Markov models of internet traffic and a new hierarchical MMPP model The first part of this paper gives a short tutorial survey of Internet traffic modeling, focusing on recent advances in Markov models showing pseudo-LRD (Long Range Dependence) characteristics that match those measured on the Internet. The interest in Markov models of Internet traffic, in spite of the impossibility to achieve true LRD or Self-Similarity, lies in the possibility of exploiting powerful analytical techniques to predict the network performance, which is the ultimate goal when adopting models to either study existing networks or design new ones. Then, the paper describes a new MMPP (Markov Modulated Poisson Process) traffic model that accurately approximates the LRD characteristics of Internet traffic traces over the relevant time scales. The heart of the model is based on the notion of sessions and flows, trying to mimic the real hierarchical generation of packets in the Internet. The proposed model is simple and intuitive: its parameters have a physical meaning, and the model can be tuned with only a few input parameters. Results prove that the queuing behavior of the traffic generated by the MMPP model is coherent with the one produced by real traces collected at our institution edge router under several different traffic loads. Due to its characteristics, the proposed MMPP traffic model can be used as a simple and manageable tool for IP network dimensioning, design and planning: the paper provides examples of its application in both simulative and theoretical analysis. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


A superlinearly convergent predictor-corrector method for degenerate LCP in a wide neighborhood of the central path with O(root nL)-iteration complexity An interior point method for monotone linear complementarity problems acting in a wide neighborhood of the central path is presented. The method has -iteration complexity and is superlinearly convergent even when the problem does not possess a strictly complementary solution.

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

linear complementarity problem
interior-point algorithm
large neighbourhood
superlinear convergence


From Vienna to California: a journey across disciplines - An interview with Heinz von Foerster Purpose - Seeks to promote an understanding of a multidisciplinary approach to artificial intelligence and the humanities. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on an interview with Heinz von Foerster. Findings - Describes von Foerster's personal and intellectual journey which made him a transdisciplinary scientist and the founder and director of the Biological Computer Laboratory. Originality/value - Provides a better understanding in how the complexity of scientific practice should be reflected in an open and flexible attitude towards the objects of enquiry.

O O O O 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


modeling and minimization of interconnect energy dissipation in nanometer technologies As the technology sizes of semiconductor devices continue to decrease, the effect of nanometer technologies on interconnects, such as crosstalk glitches and timing variations, become more significant. In this paper, we study the effect of nanometer technologies on energy dissipation in interconnects. We propose a new power estimation technique which considers DSM effects, resulting in significantly more accurate energy dissipation estimates than transition-count based methods for on-chip interconnects. We also introduce an energy minimization technique which attempts to minimize large voltage swings across the cross-coupling capacitances between interconnects. Even though the number of transitions may increase, our method yields a decrease in power consumption of up to 50\%.

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

method
power consumption
technologies
energy
crosstalk
interconnect
timing
paper
effect

transit
couples
device
variation
energy minimization
model
- power estimation
minimal


Interactive learning and management of visual information via human-like software robot To achieve smooth real-world interaction between people and computers, we developed a system that displays a three-dimensional computer-graphic human-like image from the waist up (anthropomorphic software robot: hereinafter "robot") on the display, that interactively sees and hears, and that has fine and detailed control functions such as facial expressions, line of sight, and pointing at targets with its finger. The robot visually searches and identifies persons and objects in real space that it has learned in advance (registered space, which was our office in this case), manages the history information of the places and times it found objects and/or persons, and tells the user, indicating their three-dimensional positions with line of sight and its finger. It interactively learns new objects and persons together with their names and owners. By using this function, the robot can engage in simple dialogue (do a task) with the user.

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

multimodal interaction
computer vision
machine learning
real-world intelligence


The MIXMAX random number generator In this paper, we study the randomness properties of unimodular matrix random number generators. Under well-known conditions, these discrete-time dynamical systems have the highly desirable K-mixing properties which guarantee high quality random numbers. It is found that some widely used random number generators have poor Kolmogorov entropy and consequently fail in empirical tests of randomness. These tests show that the lowest acceptable value of the Kolmogorov entropy is around 50. Next, we provide a solution to the problem of determining the maximal period of unimodular matrix generators of pseudo-random numbers. We formulate the necessary and sufficient condition to attain the maximum period and present a family of specific generators in the MIXMAX family with superior performance and excellent statistical properties. Finally, we construct three efficient algorithms for operations with the MIXMAX matrix which is a multi-dimensional generalization of the famous cat-map. First, allowing to compute the multiplication by the MIXMAX matrix with O(N N ) operations. Second, to recursively compute its characteristic polynomial with O(N2 N 2 ) operations, and third, to apply skips of large number of steps S S to the sequence in O(N2 N 2 log(S S )) operations.

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

pseudo-random number generator
kolmogorov k-system
deterministic chaos


Approximate inference for medical diagnosis Computer-based diagnostic decision support systems (DSSs) will play an increasingly important role in health care. Due to the inherent probabilistic nature of medical diagnosis, a DSS should preferably be based on a probabilistic model. In particular, Bayesian networks provide a powerful and conceptually transparent formalism for probabilistic modeling. A drawback is that Bayesian networks become intractable for exact computation if a large medical domain is to be modeled in detail. This has obstructed the development of a useful system for internal medicine. Advances in approximation techniques, e.g. using variational methods with tractable structures, have opened new possibilities to deal with the computational problem. However, the only way to assess the usefulness of these methods for a DSS in practice is by actually building such a system and evaluating it by users. In the coming years, we aim to build a DSS for anaemia based on a detailed probabilistic model, and equipped with approximate methods to study the practical feasibility and the usefulness of this approach in medical practice. In this paper, we will sketch how variational techniques with tractable structures can be used in a typical model for medical diagnosis. We provide numerical results on artificial problems. In addition, we describe our approach to develop the Bayesian network for the DSS and show some preliminary results.

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

medical decision support
bayesian belief networks
variational approximations


Two-Level Service-Oriented Architecture Based on Product-Line Software product-line engineering is the successful reuse of technology when applied to component-based software development. The main concept and structure of this technology is developing reusable core assets by applying commonality and variability, and then developing new software reusing these core assets. Recently, the emergence of service-oriented environments, called SOA, has provided flexible reuse environments by reusing pre-developed component structure as service units; this is platform-independent and can integrate into heterogeneous environments. The core asset of an SOA is the service. Therefore, we can increase the reusability of an SOA by combining it with the concept of a product-line. These days, there exists research that combines SOA and product-lines, taking into account reusability. However, current research does not consider the interaction between the provider and consumer in SOA environments. Furthermore, this research tends to focus on more fragmentary aspects of product-line engineering, such as modeling and proposing variability in services. In this paper, we propose a mechanism named 2-Level SOA, including a supporting environment. This proposed mechanism deploys and manages the reusable service. In addition, by reusing and customizing this reusable service, we can develop and generate new services. Our proposed approach provides a structure to maximize the flexibility of SOA, develops services that consider systematic reuse, and constructs service-oriented applications by reusing this pre-developed reusable service. Therefore, our approach can increase both efficiency and productivity when developing service-oriented applications.

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

service reuse
service variability
uddi
service oriented development


Diffusive neural network A non-connectionist model of a neuronal network based on passive diffusion of neurotransmitters is presented as an alternative to hard-wired artificial neural networks. Classic thermodynamical approach shows that the diffusive network is capable of exhibiting asymptotic stability and a dynamics resembling that of a chaotic system. Basic computational capabilities of the net are discussed based on the equivalence with a Turing machine. The model offers a way to represent mass-sustained brain functions in terms of recurrent behaviors in the phase space.

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

ligandreceptor interaction
cell-assemblies
mass-sustained functions


Structured collaborative workflow design Workflow design is often an effort of distributed and heterogeneous teams, thus making tool support for collaboration a necessity. We present a novel concept of collaborative workflow design which combines cooperation and workflow model analysis. Workflow analysis is simplified using workflow metrics, which help identifying problematic aspects of the workflow model. Our findings are implemented in a collaborative workflow design system, which is easily accessible on the Web, but provides a desktop-like user experience.

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

cscw
bpel
web 2.0
rich internet applications


futility-based offspring sizing Parameter control in evolutionary algorithms (EAs) has been shown to be beneficial; however, the control of offspring size has so far received very little attention. This paper introduces Futility-Based Offspring Sizing (FuBOS), a method for controlling offspring size on a per generation basis without even requiring the user to set an initial offspring size value. We show that on several complex problems, an EA employing FuBOS performs on par with a highly tuned, fixed offspring size EA while being far more efficient in terms of fitness evaluations and much easier to tune as well.

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 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

parameterless evolutionary algorithm
optimization
evolutionary algorithm


Approximate fuzzy analysis of linear structural systems applying intervening variables Linear static structures with fuzzy parameters and fuzzy loading are considered. Structural response represented approximately using intervening variables. A single structural analysis and sensitivity analysis are required. Approach captures nonlinearity of response with respect to uncertain parameters.

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

fuzzy structural analysis
approximation concepts
uncertain structural parameters
uncertain loading


Visualization in string theory The tools for visualization of relativistic string dynamics in various topological classes are developed. New theoretical results, obtained with the aid of these tools, are described.

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

scientific visualization
extremal surfaces
complex dynamical systems


Improved Approximations for the Hotlink Assignment Problem Let G = (V E) be a graph representing a Web site, where nodes correspond to pages and arcs to hyperlinks. In this context, hotlinks are defined as shortcuts (new arcs) added to Web pages of G in order to reduce the time spent by users to reach their desired information. In this article, we consider the problem where G is a rooted directed tree and the goal is minimizing the expected time spent by users by assigning at most k hotlinks to each node. For the most studied version of this problem where at most one hotlink can be added to each node, we prove the existence of two FPTAS's which optimize different objectives considered in the literature: one minimizes the expected user path length and the other maximizes the expected reduction in user path lengths. These results improve over a constant factor approximation for the expected length and over a PTAS for the expected reduction, both obtained recently in Jacobs [2007]. Indeed, these FPTAS's are essentially the best possible results one can achieve under the assumption that P not equal NP. Another contribution we give here is a 16-approximation algorithm for the most general version of the problem where up to k hotlinks can be assigned from each node. This algorithm runs in O(vertical bar V vertical bar log vertical bar V vertical bar) time and it turns to be the first algorithm with constant approximation for this problem.

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


SkIE: A heterogeneous environment for HPC applications Technological directions for innovative HPC software environments are discussed in this paper. We focus on industrial user requirements of heterogeneous multidisciplinary applications, performance portability, rapid prototyping and software reuse, integration and interoperability of standard tools. The various issues are demonstrated with reference to the PQE2000project and its programming environment Skeleton-based Integrated Environment (SkIE). SkIEincludes a coordination language, SkIECL, allowing the designers to express, in a primitive and structured way, efficient combinations of data parallelism and task parallelism. The goal is achieving fast development and good efficiency for applications in different areas. Modules developed with standard languages and tools are encapsulated into SkIECLstructures to form the global application. Performance models associated to the coordination language allow powerful optimizations to be introduced both at run time and at compile time without the direct intervention of the programmer. The paper also discusses the features of the SkIEenvironment related to debugging, performance analysis tools, visualization and graphical user interface. A discussion of the results achieved in some applications developed using the environment concludes the paper.

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

parallel programming environments
parallel programming models
structured parallel programming


Hybridization of volumetric and surface models for the computation of the T/R EC probe response due to a thin opening flaw Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of simulation tools dedicated to eddy current non destructive testing (ECNDT) on planar structures implying planar defects. Two integral approaches using the Green dyadic formalism are considered. Design/methodology/approach - The surface integral model (SEW) is dedicated to ideal cracks, whereas the volume integral method is adapted to general volumetric defects. Findings - The authors observed that SEA provides satisfactory results, except in some critical transmitting/receiving (T/R) configurations. This led us to propose a hybrid method based on the combination of the two previous ones. Originality/value - This method enables to simulate ECNDT on planar structures implying defects with a small opening using T/R probes.

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

eddy currents
tests and testing
surface defects
integral equations


A new shared segment protection method for survivable networks with guaranteed recovery time Shared Segment Protection (SSP), compared with Shared Path Protection (SPP), and Shared Link Protection (SLP), provides an optimal protection configuration due to the ability of maximizing spare capacity sharing, and reducing the restoration time in cases of a single link failure. This paper provides a thorough study on SSP under the GMPLS-based recovery framework, where an effective survivable routing algorithm for SSP is proposed. The tradeoff between the price (i.e., cost representing the amount of resources, and the blocking probability), and the restoration time is extensively studied by simulations on three networks with highly dynamic traffic. We demonstrate that the proposed survivable routing algorithm can be a powerful solution for meeting stringent delay upper bounds for achieving high restorability of transport services. This can significantly improve the network reliability, and enable more advanced, mission critical services in the networks. The comparison among the three protection types further verifies that the proposed scheme can yield significant advantages over Shared Path Protection, and Shared Link Protection.

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

complete routing information scenario
integer linear program (ilp)
segment shared protection (ssp)
shared risk group (srg)
single failure scenario
working and protection paths


Providing end-to-end service level agreements across multiple ISP networks Due to the autonomous nature of ISPs, the service level agreement (SLA) offering is currently confined to within a single provider network. In this work, we examine some methods of extending the SLA offering across ISP boundaries. We introduce three policies to coordinate the end-to-end performance guarantee in multiple ISP networks: the least-effort, the most-effort, and the equal-distribution policies. These policies refer to different manners in which the service-level constraints are distributed among all transit networks. We study the impacts of these policies on the overall ISP community when SLA is required. We evaluate the effectiveness of these policies in terms of both the network performance and the ISPs monetary profit. The results show that the policy choice depends on the network load, as well as the ISP cost structure.

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

provisioning
protection
ip-over-wdm network


A spatially explicit methodology for a priori estimation of field survey effort in environmental observation networks When establishing environmental monitoring programmes, it crucial to make reliable cost estimates, especially where a field survey is involved. This paper presents a methodology for creating a spatial measure of a field survey effort (SE). A set of relevant variables affecting a SE (e.g. areas with rough terrain, or distant from the main road network) was classified using fuzzy sets and then combined to produce spatially explicit effort indicators, which were integrated to a single measure using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). To evaluate this approach and identify the limits for its application, three spatially nested case studies were used to test the spatial expression of SE and the scalable capacity of the method itself. The presented methodology could cope with variations in the scale and data resolution, retrieving a coherent estimate of SE across the different case studies. The presented methodology is therefore useful for (i) testing the network designs for sampling bias related to SE, (ii) comparing alternative sampling designs, (iii) assessing the sampling costs and (iv) supporting the human and logistical resource management.

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

ecological field survey
monitoring effort
logistic optimization


Chester: Towards a personal medication advisor ? Dialogue systems for health communication hold out the promise of providing intelligent assistance to patients through natural interfaces that require no training to use. But in order to make the development of such systems cost effective, we must be able to use generic techniques and components which are then specialized as needed to the specific health problem and patient population. In this paper, we describe Chester, a prototype intelligent assistant that interacts with its user via conversational natural spoken language to provide them with information and advice regarding their prescribed medications. Chester builds on our prior experience constructing conversational assistants in other domains. The emphasis of this paper is on the portability of our generic spoken dialogue technology, and presents a case study of the application of these techniques to the development of a dialogue system for health communication.

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

spoken dialogue system
personal medical advisor
prescription compliance
artificial intelligence


Computational simulation for the morphological evolution of nonaqueous phase liquid dissolution fronts in two-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media This paper deals with the computational aspects of nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) dissolution front instability in two-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media of finite domains. After the governing equations of an NAPL dissolution system are briefly described, a combination of the finite element and finite difference methods is proposed to solve these equations. In the proposed numerical procedure, the finite difference method is used to discretize time, while the finite element method is used to discretize space. Two benchmark problems, for which either analytical results or previous solutions are available, are used to verify the proposed numerical procedure. The related simulation results from these two benchmark problems have demonstrated that the proposed numerical procedure is useful and applicable for simulating the morphological evolution of NAPL dissolution fronts in two-dimensional fluid-saturated porous media of finite domains. As an application, the proposed numerical procedure has been used to simulate morphological evolution processes for three kinds of NAPL dissolution fronts in supercritical NAPL dissolution systems. It has been recognized that: (1) if the Zhao number of an NAPL dissolution system is in the lower range of the supercritical Zhao numbers, the fundamental mode is predominant; (2) if the Zhao number is in the middle range of the supercritical Zhao numbers, the (normal) fingering mode is the predominant pattern of the NAPL dissolution front; and (3) if the Zhao number is in the higher range of the supercritical Zhao numbers, the fractal mode is predominant for the NAPL dissolution front.

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

nonaqueous phase liquid
computational simulation
fingering mode
fractal mode
porous media


Mobile agents for mobile tourists: a user evaluation of Gulliver's Genie How mobile computing applications and services may be best designed, implemented and deployed remains the subject of much research. One alternative approach to developing software for mobile users that is receiving increasing attention from the research community is that of one based on intelligent agents. Recent advances in mobile computing technology have made such an approach feasible. We present an overview of the design and implementation of an archetypical mobile computing application, namely that of an electronic tourist guide. This guide is unique in that it comprises a suite of intelligent agents that conform to the strong intentional stance. However, the focus of this paper is primarily concerned with the results of detailed user evaluations conducted on this system. Within the literature, comprehensive evaluations of mobile context-sensitive systems are sparse and therefore, this paper seeks, in part, to address this deficiency. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

user evaluation
mobile computing
intelligent agents


A study on the design of VME system controller For FA (factory automation) and ATE (automatic test equipment) in the industrial area, the standard bus is required to increase the system performance of multiprocessor environment. VME (versa module european package format) bus is appropriated to the standard bus but has the features that is the small of package and the low density of board. Beside, the density of board and semiconductor have grown to become a significant issues that affect the development time, project cost and field diagnostics. To fit this trend, in this paper, the author composed Revision C.1 (IEEE Std. P1014-1987) of the integrated environment for the main function such as arbitration, interrupt and interface between VMEbus and several control modules. Also the designed VME system controller is implemented on FPGA that can be located even into Slot 1. The control and function modules are coded with VHDL mid-fixed description method and then those operations are verified by simulation. As a result of experiment, the author confirmed that the most important about the operation of Bus timer that Bus error signal should occur within 56 mu s, and both control and function modules have the reciprocal operation correctly. Thus, the constructed VHDL library will be able to apply the system based VMEbus and ASIC design.

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

factory automation
vme system controller
vhdl
fpga


Untangling a Planar Graph A straight-line drawing delta of a planar graph G need not be plane but can be made so by untangling it, that is, by moving some of the vertices of G. Let shift(G, delta) denote the minimum number of vertices that need to be moved to untangle d. We show that shift(G, delta) is NP-hard to compute and to approximate. Our hardness results extend to a version of 1BENDPOINTSETEMBEDDABILITY, a well-known graph-drawing problem. Further we define fix(G, delta) = n - shift(G, delta) to be the maximum number of vertices of a planar n-vertex graph G that can be fixed when untangling d. We give an algorithm that fixes at least root((log n) - 1)/log log n vertices when untangling a drawing of an n-vertex graph G. If G is outerplanar, the same algorithm fixes at least root n/2 vertices. On the other hand, we construct, for arbitrarily large n, an n-vertex planar graph G and a drawing delta(G) of G with fix(G, delta(G)) <= root n - 2 + 1 and an n-vertex outerplanar graph H and a drawing delta(H) of H with fix(H, delta(H)) <= 2 root n - 1 + 1. Thus our algorithm is asymptotically worst-case optimal for outerplanar graphs.

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

graph drawing
straight-line drawing
planarity
np-hardness
hardness of approximation
moving vertices
point-set embeddability


Evaluating the performance of a discrete manufacturing process using RFID: A case study We use an enhanced RFID system within a manufacturers shop floor. We evaluate the workflow performance of a work layout redesign. RFID data analysis through KPIs indicates bottleneck operations. RFID middleware development improves data aggregation. Improving workflow visibility advances manufacturing flexibility.

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

rapid manufacturing
material flow
real-time location system
workflow layout


An exploratory model of knowledge flow barriers within healthcare organizations Healthcare today is mainly knowledge-based and the diffusion of medical knowledge is imperative for proper treatment of patients. Our study of the industry explored barriers to knowledge flow using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework. Our work was exploratory and qualitative in nature, and consisted of three phases: in-depth interviews to explore medical knowledge flow barriers resulting in a model; a case study using a survey approach to test and modify the model; and a Delphi study to validate the generalizability of the model. We concluded that knowledge flow experienced five barriers: knowledge source, knowledge receiver, knowledge transfer, knowledge flow context, and the organizational context. Furthermore, these were correlated.

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

cultural historical activity theory (chat)


Analysis of actinomycin D-DNA model complexes using a quantum-chemical criterion: Mulliken overlap populations The binding of the antitumoral drug actinomycin D to single- and double-stranded DNA was investigated using molecular modeling in the frame of MM+ molecular mechanics and AMI semi-empirical method. Two other programs, especially conceived to analyze hydrogen-bonding patterns in biological macromolecules, HBexplore, based on geometrical criteria and SHB_interactions, based on quantum-chemical criteria (Mulliken overlap populations), were also used. The results account for the non-cooperative intercalative binding process previously investigated, and outline the contribution of specific hydrogen bonding as well as C-(HO)-O-...(N) and other atom-atom intermolecular interactions to the stabilization of the actinomycin D-DNA complexes. They also support the hemi-intercalation model proposed in literature for the actinomycin D-ssDNA complex. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

shb_interactions
nucleic acids
hydrogen bonds


Customization of user interfaces to reduce errors and enhance user acceptance Reconfiguration allows customizing a user interface according to own preferences. Reconfiguration reduced error rates and enhanced user acceptance. Promising approach that warrants further exploration.

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

reconfiguration
customization
user acceptance


CXC Chemokines: Angiogenesis, Immunoangiostasis, and Metastases in Lung Cancer CXC chemokines have been found to be important in the regulation of angiogenesis and tumor-related immunity, and in promoting organ-specific metastases. This review highlights the importance of CXC chemokine ligands and receptors in mediating non-small cell lung cancer tumor-associated angiogenesis, immunoangiostasis, and organ-specific metastases. These findings may ultimately lead to clinical strategies to target CXC chemokines in non-small cell lung cancer.

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


An efficient approach for the rank aggregation problem This paper presents some computational properties of the rank-distance, a measure of similarity between partial rankings. We show how this distance generalizes the Spearman footrule distance, preserving its good computational complexity: the rank-distance between two partial rankings can be computed in linear time, and the rank aggregation problem can be solved in polynomial time. Further, we present a generalization of the rank-distance to strings, which permits to solve the median string problem in polynomial time. This appears rather surprising to us given the fact that for other non-trivial string distances, such as edit-distance, this problem is NP-hard. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

bipartite matching of given cardinality and weight


A phased reuse adoption model Reuse is easy to understand but challenging to institute. Instituting reuse can be made easier by a reuse adoption model. The Software Productivity Consortium's reuse adoption model has been used widely and successfully in the five years of its existence. However, time and experience have suggested ways to improve the model. This paper describes the Consortium's new model. Whereas the old model was process-based and independent of a particular reuse methodology, the new model is phased and integrates the Consortium's Synthesis methodology. This paper discusses the old model and how it motivated the phased model. It then presents the phased model and describes experiences with it.

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

software reuse
software management
domain engineering


Adaptive frequency decomposition of EEG with subsequent expert system analysis We present a hybrid system for automatic analysis of clinical routine EEG, comprising a spectral analysis and an expert system. EEG raw data are transformed into the timefrequency domain by the so-called adaptive frequency decomposition. The resulting frequency components are converted into pseudo-linguistic facts via fuzzification. Finally, an expert system applies symbolic rules formulated by the neurologist to evaluate the extracted EEG features. The system detects artefacts, describes alpha rhythm by frequency, amplitude, and stability and after artefact rejection detects pathologic slow activity. All results are displayed as linguistic terms, numerical values and maps of temporal extent, giving an overview about the clinical routine EEG.

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


Scheduling light-trails on WDM rings We consider the problem of scheduling communication on optical WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) networks using the light-trails technology. We seek to design scheduling algorithms such that the given transmission requests can be scheduled using a minimum number of wavelengths (optical channels). We provide algorithms and close lower bounds for two versions of the problem on an n processor linear array/ring network. In the stationary version, the pattern of transmissions (given) is assumed to not change over time. For this, a simple lower bound is c, the congestion or the maximum total traffic required to pass through any link. We give an algorithm that schedules the transmissions using O(c + log n) wavelengths. We also show a pattern for which Omega (c + log n/ log log n) wavelengths are needed. In the on-line version, the transmissions arrive and depart dynamically, and must be scheduled without upsetting the previously scheduled transmissions. For this case we give an on-line algorithm which has competitive ratio Theta (log n). We show that this is optimal in the sense that every on-line algorithm must have competitive ratio Omega(log n). We also give an algorithm that appears to do well in simulations (for the classes of traffic we consider), but which has competitive ratio between Omega(log(2) n/ log log n) and O(log(2) n). We present detailed simulations of both our algorithms. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

wavelength division multiplexing
wdm
scheduling
algorithm

light-trail
reconfigurable bus architecture
routing
wavelength assignment
approximation
on-line
simulation


Dynamic circuit provisioning in all-optical WDM networks using lightpath switching In this paper we investigate the problem of provisioning holding-time-aware (HTA) dynamic circuits in all-optical wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. We employ a technique called lightpath switching (LPS) wherein the data transmission may begin on one lightpath and switch to a different lightpath at a later time. Lightpath switches are transparent to the user and are managed by the network. Allowing LPS creates a number of segments that can use independent lightpaths. We first compare the performance of traditional routing and wavelength (RWA) assignment to routing and wavelength assignment with LPS. We show that LPS can significantly reduce blocking compared to traditional RWA. We then address the problem of routing dynamic anycast HTA dynamic circuits. We propose two heuristics to solve the anycast RWA problem: anycast with continuous segment (ACS) and anycast with lightpath switching (ALPS). In ALPS we exercise LPS, and provision a connection request by searching for the best candidate destination node is such a way that the network resources are utilized efficiently. In ACS we do not allow a connection request to switch lightpaths. The lightpaths to each candidate destination node of a request are computed using traditional RWA algorithms. We first compare the performance of ACS to ALPS and observe that ALPS achieves better blocking than ACS. Furthermore, we also compare the performance of these two anycast RWA algorithms to the traditional unicast RWA algorithm. We show that the anycast RWA algorithms presented here significantly outperform the traditional unicast RWA algorithms. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Difficulties in the neuroscience of creativity: jazz improvisation and the scientific method Creativity is a fundamental and remarkable human capacity, yet the scientific study of creativity has been limited by the difficulty of reconciling the scientific method and creative processes. We outline several hurdles and considerations that should be addressed when studying the cognitive neuroscience of creativity and suggest that jazz improvisation may be one of the most useful experimental models for the study of spontaneous creativity. More broadly, we argue that studying creativity in a way that is both scientifically and ecologically valid requires collaboration between neuroscientists and artists.

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

creativity neuroscience improvisation jazz


Unsupervised language model adaptation for handwritten Chinese text recognition We propose an unsupervised language model (LM) adaptation framework for handwritten Chinese text recognition. We use a two-pass recognition strategy with a pre-defined multi-domain LM set. The adaptive LM is dynamically generated by three methods of model selection, model combination and model reconstruction. We compress the LM set by split vector quantization and principal component analysis.

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

character string recognition
chinese handwriting recognition
language model compression


Strong convergence for a countable family of strict pseudocontractions in q-uniformly smooth Banach spaces We introduce a new iterative algorithm for finding a common fixed point of a countable family of strict pseudocontractions in q-uniformly smooth and uniformly convex Banach spaces. We then prove that the sequence generated by the proposed algorithm converges strongly to a common fixed point of an infinite family of strict pseudocontractions. Our results mainly improve and extend the results announced by Yao et al. [Y. Yao, Y.-C. Liou, G. Marino, Strong convergence of two iterative algorithms for nonexpansive mappings in Hilbert spaces, Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2009 (2009) 7 pages. doi:10.1155/2009/279058. Art. ID 279058]. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

iterative algorithm
strong convergence
strict pseudocontractions

common fixed points
q-uniformly smooth banach spaces


Interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy QUALIFLEX method with a likelihood-based comparison approach for multiple criteria decision analysis QUALIFLEX (i.e., QUALItative FLEXible multiple criteria method) is a useful outranking method used for multiple criteria decision analysis. This paper uses the main structure of QUALIFLEX to develop an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy QUALIFLEX outranking method with a likelihood-based comparison approach for handling multiple criteria decision-making problems within a decision environment of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets. We propose the concept of using the likelihood of fuzzy preference relations to compare interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. To address diversiform preference types, we represent the decision-makers various forms of preference structures and assess the criterion weights using incomplete information. Using a criterion-wise preference of alternatives via comparison of the likelihoods, we develop a new QUALIFLEX-based model to measure the level of concordance of the complete preference order for managing multiple criteria decisions. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed methods are illustrated using a practical example, namely, the selection of a suitable bridge construction method. A comparative analysis with other relevant methods is conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

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

qualiflex
outranking method
multiple criteria decision analysis
likelihood
incomplete information


Extracting grammar from programs: Evolutionary approach The paper discusses context-free grammar (CFG) inference using genetic-programming with application to inducing grammars from programs written in simple domain-specific languages. Grammar-specific heuristic operators and non-random construction of the initial population are proposed to achieve this task. Suitability of the approach is shown by small examples where the underlying CFG's are successfully inferred.

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

learning from positive and negative examples


Numerical simulation of spherical couette flow A spectral method is used to study numerically flow between two concentric rotating spheres. Analytical expressions of eigenfunctions of a Stokes operator in the spherical gap region are presented, numerical experiments are carried out by applying these expressions to the spectral approximation of spherical Couette flow, and numerical results are given. (C) 2004 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 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

navier-stokes equations
spherical-couette flow


Players clustering based on graph theory tor tactics analysis purpose in soccer videos In this paper, a new method for clustering of players in order to analyze games in soccer videos is proposed. The proposed method classifies players who are closely related in terms of soccer tactics into one group. Considering soccer tactics, the players in one group are located near each other. For this reason, the Euclidean distance between the players is an effective measurement for the clustering of players. However, the distance is not sufficient to extract tactics-based groups. Therefore, we utilize a modified version of the community extraction method, which finds community structure by dividing a non-directed graph. The use of this method in addition to the distance enables accurate clustering of players.

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

soccer videos
soccer tactics
clustering
community


Selection of load-transfer functions for passive lateral loading of pile groups A finite element study has been carried out to determine the pile-soil-pile interaction behaviour for closely spaced pile rows and groups under passive lateral loading from soil movement. A horizontal section close to the piles was studied to determine the effects of pile spacing and soil constitutive law on the load-transfer relationships of the piles. The study has revealed links between the soil stress-strain law, the soil deformation mechanism and the pile load-transfer curves. Interaction behaviour was seen to depend on the prevailing deformation mechanism which in turn was governed by the soil constitutive law. Elastic-plastic and power law soil models were applied. Interaction factors suitable for design use to account for increasing lateral pressure on piles during passive lateral loading have been produced for a range of pile spacings and power law soil exponents. Interaction between piles increased both with reduction of pile spacing and with increase of soil exponent-the less soil stiffness degradation with shear strain, the greater the interaction between piles at a given spacing. This suggests that the passive interaction factors calculated using elastic methods are likely to overestimate the effects of pile-soil-pile interaction. : (C) 1999 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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

passive lateral pile group loading
pile-soil-pile interaction
soil deformation mechanisms
finite element analysis


The generation of arbitrary order, non-classical, Gauss-type quadrature for transport applications A method is presented, based upon the Stieltjes method (1884), for the determination of non-classical Gauss-type quadrature rules, and the associated sets of abscissae and weights. The method is then used to generate a number of quadrature sets, to arbitrary order, which are primarily aimed at deterministic transport calculations. The quadrature rules and sets detailed include arbitrary order reproductions of those presented by Abu-Shumays in [4]and[8] (known as the QR sets, but labelled QRA here), in addition to a number of new rules and associated sets; these are generated in a similar way, and we label them the QRS quadrature sets. The method presented here shifts the inherent difficulty (encountered by Abu-Shumays) associated with solving the non-linear moment equations, particular to the required quadrature rule, to one of the determination of non-classical weight functions and the subsequent calculation of various associated inner products. Once a quadrature rule has been written in a standard form, with an associated weight function having been identified, the calculation of the required inner products is achieved using specific variable transformations, in addition to the use of rapid, highly accurate quadrature suited to this purpose. The associated non-classical Gauss quadrature sets can then be determined, and this can be done to any order very rapidly. In this paper, instead of listing weights and abscissae for the different quadrature sets detailed (of which there are a number), the MATLAB code written to generate them is included as Appendix?D. The accuracy and efficacy (in a transport setting) of the quadrature sets presented is not tested in this paper (although the accuracy of the QRA quadrature sets has been studied in [12]and[13]), but comparisons to tabulated results listed in [8] are made. When comparisons are made with one of the azimuthal QRA sets detailed in [8], the inherent difficulty in the method of generation, used there, becomes apparent, with the highest order tabulated sets showing unexpected anomalies. Although not in an actual transport setting, the accuracy of the sets presented here is assessed to some extent, by using them to approximate integrals (over an octant of the unit sphere) of various high order spherical harmonics. When this is done, errors in the tabulated QRA sets present themselves at the highest tabulated orders, whilst combinations of the new QRS quadrature sets offer some improvements in accuracy over the original QRA sets. Finally, in order to offer a quick, visual understanding of the various quadrature sets presented, when combined to give product sets for the purposes of integrating functions confined to the surface of a sphere, three-dimensional representations of points located on an octant of the unit sphere (as in [8]and[12]) are shown.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 transport
discrete ordinates
numerical integration
non-classical quadrature
qr set
qrs set
octant-range
orthogonal polynomial


Agent-based workflow management for RFID-enabled real-time reconfigurable manufacturing Recent developments in wireless technologies have created opportunities for developing reconfigurable wireless manufacturing systems with real-time traceability, visibility and interoperability in shop-floor planning, execution and control. This paper proposes to use agent-based workflow management as a mechanism to facilitate interactions among RFID-enabled reconfigurable manufacturing resources. A production process is modelled as a workflow network. Its nodes correspond to the work (process), and its edges to flows of control and data. Nodes are represented as agents and edges as messages. As a sandwich layer, agents wrap manufacturing services around a work-cell and their operational logics/intelligence for cost-effectively collecting and processing real-time manufacturing data, forming so-called work-cell gateways. A reference framework for a shop-floor gateway is proposed based on the three key components: Workflow management, manufacturing services universal description, discovery and integration (namely MS-UDDI) and work-cell agents. Work-cell agents are packaged, registered and published at MS-UDDI as web services which are easily reused and reconfigured in the workflow for a specific production process. Finally, a prototype system is presented to demonstrate how the proposed method is used to define and execute a real-time reconfigurable manufacturing project.

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

workflow management
reconfigurable manufacturing

multiple agent systems
real-time wireless manufacturing
rfid
auto id


An EasyGrid portal for scheduling system-aware applications on computational Grids One of the objectives of computational Grids is to offer applications the collective computational power of distributed but typically shared heterogeneous resources. Unfortunately, efficiently harnessing the performance potential of such systems (i.e. how and where applications should execute on the Grid) is a challenging endeavor due principally to the very distributed, shared and heterogeneous nature of the resources involved. A crucial step towards solving this problem is the need to identify both an appropriate scheduling model and scheduling algorithm(s). This paper presents a tool to aid the design and evaluation of scheduling policies suitable for efficient execution of system-aware parallel applications on computational Grids. Copyright (c) 2005 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

grid computing
task scheduling
simulation
modeling
globus toolkit


reliable framework for rfid devices RFID technology requires deployment that ensures reliability. We have developed the middleware RF 2 ID, a reliable framework for RFID, to improve reliability at software level. Two key abstractions 1) Virtual Reader: the distributed computational element 2) Virtual Path: the communication channel among virtual readers are used to improve the system reliability. The key idea is to use the notion of path at system level that matches the flow of data stream to improve system efficiency. We have designed the middleware solution RF 2 ID and evaluated it using experimental testbed and emulation based study for item tracking applications. The evaluation of the system provides higher accuracy level using a scalable solution. We plan to further extend the system to provide support for item location applications as well.

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


local, distributed weighted matching on general and wireless topologies In this paper, we present and discuss a distributed algorithm for the local message passing communication model that constructs a (1-?)-approximate Maximum Weight Matching in a graph (? > 0). The approach has a deterministic runtime of O(1/? 2 log n. T MIS (n O(1/?) )), where T MIS (m) denotes the distributed time of computing a maximal independent set on a graph with m nodes. An immediate result of the presented approach is a local algorithm with expected O(log 2 n) time complexity. If the given graph stems from a wireless ad-hoc network, characterized by the bounded growth property, we can further improve the algorithm by a preprocessing step that first locally constructs a colored clustering structure. This structure is then used in the matching algorithm to speed up the procedure significantly; we obtain a deterministic local algorithm that requires O(log n log* n) communication rounds. The main part of the algorithm works by repeatedly modifying and improving an existing matching in the network, and can thus be easily adapted to cope with changing and mobile topologies.

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


Beam-forming module for backhaul link in a Relay-aided 4G network A novel beam-forming module based on Wilkinson power divider technology, including attenuators and phase shifter chips is designed, fabricated and evaluated to be incorporated in a Relay Station connecting it with the Base Station under a 4G network. The proposed module is a 1:8 port circuit, utilizing two substrates, providing approximately 700MHz bandwidth over 3.5GHz frequency band and less than ?20dB transmission line coupling. Moreover an external control unit that feeds the beam-forming module with code-words that define the proper amplitude/phase of the excitation currents is established and described. The presented module is connected to a planar array and tested for two beam-forming scenarios, providing satisfactory radiation patterns.

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

relay station
wilkinson power divider
attenuators


Industrial safety perception among post-graduate engineering students This paper describes industrial safe perception among University of Aberdeen post-graduate engineering student. The immediate objective of this research is to identify safety perceptions of different high risk occupational industries. Results obtained were analyzed and compared with Health and Safety Executives (HSE) reports as well as the Oil and Gas Producer Safety Performance Report. The result showed that the participants perceive the Oil and Gas Industry is safe, second only to the Aviation Industry and that the Oil and Gas Industry is safest in the European Region. The research also concluded that participants perceptions were more influenced towards the concept of accident severity/dread rather than the concept of accident probability.

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

risk perception
occupational risk
questionnaire
industrial risk


Computer systems analysis of spaceflight induced changes in left ventricular mass Circulatory adaptations resulting in postflight orthostasis have frequently been observed in response to space travel. It has been postulated that a decrement in left ventricular mass (LVM) found after microgravity exposure may be the central component in this cardiovascular deconditioning. However, a physiologic mechanism responsible for these changes in the myocardium has not been determined. In this study, we examined the sequential alterations in echocardiographic measured LVM from preflight to landing day and 3 days into the postflight recovery period. In a previous study in returning astronauts we found a comparative 9.1% reduction in postflight LVM that returned to preflight values by the third day of recovery. This data was further evaluated in a systems analysis approach using a well-established advanced computer model of circulatory functioning. The computer model incorporates the physiologic responses to changes in pressures, flows and hydraulics within the circulatory system as affected by gravitational forces. Myocardial muscle progression to atrophy or hypertrophy in reaction to the circulatory load conditions is also included in the model. The integrative computer analysis suggests that these variations in LVM could be explained by simple fluid shifts known to occur during spaceflight and can reverse within a few days after reentry into earth's gravity. According to model predictions, the reductions in LVM found upon exposure to microgravity are a result of a contraction of the myocardial interstitial fluid space secondary to a loss in the plasma volume. This hypothesis was additionally supported by the published ground-based study in which we followed the alterations in LVM and plasma volume in normal subjects in which hypovolemia was induced by simple dehydration. In the hypovolemic state, plasma volume was reduced in these subjects and was significantly correlated with echocardiographic measurements of LVM. Based on these experimental findings and the performance of the computer systems analysis it appears that reductions in LVM observed after spaceflight may be secondary to fluid exchanges produced by common physiologic mechanisms. Reductions in LVM observed after microgravity exposure have been previously postulated to be a central component of spaceflight-induced cardiovascular deconditioning. However, a recent study has demonstrated a return of astronauts LVM to preflight values by the third day after landing through uncertain mechanisms. A systems analysis approach using computer simulation techniques allows for a dissection of the complex physiologic control processes and a more detailed examination of the phenomena. From the simulation studies and computer analysis it appears that microgravity induced reductions in LVM may be explained by considering physiologic fluid exchanges rather than cardiac muscle atrophy.

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

system analysis
venticular mass
astronaut


Transmitting to colocated users in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks We consider wireless ad hoc networks and sensor networks where a remotely located source is transmitting information to a destined user embedded within a group of K densely packed physically colocated users enjoying favorable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions among themselves, but suffering from quasi-static flat Rayleigh fading with respect to the source. Stringent delay constraints require that information, once available, be transmitted immediately and delivered reliably to its destination during a period of one fading block, precluding waiting until the destined user enjoys favorable fading conditions with respect to the source. A cooperative transmission strategy is proposed for this scenario and its expected throughput is investigated. The strategy exhibits a substantial gain in throughput, especially when the colocation gain factor is high. In addition, a broadcast approach is incorporated into the transmission strategy suggesting further throughput benefits.

O O O O O O O O O B I 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 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

ad hoc networks
expected throughput
sensor networks

cooperative diversity
fading channels
outage capacity
relay channel
wireless networks


A token-bucket based notification traffic control mechanism for IMS presence service Presence is a service that allows a user to be informed about the specified state of another user. Presence service has become a key enabler for next-generation applications such as instant messaging, push-to-talk and web2.0. However, recent studies show that the notification traffic of presence service causes heavy signaling load on IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) network. This paper introduced a token-bucket based notification traffic control (TNTC) mechanism, which is an application layer solution deployed at the presence server. The TNTC aims at upgrading valid access probability while controlling the notification traffic. A mathematical model of a queuing system is proposed to describe TNTC. We analyzed its main probability features and investigated the effects of different parameters on the performance of TNTC. Extensive simulations verified that TNTC can effectively control notification traffic and perform better than the existing schemes in terms of valid access probability and update arrival rate. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

notification traffic control
presence service
ims


maximum likelihood estimation for filtering thresholds Information filtering systems based on statistical retrieval models usually compute a numeric score indicating how well each document matches each profile. Documents with scores above profile-specific dissemination thresholds are delivered. An optimal dissemination threshold is one that maximizes a given utility function based on the distributions of the scores of relevant and non-relevant documents. The parameters of the distribution can be estimated using relevance information, but relevance information obtained while filtering is biased . This paper presents a new method of adjusting dissemination thresholds that explicitly models and compensates for this bias. The new algorithm, which is based on the Maximum Likelihood principle, jointly estimates the parameters of the density distributions for relevant and non-relevant documents and the ratio of the relevant document in the corpus. Experiments with TREC-8 and TREC-9 Filtering Track data demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

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

utility function
estimates
relevance
bias
paper
filtering
threshold
method
systems
data
demonstrate
algorithm
maximum likelihood

statistics
computation
experience
model
informal
optimality
tracking
distributed
profiles
documentation
effect
retrieval model


Improved convected particle domain interpolation method for coupled dynamic analysis of fully saturated porous media involving large deformation Based on the u-p form governing equations and the convected particle domain interpolation technique, the improved convected particle domain interpolation based material point method (CCPDI) is developed in this paper for the coupled dynamic and contact analysis of fully saturated porous media involving large deformation. The numerical artifact noises due to material points crossing computational grid boundaries that usually occur in large deformation are eliminated by using the smoother interpolation functions presented in the convected particle domain interpolation technique. The discrete equations are derived in the framework of the generalized interpolation material point method. The boundary load tracking algorithm and a modified contact algorithm are proposed based on the definition of particle domains to apply accurately the surface loads on the motive boundaries and to capture correctly the contact time/behaviors in large deformation problems, respectively. Simulations of several representative one- and two-dimensional problems are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed methods. Compared to those obtained by using the coupling material point method and/or finite element method, the simulation results illustrate that the proposed CCPDI method can be successfully used in simulating the large deformation coupled dynamic responses of the solid skeleton and fluid phase in fully saturated porous media and the large deformation impact between solid and saturated porous bodies.

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

saturated porous media
convected particle domain interpolation
dynamic analysis
large deformation


a soa for ubiquitous communication management This paper presents an application framework for ubiquitous communication management. The framework -- called HERMES after the messenger of gods in Greek mythology -- is to provide a solid foundation for applications that are aware of users' communication needs and present appropriate tool support. In this paper, ubiquitous communication management, the framework itself, its approach to web-based data replication and the framework's communication-related utilization of web services will be discussed.

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

communication management
data replication

peer-to-peer architecture
ubiquitous connectivity
data reconciliation
sensors
service-oriented architecture
contact management
event-driven architecture
instant messaging


measuring participants' perception on facilitation in group support systems meetings Facilitation is often considered to be one of the key factors in the successful application of Group Support Systems. Research on GSS facilitation has revealed insight into the types of tasks performed by facilitators and the potential positive effects of facilitation on group consensus and satisfaction. However, earlier research has hardly approached GSS facilitation from the participants' point of view. This paper presents a study in which a questionnaire was developed and distributed to 182 participants of facilitated GSS meeting in order to measure their perception on various facilitation tasks. The results suggested three categories of facilitation tasks that are perceived important by participants. Each of these categories strongly correlated with participants' meeting satisfaction. Further research is needed to refine these categories so that the instrument may be used to evaluate a facilitator's performance.

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

facilitation
satisfaction
group support systems


an efficient approach to removing geometric degeneracies Our aim is to perturb the input so that an algorithm designed under the hypothesis of input non-degeneracy can execute on arbitrary instances. The deterministic scheme of [EmCa] was the first efficient method and was applied to two important predicates. Here it is extended in a consistent manner to another two common predicates, thus making it valid for most algorithms in computational geometry. It is shown that this scheme incurs no extra algebraic complexity over the original algorithm while it increases the bit complexity by a factor roughly proportional to the dimension of the geometric space. The second contribution of this paper is a variant scheme for a restricted class of algorithms that is asymptotically optimal with respect to the algebraic as well as the bit complexity. Both methods are simple to implement and require no symbolic computation. They also conform to certain criteria ensuring that the solution to the original input can be restored from the output on the perturbed input. This is immediate when the input to solution mapping obeys a continuity property and requires some case-specific work otherwise. Finally we discuss extensions and limitations to our approach.

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

symbolic computation
method
input
factor
space
complexity
algorithm
paper
scheme
class
computational geometry

efficiency optimality map extensibility case consistency continuation


Crisp analogs of fuzzy sets With standard operators the fuzzy sets defined over a universe of discourse respects the structure of a De Morgan algebra. Via an injective canonical mapping we establish an isomorphism to a De Morgan algebra of crisp subsets of an extended universe. The canonical mapping gives a natural extension of any algebraic operator acting on fuzzy sets to a crisp analog. This proves that the algebraic aspects of fuzzy set theory can be completely described within the framework of crisp set theory. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

crisp sets
quasi-boolean algebra
cartesian product


A novel two-stage weak classifier selection approach for adaptive boosting for cascade face detector It is well-known for AdaBoost to select out the optimal weak classifier with the least sample-weighted error rate, which might be suboptimal for minimizing the nave error rate. In this paper, a novel variant of AdaBoost named OtBoost is proposed to learn optimal thresholded node classifiers for cascade face detector. In OtBoost, a two-stage weak classifier selection approach based on adaptive boosting framework is applied to minimize both the sample-weighted error rate and the optimal-thresholded multi-set class-weighted error rate. Besides, a new sample set called selection set is also applied to prevent overfitting on the training set. Several upright frontal cascade face detectors are learned, which shows that the OtBoost strong classifiers have much better convergence ability than the AdaBoost ones with the cost of slightly worse generalization ability. Some OtBoost based cascade face detectors have acceptable performance on the CMU+MIT upright frontal face test set.

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


database selection for processing k nearest neighbors queries in distributed environments We consider the processing of digital library queries, consisting of a text component and a structured component in distributed environments. The text component can be processed using techniques given in previous papers such as [7, 8, 11]. In this paper, we concentrate on the processing of the structured component of a distributed query. Histograms are constructed and algorithms are given to provide estimates of the desirabilities of the databases with respect to the given query. Databases are selected in descending order of desirability. An algorithm is also given to select tuples from the selected databases. Experimental results are given to show that the techniques provided here are effective and efficient.

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

select
order
environments
k nearest neighbors
text
queries
algorithm
paper
database selection
distributed
query
component

histogram
nearest neighbor
structure
efficiency
experimentation
query processing
process
digital libraries
effect
database
distributed databases


Selecting predictors for traffic control by methods of the mathematical theory of democracy The mathematical theory of democracy operates on the indices of popularity and universality which are used to find socially optimal representatives and representative bodies. Regarded mathematically, neither the society, nor its representatives are necessarily human, so that some objects can represent the behavior of other objects. This idea is applied to selecting predictors of traffic jams which occur the City Ring of Hagen, Germany; the traffic situations at street intersections all over the town are regarded as representatives of future traffic situations at the Ring intersections. As a result, a reliable prediction can be attained by already five surveillance cameras installed at appropriate locations. The selection of such locations and processing the data captured by the cameras constitute the subjects of this paper.

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

traffic control
representatives
representative bodies
mathematical theory of democracy
indices of popularity and universality


The effects of graphical overviews on knowledge acquisition in hypertext Abstract A central aspect of designing hypertext for learning concerns the structure of the information in the hypertext and the view the learner is offered of this structure. In this study, a hypertext environment was enhanced with a graphical overview that represented the basic, inherent, structure of the domain and the layout was designed in such a way that learners were unobtrusively encouraged to follow a sequence of exploration that followed the domain structure. This so-called visual lay-out was compared with two lay-outs that presented randomly positioned nodes. One of these two lay-outs contained hints (using highlighting) to stimulate learners to follow a domain related exploration similar to the one incorporated in the visual lay-out. The other (control) lay-out did not provide such hints. Results showed that participants from both the visual and the hints conditions demonstrated a more domain-related exploration pattern than participants from the control condition. Participants in the visual lay-out did not show a better recall of the content of the nodes as such, but showed a significantly better acquisition of knowledge of structure than participants from the other two conditions. These data indicate that a visual display conveys knowledge in its own right and that knowledge gained does not depend on the exploration route followed in the hypertext material.

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

control group
hypermedia
motivation
navigation
self-directed
undergraduate
visual representation


A multivariate statistical analysis of the developing human brain in preterm infants Preterm delivery accounts for 5% of all deliveries and its consequences contribute to significant individual, medical, and social problems. The neuroanatomical substrates of these disorders are not known, but are essential for understanding mechanisms of causation, and developing strategies for intervention. In the recent years, multivariate pattern recognition methods that analyse all voxels simultaneously have been proposed to characterise the neuroanatomical differences between a reference group of magnetic resonance (MR) images and the population under investigation. Most of these techniques have overcome the difficulty of dealing with the inherent high dimensionality of 3D MR brain image data by using pre-processed segmented images or a small number of specific features. However, an intuitive way of mapping the classification results back into the original image domain for further interpretation remains challenging. In this paper, we propose the idea of using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) plus the maximum uncertainty Linear Discriminant Analysis (MLDA) approach to classify and analyse MR brain images that have been aligned with either affine or non-rigid registration techniques. This approach avoids the computation costs intrinsic to commonly used covariance-based optimisation processes for solving small sample size problems, resulting in a simple and efficient implementation for the maximisation and interpretation of the Fishers classification results. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, we have used a neonatal MR brain data set that contains images of 93 preterm infants at term equivalent age and 20 term controls. Our results indicate that the two-stage linear framework makes clear the statistical differences between the control and preterm samples, showing a classification accuracy of 95.0% and 97.8% for the controls and preterms samples, respectively, using the leave-one-out method. Moreover, it provides a simple and intuitive method of visually analysing the differences between preterm infants at term equivalent age and the control group, such as differences in cerebrospinal fluid spaces, structure of the corpus callosum, and subtle differences in myelination.

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

small sample size
brain images
preterm infants


soar: smalltalk without bytecodes We have implemented Smalltalk-80 on an instruction-level simulator for a RISC microcomputer called SOAR. Measurements suggest that even a conventional computer can provide high performance for Smalltalk-80 by abandoning the 'Smalltalk Virtual Machine' in favor of compiling Smalltalk directly to SOAR machine code, linearizing the activation records on the machine stack, eliminating the object table, and replacing reference counting with a new technique called Generation Scavenging. In order to implement these techniques, we had to find new ways of hashing objects, accessing often-used objects, invoking blocks, referencing activation records, managing activation record stacks, and converting the virtual machine images.

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

activation
order
generation
hashing
stack
code
smalltalk
object
virtual machine
reference counting
microcomputer
records

measurement simulation computation high-performance bytecode instruction compilation imaging management


A hybrid one-then-two stage algorithm for computationally expensive electromagnetic design optimization Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a surrogate model-assisted optimization algorithm which effectively searches for the optimum at the earliest opportunity, avoiding the need for a large initial experimental design, which may be wasteful. Design/methodology/approach - The methodologies of two-stage and one-stage selection of points are combined for the first time. After creating a small experimental design, a one-stage Kriging algorithm is used to search for the optimum for a fixed number of iterations. If it fails to locate the optimum, the points it samples are then used in lieu of a traditional experimental design to initialize a two-stage algorithm. Findings - The proposed approach was tested on a mathematical test function. It was found that the optimum could be located, without necessarily constructing an accurate surrogate model first. The algorithm performed well on an electromagnetic design problem, out performing both a random search and a genetic algorithm, in significantly fewer iterations. The results suggest a new interpretation of surrogate models - merely as tools for constructing a utility function to locate the optimum of an unknown function, as opposed to actual approximations of the unknown function. Research limitations/implications - The research was carried out on unconstrained problems only. The findings have implications for modem experimental designs, as the proposed algorithm can often locate the optimum without necessarily constructing an accurate surrogate model. Originality/value - The two paradigms of one-stage and two-stage selection of points in surrogate-model assisted optimization are combined for the first time. Also, it is believed that this is the first time that the methodology of one-stage optimization has been used in optimal electromagnetic design.

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A New Scan Architecture for Both Low Power Testing and Test Volume Compression Under SOC Test Environment A new scan architecture for both low power testing and test volume compression is proposed. For low power test requirements, only a subset of scan cells is loaded with test stimulus and captured with test responses by freezing the remaining scan cells according to the distribution of unspecified bits in the test cubes. In order to optimize the proposed process, a novel graph-based heuristic is proposed to partition the scan chains into several segments. For test volume reduction, a new LFSR reseeding based test compression scheme is proposed by reducing the maximum number of specified bits in the test cube set, s max, virtually. The performance of a conventional LFSR reseeding scheme highly depends on s max. In this paper, by using different clock phases between an LFSR and scan chains, and grouping the scan cells by a graph-based grouping heuristic, s max could be virtually reduced. In addition, the reduced scan rippling in the proposed test compression scheme can contribute to reduce the test power consumption, while the reuse of some test results as the subsequent test stimulus in the low power testing scheme can reduce the test volume size. Experimental results on the largest ISCAS89 benchmark circuits show that the proposed technique can significantly reduce both the average switching activity and the peak switching activity, and can aggressively reduce the volume of the test data, with little area overhead, compared to the previous methods.

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


Interval-valued (alpha, beta)-fuzzy K-algebras The notion of interval-valued fuzzy sets was first introduced by Zadeh in 1975 as a generalization of fuzzy sets. Using the concept of interval-valued fuzzy sets, we introduce a new kind of generalized fuzzy subalgebra of a K-algebra called, an interval-valued (alpha, beta)-fuzzy subalgebra. We present some interesting properties of an interval-valued (alpha, beta)-fuzzy subalgebra of a K-algebra. Some characterization theorems of the interval-valued (epsilon, epsilon boolean OR q)-fuzzy subalgebra are established. Next we investigate the properties of interval-valued fuzzy subalgebras with thresholds. Finally we present characterization theorems of implication based interval-valued fuzzy subalgebras. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

k-algebras
interval-valued fuzzy points
level sets
(alpha
beta)-fuzzy subalgebras
implication operator


Asymptotic behaviour of bi-infinite words We present a description of asymptotic behaviour of languages of bi-infinite words obtained by iterating morphisms defined on free monoids.

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

bi-infinite words
iteration
boundary set