On the efficient solution of a multiserver system with two reattempt orbits In communication networks that guarantee seamless mobility of users across service areas, reattempts occur as a result of user behavior but also as automatic retries of blocked handovers. A multiserver system with two reattempt orbits is obtained when modeling these networks. However, an exact Markovian model analysis of such systems has proven to be infeasible and resorting to approximate methods is mandatory. To the best of our knowledge all the existing methods are based on computing the steady state probabilities. We propose another approach based on the relative state values that appear in the Howard equations. We compare the proposed method with the most well-known methods appeared in the literature in a wide range of scenarios. The results of the numerical evaluation carried out show that this solution outperforms the previous approaches in terms of both accuracy and computation cost for the most common performance parameters used in retrial systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

retrial queue
stochastic process
markov decision process
cellular network


dimension reduction for distance-based indexing Distance-based indexing exploits only the triangle inequality to answer similarity queries in metric spaces. Lacking of coordinate structure, mathematical tools in R n can only be applied indirectly, making it difficult for theoretical study in metric space indexing. Toward solving this problem, we formalize a "pivot space model" where data is mapped from metric space to R n , preserving all the pair wise distances under L infin; . With this model, it can be shown that the indexing problem in metric space can be equivalently studied in R n . Further, we show the necessity of dimension reduction for R n and that the only effective form of dimension reduction is to select existing dimensions, i.e. pivot selection. The coordinate structure of R n makes the application of many mathematical tools possible. In particular, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is incorporated into a heuristic method for pivot selection and shown to be effective over a large range of workloads. We also show that PCA can be used to reliably measure the intrinsic dimension of a metric-space.

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

pivot space model
pivot selection
dimension reduction
metric space
intrinsic dimension


Web traffic modeling at finer time scales and performance implications The performance of Web sites continues to be an important research topic. Such studies are invariably based on the access logs from the servers comprising the Web site. A problem with existing access logs is the coarse granularity of the timestamps, e.g., arrival times. In this study we demonstrate and quantify the significant differences in performance obtained under diverse assumptions about the arrival process of user requests derived from the access logs, where the corresponding user response times can differ by more than an order of magnitude. This motivates the need for a general methodology to construct accurate representations of the actual arrival process of user requests from existing coarse-grained access-log data. Our analysis of the access logs from representative commercial Web sites illustrates self-similar behavior of the arrival process. We propose a drill-down methodology for constructing the arrival process at finer time scales based on the self-similar properties of the arrival process observed at coarse logging time scales. The advantage of our approach is that it maintains consistency between the properties of the arrival processes at both coarser and finer time scales. In addition, our analysis of the request size distribution from commercial Web sites demonstrates a subexponential, but not heavy-tail (power-law) distribution. Through simulations, we investigate the impact of these different traffic models on user response times.

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

long-range dependence
subexponential distribution
self-similar process
drill-down technique
web server performance


Statistical modelling of general practice medicine for computer assisted data entry in electronic medical record systems Electronic medical record (EMR) systems have much potential, however, there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved before EMRs are widely accepted. One of these issues is the data input task, a potentially serious practical barrier to on-line medical computer usage. This paper reports the empirical modelling of data input requirements for physicians who use a problem-orientated medical record system. Three statistical models (Bayesian conditional probability, multiple linear regression and discriminant analysis) to predict drug treatment given problem diagnoses are derived from EMRs of 2500 general Practice encounters. Two metrics are used to measure the predictive power of the models considering both the number of drugs correctly predicted and the strength with which the models predict them. The models are tested on 500 unseen records from the same patient-physician population and the data used to build the models. The Bayesian model produces the best predictions on unseen data and is also the easiest model to compute. A prototype interface that enables new patient cases to be entered is constructed to demonstrate how the predictive power of the model can translate into benefits in the data entry task.

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

electronic medical record
data entry
interface

statistical model
intelligent split menu


Error analysis and iterative solvers for NavierStokes projection methods with standard and sparse grad-div stabilization This paper shows that use of a recently introduced sparse grad-div stabilization can increase the accuracy of projection methods for solving the NavierStokes equations. Sparse grad-div stabilization has recently been introduced as an alternative to standard grad-div stabilization which has a sparser matrix representation. For both sparse and standard grad-div stabilized projection methods, we prove error estimates and provide numerical experiments which reveal that both stabilizations can cause a significant decrease in the error. We then compare iterative solvers for the linear systems of equations arising from the use of both of the stabilizations. A theoretical analysis of a simplified model problem as well as numerical tests show that iterative solvers perform better for systems arising from sparse grad-div compared to standard grad-div stabilized systems.

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

navierstokes equations
projection methods
iterative solvers

sparse grad-div stabilization
mass conservation


Memory reconsolidation for natural language processing We propose a model of memory reconsolidation that can output new sentences with additional meaning after refining information from input sentences and integrating them with related prior experience. Our model uses available technology to first disambiguate the meanings of words and extracts information from the sentences into a structure that is an extension to semantic networks. Within our long-term memory we introduce an action relationships database reminiscent of the way symbols are associated in brain, and propose an adaptive mechanism for linking these actions with the different scenarios. The model then fills in the implicit context of the input and predicts relevant activities that could occur in the context based on a statistical action relationship database. The new data both of the more complete scenario and of the statistical relationships of the activities are reconsolidated into memory. Experiments show that our model improves upon the existing reasoning tool suggested by MIT Media lab, known as ConceptNet.

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

memory reconsolidation
natural language processing


partial content distribution on high performance networks We present and analyze techniques to efficiently solve the partial content distribution problem-distributing a logical data set to receivers which individually desire only subsets of the total data. This is a more general and fundamentally different problem than traditional whole-file content distribution; providing new challenges and new optimization opportunities. It supports a wider variety of use models, e.g., striped file transfer, scatter/gather, or distributed editing. This work develops new metadata management and transfer scheduling techniques providing good results on high performance networks. Distributed applicationsin such systems tend to have data requirements more complicated than just total overlap at every node: transfers desired differ dramatically from whole-file content distribution. Traditional approaches perform poorly in such cases. We provide empirical data exhibiting these limitations, evaluate a new BitTorrent-based implementation of our ideas, and show order of magnitude improvements in bandwidth and latency.

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

content distribution
high performance networks


ICTs, social thinking and subjective well-being The internet and its representations in everyday life The spread of ICTs constitutes an intriguing phenomenon for studying the interweaving between ways of knowing, thinking and experiencing new realities. A suitable framework for investigating this topic is the social representations one, which addresses socially shared structures of knowledge, loaded with emotional features and symbolic values. In the present study, we explore how the internet is represented and how it is related to social well-being. The number of participants was 101. The components of the representation information, attitude, representational field were investigated using a qualitativequantitative methodology; social well-being (in general, and after the internet entered ones own life) was measured through Keyes scale [Social Well-Being. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61(2), 121140]; levels of practice were also taken into account. Participants show a mediumhigh level of social well-being in its various components (integration, acceptance, contribution, actualisation and coherence). A more complex picture appears after internet, with gains in terms of closeness, contribution, actualisation of society, counterbalanced by diminished trust in people and resort to ones own group for security and comfort. The representational field opposes an intimate picture to a wider perspective; space to time; functional to experiential features of the internet. Participants take different positions on these dimensions, providing foreseen and unexpected patterns of images and meanings.

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


Automated segmentation and tracking of non-rigid objects in time-lapse microscopy videos of polymorphonuclear neutrophils We propose an automated segmentation and tracking framework. We show high-troughput analysis of non-rigid objects in time-lapse microscopy. Segmentation with pixel-wise GMM classifier using spatio-temporal image variations. Model-free tracking technique with interaction detection and cell cluster splitting. Rigorous validation framework for experimental and synthetic image data.

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

tracking of non-rigid objects
time-lapse microscopy


Performance analysis of high data rate MIMO systems in frequency-selective fading channels The performance of multicode direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in the presence of frequency-selective fading is evaluated. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the multiple-antenna interference when the processing gain is sufficiently large. The probability of error is derived for the conventional RAKE receiver, and its performance is compared for various system configurations. We consider system tradeoffs for both fixed rate and fixed diversity. For a fixed total data rate, we demonstrate the advantage of decreasing the number of transmit antennas while increasing the number of codes, and for a fixed total diversity order, we demonstrate the advantage of decreasing the number of RAKE taps while increasing the number of receive antennas.

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 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

fading channels
interference
probability

multiple-input multiple-output (mimo) systems


From Practice to Theory and back to Practice: Reflexivity in Measurement and Evaluation for Evidence-based Policy Making in the Information Society ? This article presents a comprehensive review of literature and practice on the measurement and evaluation of ICT impact in general and of selected public eServices (eGovernment, eHealth, and eInclusion), within the context of the Information Society paradigm. It calls for a sustained meta-level analysis, in which it is important to have a self-reflexive layer where we evaluate and measure how we evaluate and measure, and what the implications and the trade-offs are. The analysis justifies the call for reflexivity as a necessary step towards advancing our understanding of the impact of ICT within the Information Society domains observed. The article concludes presenting some possible ways of re-coupling the conceptual and technical dimensions of the measurement process and linking the production of measurement data more closely with impact evaluation causal models and hypotheses. It suggests that this could be achieved by refocusing on the micro level and stimulating a gradual micro-macro link through an intermediate (meso) level, which effects need to be described using different measurements and evaluation paradigms. In order to do so it is required to refine and test our theories and models to find out where it would be most feasible to scale up to the global (macro) level and to shape and inform the production of more valid measurement indicators for better informing evidence-based policy making in the Information Society.

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

information society
policy
measurement
reflexivity


Unified framework for basis-based speaker adaptation based on sample covariance matrix of variable dimension We present a unified framework for basis-based speaker adaptation techniques, which subsumes eigenvoice speaker adaptation using principal component analysis (PCA) and speaker adaptation using two-dimensional PCA (2DPCA). The basic idea is to partition a Gaussian mean vector of a hidden Markov model (HMM) for each state and mixture component into a group of subvectors and stack all the subvectors of a training speaker model into a matrix. The dimension of the matrix varies according to the dimension of the subvector. As a result, the basis vectors derived from the PCA of training model matrices have variable dimension and so does the speaker weight in the adaptation equation. When the amount of adaptation data is small, adaptation using the speaker weight of small dimension with the basis vectors of large dimension can give good performance, whereas when the amount of adaptation data is large, adaptation using the speaker weight of large dimension with the basis vectors of small dimension can give good performance. In the experimental results, when the dimension of basis vectors was chosen between those of the eigenvoice method and the 2DPCA-based method, the model showed the balanced performance between the eigenvoice method and the 2DPCA-based method.

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

two-dimensional principal component analysis


All the news thats fit to post: A profile of news use on social networking sites Facebook and other social networking sites (SNSs)1 are altering the way individuals communicate. These online environments allow users to keep up with friends, network with colleagues, and share their personal views and observations with others. Previous work describes typical social networking site users as young, extroverted, and technologically savvy. Little research exists, however, on the emerging role of news in the social network environment. With over 500 million global Facebook users, both print and television based media outlets are making concerted efforts to become part of this important and increasingly ubiquitous virtual world. The present study uses a sample of students, faculty, and staff from a large university to investigate the factors that are related to news use on Facebook. Findings indicate that while news use is still a minor component of overall social network site activity, certain key variables, such as gender and life satisfaction, have a significant impact on how Facebook is used for news-related purposes. Future implications for news in the social networking world are presented and discussed.

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

internet
political communication
demographic patterns


computing and data grids for science and engineering We use the term "Grid" to refer to a software system that provides uniform and location independent access to geographically and organizationally dispersed, heterogeneous resources which are persistent and supported. While, in general, Grids will provide the infrastructure to support a wide range of services in the scientific environment (e.g. collaboration and remote instrument control) in this paper we focus on services for high performance computing and data handling. We describe the services and architecture of NASA's Information Power Grid ("IPG")-an early example of a large-scale Grid-and some of the issues that have come up in its implementation.

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

distributed computing architecture
distributed resource management


Simulation experiments on the performance of structural change tests in cointegration We present Monte Carlo simulation experiments to investigate the finite-sample properties of structural change tests in cointegrated relationships. These tests are computed using three alternative efficient estimators of cointegrating vectors. It is shown that the tests have overall accurate size and good power performance with a slight out performance of the fully modified and the leads and lags estimators-based tests. However our simulation results reveal substantial power decrease for all the tests due to higher error serial correlation.

O O O O O O B I O O B 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

structural change
cointegration
monte carlo simulation


TSCL: A conceptual model to inform understanding of collaborative learning processes at interactive tabletops ? Emerging systems for tabletop interaction have the potential to support small groups of students in collaborative learning activities. We argue that these devices have the potential to support learning by exploiting the interaction data that they can capture. The capture, analysis and presentation of these data can provide new ways to gain understanding of the collaborative processes. This is particularly important for teachers at two levels. First, they can gain a deeper level of awareness of the progress of individual students and groups in their class and, based on this, make real-time informed decisions. Second, they can do post-hoc reflection and analyse aspects of the class. This paper presents Tabletop-Supported Collaborative Learning (TSCL), a conceptual model that provides foundations for building tabletop-based systems that can inform understanding of the collaborative learning process. The model provides guidance for building the infrastructure to: (i) capture traces of student activity; (ii) exploit these through data analytics techniques; and (iii) provide useful information about the collaborative processes. We illustrate the usefulness of TSCL in its use to create a learning environment that was evaluated in two studies conducted in tertiary education contexts. The first was a laboratory study, where 60 students in 20 groups worked on a concept mapping task, with data from their interaction used to create visualisations of the group processes. The second study was conducted in-the-wild, involving 140 students, working in 8 class sessions.

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

awareness
collaborative learning
visualisations


A literature review of RFID-enabled healthcare applications and issues We investigate the application, issues and benefits of RFID within the healthcare sector. We propose a conceptual framework that can be used to classify publications on RFID applications and issues in the healthcare industry. We then use this framework to systematically summarize relevant articles. We conclude by highlighting future research directions where the deployment of RFID technology is likely to transform the healthcare sector.

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


Clustering Large Attributed Graphs: A Balance between Structural and Attribute Similarities Social networks, sensor networks, biological networks, and many other information networks can be modeled as a large graph. Graph vertices represent entities, and graph edges represent their relationships or interactions. In many large graphs, there is usually one or more attributes associated with every graph vertex to describe its properties. In many application domains, graph clustering techniques are very useful for detecting densely connected groups in a large graph as well as for understanding and visualizing a large graph. The goal of graph clustering is to partition vertices in a large graph into different clusters based on various criteria such as vertex connectivity or neighborhood similarity. Many existing graph clustering methods mainly focus on the topological structure for clustering, but largely ignore the vertex properties, which are often heterogenous. In this article, we propose a novel graph clustering algorithm, SA-Cluster, which achieves a good balance between structural and attribute similarities through a unified distance measure. Our method partitions a large graph associated with attributes into k clusters so that each cluster contains a densely connected subgraph with homogeneous attribute values. An effective method is proposed to automatically learn the degree of contributions of structural similarity and attribute similarity. Theoretical analysis is provided to show that SA-Cluster is converging quickly through iterative cluster refinement. Some optimization techniques on matrix computation are proposed to further improve the efficiency of SA-Cluster on large graphs. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of SA-Cluster through comparisons with the state-of-the-art graph clustering and summarization methods.

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


The effectiveness of a one-year online mentoring program for girls in STEM Although the performance of girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is continually improving and is no longer below that of boys in most domains, girls' interests in STEM and participation rates are still too low. Online mentoring may help ameliorate this situation. To test this assumption, a one-year personal mentoring program for eleven to eighteen-year-old female college-preparatory students was evaluated. Mentee and mentor communicate with one another and with other program participants via email, online chat, and forums. To measure program effectiveness, we randomly assigned participants (N = 312) to either a treatment group (N = 208) or a waiting-list control group (N = 104). We collected questionnaire data at three points in time. In comparison to the waiting-list group, the treatment-group participants showed greater levels of desirable short-term and long-term developments. Our findings indicate various advantages for online mentoring for promoting girls' interests in STEM. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Observer network and forest fire detection Future Generation Communication Environment (FGCA) is defined as advanced communication and networking environment where all applications and services are focused on users. In this paper an example of such an application is described where the "user" is the natural environment and the goal is the environment protection. An idea of observer network is introduced and described as an advanced communication, networking and processing framework for fusion and interpretation of information collected over sensor network having the main goal enhanced environment protection. The framework is inspired by formal theory of perception aimed for environmental intelligence implementation. Environmental intelligence is interpreted as a self-protecting feature of environment gained by integration of sensing devices into environment and appropriate fusion and interpretation of sensing data. Our particular case study was forest fire monitoring observer network. It was implemented as a multi agent system. The paper describes multi agent architecture and the principles of the agent ontology. The multi agent architecture gives the observer network additional flexibility and modularity. Although our case study was forest fire monitoring the same architecture could be used in detection of any kind of phenomenon required in environmental intelligence. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

sensor network
observer network
forest fire detection


A constrained finite element method satisfying the discrete maximum principle for anisotropic diffusion problems Nonlinear constrained finite element approximations to anisotropic diffusion problems are considered. Starting with a standard (linear or bilinear) Calerkin discretization, the entries of the stiffness matrix are adjusted so as to enforce sufficient conditions of the discrete maximum principle (DMP). An algebraic splitting is employed to separate the contributions of negative and positive off-diagonal coefficients which are associated with diffusive and antidiffusive numerical fluxes, respectively. In order to prevent the formation of spurious undershoots and overshoots, a symmetric slope limiter is designed for the antidiffusive part. The corresponding upper and lower bounds are defined using an estimate of the steepest gradient in terms of the maximum and minimum solution values at surrounding nodes. The recovery of nodal gradients is performed by means of a lumped-mass L(2) projection. The proposed slope limiting strategy preserves the consistency of the underlying discrete problem and the structure of the stiffness matrix (symmetry, zero row and column sums). A positivity-preserving defect correction scheme is devised for the nonlinear algebraic system to be solved. Numerical results and a grid convergence study are presented for a number of anisotropic diffusion problems in two space dimensions. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

anisotropic diffusion
discrete maximum principle
finite element method
slope limiting

nonnegativity constraints
gradient recovery


Distributed Parameter Tuning for Genetic Algorithms Genetic Algorithms (GA) is a family of search algorithms based on the mechanics of natural selection and biological evolution. They are able to efficiently exploit historical information in the evolution process to look for optimal solutions or approximate them for a given problem, achieving excellent performance in optimization problems that involve a large set of dependent variables. Despite the excellent results of GAs, their use may generate new problems. One of them is how to provide a good fitting in the usually large number of parameters that must be tuned to allow a good performance. This paper describes a new platform that is able to extract the Regular Expression that matches a set of examples, using a supervised learning and agent-based framework. In order to do that, GA-based agents decompose the GA execution in a distributed sequence of operations performed by them. The platform has been applied to Language induction problem, for that reason the experiments are focused on the extraction of the regular expression that matches a set of examples. Finally, the paper shows the efficiency of the proposed platform (in terms of fitness value) applied to three case studies: emails, phone numbers and URLs. Moreover, it is described how the codification of the alphabet affects to the performance of the platform.

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

genetic algorithms
parameter tuning
agents


Limited Asynchronous Spiking Neural P Systems In a biological system, if a long enough time interval is given, an enabled chemical reaction will finish its reaction in the given time interval. With this motivation, it is natural to impose a bound on the time interval when an enabled spiking rule in a spiking neural P system (SN P system, for short) remains unused. In this work, a new working mode of SN P systems is defined, which is called limited asynchronous mode. In an SN P system working in limited asynchronous mode, if a rule is enabled at some step, this rule is not obligatorily used. From this step on, if the unused rule may be used later, it should be used in the given time interval. If further spikes make the rule non-applicable, then the computation continues in the new circumstances. The computation result of a computation in an SN P system working in limited asynchronous mode is defined as the total number of spikes sent into the environment by the system. It is proved that limited asynchronous SN P systems with standard spiking rules are universal. If the number of spikes present in each neuron of a limited asynchronous SN P system with standard spiking rules is bounded during a computation, then the power of a limited asynchronous SN P system with standard spiking rules falls drastically, and we get a characterization of semilinear sets of numbers.

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

spiking neural p system
asynchronous mode


A study of applying data mining to early intervention for developmentally-delayed children The implementation of early intervention has close relation to the growth development of developmentally-delayed children. The earlier the intervention is involved the more significant effects and results it will bring to the benefits of these young children. However, providing early intervention exclusively without finding out the relationship between the two would eventually leave the problematic point remain unsolved. Since a childs becoming developmental delay is resulted from many factors, much of the valuable knowledge among all needs to be unveiled. In the process of knowledge discovery, use data mining approach to nugget out potential knowledge from vast amounts of data. The main purpose of this study is to explore the hidden knowledge among medical history data of developmentally-delayed children. Fields of medical history database belongs to set and binary, so decision tree is constructed to classify delay levels of each type according to physical illness, and association rule is applied to locate correlations between cognitive, language, motor, and social emotional developmental delays. The study results indicate that the majority of illnesses will result in delays in cognitive, language, and motor development. Simultaneously, among all types of delay, motor and cognitive delay mostly accompanies with symptoms of language delay. The results of this study enable healthcare professionals to be on top of the developments of young children during the process of evaluation and diagnosis, and to provide early intervention so that developmentally-delayed children can catch up with their normal peers in development and growth.

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

data mining
developmental delay
decision tree
association rule


A knowledge-based approach to maintenance project planning Maintenance issues comprise an important, though frequently overlooked, area of manufacturing operations. In smaller companies in particular, expertise for effective maintenance project planning may be lacking. In this paper we discuss the development of an object-oriented expert system to support such project planning. The system was developed to meet the needs of an automotive components manufacturer, and focuses solely on its material-handling-oriented projects. The microcomputer-based expert system considers issues of schedule, inventory availability and cost.

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

expert systems
maintenance planning
planning and scheduling systems
object-oriented


Criticisms on and comparison of experimental channel backscattering extraction methods In this paper we critically review and compare experimental methods, based on the Lundstrom model, to extract the channel backscattering ratio in nano MOSFETs. Basically two experimental methods are currently used, the most common of them is based on the measurement of the saturation drain current at different temperatures. We show that this method is affected by very poor assumptions and that the extracted backscattering ratio strongly underestimates its actual value posing particular attention to the backscattering actually extracted in nano devices. The second method is based on the direct measurement of the inversion charge by CV characteristics and gets closer to the physics of the backscattering model. We show, through measurements in high mobility p-germanium devices, how the temperature-based method gives the same result of the CV-based method once that its approximations are removed. Moreover we show that the CV-based method uses a number of approximations which are partially inconsistent with the model. In particular we show, with the aid of 2D quantum corrected device simulations, that the value of the barrier lowering obtained through the CV-based method is totally inconsistent with the barrier lowering used to correct the inversion charge and that the extracted saturation inversion charge is underestimated.

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

backscattering
barrier lowering
cv characteristics


Computer-aided prognosis of neuroblastoma on whole-slide images: Classification of stromal development We are developing a computer-aided prognosis system for neuroblastoma (NB), a cancer of the nervous system and one of the most malignant tumors affecting children. Histopathological examination is an important stage for further treatment planning in routine clinical diagnosis of NB. According to the International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (the Shimada system), NB patients are classified into favorable and unfavorable histology based on the tissue morphology. In this study, we propose an image analysis system that operates on digitized H&E stained whole-slide NB tissue samples and classifies each slide as either stroma-rich or stroma-poor based on the degree of Schwannian stromal development. Our statistical framework performs the classification based on texture features extracted using co-occurrence statistics and local binary patterns. Due to the high resolution of digitized whole-slide images, we propose a multi-resolution approach that mimics the evaluation of a pathologist such that the image analysis starts from the lowest resolution and switches to higher resolutions when necessary. We employ an offline feature selection step, which determines the most discriminative features at each resolution level during the training step. A modified k-nearest neighbor classifier is used to determine the confidence level of the classification to make the decision at a particular resolution level. The proposed approach was independently tested on 43 whole-slide samples and provided an overall classification accuracy of 88.4%.

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

whole-slide histopathological image analysis


Relativized separation of EQP from P-NP An oracle is constructed relative to which quantum polynomial time (EQP) is not polynomial-time Turing reducible to NP. That is, there is an A such that EQp(A) not subset of or equal to PNPA. This generalizes and simplifies previous separations of EQP from NP and ZPP, due to Berthiaume and Brassard. A key element of the proof is the use of a special property of Grover's algorithm for database search, in order to show that the test language is in EQP(A). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

computational complexity
theory of computation
quantum computation


A new approach to humanitarian demining - Part 1: Mobile platform for operation on unstructured terrain Landmines can deprive whole areas of valuable resources, and continue to kill and cause injuries years after the end of armed conflicts. Armored vehicles are used for mine clearance, but with limited reliability. The final inspection of minefields is still performed by human deminers exposed to potentially fatal accidents. The aim of this research is to introduce automation as a way to improve the final level of humanitarian demining. This paper addresses mobility and manipulation, while sensing, communication and visualization shall be discussed in detail in a subsequent paper. After analyzing the merits and limitations of previous works, a new approach to tele-operated demining is considered, using off-road buggies equipped with combustion engines, and taking into account actual field requirements. Control of the automated buggies on rough terrain is also discussed, as well as the development of a new weight-balanced manipulator for landmine clearance operations.

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


Utilization of integrated Michaelis-Menten equations for enzyme inhibition diagnosis and determination of kinetic constants using Solver supplement of Microsoft Office Excel Enzyme kinetic parameters are usually determined from initial rates nevertheless, laboratory instruments only measure substrate or product concentration versus reaction time (progress curves). To overcome this problem we present a methodology which uses integrated models based on Michaelis-menten equation. The most severe practical limitation of progress curve analysis occurs when the enzyme shows a loss of activity under the chosen assay conditions. To avoid this problem it is possible to work with the same experimental points utilized for initial rates determination. This methodology is illustrated by the use of integrated kinetic equations with the well-known reaction catalyzed by alkaline phosphatase enzyme. In this work nonlinear regression was performed with the Solver supplement (Microsoft Office Excel). It is easy to work with and track graphically the convergence of SSE (sum of square errors). The diagnosis of enzyme inhibition was performed according to Akaike information criterion. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

diagnosis of enzyme inhibition
solver
nonlinear regression
akaike information criterion


A generalization of extension complexity that captures P We study a generalization of extended formulations of polytopes. Our generalization allows ignoring a subset of valid inequalities. Our generalization captures polynomial time exactly. We prove lower bounds for some example polytopes.

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

polytopes
extended formulations
extension complexity
lower bounds

combinatorial problems
computational complexity
theory of computation
linear programming


Asymptotic stability of bidirectional associative memory neural networks with time-varying delays via delta operator approach ? This paper is interested in the problem of asymptotic stability analysis of Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM) neural networks with time-varying delays via delta operator approach. The delays are assumed to exist in the nonlinear synaptic connection between different neural fields. Based on the LyapunovKrasovskii functional in delta domain, a new delay-dependent criterion for analyzing the asymptotic stability of BAM neural networks is obtained. Some previous results of continuous and discrete BAM systems are unified into the delta operator system framework due to the favorable numerical properties and the quasi-continuous performance of delta operator approach at high sampling rates. Since the sampling period is an explicit parameter in the results, it can be regulated to analyze the stability of systems. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed theoretical results.

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

delta operator approach
asymptotic stability
lyapunovkrasovskii functional

bidirectional associative memory (bam) neural networks


Effective technique for the recognition of offline Arabic handwritten words using hidden Markov models In this paper, we present a novel segmentation-free Arabic handwriting recognition system based on hidden Markov model (HMM). Two main contributions are introduced: a new technique for dividing the image into nonuniform horizontal segments to extract the features and a new technique for solving the problems of the skewing of characters by fusing multiple HMMs. Moreover, two enhancements are introduced: the pre-processing method and feature extraction using concavity space. The proposed system first pre-processes the input image by setting the thickness of the input word to three pixels and fixing the spacing between the different parts of the word. The input image is divided into constant number of nonuniform horizontal segments depending on the distribution of the foreground pixels. A set of robust features representing the gradient of the foreground pixels is extracted using sliding windows. The input image is decomposed into several images representing the vertical, horizontal, left diagonal and right diagonal edges in the image. A set of robust features representing the densities of the foreground pixels in the various edge images is extracted using sliding windows. The proposed system builds character HMM models and learns word HMM models using embedded training. Besides the vertical sliding window, two slanted sliding windows are used to extract the features. Three different HMMs are used: one for the vertical sliding window and two for the slanted windows. A fusion scheme is used to combine the three HMMs. The proposed system is very promising and outperforms all the other Arabic handwriting recognition systems reported in the literature.

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

arabic handwriting recognition
fusion
hidden markov models


A token based distributed algorithm for supporting mutual exclusion in opportunistic networks Opportunistic networks are essentially distributed networks with transient connectivity among nodes. Nodes in opportunistic networks are resource constrained, mobile and opportunistically come in contact with each other. In such a distributed network, nodes may require exclusive access to a shared object or resource. Ensuring freedom from starvation is a challenging problem in opportunistic networks due to limited pairwise connectivity and node failures. In this paper, we review mutual exclusion algorithms proposed for generic mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and discuss their applicability to opportunistic networks. Further, we propose a novel token based algorithm1 and prove its correctness. Simulation results show that our algorithm is communication efficient as compared to other algorithms proposed for generic mobile ad hoc networks. We also propose a timeout based fault detection algorithm that exploits the intercontact time distributions.

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

critical section
token passing
distributed resources


Marvin: Distributed reasoning over large-scale Semantic Web data ? Many Semantic Web problems are difficult to solve through common divide-and-conquer strategies, since they are hard to partition. We present Marvin, a parallel and distributed platform for processing large amounts of RDF data, on a network of loosely coupled peers. We present our divide-conquer-swap strategy and show that this model converges towards completeness. Within this strategy, we address the problem of making distributed reasoning scalable and load-balanced. We present SpeedDate, a routing strategy that combines data clustering with random exchanges. The random exchanges ensure load balancing, while the data clustering attempts to maximise efficiency. SpeedDate is compared against random and deterministic (DHT-like) approaches, on performance and load-balancing. We simulate parameters such as system size, data distribution, churn rate, and network topology. The results indicate that SpeedDate is near-optimally balanced, performs in the same order of magnitude as a DHT-like approach, and has an average throughput per node that scales with i for i items in the system. We evaluate our overall Marvin system for performance, scalability, load balancing and efficiency.

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


moral responsibility and it for human enhancement. What can be said against a moral obligation to use IT for enhancement purposes? Some have argued - and it is very well conceivable that this is an increasingly common conception - that we may have a moral obligation to use IT for enhancing human bodies and human decision-making, for instance by using computers for moral decision-making in cases in which we are dealing with a high level of (moral) complexity such as euthanasia decisions. In this paper I will formulate some objections against the suggestion made by some that IT tools can and ought to be used for human enhancement, in the sense of improving moral decision-making.If we were to use IT for enhancement purposes, what would be the problems? In this paper I will discuss some problems, such as moral deskilling, epistemic dependence, the allocation of responsibility for IT support, and epistemic paternalism. The conclusion is that it is questionable whether we can speak of a moral obligation to use IT tools for human enhancement. IT is certainly extremely helpful in improving decision-making and improving the quality of life as conceived by some. However, speaking of a moral obligation seems too strong of a claim or at least it should be reconsidered in light of the issues here discussed.

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

enhancement
epistemic dependence
epistemic paternalism
moral deskilling
moral responsibility


Support vector machine based multi-view face detection and recognition Detecting faces across multiple views is more challenging than in a fixed view, e.g. frontal view, owing to the significant non-linear variation caused by rotation in depth, self-occlusion and self-shadowing. To address this problem, a novel approach is presented in this paper. The view sphere is separated into several small segments. On each segment, a face detector is constructed. We explicitly estimate the pose of an image regardless of whether or not it is a face. A pose estimator is constructed using Support Vector Regression. The pose information is used to choose the appropriate face detector to determine if it is a face. With this pose-estimation based method, considerable computational efficiency is achieved. Meanwhile, the detection accuracy is also improved since each detector is constructed on a small range of views. We developed a novel algorithm for face detection by combining the Eigenface and SVM methods which performs almost as fast as the Eigenface method but with a significant improved speed. Detailed experimental results are presented in this paper including tuning the parameters of the pose estimators and face detectors, performance evaluation, and applications to video based face detection and frontal-view face recognition.

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

multi-view face detection
head pose estimation
support vector machines


user experience over time The way we experience and evaluate interactive products develops over time. An exploratory study aimed at understanding how users form evaluative judgments during the first experiences with a product as well as after four weeks of use. Goodness, an evaluative judgment related to the overall satisfaction with the product, was largely formed on the basis of pragmatic aspects (i.e. utility and usability) during the first experiences; after four weeks of use identification (i.e. what the products expresses about its owner) became a dominant aspect of how good a product is. Surprisingly, beauty judgments were largely affected by stimulation (e.g. novelty) during the first experiences. Over time stimulation lost its power to make the product beautiful in the users' eyes.

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


sequence diagram presentation in technical documentation A sequence diagram shows a series of events that occurs within a particular system. A sequence diagram can be extremely useful for design and analysis, since it shows logic flow visually. However, because even a simple programming sequence can stretch far beyond the confines of a single screen or printed page, authors of technical material must be able to identify and apply a set of best practices. The set of practices developed for the IBM Toronto Software Laboratory enables authors to reasonably present such diagrams within the limited confines of the publishing medium. Building on the work presented in the article "Designing UML diagrams for technical documentation" [1], this paper discusses an approach for dealing with the particular challenges of presenting sequence diagrams in technical documentation.

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

uml diagrams
sequence diagrams
documentation

visualization
guidelines
graphic design
unified modeling language
user testing
human factors


EMOTION RECOGNITION: EMPIRICAL STUDIES TOWARDS THE COMBINATION OF AUDIO-LINGUAL AND VISUAL-FACIAL MODALITIES THROUGH MULTI-ATTRIBUTE DECISION MAKING In this paper, we present and discuss a novel approach for the integration of audio-lingual and visual-facial modalities in a bi-modal user interface for affect recognition. As it is widely acknowledged, two or more modalities of interaction can provide complementary information to each other with respect to affect recognition. However, satisfactory progress has not yet been achieved towards the integration of these modalities, since the problem of combining them effectively is quite complicated. In our research, we combine the two modalities from the perspective of a human observer by employing a multi-criteria decision making theory for dynamic affect recognition of computer users. An important research milestone that is required in our approach is the specification of the strengths and weaknesses of each modality with respect to affect recognition concerning 6 basic emotion states. These emotion states are happiness, sadness, surprise, anger and disgust as well as the emotionless state which we refer to as neutral. For this purpose, we describe two empirical studies that we have conducted involving human users and human observers concerning the recognition of emotions from audio-lingual and visual-facial modalities. The results of the empirical studies have been used to assign weights to criteria for the application of a multi-criteria decision making theory. Moreover, the results of the empirical studies provide information that may be used by other researchers in the field of affect recognition.

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

affective computing
facial expression analysis
multi-modal interfaces
audio-lingual affect recognition
visual-facial affect recognition
multi-criteria decision making


auditory bias of visual attention for perceptually-guided selective rendering of animations The developers and users of real-time graphics, such as games and virtual reality, are demanding ever more realistic computer generated images. Despite the availability of modern graphics hardware, such real-time high fidelity graphics is still not feasible on a single PC. Research on visual perception has shown that the perceived quality of rendered graphics depends not only on the fidelity of the generated imagery but also on the characteristics of visual attention and the limitations of the human visual system. The findings of this research have been used to define perceptually driven criteria for rendering with the aim to reduce rendering times. Furthermore, in reality there are strong crossmodal interactions between auditory and visual stimuli, with a number of studies showing that stimuli reaching the various senses are not, in general, processed independently. In this paper we investigate whether auditory stimuli, and more specifically sound effects with abrupt onsets, affect a viewer's perceived quality of rendered images while watching computer generated animations. In fact, we show how we can potentially accelerate the rendering of animations by directing the viewer's attention towards the source of a sound and selectively render at high quality only the sound emitting object. For this purpose a renderer was implemented which selectively renders the sound emitting objects and the surrounding pixels to high quality while the rest of the scene is rendered at a significantly lower quality. A psychophysical experiment with 120 participants was run which revealed a significant effect of sound effects on the perceived rendering quality. Our results show that audio stimuli, and in particular sound effects, can be exploited when rendering animations, to significantly reduce rendering time without any loss in the user's perception of delivered quality.

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

3d graphics
cross-modal interactions
auditory-visual interactions
rendering techniques
perceptually-adaptive techniques


Dynamics of Solitary Waves of the Rosenau-RLW Equation In this paper we study the solitary waves of the Rosenau-RLW equation. By using some trigonometric function methods, a family of stable solitary wave solutions are obtained, revealing an intrinsic relationship among the amplitude, frequency and wave speed, for what should be an equation relevant to modeling in a number of fields.

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


ISOGAT: A 2D tutorial MATLAB code for Isogeometric Analysis A tutorial 2D MATLAB code for solving elliptic diffusion-type problems, including Poisson's equation on single patch geometries, is presented. The basic steps of Isogeometric Analysis are explained and two examples are given. The code has a very lean structure and has been kept as simple as possible, such that the analogy but also the differences to traditional finite element analysis become apparent. It is not intended for large-scale problems. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Fast nonlinear model predictive control: Formulation and industrial process applications With the widespread availability of model predictive control (MPC), nonlinear MPC provides a natural extension to include nonlinear models for trajectory tracking and dynamic optimization. NMPC can include first principle models developed for off-line dynamic studies as well as nonlinear data-driven models, but requires the application of efficient large-scale optimization strategies to avoid computational delays and to ensure stability, robustness and superior performance. This study presents the application of the recently developed advanced step NMPC (asNMPC) strategy. This approach solves the detailed optimization problem in background and applies a sensitivity-based update on-line. Two large-scale process case studies are considered: detailed distillation control and multi-stage operation for steam generation in a power plant. In both cases, efficient and robust controller performance is achieved with nonlinear dynamic optimization. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

nonlinear model predictive control (nmpc)


An ERP-client benefit-oriented maintenance taxonomy The worldwide installed base of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has increased rapidly over the past 10 years now comprising tens of thousands of installations in large- and medium-sized organizations and millions of licensed users. Similar to traditional information systems (IS), ERP systems must be maintained and upgraded. It is therefore not surprising that ERP maintenance activities have become the largest budget provision in the IS departments of many ERP-using organizations. Yet, there has been limited study of ERP maintenance activities. Are they simply instances of traditional software maintenance activities to which traditional software maintenance research findings can be generalized? Or are they fundamentally different, such that new research, specific to ERP maintenance, is required to help alleviate the ERP maintenance burden? This paper reports a case study of a large organization that implemented ERP (an SAP system) more than three years ago. From the case study and data collected, we observe the following distinctions of ERP maintenance: (1) the ERP-using organization, in addition to addressing internally originated change-requests, also implements maintenance introduced by the vendor; (2) requests for user-support concerning the ERP system behavior, function and training constitute a main part of ERP maintenance activity; and (3) similar to the in-house software environment, enhancement is the major maintenance activity in the ERP environment, encompassing almost 64% of the total change-request effort. In light of these and other findings, we ultimately: (1) propose a clear and precise definition of ERP maintenance; (2) conclude that ERP maintenance cannot be sufficiently described by existing software maintenance taxonomies; and (3) propose a benefits-oriented taxonomy, that better represents ERP maintenance activities. Three salient dimensions (for characterizing requests) incorporated in the proposed ERP maintenance taxonomy are: (1) who is the maintenance source? (2) why is it important to service the request? and (3) whatwhether there is any impact of implementing the request on the installed module(s)?

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

erp characteristics
business benefit
patch maintenance
upgrade
user-support
erp maintenance definition


Self-configurable border landmark selection in wireless networks: Algorithms and applications The nodes at the border of the self-configurable wireless network are commonly employed as landmarks for many applications, including infrastructureless localization, border detection, and routing. However, how to identify the best set of nodes as such landmarks is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose three algorithms for border landmark selection, namely: the Convex Hull-Based (CHB) algorithm, the Center Node Elimination (CNE) algorithm, and the Hierarchy-Structured (HS) algorithm. CHB works perfectly in theory and provides a deep insight into the landmark selection problem. At the same time, it is noticed that CHB is centralized and sensitive to errors in distance estimation. The CNE algorithm is a distributed approach, devised to gradually exclude the nodes in the "center" of the network until the desired number of nodes are left, which are employed as landmarks. While CNE works effectively in a small network, its high order computation complexity and communication overhead may eventually lead to scalability problem when it is applied in very large networks. To address this problem, we propose the HS algorithm for striking the balance between accuracy and complexity/overhead. In HS, we establish a hierarchical structure with multiple layers, and apply the CNE algorithm in an appropriate layer to identify an initial set of candidate nodes. The outcomes are then rectified through a recursive process, yielding the final landmarks. Three applications, including coordinates establishment, border detection, and landmark-based routing in general networks without location information, are introduced based on the selected landmarks. We carry out extensive simulations to compare the performance of our landmark selection algorithms and demonstrate their effectiveness in all of the applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

hierarchical clustering
location service
positioning


Optimality of beamforming condition for multiple antenna systems with mean feedback The necessary and sufficient condition for beamforming optimality for multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems with mean feedback has been derived and thoroughly investigated in this article. The condition is an inequality that contains parameters of the number of antennas, transmission power, and the singular values of channel mean matrix. When the beamforming optimality condition is satisfied, the Shannon capacity of MIMO system can be achieved by beamforming and hence scalar codes can therefore be used to achieve the maximum capacity. The channel is modeled as the sum of a scattering matrix of i.i.d zero mean, unit variance complex Gaussian random variables, and a mean matrix having its rank r ? 1. The beamforming condition inequality performance versus system parameters of signal-to-noise ratio and Ricean factor have thoroughly been investigated by numerical results. Computer simulations show that the beamforming strategy can be adopted on a relatively relaxed beamforming condition without the loss of capacity performance.

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


Evaluation and management of adolescent amenorrhea During the first years of menstruation it is not rare for a girl to present with an irregular menstrual pattern. The complete absence or cessation of menses, which is defined as amenorrhea, requires careful evaluation and management. It is divided into primary and secondary types that describe the occurrence of amenorrhea before and after menarche, respectively. The list of causes is long and includes anatomical or functional anomalies of the genital tract, hormonal disorders, and multifactorial reasons. The most common causes are hypothalamic amenorrhea, polycystic ovarian syndrome, hyperprolactinemia, and ovarian failure. A thorough medical history and careful clinical examination of the young girl is absolutely essential. The distinction between primary and secondary amenorrhea, together with the presence, or not, of secondary sexual characteristic development will guide the physician to the differential diagnosis of amenorrhea. Essential laboratory examinations include follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and prolactin measurements; while in the presence of acne or hirsutism, androgen levels should also be measured. Management should focus on the restoration of ovulatory cycles and the prevention of short- and long-term consequences of hormonal imbalance.

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

amenorrhea
hyperprolactinemia
polycystic ovarian syndrome

hypothalamic amenorrhea
premature ovarian failure


An efficient message passing election algorithm based on Mazurkiewicz's algorithm We study the election and the naming problems in the asynchronous message passing model. We present a necessary condition based on Angluin's lifting lemma [1] that must be satisfied by any network that admits a naming (or an election) algorithm. We then show that this necessary condition is also sufficient: we present an election and naming algorithm based on Mazurkiewicz's algorithm [17]. The algorithm we obtained is totally asynchronous and it needs a polynomial number of messages of polynomial size, whereas previous election algorithms in this model are pseudo-synchronous and use messages of exponential size.

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

asynchronous message passing model
election
naming

distributed algorithm
anonymous network
local computation
covering


A chemo-thermo-mechanically coupled numerical simulation of the subsurface ground deformations due to methane hydrate dissociation In order to predict ground deformations due to the dissociation of methane hydrates, we have developed a simulation method based on a chemo-thermo-mechanically coupled analysis. Within this method, the phase change from hydrates to fluids, the flow of pore water and gas, the mechanical behavior of the solid skeleton, and heat transfer can all be simultaneously solved. The numerical method is based on the finite element method using an updated Lagrangian formulation. Applying the proposed framework, we have numerically analyzed the dissociation process that occurs in the heating and depressurizing methods of natural gas production. It has been predicted that ground deformation is caused by the generation of water and gas during the dissociation process.

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

elasto-viscoplastic model
unsaturated soil


Consistency analysis on orientation features for fast and accurate palmprint identification A typical palmprint identification system identifies a query palmprint by matching it with the templates in the database and comparing the similarity score with a pre-defined threshold. However, continual database expansion would make conventional brute force search method inefficient for large-scale palmprint identification. In this paper, we propose a consistent orientation pattern (COP) hashing method to enforce fast search. Using the orientation and response features extracted by steerable filter, we first give an analysis on the consistency of orientation features, and then introduce a method to construct COP using the consistent features. Because the COP is very stable across the samples of the same subject, the COP hashing method can find the target template quickly and thus can lead to early termination of the searching process. Experiments have been carried out on several real and synthetic databases, and the results show that the COP hashing method can accelerate the identification process by more than an order of magnitude, and can achieve comparable identification accuracy while compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.

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

palmprint identification
steerable filter
hashing
consistent orientation pattern


an agent-based algorithm for generalized graph colorings This paper presents an algorithm for solving a number of generalized graph coloring problems. Specifically, it gives an agent-based algorithm for the Bandwidth Coloring problem. Using a standard method for preprocessing the input, the same algorithm can also be used to solve the Multicoloring and Bandwidth Multicoloring problems. In the algorithm a number of agents, called ants , each of which colors a portion of the graph, collaborate to obtain a coloring of the entire graph. This coloring is then further improved by a local optimization algorithm. Experimental results on a set of benchmark graphs for these generalized coloring problems show that this algorithm performs very well compared to other heuristic approaches.

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

bandwidth coloring
multicoloring
graph coloring


Quantum-mechanical effects in nanometer scale MuGFETs Solving the Poisson and Schrdinger equations self-consistently in two dimensions reveals quantum-mechanical effects that influence the electron concentration, the threshold voltage and the subthreshold slope of MuGFETs. The average electron concentration needed to reach the threshold voltage depends on the gate configuration and on the device geometry. The dependence of the energy of the subbands on the different gate configurations is studied, and the relation between threshold voltage and the lowest subband energy is investigated. Due to a dynamic threshold voltage effect, the drain current is lower in the quantum-based drain current model than in classical simulations. This dynamic increase of threshold voltage is due to an increase of the subband energy with the electron concentration. This effect degrades the subthreshold slope. It is observed in non-symmetrical devices (FinFET, tri-gate), but not in symmetrical structures (GAA). This gives symmetrical devices like GAA nanowires an intrinsic advantage compared to the other types of devices.

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

soi technology
multiple gate mosfet
quantum-mechanical effects
nanometer cmosfet


Complex hadamard transforms: Properties, relations and architecture In this article, it is shown that Unified Complex Hadamard Transform (UCHT) can be derived from Walsh functions and through direct matrix operation. Unique properties of UCHT are analyzed. Recursive relations through Kronecker product can be applied to the basic matrices to obtain higher dimensions. These relations are the basis for the flow diagram of a constant-geometry iterative VLSI hardware architecture. New Normalized Complex Hadamard Transform (NCHT) matrices are introduced which are another class of complex Hadamard matrices. Relations of UCHT and NCHT with other discrete transforms are discussed.

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

complex hadamard transform
discrete transforms


a personal mashup framework for mobile users This paper proposes a framework to help improve the operability of mobile devices. End users can utilize websites in combination with less operation steps and create their own combinations on demand without any kind of programming. This paper also proposes a text extraction method which is required for the framework. It learns an extraction rule from one example.

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

web browsing
personalization
information extraction


RTECA: Real time episode correlation algorithm for multi-step attack scenarios detection Today, from information security perspective, prevention methods are not enough solely. Early Warning Systems (EWSs) are in the category of reactive methods. These systems are complementing Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) where their main goals include early detection of potential malicious behavior in large scale environments such as national level. An important process in EWSs is the analysis and correlation of alerts aggregated from the installed sensors (e.g., IDSs, IP telescopes, and botnet detection systems). In this paper, an efficient framework for alert correlation in EWSs is proposed. The framework includes a correlation scheme based on a combination of statistical and stream mining techniques. The method works real-time by extracting critical episodes from sequences of alerts, which could be part of multi-step attack scenarios. A Causal Correlation Matrix (CCM) is used for encoding correlation strength between the alert types in attack scenarios. Experimental results show that the framework is efficient enough in detecting known attack scenarios and new attack strategies. The results also show that the system is able to predict the next steps of running attack scenaris up to 95% of accuracy under special circumstances.

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

network security
early warning system
multi-step attacks


Surfactant Protein D Binds Genomic DNA and Apoptotic Cells, and Enhances Their Clearance, in Vivo Collectins, such as surfactant protein D (SP-D), bind apoptotic cells; however, the ligands that they recognize on these cells are unknown. We hypothesized that SP-D binds to the DNA present on these cells. We show that SP-D binds and aggregates mouse alveolar macrophage DNA effectively. Alveolar macrophages of SP-D(?/?) mice contained more nicked DNA than those of SP-A(?/?) and wild type mice. Our results also suggest that carbohydrate recognition domains of SP-D may recognize DNA present on the apoptotic cells. Therefore, cell-surface DNA could be a ligand for recognition of apoptotic cells by collectins.

B I I 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 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

surfactant protein d
alveolar macrophages


New Method to Detect Salient Objects in Image Segmentation using Hypergraph Structure This paper presents a method for detection of salient objects from images. The proposed algorithms for image segmentation and objects detection use a hexagonal representation of the image pixels and a hypergraph structure to process this hierarchal structure. The main goal of the method is to obtain salient regions, which may be associated with semantic labels. The designed algorithms use color characteristic and syntactic features for image segmentation. The object-oriented model used for storing the results of the segmentation and detection allows directly annotation of regions without a processing of these. The experiments showed that the presented method is robust and accurate comparing with others public methods used for salient objects detection.

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 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

feature extraction
image processing
hypergraph data structures
object detection


On generalized intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators In rough set theory, the lower and upper approximation operators defined by binary relations satisfy many interesting properties. Various generalizations of Pawlaks rough approximations have been made in the literature over the years. This paper proposes a general framework for the study of relation-based intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators within which both constructive and axiomatic approaches are used. In the constructive approach, a pair of lower and upper intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators induced from an arbitrary intuitionistic fuzzy relation are defined. Basic properties of the intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are then examined. By introducing cut sets of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, classical representations of intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are presented. The connections between special intuitionistic fuzzy relations and intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are further established. Finally, an operator-oriented characterization of intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets is proposed, that is, intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are defined by axioms. Different axiom sets of lower and upper intuitionistic fuzzy set-theoretic operators guarantee the existence of different types of intuitionistic fuzzy relations which produce the same operators.

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

approximation operators
fuzzy sets
intuitionistic fuzzy relations
intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets


Current impulse response of thin InP p+in+ diodes The simulation of current impulse response using random response time model in avalanche photodiode (APD) is presented. A random response time model considers the randomness of times at which the primary and secondary carriers are generated in multiplication region. The dead-space effect is included in our model to demonstrate the impact on current impulse response of thin APDs. Current impulse response of homojunction InP p+in+ diodes with the multiplication widths of 0.1 and 0.2?m are calculated. Our results show that dead-space gives a slower decay rate of current impulse response in thin APD, which may degrade the bit-error-rate of the optical communication systems.

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

avalanche photodiodes
dead-space effect
bit-error-rate
multiplication gain


a graph-based recommender system for digital library Research shows that recommendations comprise a valuable service for users of a digital library [11]. While most existing recommender systems rely either on a content-based approach or a collaborative approach to make recommendations, there is potential to improve recommendation quality by using a combination of both approaches (a hybrid approach). In this paper, we report how we tested the idea of using a graph-based recommender system that naturally combines the content-based and collaborative approaches. Due to the similarity between our problem and a concept retrieval task, a Hopfield net algorithm was used to exploit high-degree book-book, user-user and book-user associations. Sample hold-out testing and preliminary subject testing were conducted to evaluate the system, by which it was found that the system gained improvement with respect to both precision and recall by combining content-based and collaborative approaches. However, no significant improvement was observed by exploiting high-degree associations.

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

task
quality
concept
hopfield net algorithm
paper
recommender system
recommendation
research
systems
users
exploit
retrieval
similarity
hybrid

precise
association
digital libraries
sampling
evaluation
content-based filtering
user
combinational
graph-based model
contention
collaboration
test
chinese phrase extraction
mutual information algorithm
graph
algorithm
collaborative filtering


Universal Fuzzy Models and Universal Fuzzy Controllers for Stochastic Nonaffine Nonlinear Systems This paper investigates the universal fuzzy model and universal fuzzy controller problems for stochastic nonaffine nonlinear systems. The underlying mechanism of stochastic fuzzy logic is first discussed, and a stochastic generalized fuzzy model with new stochastic fuzzy rule base is then given. Based on their function approximation capability, these kinds of stochastic generalized fuzzy models are shown to be universal fuzzy models for stochastic nonaffine nonlinear systems under some sufficient conditions. An approach to stabilization controller design for stochastic nonaffine nonlinear systems is then developed through their stochastic generalized Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy approximation models. Then, the results of universal fuzzy controllers for two classes of stochastic nonlinear systems, along with constructive procedures to obtain the universal fuzzy controllers, are also provided, respectively. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

universal fuzzy controllers
universal fuzzy models

stochastic nonaffine nonlinear systems (snns)

stochastic takagi-sugeno (t-s) fuzzy models


Generation of heterogeneous distributed architectures for memory-intensive applications through high-level synthesis Memory-intensive applications present unique challenges to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer in terms of the choice of memory organization, memory size requirements, bandwidth and access latencies, etc. The high potential of single-chip distributed logic-memory architectures in addressing many of these issues has been recognized in general-purpose computing, and more recently, in ASIC design. The high-level synthesis (HLS) techniques presented in this paper are motivated by the fact that many memory-intensive applications exhibit irregular array data access patterns. Synthesis should, therefore, be capable of determining a partitioned architecture, wherein array data and computations may have to be heterogeneously distributed for achieving the best performance speed-up. We use a combination of clustering and min-cut style partitioning techniques to yield distributed architectures, based on simulation profiling while considering various factors including data access locality, balanced workloads, inter-partition communication, etc. Our experiments with several benchmark applications show that the proposed techniques yielded two-way partitioned architectures that can achieve upto 2.1x (average of 1.9x) performance speed-up over conventional HLS solutions, while achieving upto 1.5X (average of 1.4x) performance speed-up over the best homogeneous partitioning solution feasible. At the same time, the reduction in the energy-delay product over conventional single-memory designs is upto 2.7x (average of 2.0x). A larger amount of partitioning makes further system performance improvement achievable at the cost of chip area.

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

application-specific integrated circuit (asic)