SOM to model the dynamics of multivariable processes is presented. The proposed method identifies the process conditions (clusters) and the probabilities of transition among them, using the trajectory followed by the input data on the 2D visualization space. Furthermore, a new method of residual computation for fault detection and identification that uses the dynamic information provided by the model of transitions is proposed. The proposed method for modeling and fault identification has been applied to supervise a real industrial plant and the results are included.

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

self-organizing maps
trajectory analysis
clustering
process dynamics
process supervision


New Cost-Effective Simplified Euclids Algorithm for Reed-Solomon Decoders This paper proposes a cost-effective simplified Euclids (SE) algorithm for Reed-Solomon decoders, which can replace the existing modified Euclids (ME) algorithm. The new proposed SE algorithm, using new initial conditions and polynomials, can significantly reduce the computation complexity compared with the existing ME and reformulated inversionless Berlekamp-Massey (RiBM) algorithms, since it has the least number of coefficients in the new initial conditions. Thus, the proposed SE architecture, consisting of only 3t basic cells, has the smallest area among the existing key solver blocks, where t means the error correction capability. In addition, the SE architecture requires only the latency of 2t clock cycles to solve the key equation without initial latency. The proposed RS decoder has been synthesized using the 0.18?m Samsung cell library, and the gate count of the RS decoder, excluding FIFO memory, is only 40,136 for the (255, 239, 8) RS code.

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 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

low power
hardware complexity
reed-solomon codes
forward error correction
communication systems


improving automatic chinese text categorization by error correction In this paper we use the miss-classified news in training data as a feedback to improve the classification accuracy. We isolate the miss-classified news from the news of original classes to form new subclasses, and modify Rocchio linear classifier by using the subclasses to form new prototype vectors such that there are more than one centroid to represent each class. We have two methods, error threshold and entropy threshold, to evaluate whether the isolation of miss-classified news is worthy or not. Experimental result shows that our approaches improves Rocchio's micro-level accuracy and achieves similar performance as kNN, but with less classification time. On the other hand, with the entropy of miss- classified news, we can figure out the ambiguity between classes and sketch the diagram of the relationship between classes as a suggestion to reorganize the structure of classes for news in the future.

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


Identification of Common Antigens in Babesia bovis, B. bigemina, and B. divergens Bovine babesiosis, caused by Babesia bovis, B. bigemina, and B. divergens, is a significant impediment to livestock production in countries with tropical/subtropical and temperate climates. Previous studies conducted on the immunoprophylaxis against the disease and diagnosis of these parasites has demonstrated the presence of similar antigens. The objective of this article was to identify and partially characterize antigens conserved among these three species. Immunochemical analysis using sera from cattle immunized individually with antigens from these three Babesia species revealed a number of antigens recognized by heterologous antisera. Cross-reactions were more evident in sera from cattle immunized with B. bovis/B. bigemina which recognized several antigens (15 kDa to >200 kDa) in B. divergens. Immunoscreening of a B. divergens cDNA library with bovine serum to B. bigemina allowed the isolation of five clones and DNA sequencing of plasmid BdJF5 showed a 680 bp cDNA insert. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) analysis of the predicted amino acid sequence revealed 47% identity with a protein identified as ?NAC.Serum from mice immunized with a recombinant Glutathione S-Transferase-BdJF5 fusion protein immunoprecipitated a 20 kDa B. bovis antigen. However, 30 kDa and 18 kDa antigens were immunoprecipitated from B. divergens and immunoblotting analysis revealed the recognition of a 35 kDa B. bigemina antigen. An indirect fluorescence antibody assay on merozoites showed strong reaction with B. divergens and weak recognition of B. bovis and B. bigemina. Despite the existent antigenic polymorphism among the Babesia spp., these results demonstrated that common antigens occur between European B. divergens and Mexican B. bovis/B. bigemina

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


Sequential association rule mining with time lags This paper presents MOWCATL, an efficient method for mining frequent association rules from multiple sequential data sets. Our goal is to find patterns in one or more sequences that precede the occurrence of patterns in other sequences. Recent work has highlighted the importance of using constraints to focus the mining process on the association rules relevant to the user. To refine the data mining process, this approach introduces the use of separate antecedent and consequent inclusion constraints, in addition to the traditional frequency and support constraints in sequential data mining. Moreover, separate antecedent and consequent maximum window widths are used to specify the antecedent and consequent patterns that are separated by either a maximal width time lag or a fixed width time lag. Multiple time series drought risk management data are used to show that our approach can be effectively employed in real-life problems. This approach is compared to existing methods to show how they complement each other to discover associations in the drought risk management domain. The experimental results validate the superior performance of our method for efficiently finding relationships between global climatic episodes and local drought conditions. Both the maximal and fixed width time lags are shown to be useful when finding interesting associations.

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

sequential rule discovery
knowledge discovery


Generalized Framework for the Level Crossing Analysis of Ordered Random Processes This paper investigates the following general problem relating to ordered random processes: given n independent but not necessarily identical random processes, how frequently, on average, does any given process become one of the pth (p = 1, 2, ..., n - 1) largest processes? This is a fundamental problem arising in the design and analysis of contemporary multidimensional wireless communication systems (e. g., multiantenna, multiuser) employing opportunistic selection. We formulate this problem as one involving the level crossing rate (LCR) of a carefully defined ordered random process across the zero threshold, which we solve by developing a new mathematical framework based on the theory of permanents. For the case where the processes correspond to time-varying Rayleigh fading channels, we present exact closed-form formulas for the LCR, simplified tight upper bounds, as well as asymptotic results for n and p approaching infinity but with fixed ratio. These results reveal interesting fundamental limits for the LCR, and are shown to given meaningful insight even for small values of n and p. We further use our mathematical framework to characterize the required per-branch and overall switching rate of a generalized selection combining diversity receiver, allowing for different average powers for each branch. With the aid of majorization theory, we demonstrate that the overall switching rate is maximized when the power delay profile is uniform.

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

majorization
ordered random processes
permanents

generalized selection combining (gsc)
level crossing rate (lcr)


Low-Rank Kernel Learning with Bregman Matrix Divergences In this paper, we study low-rank matrix nearness problems, with a focus on learning low-rank positive semidefinite (kernel) matrices for machine learning applications. We propose efficient algorithms that scale linearly in the number of data points and quadratically in the rank of the input matrix. Existing algorithms for learning kernel matrices often scale poorly, with running times that are cubic in the number of data points. We employ Bregman matrix divergences as the measures of nearness-these divergences are natural for learning low-rank kernels since they preserve rank as well as positive semidefiniteness. Special cases of our framework yield faster algorithms for various existing learning problems, and experimental results demonstrate that our algorithms can effectively learn both low-rank and full-rank kernel matrices.

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 O O O O O O O O

kernel methods
bregman divergences
convex optimization


A novel supervised learning algorithm for salt-and-pepper noise detection In this paper, a novel supervised learning algorithm called margin setting, is proposed to detect salt and pepper noise from digital images. The mathematical justification of margin setting is comprehensively discussed, including margin-based theory, decision boundaries, and the impact of margin on performance. Margin setting generates decision boundaries called prototypes. Prototypes classify salt noise, pepper noise, and non-noise. Thus, salt noise and pepper noise are detected and then corrected using a ranked order mean filter. The experiment was conducted on a wide range of noise densities using metrics such as peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error (MSE), image enhancement factor (IEF), and structural similarity index (SSIM). Results show that margin setting yields better results than both the support vector machine and standard median filter. The superior performance of margin setting indicates it is a powerful supervised learning algorithm that outperforms the support vector machine when applied to salt and pepper noise detection.

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

salt and pepper noise
margin setting
noise detection
supervised learning


Toward High-Quality Modal Contact Sound Contact sound models based on linear modal analysis are commonly used with rigid body dynamics. Unfortunately, treating vibrating objects as "rigid" during collision and contact processing fundamentally limits the range of sounds that can be computed, and contact solvers for rigid body animation can be ill-suited for modal contact sound synthesis, producing various sound artifacts. In this paper, we resolve modal vibrations in both collision and frictional contact processing stages, thereby enabling non-rigid sound phenomena such as micro-collisions, vibrational energy exchange, and chattering. We propose a frictional multibody contact formulation and modified Staggered Projections solver which is well-suited to sound rendering and avoids noise artifacts associated with spatial and temporal contact-force fluctuations which plague prior methods. To enable practical animation and sound synthesis of numerous bodies with many coupled modes, we propose a novel asynchronous integrator with model-level adaptivity built into the frictional contact solver. Vibrational contact damping is modeled to approximate contact-dependent sound dissipation. Results are provided that demonstrate high-quality contact resolution with sound.

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

sound synthesis
modal analysis
frictional contact


using visual pages analysis for optimizing web archiving Due to the growing importance of the World Wide Web, archiving it has become crucial for preserving useful source of information. To maintain a web archive up-to-date, crawlers harvest the web by iteratively downloading new versions of documents. However, it is frequent that crawlers retrieve pages with unimportant changes such as advertisements which are continually updated. Hence, web archive systems waste time and space for indexing and storing useless page versions. Also, querying the archive can take more time due to the large set of useless page versions stored. Thus, an effective method is required to know accurately when and how often important changes between versions occur in order to efficiently archive web pages. Our work focuses on addressing this requirement through a new web archiving approach that detects important changes between page versions. This approach consists in archiving the visual layout structure of a web page represented by semantic blocks. This work seeks to describe the proposed approach and to examine various related issues such as using the importance of changes between versions to optimize web crawl scheduling. The major interesting research questions that we would like to address in the future are introduced.

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 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

web crawling
visual page analysis
change detection


On the use of enriched finite element method to model subsurface features in porous media flow problems In this paper, a new enrichment scheme is proposed to model fractures and other conduits in porous media flow problems. Inserting this scheme into a partition of unity based method results in a new numerical method that does not require the mesh to honor the specific geometry of these subsurface features. The new scheme involves a specially designed integration procedure and enrichment functions, which can capture effects of local heterogeneity introduced by subsurface features on the pressure solution. The new method is also capable of modeling fractures with low as well as high conductivity. Another feature of the proposed scheme is that, even though two enrichment functions are used to model the permeability change at the two rock/fracture interfaces of a fracture, only one element partition is made for numerical integration. To demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed approach, production problems for wells that were stimulated or completed by longitudinal fracture, transverse fractures, and perforations are studied.

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

extended finite element method
generalized finite element method
wormhole
perforation
completion
reservoir simulation
completion efficiency
well performance
near-well physics
upscaling
heat transfer
composite


Structure-Activity Relationships and Rational Design Strategies for Radical-Scavenging Antioxidants In the past two decades, there has been growing interest in finding novel and non-toxic antioxidants to meet the requirements in chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. To accelerate the antioxidant discovery process, various theoretical methods have been employed to investigate the structure-activity relationships of antioxidants. Accordingly, some rational-design strategies for antioxidants have been proposed and applied in practice. This review summarizes the current knowledge on this topic, which will be helpful to direct the practice in related fields.

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


Development of information security baselines for healthcare information systems in New Zealand In 1996 New Zealand had introduced security standard AS/NZCS 4444 based on the British Standard BS 7799, which has recently been accepted as an international standard ISO 17799. This standard is very often referred to as the 'baseline lane approach' to the issue of managing information security. On the other hand the health information systems (HIS) are undergoing rapid development both in the number of installed systems as in the law and regulations governing HIS developments and deployment. The project was aimed at reviewing the AS/NZCS 4444 standard from the HIS requirements point of view. In this paper, we began with an overview of healthcare information systems (HIS) infrastructure in New Zealand and associated security issues around privacy and confidentiality, followed by a general review of the security baseline approach. We analyzed each clause of the AS/NZS 4444 with the information collected about technical and none technical approaches to protecting HIS, consisting of a series of multi case studies of healthcare organizations that collect, process, store and transmit electronic medical records. Finally, we proposed a new set of information security baselines based on the research to build an information security model for healthcare organizations.

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

healthcare information systems
electronic medical records
information security baselines
security model


multi modal gesture identification for hci using surface emg Gesture and Speech comprise the most important modalities of human interaction. There has been a considerable amount of research attempts at incorporating these modalities for natural HCI. This involves challenge ranging from the low level signal processing of multi-modal input to the high level interpretation of natural speech and gesture in HCI. This paper proposes novel methods to recognize the hand gestures and unvoiced utterances using surface Electromyogram (sEMG) signals originating from different muscles. The focus of this work is to establish a simple, yet robust system that can be integrated to identify subtle complex hand gestures and unvoiced speech commands for control of prosthesis and other computer assisted devices. The proposed multi-modal system is able to identify the hand gestures and silent utterances using Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Integral RMS (IRMS) of sEMG respectively. Training of the sEMG features was done using a designed ANN architecture and the results reported with overall recognition accuracy of 90.33\%.

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

multi-modal hci
surface electromyography


Car detection in aerial thermal images by local and global evidence accumulation This paper introduces an approach to automatic vehicle detection from aerial infrared images of approximately 1m resolution. On one hand, the extraction relies on a local description of cars, i.e. blob-like structures; on the other hand, because many other objects in urban areas have a similar appearance, the local model is extended by a more global description that incorporates knowledge about the appearance of cars as repetitive patterns in dense traffic situations or in filled parking lots. The implemented system is intended to detect vehicles independent of their current state (stationary or moving). Since vehicle velocity is not included as feature for detection, the system can be used as first module for vehicle tracking but also for analyzing traffic congestions or counting cars in parking lots. The only requirement to be met is that cars appear as repetitive patterns which consist of blob-like structures.

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


Particle Filtering for the Detection of Fault Onset Time in Hybrid Dynamic Systems With Autonomous Transitions The behavior of multi-component engineered systems is typically characterized by transitions among discrete modes of operation and failure, each one giving rise to a specific continuous dynamics of evolution. The detection of the system's mode change time represents a particularly challenging task because it requires keeping track of the transitions among the multiple system dynamics corresponding to the different modes of operation and failure. To this purpose, we implement a novel particle filtering method within a log-likelihood ratio approach here, specifically tailored to handle hybrid dynamic systems. The proposed method relies on the generation of multiple particle swarms for each discrete mode, each originating from the nominal particle swarm at different time instants. The hybrid system considered consists of a hold up tank filled with liquid, whose level is autonomously maintained between two thresholds; the system behavior is controlled by discrete mode actuators whose states are estimated by a Monte Carlo-based particle filter on the basis of noise level, and temperature measurements.

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

autonomous transitions
hybrid dynamic systems
particle filtering


Determining optimal replacement time for metal cutting tools Traditional tool life models do not take into account the variation inherent in metal cutting processes. As a consequence, the real tool life rarely matches the predicted values. To compensate for this uncertainty, tools are usually replaced prematurely, which leads to unnecessarily high tool costs. In some cases, however, wear-out occurs earlier than predicted, which imposes a risk of workpiece damage or rework and can lead to other extra charges. To balance these costs, this paper proposes an age replacement model. It is assumed that penalty costs are incurred each time a tool fails before the planned replacement. The probability of such an event is determined from the tool reliability function, which models the wear-out by a mixture of Weibull distributions, while failures due to external stresses are accounted for by a homogeneous Poisson process. The optimal replacement time is then determined from a total time on test (TTT) plot. The adequacy of the proposed approach for practical application is tested and confirmed in a case study on turning of Inconel 718 with cubic boron nitride (CBN) tools.

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

cutting tool
weibull distribution
ttt transform


Developments in rail organization in the Americas, 1990 to present and future directions Railways in the Americas date from the mid to late 19th century. They were all initially privately owned, but many Latin American railways underwent an evolution to public ownership and control. All of the rail systems were weakening as of the 1970s, and governments were forced to act. In the US and Canada, passenger services were separated from freight, with government support for the passenger services, while freight services remained in the private sector: in both countries the freight operator controls the infrastructure while the passenger operator is a tenant. In Latin America, governments mostly formed vertically integrated concessions to private operators in the 1990s with payments from freight operators and payments to passenger operators. In this paper, we argue that the form and structure of the US and Canadian railways will remain stable in the future unless political sentiment leads to significant modification of the deregulation of the 1980s. In Latin America, because there is currently no intra-modal rail competition on parallel lines, some of the currently vertically integrated freight concessions may experience transition to forms of open access in order to promote competition on the infrastructure.

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


Delay Selection for Improved Frequency Estimation in OFDM-Based FM Systems with Cyclic Delay Diversity In order to improve the synchronization performance of the OFDM-based FM broadcasting system, this letter addresses the problem of delay selection when the system uses a cyclic delay diversity (CDD) scheme. By proper selection of the amount of cyclic delay, an improved fine carrier frequency offset estimator is derived. By computer simulation, the proposed estimator is shown to benefit from properly chosen delay parameter and perform robustly.

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

fm broadcasting
cyclic delay diversity
synchronization


A holistic approach to model-based testing of Web service compositions The behavior of composed Web services depends on the results of the invoked services; unexpected behavior of one of the invoked services can threat the correct execution of an entire composition. This paper proposes an event-based approach to black-box testing of Web service compositions based on event sequence graphs, which are extended by facilities to deal not only with service behavior under regular circumstances (i.e.,where cooperating services are working as expected) but also with their behavior in undesirable situations (i.e., where cooperating services are not working as expected). Furthermore, the approach can be used independently of artifacts (e.g., Business Process Execution Language) or type of composition (orchestration/choreography). A large case study, based on a commercial Web application, demonstrates the feasibility of the approach and analyzes its characteristics. Test generation and execution are supported by dedicated tools. Especially, the use of an enterprise service bus for test execution is noteworthy and differs from other approaches. The results of the case study encourage to suggest that the new approach has the power to detect faults systematically, performing properly even with complex and large compositions. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

enterprise service bus
event sequence graphs

model-based testing
service composition testing
test case generation


eliciting required characteristics for usable requirements engineering approaches It has been reported that many software companies do not use existing requirements engineering approaches. This indicates that there is room and opportunity for improving the usability of existing requirements engineering approaches. This paper describes a market study intended to elicit a set of characteristics that could improve the usability of requirements engineering approaches. The survey is aimed toward software stakeholders such as developers, designers, customers, and managers at various software companies. The survey results are used to define a set of desirable characteristics for usable requirements engineering approaches and to suggest a set of guidelines that could help achieve the desirable characteristics.

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


A second-order cut-cell method for the numerical simulation of 2D flows past obstacles We present a new second-order method, based on the MAC scheme on cartesian grids, for the numerical simulation of two-dimensional incompressible flows past obstacles. In this approach, the solid boundary is embedded in the cartesian computational mesh. Discretizations of the viscous and convective terms are formulated in the context of finite volume methods ensuring local conservation properties of the scheme. Classical second-order centered schemes are applied in mesh cells which are sufficiently far from the obstacle. In the mesh cells cut by the obstacle, first-order approximations are proposed. The resulting linear system is nonsymmetric but the stencil remains local as in the classical MAC scheme on cartesian grids. The linear systems are solved by a fast direct method based on the capacitance matrix method. The time integration is achieved with a second-order projection scheme. While in cut-cells the scheme is locally first-order, a global second-order accuracy is recovered. This property is assessed by computing analytical solutions for a Taylor-Couette problem. The efficiency and robustness of the method is supported by numerical simulations of 2D flows past a circular cylinder at Reynolds number up to 9500. Good agreement with experimental and published numerical results are obtained. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

immersed boundary method
cartesian grid method
cut-cell method
incompressible viscous flows
complex geometry


An adaptive simplified human learning optimization algorithm This paper presents a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, named Adaptive Simplified Human Learning Optimization (ASHLO), which is inspired by the human learning mechanisms. Three learning operators, i.e. the random learning operator, the individual learning operator, and the social learning operator, are developed to generate new solutions and search for the optima by mimicking the learning behaviors of humans. The numerical functions, deceptive functions and 01 knapsack problems are adopted as benchmark problems to validate the performance of ASHLO, and the results are compared with those of binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO), modified binary differential evolution (MBDE), the binary fruit fly optimization algorithm (bFOA) and adaptive binary harmony search (ABHS). The experimental results demonstrate that the developed ASHLO significantly outperforms BPSO, MBDE, bFOA and ABHS and has a robust search ability for various problems. With the adaptive strategy, the search ability of ASHLO is improved further especially on the high-dimensional and complicated problems. Considering the ease of implementation, the excellence of global search ability and the robustness for various problems, ASHLO is a promising optimization tool for scientific research and engineering applications.

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

human learning optimization
social learning
individual learning


A lower bound for Lebesgue's universal cover problem In the following we show that any convex set that contains a congruent copy of any set of diameter one (universal cover) has area at least 0.832. This considerably improves the lower bound for Lebesgue's universal cover problem, using a combination of computer search and geometric bounds.

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


Weak morphisms and control In this paper, the controllabilities of general systems are studied with existence of weak-morphisms between systems.


comparison of artificial neural networks and dynamic principal component analysis for fault diagnosis Dynamic Principal Component Analysis (DPCA) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are compared in the fault diagnosis task. Both approaches are process history based methods, which do not assume any form of model structure, and rely only on process historical data. Faults in sensors and actuators are implemented to compare the online performance of both approaches in terms of quick detection, isolability capacity and multiple faults identifiability. An industrial heat exchanger was the experimental test-bed system. Multiple faults in sensors can be isolated using an individual control chart generated by the principal components; the error of classification was 15.28\% while ANN presented 4.34\%. For faults in actuators, ANN showed instantaneous detection and 14.7\% lower error classification. However, DPCA required a minor computational effort in the training step.

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

artificial neural network
fault detection


Describing the emotional states that are expressed in speech To study relations between speech and emotion, it is necessary to have methods of describing emotion. Finding appropriate methods is not straightforward, and there are difficulties associated with the most familiar. The word emotion itself is problematic: a narrow sense is often seen as correct, but it excludes what may be key areas in relation to speechincluding states where emotion is present but not full-blown, and related states (e.g., arousal, attitude). Everyday emotion words form a rich descriptive system, but it is intractable because it involves so many categories, and the relationships among them are undefined. Several alternative types of description are available. Emotion-related biological changes are well documented, although reductionist conceptions of them are problematic. Psychology offers descriptive systems based on dimensions such as evaluation (positive or negative) and level of activation, or on logical elements that can be used to define an appraisal of the situation. Adequate descriptive systems need to recognise the importance of both time course and interactions involving multiple emotions and/or deliberate control. From these conceptions of emotion come various tools and techniques for describing particular episodes. Different tools and techniques are appropriate for different purposes.

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


A review of the nondeterministic waiting time algorithm We provide the description for the nondeterministic waiting time (NWT) algorithm, a biochemical modeling approach based on the membrane systems paradigm of computation. The technique provides a unique (different to Gillespies algorithm or ODE modeling) perspective on the biochemical evolution of the cell. That is, depending on the reactions and molecular multiplicities of a given model, our simulator is capable of producing results comparable to the alternative techniquescontinuous and deterministic or discrete and stochastic. Some results for sample models are given, illustrating the differences between the NWT algorithm, the Gillespie algorithm, and the solutions to systems of ordinary differential equations. We have previously used this simulation technique to address issues surrounding Fas-induced apoptosis in cancerous cells and so-called latent HIV-infected cells.

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

biochemical modeling
stochastic
discrete
gillespie algorithm

systems biology
lotkavolterra
circadian rhythm


Accelerating locomotor recovery after incomplete spinal injury A traumatic spinal injury can destroy cells, irreparably damage axons, and trigger a cascade of biochemical responses that increase the extent of injury. Although damaged central nervous system axons do not regrow well naturally, the distributed nature of the nervous system and its capacity to adapt provide opportunities for recovery of function. It is apparent that activity-dependent plasticity plays a role in this recovery and that the endogenous response to injury heightens the capacity for recovery for at least several weeks postinjury. To restore locomotor function, researchers have investigated the use of treadmill-based training, robots, and electrical stimulation to tap into adaptive activity-dependent processes. The current challenge is to maximize the degree of functional recovery. This manuscript reviews the endogenous neural system response to injury, and reviews data and presents novel analyses of these from a rat model of contusion injury that demonstrates how a targeted intervention can accelerate recovery, presumably by engaging processes that underlie activity-dependent plasticity.

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

spinal cord injury
locomotion
kinematics
coordination


Modeling, control and experimental validation of a novel actuator based on shape memory alloys The paper presents the development of a mechanical actuator using a shape memory alloy with a cooling system based on the thermoelectric effect (Seebeck-Peltier effect). Such a method has the advantage of reduced weight and requires a simpler control strategy as compared to other forced cooling systems. A complete mathematical model of the actuator was derived, and an experimental prototype was implemented. Several experiments are used to validate the model and to identify all parameters. A robust and nonlinear controller, based on sliding-mode theory, was derived and implemented. Experiments were used to evaluate the actuator closed-loop performance, stability, and robustness properties. The results showed that the proposed cooling system and controller are able to improve the dynamic response of the actuator. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Theoretical study on the degradation of ADP-ribose polymer catalyzed by poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase Poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG) is the only enzyme responsible for the degradation of ADP-ribose polymers. Very recently, the first crystal structure of PARG was reported (Dea Slade, et al., Nature 477 (2011) 616), and a possible SN1-type-like mechanism was proposed. In this work, we present a computational study on the hydrolysis of glycosidic riboseribose bond catalyzed by PARG using hybrid density functional theory (DFT) methods. Based on the crystal structure of PARG, three models of the active site were constructed. The calculation results suggest that the degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) follows an SN2 mechanism, and the oxocarbenium expected by Dea Slade is a possible transition state but not an intermediate. The calculated reaction pathway agrees with the proposed mechanism. According to the computational models with different sizes, the roles of key residues are elucidated. Our results may provide useful information for the subsequent experimental and theoretical studies on the structure and functional relationships of PARG.

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

parylation poly-adenosine diphosphate (adp) ribosylation

adpr poly-adenosine diphosphate (adp)-ribose


Individual leaf extractions from young canopy images using Gustafson-Kessel clustering and a genetic algorithm The extraction of individual concealed leaves from images of complex plant canopies is a necessary step for taxonomic feature acquisition, species identification, and mapping using a modem personal computer. A new system for individual leaflet extraction was developed and tested, based on connected components, fuzzy clustering and a genetic optimization algorithm. Color images were taken of young, but sparse green canopies, grown in both greenhouse and field conditions. Some images contained individual leaves as connected components, which were readily apparent after separation of the vegetation from its background. Fragments of all other leaves imbedded in the canopy were obtained using the Gustafson-Kessel (GK) clustering algorithm. Each leaf fragment was labeled and placed in a variable length data structure called a chromosome, which represented selected leaf fragments and its neighbors. A genetic algorithm was then used to systematically reassemble the fragments of non-occluded, individual leaves. System performance was evaluated by comparing the number of individual leaves extracted by the computer per plant or plant canopy connected component for various soil/residue backgrounds and time after emergence. 83.5% of the plants in the second week produced at least one computer-extracted leaf for identification. Ninty-two percent of the plants had at least one computer extracted leaf by the third week. 84.7% had more than three computer extracted leaves for identification in the third week. Images of young field plants in multiple species clusters resulted in a 46% leaf extraction rate, but with at least one leaf per connected canopy component. Soybean and velvetleaf leaflets were the easiest to extract. Once individual leaves are extracted, they can be classified using traditional shape and textural feature methods. Computerized individual leaf extraction could assist plant identification and mapping, needed for weed control and crop management. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy clustering
genetic algorithm
leaf extraction


A new methodology for quantifying the multi-scale similarity of images Metrology of devices becoming more and more sophisticated, the collected information is subsequently still increasing. The characteristics of an engineering surface can often be recorded as an image. To compare the characteristics of two different engineering surfaces X and Y tailored with different process parameters, to determine process parameters that have to be controlled to produce a surface with desired properties or to quantify the relevance of a post image treatment for characterising a particular surface property, a practical problem of major interest is therefore to answer the question are images related to surfaces X and Y similar at all the length scales?. An original method, based on recent information theory assumptions and on the multi-fractal formalism, is proposed to quantify the degree of similarity of a set of images at all the length scales. The relevance of this method for characterising the morphological textures of surfaces was developed on simulated images generated by means of a 3D fractal function simulating an abrasion process.

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

multi scale self similarity
multi fractal


Test of numerical methods for the integration of kinetic equations in tropospheric chemistry The numerical solution of ordinary differential equations systems (ODEs) describing the atmospheric chemistry requires a large computational effort because of their stiff nature: in a three-dimensional photochemical model the solution of the ODEs requires at least 70% of the total CPU time. Several numerical integration techniques have been developed in order to provide accurate and computationally efficient solutions to ODEs. In this work we present a comparison between two classical methods, the Hybrid Solver and the Quasi Steady State Approximation method, and the Chemical Solver for Ordinary Differential Equations. The chemical mechanism used is SAPRC90, which is the chemical scheme of the CALGRID model. The accuracy is evaluated comparing the results of every method with the solution obtained with the Livermore Solver for Ordinary Differential Equations (LSODE). This comparison has been made varying the parameters of the error tolerances, and taking into account the trade-off between solution accuracy and computational efficiency. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

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

atmospheric chemical kinetics
stiff odes
ozone
air quality model


reconstructing strip-shredded documents using color as feature matching This paper discusses the destroyed documents that have been strip-shredded, which is a often problem in forensic science. The proposed method first extracts features based on color of the boundaries and then computes the nearest neighbor algorithm to carry out the local reconstruction. In this way the overall complexity can be dramatically reduced because few features are used to perform the matching. The preliminary results reported in this paper, which take into account a two hundred documents database, demonstrate that color-matching-based method produces interesting results for the problem of document reconstruction and can be of interest to the forensic document examiners and provide some effective solutions for law enforcement practitioners.

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

strip-shredded documents
feature extraction
color matching


Minimal comparability completions of arbitrary graphs ? A transitive orientation of an undirected graph is an assignment of directions to its edges so that these directed edges represent a transitive relation between the vertices of the graph. Not every graph has a transitive orientation, but every graph can be turned into a graph that has a transitive orientation, by adding edges. We study the problem of adding an inclusion minimal set of edges to an arbitrary graph so that the resulting graph is transitively orientable. We show that this problem can be solved in polynomial time, and we give a surprisingly simple algorithm for it. We use a vertex incremental approach in this algorithm, and we also give a more general result that describes graph classes ? ? for which ? ? completion of arbitrary graphs can be achieved through such a vertex incremental approach.

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

transitively orientable graphs
comparability graphs
minimal completions


Rapid design of area-efficient custom instructions for reconfigurable embedded processing RISPs (Reconfigurable Instruction Set Processors) are increasingly becoming popular as they can be customized to meet design constraints. However, existing instruction set customization methodologies do not lend well for mapping custom instructions on to commercial FPGA architectures. In this paper, we propose a design exploration framework that provides for rapid identification of a reduced set of profitable custom instructions and their area costs on commercial architectures without the need for time consuming hardware synthesis process. A novel clustering strategy is used to estimate the utilization of the LUT (Look-Up Table) based FPGAs for the chosen custom instructions. Our investigations show that the area costs computations using the proposed hardware estimation technique on 20 custom instructions are shown to be within 8% of those obtained using hardware synthesis. A systematic approach has been adopted to select the most profitable custom instruction candidates. Our investigations show that this leads to notable reduction in the number of custom instructions with only marginal degradation in performance. Simulations based on domain-specific application sets from the MiBench and MediaBench benchmark suites show that on average, more than 25% area utilization efficiency (performance/area) can be achieved with the proposed technique.

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

area estimation
look-up table
reconfigurable logic


language

support

for

regions

Region-based

memory

management

systems

structure

memory

by

grouping

objects

in

regions

under

program

control.

Memory

is

reclaimed

by

deleting

regions,

freeing

all

objects

stored

therein.

Our

compiler

for

C

with

regions,

RC,

prevents

unsafe

region

deletions

by

keeping

a

count

of

references

to

each

region.

Using

type

annotations

that

make

the

structure

of

a

program's

regions

more

explicit,

we

reduce

the

overhead

of

reference

counting

from

a

maximum

of

to

a

maximum

of

on

a

suite

of

realistic

benchmarks.

We

generalise

these

annotations

in

a

region

type

system

whose

main

novelty

is

the

use

of

existentially

quantified

abstract

regions

to

represent

pointers

to

objects

whose

region

is

partially

or

totally

unknown.

A

distribution

of

RC

is

available

at

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

type system
novelty
use
structure
systems
region
language
support
pointers
reference counting
control
management

abstraction benchmark annotation object memorialized compilation group distributed


Subspace-based support vector machines for pattern classification In this paper, we discuss subspace-based support vector machines (SSSVMs), in which an input vector is classified into the class with the maximum similarity. Namely, for each class we define the weighted similarity measure using the vectors called dictionaries that represent the class, and optimize the weights so that the margin between classes is maximized. Because the similarity measure is defined for each class, for a data sample the similarity measure to which the data sample belongs needs to be the largest among all the similarity measures. Introducing slack variables, we define these constraints either by equality constraints or inequality constraints. As a result we obtain subspace-based least squares SVMs (SSLSSVMs) and subspace-based linear programming SVMs (SSLPSVMs). To speedup training of SSLSSVMs, which are similar to LSSVMs by all-at-once formulation, we also propose SSLSSVMs by one-against-all formulation, which optimize each similarity measure separately. Using two-class problems, we clarify the difference of SSLSSVMs and SSLPSVMs and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methods over the conventional methods with equal weights and with weights equal to eigenvalues.

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

least squares
linear programming
support vector machines


Scheduling a log transport system using simulated annealing The log truck scheduling under capacity and time window constraints is analyzed. A simulated annealing that interacts with a deterministic simulation is proposed. The algorithm was used to solve the practical case with more trucks, loggers and mills. Solution outperformed the solution currently generated manually in the company. The unloaded miles were reduced by 28% and number of trucks was also reduced by 17%.

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

log transport
simulated annealing
deterministic simulation


Performance evaluation of a single-stage two-product manufacturing system operating under pull-type control This paper presents a model to analyze a manufacturing system that is operating under pull-type control. A Markovian polling model with finite queues is devised to represent the manufacturing system and studied under three cyclic service policies: exhaustive, gated, and a type of limited policy. These polling models are solved by two different methods: an exact approach that requires the complete characterization of the system as a Markov chain and a decomposition approach that reduces the size of the Markov chain. A set of numerical experiments show that the decomposition approach is quite accurate in estimating system performance measures.

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


Optimal Packet Loss Protection of Progressively Compressed 3-D Meshes We consider a state-of-the-art system that uses layered source coding and forward error correction with Reed-Solomon codes to efficiently transmit 3-D meshes over lossy packet networks. Given a transmission bit budget, the performance of this system can be optimized by determining how many layers should be sent, how each layer should be packetized, and how many parity bits should be allocated to each layer such that the expected distortion at the receiver is minimum. The previous solution for this optimization problem uses exhaustive search, which is not feasible when the transmission bit budget is large. We propose instead an exact algorithm that solves this optimization problem in linear time and space. We illustrate the advantages of our approach by providing experimental results for the compressed progressive meshes (CPM) mesh compression technique.

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

3-d graphics
multimedia communication
progressive transmission
unequal error protectio


Replica allocation methods in ad hoc networks with data update In ad hoc networks, since mobile hosts move freely, network division occurs frequently, and thus data accessibility is lower than that in conventional fixed networks. In this paper, assuming an environment where each data item is periodically updated, we propose three replica allocation methods to improve data accessibility by replicating data items on mobile hosts. In these three methods, we take into account the access frequency from mobile hosts to each data item, the status of the network connection, and the time remaining until each item is updated next. We also show the results of simulation experiments regarding the performance evaluation of our proposed methods. We further extend the proposed methods to adapt to an environment where aperiodic data updates occur.

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

ad hoc networks
replica allocation
data accessibility


Cigarette smokemediated oxidative stress, shear stress, and endothelial dysfunction: role of VEGFR2 Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 2 (VEGFR2), a tyrosine kinase receptor, is activated by VEGF and fluid shear stress (FSS), and its downstream signaling is important in regulation of endothelial functions, such as cell migration, endothelium-dependent relaxation, and angiogenesis. Inhibition of VEGFR2 augments cigarette smoke (CS)-induced oxidative stress and inflammatory responses leading to endothelial dysfunction. CS-derived reactive oxygen/nitrogen species interact with VEGFR2, causing posttranslational modifications that render VEGFR2 inactive for downstream signaling, resulting in endothelial dysfunction. CS-mediated oxidants/carbonyl stress decreases SIRT1 levels and causes eNOS acetylation, which has ramifications in endothelial dysfunction. CS also affects endothelial cell survival pathway by disrupting VEGF- and FSS-mediated VEGFR2/PI3-kinase signaling, leading to decreased Akt phosphorylation and eNOS acetylation. We describe here the mechanisms whereby CS alters VEGF- and FSS-mediated VEGFR2-eNOS signaling, which may have implications for understanding the pathogenesis of pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.

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


INTELLIGENT ADAPTIVE USE OF WAVELET PACKETS FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS Signal decomposition methods like Wavelet Transform (WT) have been widely used in a large set of applications such as image. speech and biomedical signal processing, reporting good results. In this paper, two versions of the WT ire analyzed: the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and the Wavelet Packets (WP). The DWT is implemented by means of a filter bank with a fixed structure that provides a base valid to represent signals. The WP is a generalization of DWT that provides a library of bases, so that The best one can be chosen to represent the signal. Although WP is superior than the DWT from a theorical view. WP has not been extensively used. This work presents an experiment that shows the behavior of WP and its ability to adapt to the incoming signal. Results show that WP adaptative algorithm performs efficiently and gives good results in the ECG case.

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

discrete wavelet transform (dwt)
wavelet packets (wp)
wavelet base selection


Leveraging electronic collaboration to promote interorganizational learning By combining research on interorganizational learning (IOL) with that on IT-enabled collaboration, this study examines the role of electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) enabled through the use of interorganizational information systems in the development of a firm's capabilities such as IOL. Moreover, this study examines IOL as a capability posited between electronic collaboration and firm performance. Finally, we conceptualize IOL as a multidimensional construct composed of information sharing, relationship-specific knowledge memory, and the development of shared meaning and verify the relationships between them. The study provides an empirical analysis of the proposed model and hypotheses by considering data from various industries. The results indicate that e-collaboration was positively related to all three components of IOL. In terms of the relationships between these components, information sharing had a positive effect on relationship-specific knowledge memory, which in turn facilitated the development of shared meaning. Only the development of shared meaning had a significant effect on firm performance. Discussions and implications of the results are provided.

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

electronic collaboration
interorganizational learning
firm performance


Knowledge refinement for engineering knowledge management Engineering design is a knowledge-intensive process, including conceptual design, detailed design, engineering analysis, assembly design, process design, and performance evaluation. Each of these tasks involves various aspects of knowledge and experience. They are the most valuable sources for capitalizing enterprise knowledge and know-how on building enterprise memory, which may become part of enterprise assets. Therefore, capturing and representing product design information, design intents, and underlining design knowledge for later reuse is the basis of and one of the key tasks in engineering knowledge management. This study develops an approach for engineering knowledge refinement to facilitate engineering knowledge management. This approach is basically a refinement process that includes the steps of knowledge capture, knowledge representation and storage, and knowledge compilation. This study involves the development of a semantic graph for describing product-related information, design intent and know-how, a tag-based scheme for representing various types of captured product information and engineering knowledge, a case-based representation for a designed entity, and the design of a knowledge compilation model and algorithm. The objective of this study can be achieved by performing the following tasks: (i) developing an engineering knowledge management framework, (ii) establishing an engineering knowledge refinement process, (iii) developing levels of knowledge representation schemes, and (iv) implementing engineering knowledge refinement mechanisms.

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

knowledge refinement
knowledge management
engineering design


integrated solar energy harvesting and storage To explore integrated solar energy harvesting as a power source for low power systems such as wireless sensor nodes, an array of energy scavenging photodiodes based on a passive-pixel architecture for imagers and have been fabricated together with storage capacitors implemented using on-chip interconnect in a 0.35 ?m CMOS logic process. Integrated vertical plate capacitors enable dense energy storage without limiting optical efficiency. Measurements show 225 ?W/mm 2 output power generated by a light intensity of 20k LUX.

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


A fuzzy logic-based damage identification method for simply-supported bridge using modal shape ratios A fuzzy logic system (FLS) is established for damage identification of simply supported bridge. A novel damage indicator is developed based on ratios of mode shape components between before and after damage. Numerical simulation of a simply-supported bridge is presented to demonstrate the memory, inference and anti-noise ability of the proposed method. The bridge is divided into eight elements and nine nodes, the damage indicator vector at characteristic nodes is used as the input measurement of FLS. Results reveal that FLS can detect damage of training patterns with an accuracy of 100%. Aiming at other test patterns, the FLS also possesses favorable inference ability, the identification accuracy for single damage location is up to 93.75%. Tests with noise simulated data show that the FLS possesses favorable anti-noise ability.

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

simply-supported bridge
modal shape ratio


Intelligibility evaluation of GSM coder for Mandarin speech using CDRT The Global system for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) speech-coding algorithm is evaluated by using the newly proposed Chinese Diagnostic Rhyme Test (CDRT) to determine its suitability for coding Mandarin speech. Experimental results show that the algorithm is not effective for all phonetic features in Mandarin and it reduces intelligibility of sibilated consonants.

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

gsm
chinese diagnostic rhyme test
intelligibility


Iconic feature based nonrigid registration: the PASHA algorithm In this paper, we first propose a new subdivision of the image information axis used for the classification of nonrigid registration algorithms. Namely, we introduce the notion of iconic feature based (IFB) algorithms, which lie between geometrical and standard intensity based algorithms for they use both an intensity similarity measure and a geometrical distance. Then we present a new registration energy for IFB registration that generalizes some of the existing techniques. We compare our algorithm with other registration approaches, and show the advantages of this energy. Besides, we also present a fast technique for the computation of local statistics between images, which turns out to be useful on pairs of images having a complex, nonstationary relationship between their intensities, as well as an hybrid regularization scheme mixing elastic and fluid components. The potential of the algorithm is finally demonstrated on a clinical application, namely deep brain stimulation of a Parkinsonian patient. Registration of pre- and immediate postoperative MR images allow to quantify the range of the deformation due to pneumocephalus over the entire brain, thus yielding to measurement of the deformation around the preoperatively computed stereotactic targets.

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

iconic features
mixed elastic/fluid deformation models


Machine path generation for the SIS process Because of the differences in the nature of rapid prototyping (RP) processes, there is no standard machine path code for them. Each RP process, based on its characteristics and requirements, uses the standard CAD file format to extract the required data for the process. Selective inhibition of sintering (SIS) is a new layered fabrication method based on powder sintering. Like other RP systems, SIS needs a specialized machine path generator to create an appropriate machine path file. Machine path (i.e., boundary path and hatch path) should produce the printing pattern that enables the SIS machine user to easily remove the fabricated part from the surrounding material. A new machine path algorithm, which generates appropriate boundary and hatch paths for the SIS process is proposed. The new machine path generator provides the ability to process CAD models of any size and complexity, the ability for machine path verification before sending the file to the SIS machine, and the ability to fix the possible STL files disconnection errors. In this system, very large STL files can be processed in a relatively small computer memory. The system has been successfully tested on STL files as large as 200MB. The generated path files have been used in fabrication of several parts by the SIS process.

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


A knowledge-driven shift in perception of ICT implementation barriers: Comparative study of US and European SMEs This paper reports on findings of a comparative study conducted among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the USA, Spain, Portugal and Poland regarding different aspects of the business digital divide. Specifically, this study explores a shift in the perception and ranking of barriers to implementation of information and communication technology (ICT)-based solutions among SMEs, which can be attributed to the degree of ICT readiness exhibited by a given country. We have verified a hypothesis that the more knowledge-based a given economy is (as measured by ICT indexes), the more likely it is that perception of the key ICT implementation barriers among SMEs will shift away from mere lack of funds and technology toward lack of knowledge, education and information system planning. The conclusion of this study may well serve a better distribution of resources allocated by the governments to overcome the business digital divide that limits productivity of so many SMEs.

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

barriers to ict implementation
small and medium-sized enterprises


teaching with technology, setting an example Providing instructional technology support for faculty requires a range of skills, from knowledge of software and hardware, to an ability to communicate, teach workshops, and relate to faculty. Teaching experience is advantageous for the instructional technology specialist in that it can be used to extend discussions of technology to the meaningful use of the technology in the classroom. For these discussions to have authenticity, the technology specialist needs to have classroom teaching experience using software in a technology-equipped classroom. Unfortunately, for the instructional technology specialist, this experience is usually limited to brief workshops, and increasingly, one on one instruction with faculty.Two Instructional Technology Specialists from Williams College team-taught a four-week long Williams College Winter Study course for college students called "Teaching with Technology." The course focused on creating learning modules using Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver, Apple iMovie, and Adobe Photoshop. The course also covered copyright, pedagogy, and accessibility, and made use of a course management system. The shift in perspective for the instructors from supporting the use of technology in the classroom to actively teaching with technology helped the instructors realize the pedagogical potential of electronic classroom tools. In addition, the students demonstrated thoughtful use of the software for teaching, and a regard for copyright and accessibility. Together the students and instructors explored a range of topics relating to the use of technology in the classroom.In their roles as Instructional Technology Specialists, the instructors advise faculty on the use of technology in the classroom. By teaching the course, the instructors applied and tested their own advice and set an example of how technology can be integrated into a curriculum. This paper covers some of the insights that the authors gained from teaching the course.

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

web portfolio
video
electronic portfolios
education
multimedia
animation
audio


Games with fuzzy permission structure: A conjunctive approach A cooperative game consists of a set of players and a characteristic function which determines the maximal gain or minimal cost that every subset of players can achieve when they decide to cooperate, regardless of the actions that the other players take. A permission structure over the set of players describes a hierarchical organization where there are players who need permission from certain other players before they are allowed to cooperate with others. Various assumptions can be made about how a permission structure affects the cooperation possibilities. In the conjunctive approach it is assumed that each player needs permission from all his superiors. This paper deals with fuzzy permission structures in the conjunctive approach. In this model, players could depend partially on other players, that is, they may have certain degree of autonomy. First, we define a value for games with fuzzy permission structure that only takes into account the direct relations among players and provide a characterization for this value. Finally, we study a value for games with fuzzy permission structure which takes account of the indirect relations among players.

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


The ortho-semi-torsional (OST) spring analogy method for 3D mesh moving boundary problems In this paper a new mesh update technique is presented for the effective treatment of 3D mesh moving boundary problems. The proposed mesh update scheme utilizes an ortho-semi-torsional (OST) spring analogy concept to construct a fictitious elasticity problem with imposed boundary displacements, which is efficiently solved with an algorithm based on the preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) method. The PCG-based solution algorithm is also applied to three other mesh update techniques available in the literature, namely the torsional, the semi-torsional and the ball-vertex spring analogy schemes. The four spring analogy methods are comparatively assessed with respect to their robustness and computational efficiency in handling 3D benchmark problems, as well as more involved test cases such as the AGARD wing 445.6 and a 3D three-element airfoil. It is demonstrated that the OST spring analogy concept combined with a PCG-type algorithm for the solution of fictitious elasticity problems provides robustness for substantially distorted meshes and computational efficiency for large-scale problems.

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

mesh update
preconditioned conjugate gradient


A real-time time-frequency based instantaneous frequency estimator Commonly used time-frequency representations, like the short-time Fourier transform, the Wigner distribution and the higher order polynomial distributions, estimate the instantaneous frequency at the middle of the time-interval used in the analysis. For real time applications, like for example in radar signal processing, where the target parameters are estimated in the same way as the instantaneous frequency, the delay of a half of the considered interval may be unacceptable. Here, we propose a distribution that inherently estimates the instantaneous frequency at the end of the considered time interval. With a presented procedure for on-line implementation it can outperform other time-frequency representations for real time instantaneous frequency estimation.

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