Integrating clinical research with the Healthcare Enterprise: From the RE-USE project to the EHR4CR platform ? There are different approaches for repurposing clinical data collected in the Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) for use in clinical research. Semantic integration of siloed applications across domain boundaries is the raison dtre of the standards-based profiles developed by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry promoting the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. In particular, the combination of two IHE profiles the integration profile Retrieve Form for Data Capture (RFD), and the IHE content profile Clinical Research Document (CRD) offers a straightforward approach to repurposing EHR data by enabling the pre-population of the case report forms (eCRF) used for clinical research data capture by Clinical Data Management Systems (CDMS) with previously collected EHR data. Implement an alternative solution of the RFDCRD integration profile centered around two approaches: (i) Use of the EHR as the single-source data-entry and persistence point in order to ensure that all the clinical data for a given patient could be found in a single source irrespective of the data collection context, i.e. patient care or clinical research; and (ii) Maximize the automatic pre-population process through the use of a semantic interoperability services that identify duplicate or semantically-equivalent eCRF/EHR data elements as they were collected in the EHR context. The RE-USE architecture and associated profiles are focused on defining a set of scalable, standards-based, IHE-compliant profiles that can enable single-source data collection/entry and cross-system data reuse through semantic integration. Specifically, data reuse is realized through the semantic mapping of data collection fields in electronic Case Report Forms (eCRFs) to data elements previously defined as part of patient care-centric templates in the EHR context. The approach was evaluated in the context of a multi-center clinical trial conducted in a large, multi-disciplinary hospital with an installed EHR. Data elements of seven eCRFs used in a multi-center clinical trial were mapped to data elements of patient care-centric templates in use in the EHR at the George Pompidou hospital. 13.4% of the data elements of the eCRFs were found to be represented in EHR templates and were therefore candidate for pre-population. During the execution phase of the clinical study, the semantic mapping architecture enabled data persisted in the EHR context as part of clinical care to be used to pre-populate eCRFS for use without secondary data entry. To ensure that the pre-populated data is viable for use in the clinical research context, all pre-populated eCRF data needs to be first approved by a trial investigator prior to being persisted in a research data store within a CDMS. Single-source data entry in the clinical care context for use in the clinical research context a process enabled through the use of the EHR as single point of data entry, can if demonstrated to be a viable strategy not only significantly reduce data collection efforts while simultaneously increasing data collection accuracy secondary to elimination of transcription or double-entry errors between the two contexts but also ensure that all the clinical data for a given patient, irrespective of the data collection context, are available in the EHR for decision support and treatment planning. The RE-USE approach used mapping algorithms to identify semantic coherence between clinical care and clinical research data elements and pre-populate eCRFs. The RE-USE project utilized SNOMED International v.3.5 as its pivot reference terminology to support EHR-to-eCRF mapping, a decision that likely enhanced the recall of the mapping algorithms. The RE-USE results demonstrate the difficult challenges involved in semantic integration between the clinical care and clinical research contexts.

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

terminology
semantic interoperability
hl7
ihe

translational research
clinical protocols
information systems
controlled vocabulary
cdise


Prediction of liquefaction potential based on CPT up-sampling Cone penetration test data has been widely used for determination of the threshold of seismically induced soil liquefaction. However, possible inaccuracies in the collected data from case histories as well as natural variability of parameters and other uncertainties associated with natural phenomenon have yet prohibited a conclusive definition for this threshold. Various classification techniques have been used to define the most reliable correlations. However, available liquefied to non-liquefied data imbalance has caused learning bias to the majority class in the learning model of the pattern recognition systems. This has adversely affected the outcome of such approaches and in order to overcome this problem Support Vector Data Description (SVDD) strategy is employed to up sample the minority data. In other words SVDD, which is robust against noisy samples, is used to generate virtual data points for the minority class, bearing the same characteristics as the non-virtual samples. In order to specify the most appropriate data range a sphere boundary around the main body of the data are sought through an optimization process. The data inside the obtained boundary are the target data and the ones outside it are the outliers or so-called noise, to be neglected. This procedure reduces the issue of class intermixture in the fringe zone and produces relatively well defined class that then is fed into the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) classifier for determination of liquefaction potential. The predictions are then examined to evaluate the reliability and validation of the overall technique and compared with other prediction methods using confusion matrix. It is shown that the overall accuracy of the proposed technique is higher than all previously proposed methods and only equal to the Support Vector Machine (SVM) technique. Furthermore an improvement in the F-score of the non-liquefied data recognition has been achieved in relation to all previously proposed methods.

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

soil liquefaction
cone penetration test
support vector data description

adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system
up sampling


Exponential stability of descriptor systems with large delay period based on a switching method This paper addresses the problem of exponential stability for a class of descriptor systems with interval time-varying delays. The time-varying delays contain a large delay period (LDP), which is often present in practical control systems. Such descriptor system with LDP has been modeled as a switched descriptor system with delay, which may include an unstable subsystem caused by large delay bound. By adopting the switching technique and constructing a novel LyapunovKrasovskii functional, stability criteria are proposed under the restriction frequency and the rate of LDP to ensure that the descriptor system is regular, impulse free and exponentially stable. Finally, an integrated circuit example and a numerical simulation are given to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.

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

exponential stability
large delay period
descriptor system


Feasibility of pupillary light reflex analysis to identify vitamin A deficiency in Japanese black cattle An image segmentation method to calculate pupil sizes of cattle was developed. Two cattle were identified as severe vitamin A deficiency by our method. Cattle had smaller resting pupil in the dark during vitamin A deficient stage.

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

pupillary light reflex
vitamin a deficiency
japanese black cattle

machine vision
image processing
precision livestock farming


Three characterizations of correlation-immune functions over rings Z(N) This paper presents three characterizations of correlation-immune functions over the rings Z(N). We also show a method for constructing correlation-immune functions over the rings Z(N). (C) 1999 Published by 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

correlation immunity
orthogonal matrix
spectrum


Multivariate polynomial decomposition In this paper, we discuss several notions of decomposition for multivariate polynomials, focussing on the relation with Luroth's theorem in field theory, and the finiteness and uniqueness of decompositions. We also present two polynomial time algorithms for decomposing (sparse) multivariate polynomials over an arbitrary field.

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

polynomial decomposition algorithms
luroth's theorem


Damage spreading and opinion dynamics on small-world networks with asymmetric influential effects We study the asymmetric influential effects in the damage spreading processes, by investigating the opinion dynamics of the Krause-Hegselmann consensus model, wherein the agents sit on the nodes of small-world networks. One agent is randomly selected as the influential agent, which can influence the opinions of other agents with probability p but not vice versa. The damage consists in a sharp change of the opinion of one agent (a randomly selected agent or the influential one) in the initial random opinion configuration. We find that for small values of the influential probability p, there is a damage spreading transition at low values of the confidence bound parameter epsilon. Interestingly, this transition vanishes for large values of p when the influential agent is damaged in the initial state. We find as well that, there is a critical value of the confidence bound parameter above which the initial perturbation manages to propagate to the whole system. The relationship between the amount of the damage and the influential activity of the perturbed agent is also discussed.

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

asymmetric influence
small-world networks


Cover-incomparability graphs and chordal graphs The problem of recognizing cover-incomparability graphs (i.e. the graphs obtained from posets as the edge-union of their covering and incomparability graph) was shown to be NP-complete in general [J. Maxov, P. Pavlkova, A. Turzk, On the complexity of cover-incomparability graphs of posets, Order 26 (2009) 229236], while it is for instance clearly polynomial within trees. In this paper we concentrate on (classes of) chordal graphs, and show that any cover-incomparability graph that is a chordal graph is an interval graph. We characterize the posets whose cover-incomparability graph is a block graph, and a split graph, respectively, and also characterize the cover-incomparability graphs among block and split graphs, respectively. The latter characterizations yield linear time algorithms for the recognition of block and split graphs, respectively, that are cover-incomparability graphs.

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


Hybrid optimization with improved tabu search Finding a global optimum of an unknown system has attracted a great deal of interest in many engineering problems. In this settings, meta-heuristics are very common as efficient approaches for solving complex real-world problems in global continuous optimization problems (GCOPs) as they can approximate solutions without considering mathematical constraints such as differentiability. In this study, we propose a method based on tabu search (TS) and NelderMead (NM) search strategy in application to GCOPs. To increase the robustness of the proposed method, we add a new phase, referred to as partitioning phase, before diversification which is realized by the TS. The TS is improved and then followed by the NM search strategy. The partitioning phase aims at distributing initial random solutions in the search space. By doing this, we increase the robustness of the method. The TS has an interesting ability of covering a wide solution space by promoting the search far away from the current solution and consecutively decreasing the possibility of trapping in local minima. The neighbour search-strategy of the TS is improved to accelerate the speed of finding the near optimum solution. Instead of just generating random neighbours around the current solution, we generate some neighbours in the direction of the previous move as well as some neighbours in the previous best crown. When certain criteria are reached for the diversification of the search space, the NM search strategy is carried out with the focus on the intensification of the solution found in the diversification phase. We assess the performance of the algorithm for a range of standard test functions available in the literature and compare the obtained results with those available in the literature. There are two main advantages of the proposed method; first, it can apply to any GCOP without considering any constraints and secondly, it shows better performance (in terms of function evaluation, success rate, and average error) for the functions with less than four input variables and relatively small or medium input domains. In other cases, the method still has acceptable perfomance and produces the results that are comparable with the results produced by other methods.

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

improved tabu search
global continuous optimization

neighbour-search strategy
neldermead search strategy


static and dynamic video summaries Currently there are a lot of algorithms for video summarization; however most of them only represent visual information. In this paper, we propose two approaches for the construction of the summary using both video and text. One approach focuses on static summaries, where the summary is a set of selected keyframes and keywords, to be displayed in a fixed area. The second approach addresses dynamic summaries where video segments are selected based on both their visual and textual content to compose a new video sequence of predefined duration. Our approaches rely on an existing summarization algorithm, Video Maximal Marginal Relevance (Video-MMR), and its extension Text Video Maximal Marginal Relevance (TV-MMR) proposed by us. We describe the details of those approaches and present experimental results.

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


A branch-and-price algorithm for the multi-activity multi-task shift scheduling problem The multi-activity multi-task shift scheduling problem requires the assignment of interruptible activities and uninterruptible tasks to a set of employees in order to satisfy a demand function. In this paper, we consider the personalized variant of the problem where the employees have different qualifications, preferences, and availabilities. We present a branch-and-price algorithm to solve this problem. The pricing subproblems in column generation are formulated with context-free grammars that are able to model complex rules in the construction of feasible shifts for an employee. We present results for a large set of instances inspired by real cases and show that this approach is sufficiently flexible to handle different classes of problems.

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


Representation of synchronous, asynchronous, and polychronous components by clocked guarded actions For the design of embedded systems, many languages are in use, which are based on different models of computation such as event-, data-, and clock-driven paradigms as well as paradigms without a clear notion of time. Systems composed of such heterogeneous components are hard to analyze so that mainly co-simulation by coupling different simulators has been considered so-far. In this article, we propose clocked guarded actions as a unique intermediate representation that can be used as a common basis for simulation, analysis, and synthesis. We show how synchronous, (untimed) asynchronous, and polychronous languages can be translated to clocked guarded actions to demonstrate that our intermediate representation is powerful enough to capture rather different models of computation. Having a unique and composable intermediate representation of these components at hand allows one a simple composition of these components. Moreover, we show how clocked guarded actions can be used for verification by symbolic model checking and simulation by SystemC.

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

co-simulation
synchronous vs. asynchronous models
guarded command language


Monotonicity and convergence of asynchronous update gradient method for ridge polynomial neural network The ridge polynomial neural network is a special type of higher-order neural networks. It not only provides a more efficient and regular architecture compared to ordinary higher-order feedforward networks, but also maintains the fast learning property and powerful nonlinear mapping capability while avoiding the combinatorial increase in the number of required weights. In this paper, a monotonicity theorem and two convergence theorems of the asynchronous gradient method for training the ridge polynomial neural network are proved. They are important to choosing appropriate learning rate and initial weights to perform effective training. To illustrate the theoretical finding, numerical experiments are carried out for 4-dimensional parity problem and function approximation problem. It is shown that the experimental results are in agreement with the proposed theorems.

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

ridge polynomial neural network
monotonicity
convergence


Some probability logics with new types of probability operators We introduce new types of probability operators of the form Q(F), where F is a recursive rational subset of [0, 1]. A formula Q(F)alpha is satisfied in a probability model if the measure of the set of worlds that satisfy cu is in F. The new operators are suitable for describing events in discrete sample spaces. We provide sound and complete axiomatic systems for a number of probability logics augmented with the Q(F)-operators. We show that the new operators are not definable in languages of probability logics that have been used so far. We study decidability of the presented logics. We describe a relation of 'being more expressive' between the new probability logics.

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


Visual assessment of clustering tendency for rectangular dissimilarity matrices We have an m x eta matrix D, and assume that its entries correspond to pair wise dissimilarities between m row objects O(tau), and eta column objects O(c), which, taken together (as a union), comprise a set O(tau) of N = m + eta objects. This paper develops a new visual approach that applies to four different cluster assessment problems associated with O. The problems are the assessment of cluster tendency: P1) amongst the row objects O(tau); P2) amongst the column objects O(c); P3) amongst the union of the row and column objects O(tau), boolean OR O(subset of); and P4) amongst the union of the row and column objects that contain at least one object of each type (co-clusters). The basis of the method is to regard D as a subset of known values that is part of a larger, unknown N x N dissimilarity matrix, and then impute the missing values from D. This results in estimates for three square matrices (D(tau), D(c), D(tau boolean OR c).) that can be visually assessed for clustering tendency using the previous VAT or sVAT algorithms. The output from assessment of D(tau boolean OR c), ultimately leads to a rectangular coVAT image which exhibits clustering tendencies in D. Five examples are given to illustrate the new method. Two important points: i) because VAT is scalable by sVAT to data sets of arbitrary size, and because coVAT depends explicitly (and only) on VAT, this new approach is immediately scalable to, say, the scoVAT model, which works for even very large (unloadable) data sets without alteration; and ii) VAT, sVAT and coVAT are autonomous, parameter free models-no "hidden values" are needed to make them work.

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

clustering methods
clustering validity and tendency
co-clustering
visualization
rectangular distance data


hci for older and disabled people in the queen mother research centre at dundee university, scotland This paper describes research carried out within the Queen Mother Research Centre for Information Technology to support older and disabled people and how this led to the development of an approach to research into accessibility and usability which is instantiated in the facilities of the new building.

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

usability
accessibility
older and disabled people


Interoperability within Multi-Agent System Heuristic computing has consolidated into two streams of research (personification software and smart products) [1]. Cognitive Science is one of these fields and is attracting research effort based on Multi-Agent System (MAS). This research requires the formation of a voluntarily trust relationship in order for collaboration to occur, otherwise the imposed goal(s) may be aborted or fail completely [2,3]. An Agent Transportation Layer Adaption System (ATLAS) communications framework has been constructed to pass messages between separate agent systems. Discussion about confined frameworks have recently been extended to enable individual students associated with our Knowledge-Based and Intellingent Information and Engineering Systems (KES) Centre to fast track the development of their research concepts. A Plug 'n' Play concept based on a multi-agent blackboard architecture forms the basis of this research. This paper highlights the core architecture, we believe is required for Multi-Agent System (MAS) developers to achieve such flexibility. Agent teams can provide the ability to adapt and dynamically organize. The model described, concentrates on the blackboard design constructs to represents all functional blocks required to automate the processes required to complete any decomposed goals. Discussion in this paper is limited to the formative work within the foundation layers of that framework.

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


Business analytics in supply chains - The contingent effect of business process maturity The paper analyzes the effect of the use of business analytics on supply chain performance. It investigates the changing information processing needs at different supply chain process maturity levels. The effects of analytics in each Supply Chain Operations Reference areas (Plan, Source, Make and Deliver) are analyzed with various statistical techniques. A worldwide sample of 788 companies from different industries is used. The results indicate the changing impact of business analytics use on performance, meaning that companies on different maturity levels should focus on different areas. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are thoroughly discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

business analytics
process maturity
performance

supply chain management
information processing capabilities


A roadmap to robot motion planning software development PhD programs and graduate studies in robotics usually include motion planning among its main subjects. Students that focus their research in this subject find themselves trapped in the necessity of programming an environment where to test and validate their theoretic contributions. The programming of this robot motion planning environment is a big challenge. It requires on the one hand good programming skills involving the use of software development tools, programming paradigms, or the knowledge of computational complexity and efficiency issues. On the other hand it requires coping with different related issues like the modeling of objects, computational geometry problems and graphical representations and interfaces. The mastering of all these techniques is good for the curricula of roboticists with a motion planning profile. Nevertheless, the time and effort devoted to this end must remain reasonable. Within this framework, the aim of this paper is to provide the students with a roadmap to help them in the development of the software tools needed to test and validate their robot motion planners. The proposals are made within the scope of multi-platform open source code. 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 18: 651660, 2010; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com; DOI 10.1002/cae.20269

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


On the complexity of dominating set problems related to the minimum all-ones problem The minimum all-ones problem and the connected odd dominating set problem were shown to be NP-complete in different papers for general graphs, while they are solvable in linear time (or trivial) for trees, unicyclic graphs, and series-parallel graphs. The complexity of both problems when restricted to bipartite graphs was raised as an open question. Here we solve both problems. For this purpose, we introduce the related decision problem of the existence of an odd dominating set without isolated vertices, and study its complexity. Our main result shows that this new problem is NP-complete, even when restricted to bipartite graphs. We use this result to deduce that the minimum all-ones problem and the connected odd dominating set problem are also NP-complete for bipartite graphs. We show that all three problems are solvable in linear time for graphs with bounded treewidth. We also show that the new problem remains NP-complete when restricted to other graph classes, e.g., planar graphs, graphs with girth at least five, and graphs with a small maximum degree, in particular 3-regular graphs. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

all-ones problem
computational complexity
bipartite graph
planar graph


Modeling collaboration formation with a game theory approach The revenue of two partners from a collaborative product development (CPD) project is modeled. Nash Bargaining solution is applied to define optimum strategies. The effects of different parameters on the optimum solution are analyzed. Trust is a major concern in CPD projects, and it indicates that no collaboration is preferable with the lack of trust. Learning is a value adding dimension in the model.

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

collaborative product development
game theory
nash bargaining

revenue sharing
collaboration level
collaboration strategy


Automated test generation technique for aspectual features in AspectJ Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) has been promoted as a means for handling the modularization of software systems by raising the abstraction level and reducing the scattering and tangling of crosscutting concerns. Studies from literature have shown the usefulness and application of AOP across various fields of research and domains. Despite this, research shows that AOP is currently used in a cautious way due to its natural impact on testability and maintainability. To realize the benefits of AOP and to increase its adoption, aspects developed using AOP should be subjected to automated testing. Automated testing, as one of the most pressing needs of the software industry to reduce both effort and costs in assuring correctness, is a delicate issue in testing aspect-oriented programs that still requires advancement and has a way to go before maturity. Previous attempts and studies in automated test generation process for aspect-oriented programs have been very limited. This paper proposes a rigorous automated test generation technique, called RAMBUTANS, with its tool support based on guided random testing for the AspectJ programs. The paper reports the results of a thorough empirical study of 9 AspectJ benchmark programs, including non-trivial and larger software, by means of mutation analysis to compare RAMBUTANS and the four existing automated AOP testing approaches for testing aspects in terms of fault detection effectiveness and test effort efficiency. The results of the experiment and statistical tests supplemented by effect size measures presented evidence of the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed technique at 99% confidence level (i.e. p<0.01). The study showed that the resulting randomized tests were reasonably good for AOP testing, thus the proposed technique could be worth using as an effective and efficient AOP-specific automated test generation technique.

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

automated test generation
aspectj
empirical study


Mode of a spherical cavity's thermo-elastodynamic response in a saturated porous medium for non-torsional loads The thermo-hydro-elastodynamic model (THED), in which the thermo-osmosis and thermal-filtration phenomenon in a two-phase porous thermoelastic medium can be considered, was previously presented by the authors [Ganbin Liu, Kanghe Xie, Rongyue Zheng. Model of nonlinear coupled thermo-hydro-elastodynamics response for a saturated poroelastic medium. Sci China (Ser E) 2009:52(8):2373-83] and is used in this paper to investigate the thermo-elastodynamic response of a spherical cavity in a saturated poroelastic medium when subjected to a time-dependent non-torsional thermal/mechanical source. The Separated Variable Method is introduced, and the non-zero displacement potentials are expanded in terms of the Legendre polynomial. Solutions for the displacement, temperature increment, pore pressure and stress are obtained in the domain of the Laplace transform. Numerical results are also performed for different modes and are compared with the results of the thermoelastic model (TED) to ascertain the validity and the difference between these two models. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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

spherical cavity
poroelastic medium
laplace transform


Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search and Variable Neighbourhood Search for the minimum labelling spanning tree problem This paper studies heuristics for the minimum labelling spanning tree (MLST) problem. The purpose is to find a spanning tree using edges that are as similar as possible. Given an undirected labelled connected graph, the minimum labelling spanning tree problem seeks a spanning tree whose edges have the smallest number of distinct labels. This problem has been shown to be NP-hard. A Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) and a Variable Neighbourhood Search (VNS) are proposed in this paper. They are compared with other algorithms recommended in the literature: the Modified Genetic Algorithm and the Pilot Method. Nonparametric statistical tests show that the heuristics based on GRASP and VNS outperform the other algorithms tested. Furthermore, a comparison with the results provided by an exact approach shows that we may quickly obtain optimal or near-optimal solutions with the proposed heuristics.

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

greedy randomized adaptive search procedure


Information systems as a reference discipline The conventional wisdom amongst information systems (IS) researchers is that information systems is an applied discipline drawing upon other, more fundamental, reference disciplines. These reference disciplines are seen as having foundational value for IS. We believe that it is time to question the conventional wisdom. We agree that many disciplines are relevant for IS researchers, but we suggest a re-think of the idea of "reference disciplines" for IS. In a sense, IS has come of age. Perhaps the time has come for IS to become a reference discipline for others.

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

computing reference disciplines
research tradition
knowledge networks
diffusion of research
is research agenda
is research issues
future of is


An arc-consistency algorithm for dynamic and distributed constraint satisfaction problems This paper presents the new DDAC4 algorithm for dynamic arc consistency enforcement in distributed constraint satisfaction problems (CSP). The algorithm is an adaptation of the well-known AC-4 algorithm to system settings where constraints can be added and deleted in concurrent processes. It is the first algorithm for arc-consistency enforcement in this system setting. Arc-consistency is achieved whenever the overall system reaches quiescence after a constraint is added or deleted.

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

dynamic and distributed constraint processing


informal communication in collaboratories Recent years have seen an increasing use of collaboratories in distributed scientific work. This study examines the role of collaboratories in informal scientific communication. Hypotheses relating to potential opportunities for informal communication afforded by collaboratories are tested with data from in-depth interviews.

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


An analysis of convergence delay in path vector routing protocols Path vector routing protocols such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) are known to suffer from slow convergence following a change in the network topology or policy. Although a number of convergence enhancements have been proposed recently, there has been no general analytical framework to assess and compare the various proposed algorithms. In this paper we present such a general framework to analyze the upper bounds of path vector protocols' convergence delay under shortest path routing policy and single link failure. Our framework takes into account important factors such as network connectivity, failure location, and routing message processing delay. It can be used to analyze both standard BGP and all the proposed convergence improvement algorithms in the case of shortest path routing policy and single link failure. It enables us to obtain previously unavailable analytical results, including the delay bounds of path fail-over for standard BGP and its convergence enhancements. Our analysis shows that BGP fail-over delay bounds are mainly determined by two factors: (1) the distance between the failure location and the destination, and (2) the length of the longest alternate path to reach the destination after the failure. These two factors are captured formally by our analysis and can explain why existing convergence enhancements often provide only limited improvements in fail-over events. Moreover, explicitly modeling message processing delay reveals insights into the impacts of connectivity richness (i.e., node degree and total number of links in the network), and also the effectiveness of different enhancements. These new results enable one to better understand and compare the behavior of various path vector protocols under different topology structures, network sizes, and message delays. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

path vector protocol
routing protocol convergence


Parallel partial stabilizing algorithms for large linear control systems In this paper we present parallel algorithms for stabilizing large linear control systems on multicomputers. Our algorithms first separate the stable part of the linear control system and then compute a stabilizing feedback for the unstable part. Both stages are solved by means of the matrix sign function which presents a high degree of parallelism and scalability. The experimental results on an IBM SP2 platform show the performance of our approach.

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

linear control systems
stabilizing algorithms
matrix sign function

lyapunov matrix equations
invariant subspaces
newton iteration
mathematical software


decoupling interaction hardware design using libraries of reusable electronics This paper presents our research toward the design and development of a library of electronic hardware modules called Blades and Tiles . Interaction hardware design with blades and tiles provides researchers with considerable flexibility in iterating their designs, decoupling between the domains of electronics, software, firmware and mechanical design. Our approach has been driven by design objectives including hardware reusability, reliability, scalability, and flexibility. We have created a library of blades and tiles, and used them to develop several interaction devices. We present both conceptual and applied aspects and discuss future directions.

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

reusable hardware
modularity
hardware toolkit
decoupling tui design


LeView:

automatic

and

interactive

generation

of

diagrams

for

biomacromolecule/ligand

interactions

diagrams

are

widely

used

in

the

scientific

literature

to

represent

interactions

between

ligands

and

biomacromolecules.

Such

schematic

diagrams

are

very

helpful

to

better

understand

the

chemical

interactions

and

biological

processes

in

which

ligands

are

involved.

Here,

a

new

tool

for

automatic

and

interactive

generation

of

diagrams

for

biomacromolecule/ligand

interactions

is

presented.

LeView

(Ligand-Environment

Viewer)

produces

customised

and

high-quality

figures,

with

a

good

compromise

between

a

faithful

representation

of

the

data

(structures

and

interactions)

and

aesthetic

criteria.

LeView

can

be

freely

downloaded

at

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


Laptop initiative: Impact on instructional technology integration and student learning The purpose of this study was to examine how 1:1 laptop initiative affected student learning at a selected rural Midwestern high school. A total of 105 high school students enrolled in 10th12th grades during the 20082009 school year participated in the study. A survey instrument created by the Mitchell Institute was modified and used to collect data on student perceptions and faculty perceptions of the impact of 1:1 laptop computing on student learning and instructional integration of technology in education. Study findings suggest that integration of 1:1 laptop computing positively impacts student academic engagement and student learning. Therefore, there is need for teachers to implement appropriate computing practices to enhance student learning. Additionally, teachers need to collaborate with their students to learn and understand various instructional technology applications beyond basic Internet browsing and word processing.

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

student learning
instructional technology

1:1 computing
laptops
technology integration
faculty development


Cross-pollinating parallel genetic algorithms for multiobjective search and optimization This paper discusses the design of a parallel genetic algorithm to generate solutions to multiobjective problems. The algorithm uses multiple optimization criteria, independent cross-pollinating populations, and handles multiple hard constraints. Individuals in the population consist of multiple chromosomes. The complexity of the algorithm is the number of generations processed times O(N(2)) where N is the total number of individuals used for path generation on any of the optimizations. The results of initial empirical studies on the effects of pollination and recommendations for possible future work are presented.

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

multi-objective
variable-length strings
nash equilibrium


VRG: A database of vascular dysfunctions related genes Heart and vascular defects occur in a large number of hereditary and sporadic human diseases as a result of a complex interplay of genetic factors. Since genome sequencing of many organisms disclosed similarities among genomes, animal models are crucial for the discovery of genes involved in those pathological processes. Therefore we propose a VRG database, in which human data have been manually managed and integrated with mouse information in order to create a catalogue of genes involved in vascular diseases.

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 B I 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


Network-on-Chip design and synthesis outlook With the growing complexity in consumer embedded products, new tendencies forecast heterogeneous Multi-Processor Systems-On-Chip (MPSoCs) consisting of complex integrated components communicating with each other at very high-speed rates. Intercommunication requirements of MPSoCs made of hundreds of cores will not be feasible using a single shared bus or a hierarchy of buses due to their poor scalability with system size, their shared bandwidth between all the attached cores and the energy efficiency requirements of final products. To overcome these problems of scalability and complexity, Networks-On-Chip (NoCs) have been proposed as a promising replacement to eliminate many of the overheads of buses and MPSoCs connected by means of general-purpose communication architectures. However, the development of application-specific NoCs for MPSoCs is a complex engineering process that involves the definition of suitable protocols and topologies of switches, and which demands adequate design flows to minimize design time and effort. In fact, the development of suitable high-level design and synthesis tools for NoC-based interconnects is a key element to benefit from NoC-based interconnect design in nanometer-scale CMOS technologies. In this article we overview the benefits of state-of-the-art NoCs using a complete NoC synthesis flow, and a detailed scalability analysis of different NoC implementations for the latest nanometer-scale technology nodes. We present NoC-based solutions for the on-chip interconnects of MPSoCs that illustrate the benefits of competitive application-specific NoCs with respect to more regular NoC topologies regarding performance, area and power. Moreover, we show that it is currently feasible to synthesize in an automatic way a complete custom NoC interconnect from a high-level specification in few hours. Finally, we summarize future research challenges in the area of NoC interconnect design automation.

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


Error analysis of a derivative-free algorithm for computing zeros of holomorphic functions We consider the quadrature method developed by Kravanja and Van Barel (Computing 63(1):69-91, 1999) for computing all the zeros of a holomorphic function that lie inside the unit circle. The algorithm uses only the function values and no (first or higher order) derivatives. Information about the location of the zeros is obtained from certain integrals along the unit circle. In numerical computations these are replaced by their trapezoidal rule approximations. We investigate the resulting quadrature error. Our error analysis shows that the zeros located inside the unit circle do not affect the accuracy of the computed approximations whereas the quadrature error related to the zeros located outside the unit circle tends to zero exponentially as the number of quadrature points tends to infinity.

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

zeros of holomorphic functions
quadrature method
error analysis


Electrophysiological Interactions between Striatal Glutamatergic and Dopaminergic Systems Glutamatergic and dopaminergic systems play a primary role in frontal-subcortical circuits involved in motor and cognitive functions. Considerable evidence has emerged indicating that the complex interaction between these neurotransmitter systems within the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens is critically involved in the gating of information flow in these highly integrative brain regions. As a result, disruptions of the interaction between glutamate and dopamine has been proposed as a pathological basis for a number of disorders, including the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In this chapter, we discuss recent studies that have significantly advanced our understanding of the reciprocal interactions between glutamatergic and dopaminergic systems within the striatal complex in the normal brain and in pathological states.

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

glutamate
dopamine
striatum
nucleus accumbens


Image fusion by using steerable pyramid This paper investigates a method for two-dimensional image fusion based on a novel multi-resolution transform called steerable pyramids. Such a transform combines the multi-scale decomposition with differential measurements, which is very useful for feature extraction. An iterative fusion scheme is introduced.

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

multi-resolution analysis
two-dimensional image fusion


Through-Silicon Via Fault-Tolerant Clock Networks for 3-D ICs Clock network synthesis is one of the most important and challenging problems in 3-D ICs. The clock signals have to be delivered by through-silicon vias (TSVs) to different tiers with minimum skew. While there are a few related works in literature, none consider the reliability of TSVs in a clock tree. Accordingly, the failure of any TSV in the clock tree yields a bad chip. The naive solution using double-TSV can alleviate the problem, but the significant area overhead renders it less practical for large designs. In this paper, we propose a novel TSV fault-tolerant unit (TFU) to provide tolerance against TSV failures. The TFU makes use of the existing 2-D redundant trees designed for prebond testing, and thus has minimum area overhead. In addition, the number of TSVs in a TFU is also adjustable to allow flexibility during clock network synthesis. Compared with the conventional double TSV technique, the 3-D clock network constructed by TFUs can achieve 58% area overhead reduction with similar yield rate on an industrial case. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first work in the literature that considers the fault tolerance of a 3-D clock network. It can be easily integrated with any bottom-up clock network synthesis algorithm.

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

3-d ic
clock tree synthesis
fault-tolerant
redundant tree
through-silicon via


Comparing instance generation methods for automated reasoning The clause-linking technique of Lee and Plaisted proves the unsatisfiability of a set of first-order clauses by generating a sufficiently large set of instances of these clauses that can be shown to be propositionally unsatisfiable. In recent years, this approach has been refined in several directions, leading to both tableau-based methods, such as the disconnection tableau calculus, and saturation-based methods, such as primal partial instantiation and resolution-based instance generation. We investigate the relationship between these calculi and answer the question to what extent refutation or consistency proofs in one calculus can be simulated in another one.

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 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

automated reasoning
primal partial instantiation

theorem proving
disconnection calculus
resolution-based instance generation


Neural Kalman filter Anticipating future events is a crucial function of the central nervous system and can be modelled by Kalman filter-like mechanisms, which are optimal for predicting linear dynamical systems. Connectionist representation of such mechanisms with Hebbian learning rules has not yet been derived. We show that the recursive prediction error method offers a solution that can be mapped onto the entorhinalhippocampal loop in a biologically plausible way. Model predictions are provided.

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

hippocampus
entorhinal cortex
neural prediction


a lower bound on the distortion of embedding planar metrics into euclidean space (MATH) We exhibit a simple infinite family of series-parallel graphs that cannot be metrically embedded into Euclidean space with distortion smaller than $\Omega(\sqrt\log n\,)$. This matches Rao's general upper bound for metric embedding of planar graphs into Euclidean space, [14], thus resolving the question of how well do planar metrics embed in Euclidean spaces.

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

graph
families
planar graph
parallel
metrication
metric spaces
embedding into eucledian spaces


Development of arm equipped single wheel Rover: Effective arm-posture-based steering method We have been proposing a new planetary rover system named "SMC Rover". This system consists of one main body and detachable units, which can work as child rovers, and also become driving units of the main body. Each detachable unit named "Uni-Rover" consists of a single manipulator mounted on a wheel. Prototype models of the Uni-Rover and the SMC Rover have been already developed. This paper describes a new method of trajectory modeling for the Uni-Rover using the relation between arm posture and turning radius. At first, an intuitively recognizable model which uses zero slip angle is introduced. However, because this intuitive model has some problems, a new solution which considers the loss of friction on the wheel and on the caster is also discussed. The validity of the presented method is verified by experiments with an actual mechanical model. Moreover, an effective steering method which considers the margin of the energy stability is introduced.

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

smc rover
planetary rover
arm equipped single wheel rover
effective steering method


Assessment of Data Quality of and Staff Satisfaction with an Electronic Health Record System in a Developing Country (Uganda) A Qualitative and Quantitative Comparative Study Objectives: To assess if electronic health record systems in developing countries (an improve on timeliness, availability and accuracy of routine health reports and staff satisfaction after introducing the electronic system, compared to the paper-based alternative. Methods: The research was conducted with hospital staff of Tororo District Hospital in Uganda. A comparative intervention study with qualitative and quantitative methods was used to compare the paper-based (pre-test) to the electronic system (post-test) focusing on accuracy, availability and timeliness of monthly routine reports about mothers visiting the hospital; and staff satisfaction with the electronic system as outcome measures. Results: Timeliness: pre-test 13 of 19 months delivered to the district timely, delivery dates for six months could not be established; post-test 100%. Availability: pretest 79% of reports were present at the district health office; post-test 100%. Accuracy: pre-test 73.2% of selected reports could he independently confirmed as correct; post-test 71.2%. Difficulties were encountered in finding enough mothers through direct follow up to inquire on accuracy of information recorded about them. Staff interviews showed that the electronic system is appreciated by the majority of the hospital staff. Remaining obstacles include staff workload, power shortages, network breakdowns and parallel data entry (paper-based and electronic). Conclusion: While timeliness and availability improved, improvement of accuracy could not be established. Better approaches to ascertaining accuracy hove to be devised, e.g. evaluation of intended use. For success, organizational, managerial and social challenges must be addressed beyond technical aspects.

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

qualitative and quantitative comparative study

computerized medical record systems
health records quality


Counting Fuzzy Subgroups of Non-Abelian Groups of Orders p(3) and 2(4) The study of fuzzy algebraic structures was started with the introduction of the concept of fuzzy subgroup by Rosenfeld and has been investigated by many researchers. Murali, Makamba and Tarnauceanu have used the equivalence relation of fuzzy sets to study the equivalence of fuzzy subgroups. One of the problems in fuzzy group theory is concerned with classifying the fuzzy subgroups of a finite group. In this paper, we calculate the number of fuzzy subgroups of non-abelian groups of orders p(3) and 2(4).

O O O 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


Better mobile clients cache reusability and data access time in a wireless broadcast environment ? Data broadcasting is an efficient data dissemination method in a wireless clientserver system. A data server broadcasts data items periodically, and mobile clients cache data items to save communication bandwidth, resource usage, and data access time. The server also broadcasts invalidation reports (IRs) to maintain the consistency between server data and the clients cached data. Most existing cache invalidation policies in a wireless environment based on IRs simply purge the entire cache after a client has been disconnected long enough to miss a certain number (window size) of IRs. We present a cache invalidation scheme that provides better cache reusability and better data access time after a long disconnection. Our scheme attempts to increase cache reusability by respecting update rates at a server, broadcast intervals, the communication bandwidth, and data sizes, as well as disconnection time. Simulation results show that the increased cache reusability of our scheme can improve the data access time after a long disconnection.

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

wireless broadcast environment
cache invalidation
data access time
cache reusability


Multi-step variance minimization in sequential tests We introduce a multi-step variance minimization algorithm for numerical estimation of Type I and Type II error probabilities in sequential tests. The algorithm can be applied to general test statistics and easily built into general design algorithms for sequential tests. Our simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm is particularly useful for estimating tail probabilities, and may lead to significant computational efficiency gains over the crude Monte Carlo method.

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 B I O


Scalable statistical bug isolation We present a statistical debugging algorithm that isolates bugs in programs containing multiple undiagnosed bugs. Earlier statistical algorithms that focus solely on identifying predictors that correlate with program failure perform poorly when there are multiple bugs. Our new technique separates the effects of different bugs and identifies predictors that are associated with individual bugs. These predictors reveal both the circumstances under which bugs occur as well as the frequencies of failure modes, making it easier to prioritize debugging efforts. Our algorithm is validated using several case studies, including examples in which the algorithm identified previously unknown, significant crashing bugs in widely used systems.

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

random sampling
invariants
feature selection


declarative language extensions for prolog courses In this paper we present several extensions to support a more declarative view of programming in Prolog. These extensions enable introductory Prolog courses to concentrate on the pure parts of Prolog for longer periods than without. Even quite complex programs can now be written free of any reference to the more problematic constructs. Our extensions include an alternate way to handle the occurs-check, efficient side-effect free I/O with DCGs, and a uniform approach to integer arithmetic that overcomes the disadvantages of arithmetical evaluation and finite domain constraints, but combines and amplifies their strengths. All extensions have been included recently into the SWI-Prolog distribution.

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

teaching prolog
side-effect free i/o
occurs-check


Impact of the Physical Layer Modeling on the Accuracy and Scalability of Wireless Network Simulation Recent years have witnessed a tremendous growth of research in the field of wireless systems and networking protocols. Consequently, simulation has appeared as the most convenient approach for the performance evaluation of such systems and several wireless network simulators have been proposed in recent years. However, the complexity of the wireless physical layer (PHY) induces a clear tradeoff between the accuracy and the scalability of simulators. Thereby, the accuracy of the simulation results varies drastically from one simulator to another. In this paper, we focus on this tradeoff and we investigate the impact of the physical layer modeling accuracy on both the computational cost and the confidence in simulations. We first provide a detailed discussion on physical layer issues, including the radio range, link and interference modeling, and we investigate how they have been handled in existing popular simulators. We then introduce a flexible and modular new wireless network simulator, called WSNet. Using this simulator, we analyze the influence of the PHY modeling on the performance and the accuracy of simulations. The results show that the PHY modeling, and in particular interference modeling, can have a significant impact on the behavior of the evaluated protocols at the expense of an increased computational overhead. Moreover, we show that the use of realistic propagation models can improve the simulation accuracy without inducing a severe degradation of scalability.

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

wireless network simulation
simulation accuracy
physical layer modeling
interference modeling

simulation scalability
simulation environment


Query-efficient algorithms for polynomial interpolation over composites The problem of polynomial interpolation is to reconstruct a polynomial based on its valuations on a set of inputs I. We consider the problem over Z(m) when m is composite. We ask the following question: Given I. Zm, how many evaluations of a polynomial at points in I are required to compute its value at every point in I? Surprisingly for composite m, this number can vary exponentially between log vertical bar I vertical bar and vertical bar I vertical bar, in contrast to the prime case where vertical bar I vertical bar evaluations are necessary. While we show this minimization problem to be NP-hard, we give an efficient algorithm of query complexity within a factor t of the optimum, where t is the number of prime factors of m. We use our interpolation algorithm to design algorithms for zero testing and distributional learning of polynomials over Z(m). In some cases, we get an exponential improvement over known algorithms in query complexity and running time. Our main technical contribution is the notion of an interpolating set for I which is a subset S of I such that a polynomial which is 0 over S must be 0 at every point in I. Any interpolation algorithm needs to query an interpolating set for I. Our query-efficient algorithms are obtained by constructing interpolating sets whose size is close to optimal.

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


Photofragment image analysis using the Onion-Peeling Algorithm With the growing popularity of the velocity map imaging technique, a need for the analysis of photoion and photoelectron images arose. Here, a computer program is presented that allows for the analysis of cylindrically symmetric images. It permits the inversion of the projection of the 3D charged particle distribution using the Onion Peeling Algorithm. Further analysis includes the determination of radial and angular distributions, from which velocity distributions and spatial anisotropy parameters are obtained. Identification and quantification of the different photolysis channels is therefore straightforward. In addition, the program features geometry correction, centering, and multi-Gaussian fitting routines, as well as a user-friendly graphical interface and the possibility of generating synthetic images using either the fitted or user-defined parameters.

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

photofragment image
onion peeling
anisotropy parameters

photoionization
photodissociation
velocity-map imaging


Finding

related

pages

in

the

World

Wide

Web

When

using

traditional

search

engines,

users

have

to

formulate

queries

to

describe

their

information

need.

This

paper

discusses

a

different

approach

to

Web

searching

where

the

input

to

the

search

process

is

not

a

set

of

query

terms,

but

instead

is

the

URL

of

a

page,

and

the

output

is

a

set

of

related

Web

pages.

A

related

Web

page

is

one

that

addresses

the

same

topic

as

the

original

page.

For

example,

is

a

page

related

to

since

both

are

online

newspapers.

We

describe

two

algorithms

to

identify

related

Web

pages.

These

algorithms

use

only

the

connectivity

information

in

the

Web

(i.e.,

the

links

between

pages)

and

not

the

content

of

pages

or

usage

information.

We

have

implemented

both

algorithms

and

measured

their

runtime

performance.

To

evaluate

the

effectiveness

of

our

algorithms,

we

performed

a

user

study

comparing

our

algorithms

with

Netscape's

`What's

Related'

service

Our

study

showed

that

the

precision

at

for

our

two

algorithms

are

better

and

better

than

that

of

Netscape,

despite

the

fact

that

Netscape

uses

both

content

and

usage

pattern

information

in

addition

to

connectivity

information.

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


three-dimensional multiprocessor system-on-chip thermal optimization 3D stacked wafer integration has the potential to improve multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) integration density, performance, and power efficiency. However, the power density of 3D MPSoCs increases with the number of active layers, resulting in high chip temperatures. This can reduce system reliability, reduce performance, and increase cooling cost. Thermal optimization for 3D MPSoCs imposes numerous challenges. It is difficult to manage assignment and scheduling of heterogeneous workloads to maintain thermal safety. In addition, the thermal characteristics of 3D MPSoCs differ from those of 2D MPSoCs because each stacked layer has a different thermal resistance to the ambient and vertically-adjacent processors have strong temperature correlation. We propose a 3D MPSoC thermal optimization algorithm that conducts task assignment, scheduling, and voltage scaling. A power balancing algorithm is initially used to distribute tasks among cores and active layers. Detailed thermal analysis is used to guide a hotspot mitigation algorithm that incrementally reduces the peak MPSoC temperature by appropriately adjusting task execution times and voltage levels. The proposed algorithm considers leakage power consumption and adapts to inter-layer thermal heterogeneity. Performance evaluation on a set of multiprogrammed and multithreaded benchmarks indicates that the proposed techniques can optimize 3DMPSoC power consumption, power profile, and chip peak temperature.

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


linear analysis and optimization of stream programs As more complex DSP algorithms are realized in practice, there is an increasing need for high-level stream abstractions that can be compiled without sacrificing efficiency. Toward this end, we present a set of aggressive optimizations that target linear sections of a stream program. Our input language is StreamIt, which represents programs as a hierarchical graph of autonomous filters. A filter is linear if each of its outputs can be represented as an affine combination of its inputs. Linearity is common in DSP components; examples include FIR filters, expanders, compressors, FFTs and DCTs.We demonstrate that several algorithmic transformations, traditionally hand-tuned by DSP experts, can be completely automated by the compiler. First, we present a linear extraction analysis that automatically detects linear filters from the C-like code in their work function. Then, we give a procedure for combining adjacent linear filters into a single filter, as well as for translating a linear filter to operate in the frequency domain. We also present an optimization selection algorithm, which finds the sequence of combination and frequency transformations that will give the maximal benefit.We have completed a fully-automatic implementation of the above techniques as part of the StreamIt compiler, and we demonstrate a 450\% performance improvement over our benchmark suite.

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

optimization efficiency examples benchmark input analysis performance dsp streamit program extraction code language implementation demonstrate graph algorithm sequence

linear systems
streams
embedded
stream programming
filtering
practical
algebraic simplification
automation
fft
autonomic
combinational
select
hierarchic
abstraction
functional
compilation
complexity


Performance analysis of a novel traffic scheduling algorithm in slotted optical networks This paper considers the scheduling problem in a new slotted optical network called Time-Domain Wavelength Interleaved network (TWIN). The TWIN architecture possesses interesting properties, which may offer solutions for next-generation optical networks, Besides, better Quality of Service (QoS) could be achieved in TWIN by minimizing two parameters: queueing delay and delay variance. However, to the best of our knowledge, most of the existing scheduling algorithms in TWIN ignored consideration of QoS and focused mainly on maximizing the throughput. In this paper, we formulate the scheduling problem into an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problem and propose a novel heuristic - Destination Slot Set (DSS) algorithm to solve it fast and efficiently. Besides, we derive an analytical model for TWIN and investigate the performance of DSS in it. By means of simulations, we demonstrate that our analytical model approximates the TWIN network very well; moreover, DSS incurs smaller queueing delay and delay variance, which ensures better QoS. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


e-Business strategy and firm performance: a latent class assessment of the drivers and impediments to success Among many leading organizations, in all sectors of industry, commerce and government, there is considerable evidence of e-business being deployed to achieve strategic goals. Where this deployment has been most successful, there is a strong case that the organization has taken an integrated approach that both builds on the organization's strengths and pays careful attention to the process of change within the organization. However, in the literature most empirical work has either studied e-business strategy and performance from the perspective of strategy content - which highlights positioning and/ or unique bundles of resources - or from the perspective of strategy process - which captures human influence and e-business implementation. In this study, we integrate these two perspectives to develop a more holistic understanding of the underlying drivers of e- business performance. Further, latent class modeling techniques are used to show that the variables in our study are heavily influenced by the unobservable heterogeneity across firms. Four distinct types of firms populate our data, and the relationship between performance and its underlying determinants varies greatly between them. The implication is that a single model cannot explain the relationship between environment, structure, feasibility, managerial beliefs and performance. This is critical to our understanding of e- business as it implies that there is far less homogeneity at the individual firm level than is normally assumed in the literature.

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

e-business strategy
information technology
latent class models


Stealth modification versus nuisance attacks in the LOCKSS peer-to-peer digital preservation system The LOCKSS system is a world-wide peer-to-peer system for the preservation of academic journals and other archival information published on the Web. The system is deployed at over 200 libraries around the world and currently preserving titles of publishers representing more than 2000 academic titles. It consists of a large number of independent, low-cost, persistent Web caches that cooperate to detect and repair damage to their content by voting in opinion polls. Based on our experience working with the LOCKSS system, in this paper, we identify and characterize a fundamental tradeoff in the systems ability to defend against adversaries with competing goals. In particular, the techniques used to defend against adversaries attempting stealth modification of content being preserved in the system are at odds with those used to identify nuisance adversaries simply trying to disrupt system procedures. We show that with a simple change to the design of the systems preservation protocol we are able to create moderately strong defense against both of these competing adversaries simultaneously.

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


Consistency of personality in interactive characters: verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and user characteristics This study examined whether people would interpret and respond to verbal (text) and non-verbal cues (posture) of personality in interactive characters just as they interpret cues from a person. In a balanced, between-subjects experiment (N = 40), introverted and extroverted participants were randomly paired with one of two types of consistent computer characters: (1) matched participants' personality with both verbal and nonverbal cues or (2) completely mismatched the participant, or one of two types of inconsistent characters: (3) matched with verbal cues but not with non-verbal cues or (4) matched with non-verbal but not with verbal cues. Participants accurately identified the character's personality type in their assessment of its verbal and non-verbal cues. Preference was for consistent characters, regardless of participant personality. Consistent characters also had greater influence over peoples' behavior-interaction with consistent characters led to greater changes in people's answers than interaction with inconsistent characters. Finally, contrary to previous research, participants tended to prefer a character whose personality was complementary, rather than similar, with their own. This study demonstrates the importance of orchestrating the overall set of cues that an interactive computer character presents to the computer user, and emphasizes the need for consistency among these cues. (C) 2000 Academic Press.

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

interactive characters
personality
consistency


Stability and existence of periodic solutions to delayed CohenGrossberg BAM neural networks with impulses on time scales ? In this paper, by using the continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory and constructing some suitable Lyapunov functions, we study the stability and existence of periodic solutions to delayed CohenGrossberg BAM neural networks with impulses on time scales.

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 B I 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

cohengrossberg bam neural networks
coincidence degree

periodic solution
lyapnov function
time scale


An improved millimeter-wave small-signal modeling approach for HEMTs An improved method to determine the small-signal equivalent circuit model for HEMTs is presented in this study, which is combination of the analytical approach and empirical optimization procedure. The parasitic inductances and resistances are extracted under pinch-off condition. The initial intrinsic elements are determined by conventional analytical method. Advanced design system (agilent commercial circuit simulator) is used to optimize the whole model parameters with small deviation of initial values. An excellent agreement between measured and simulated S-parameters is obtained for 2 20 ?m2 gate width HEMT up to 40 GHz. 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:464469, 2014.

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

cold-fet
parameter extraction
small-signal model
pinch-off


A practical approach to solving a newspaper logistics problem using a digital map The objective of this study is to find an optimal allocation of newspaper agents and an optimal routes and schedules for newspaper delivery to minimize delivery cost while keeping the total delay time of delivery short. A practical approach was used for solving the problem using heuristic algorithms and a digital map. The Regret Distance algorithm, the Modified Saving algorithm, the Weighted Savings algorithm, the Urgent Route First algorithm and the Modified Urgent Route First algorithm were investigated. As an optimal algorithm, the Regret Distance Calculation algorithm to allocate the agents for each plant, the Weighted Savings algorithm for routing, and the Modified Urgent Route First algorithm for vehicle scheduling were selected. A split delivery scheme was also selected. With these selected algorithms and a split delivery scheme, a method using a computer program was used at newspaper companies for allocation of demand and vehicle routing and scheduling. This computer program was used to validate our proposed method at the Chosun Ilbo company, which is one of the major newspaper company in Korea. It was found that our method saved the delivery cost by 15% and reduced the delay time by 40% on the average compared to the current manual method. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

newspaper logistics problem
allocation
vehicle routing and scheduling
regret distance algorithm
weighted savings algorithm
urgent route first algorithm
split delivery


Practical experience using a computational model for the design of heterogeneous distributed software Heterogeneous cluster environments are becoming an increasing popular platform for executing parallel applications. Efficient heterogeneous programs must account for the differences inherent in such an environment. We propose the HBSP(1) model of computation as a framework for developing applications for heterogeneous clusters of workstations. The utility of the model is demonstrated through the design and analysis of the scatter and one-to-all broadcast algorithms. Extensive experimentation illustrates the benefits of using the model for heterogeneous program development. By hiding the non-uniformity of the underlying system, the HBSP(1) model provides a framework that embraces the heterogeneity of the underlying system.

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

heterogeneous distributed computing
bsp
cluster computing
collective communication
performance evaluation


an algebraic semantics of subobjects Existing formalisms of inheritance are not sufficient to model the complexities of the kind of multiple inheritance exemplified in C++. Any satisfactory formalism must model the complicating effects of virtual and non-virtual base classes as well as virtual and non-virtual methods. By abstracting the implementational notion of a subobject and formalizing subobject selection, we develop a formalism to model this combination of features. Not intended as a formal semantics of C++, the resulting model should nevertheless provide an essential level of understanding for language theorists and implementors in their dealings with C++ and related languages.

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

formal semantics
model
inheritance
formalism
language

select understandability method feature abstraction virtualization semantic effect combinational class


Multi-objective flexible job shop schedule: Design and evaluation by simulation modeling Flexible job shop schedule is very important in both fields of combinatorial optimization and production management. In this paper, a simulation model is presented to solve the multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem. The proposed model has been coded by Matlab which is a special mathematical computation language. After modeling the pending problem, the model is validated by five representative instances based on practical data. The results obtained from the computational study have shown that the proposed approach is a feasible and effective approach for the multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem.

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

simulation modeling
combinatorial optimization
flexible job shop scheduling

ant colony optimization
multi-objective optimization
scheduling knowledge


Multi-level reconfigurable architectures in the switch model In this paper, we propose a concept for multi-level reconfigurable architectures with more than two levels of reconfiguration, and study these architectures theoretically and experimentally. The proposed architectures are extensions of 2-level reconfigurable architectures where the reconfiguration operations on the lowest level correspond to the reconfiguration operations of standard 1-level reconfigurable architectures, and the reconfigurable units are simple switches. It is shown that finding an optimal number of reconfiguration levels and a corresponding reconfiguration scheme that minimizes the number of reconfiguration bits for a given algorithm can be done in polynomial time. But finding the optimal number of reconfiguration levels is NP-hard for heterogeneous multi-level architectures, where the number of reconfiguration levels varies for the different reconfigurable units. Experimental results for different test applications show that 34 reconfiguration levels are optimal with respect to the number of reconfiguration bits needed. The number of reconfiguration bits is reduced by 3586% compared to 1-level reconfiguration and by 834% compared to 2-level reconfiguration. The heterogeneous architecture reduces the number of necessary reconfiguration bits by additional 15% and also needs less SRAM cells.

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

dynamic reconfiguration
reconfiguration costs
multi-level reconfiguration


indulgent algorithms (preliminary version) Informally, an indulgent algorithm is a distributed algorithm that tolerates unreliable failure detection: the algorithm is indulgent towards its failure detector. This paper formally characterises such algorithms and states some of their interesting features. We show that indulgent algorithms are inherently safe and uniform . We also state impossibility results for indulgent solutions to divergent problems like consensus, and failure-sensitive problems like non-blocking atomic commit and terminating reliable broadcast.

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

detection
failure detector
broadcast
version
commit
algorithm
paper
failure
consensus

distributed algorithms
atom
reliability
feature


Structural properties of subdivided-line graphs ? ?? Motivated by self-similar structures of Sierpi?ski graphs, we newly introduce the sub-divided-line graph operation ? and define the n -iterated subdivided-line graph ?n(G) ? n ( G ) of a graph G. We then study structural properties of subdivided-line graphs such as edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, hamiltonian-connectivity, hub sets, connected dominating sets, independent spanning trees, completely independent spanning trees, and book-embeddings which can be applied to problems on interconnection networks. From our results, the maximum number of edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, the minimum cardinality of a hub set, the minimum cardinality of a connected dominating set, the maximum number of independent spanning trees and the maximum number of completely independent spanning trees in Sierpi?ski graphs, and upper bounds on the pagenumbers of Sierpi?ski graphs which are at most two times the optimums are obtained as corollaries. In particular, our results for edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles and hub sets on iterated subdivided-line graphs are generalizations of the previously known results on Sierpi?ski graphs, while our proofs are simpler than those for Sierpi?ski graphs.

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

hub set
connected dominating set
independent spanning trees

subdivided-line graph
sierpi?ski graph
edge-disjoint hamilton cycles
hamiltonian-connectivity
completely independent spanning trees
book-embedding