Strategic environmental assessment as an approach to assess waste management systems. Experiences from an Austrian case study Waste management has evolved from the simple transportation of waste to landfills to complex systems, including waste prevention and waste recycling as well as several waste treatment and landfill technologies. To assess the environmental, economical and social effects of waste management systems, several tools have been developed. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is an approach for integrated assessment enhancing involvement in the planning of a decision supporting process. The aim of this paper is to show how SEA can be applied in a waste management context. For this purpose a case study is described where a SEA process was undertaken to develop a regional waste management plan. The approach from this case study is compared to other methods.

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

waste management
strategic environmental assessment


Normality and automata We prove a non-real-time 1-counter transducers cannot compress any normal number. We prove a real-time k-counter transducers cannot compress any normal number. We prove there exist pushdown transducers that can compress a normal number. We prove normality is preserved by suffix selection by finite automata.

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

normal numbers
non-deterministic automata


Mean-field theory and synchronization in random recurrent neural networks In this paper, we first present a new mathematical approach, based on large deviation techniques, for the study of a large random recurrent neural network with discrete time dynamics. In particular, we state a mean field property and a law of large numbers, in the most general case of random models with sparse connections and several populations. Our results are supported by rigorous proofs. Then, we focus our interest on large size dynamics, in the case of a model with excitatory and inhibitory populations. The study of the mean field system and of the divergence of individual trajectories allows to define different dynamical regimes in the macroscopic parameters space, which include chaos and collective synchronization phenomenons. At last, we look at the behavior of a particular finite-size system submitted to gaussian static inputs. The system adapts its dynamics to the input signal, and spontaneously produces dynamical transitions from asynchronous to synchronous behaviors, which correspond to the crossing of a bifurcation line in the macroscopic parameters space.

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

asymmetric networks
mean field theory
stochastic dynamics
two-population models


Application of Fourier analysis to digital Imaging for particle shape analysis The shape of aggregates has an important influence on the behavior of civil engineering materials. Digital imaging techniques provide. unique opportunities for describing these features in an automated fashion. Shape analysis of fine and coarse aggregate particles is investigated in-this study using Fourier transform of digital images. The geometric signature of each shape is extracted by measuring the distance between its centroid and the boundary at constant increment of angles, and Fourier transforms are used to evaluate its spectral information. The number of highest amplitude harmonics required for accurate profile regeneration is evaluated. Shape of a given aggregate particle is reconstructed using inverse Fourier transforms considering a limited number of significant harmonics. A parameter that can quantify the error between regenerated and original profiles is proposed. Using this value, two shape parameters are defined to describe the overall shape and the ruggedness of a particle. A procedure of quantitatively describing the roundness/angularity of aggregate shape is presented and extended to three dimensions using orthogonal views.

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


A case study in designing Chinese metadata Metadata are fundamental in establishing a digital library and museum while domain communities describe, interpret and manage different digital objects, Although many metadata formats and sets have been developed, it is difficult to choose an appropriate format and conversion is problematical, especially for the Chinese materials, This paper is a progress report from the Metadata Taskforce Group designing Chinese metadata for the digital library and museum project (DLMP) at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The group's top priority is to construct goals, principles and procedures while designing the metadata format for Chinese contents. Not only does the Metadata Taskforce Group present the analysis of content attributes of Formosan Plain indigenous people, but also several marked achievements and findings are suggested, such as the metadata record structure and criteria of selecting and evaluating the current metadata formats.

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

metadata formats
taiwan
chinese materials


A fresh view on the tolerance approach to sensitivity analysis in linear programming The tolerance approach to sensitivity analysis in linear programming aims at finding a unique numerical value (tolerance) representing the maximum absolute perturbation which can be applied simultaneously and independently on each right-hand-side or objective coefficient without affecting the optimality of the given basis. Some extensions have been proposed in the literature, which allow for individual tolerances for each coefficient, thus enlarging the tolerance region. In this paper we review the main results concerning the approach, giving new and simpler proofs, and we propose an efficient geometric algorithm returning a tolerance region that is maximal with respect to inclusion. We compare our method with the existing ones on two examples, showing how a priori information can be naturally exploited by our algorithm to further enlarge individual tolerances.

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

linear programming
sensitivity analysis
tolerance approach


wide area placement of data replicas for fast and highly available data access Recent years have seen rapid growth of online data storage and computing services at various locations around the world. In wide area applications, data can be replicated at multiple locations to serve users with lower latency and higher availability. This paper presents an approach that achieves both fast and highly available data access through periodic migration of data replicas. Such migration strives to maximize a user-defined objective function that incorporates data access delay and availability into a single utility value. To efficiently estimate data access delay and availability for any feasible replica placement, this approach maintains a small data structure that summarizes recent accesses to data replicas. This paper demonstrates, based on an evaluation study, the effectiveness of the developed technique and concludes with plans for future research.

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


Evaluation of the influence of image compression to the automatic discrimination of histological images of skin lesions Objectives: Telemedicine offers the possibility to get the opinion of an expert within a short time. To reduce data transfer via a network image compression is recommended. The disadvantage of error-free compression is a low compression rate. On the other hand an increased compression rate affects the information content of the image. In this study we evaluated the influence of the compression rate on the automatic discrimination of histological skin lesions in dermatopathology. Methods. To be independent from subjective reviewing by a dermatopathologist we used tissue counter analysis (TCA) for automatic discrimination of skin tissue. TCA is based on the partition of the image into square elements where the features are calculated out of each square element. 40 cases of benign common nevi and 40 cases of malignant melanoma were used as the study set. First TCA was applied to the uncompressed images to check the discrimination power of the method. Then in the next steps the method was applied to the images with successively higher compression rates. For image compression the wavelet compression was used, where the compression rate was determined by neglecting wavelet coefficients with a magnitude below a given threshold. The number of remaining wavelet coefficients was used as criteria for the compression rate. Results. This study shows that TCA allows automated discrimination even at higher compression rates where only 6-18% of the wavelet coefficients are used for image reconstruction. The recognition rate at higher compression is better for malignant melanoma than for benign common nevi. Conclusion: The power of automated discrimination is not essential affected by wavelet image compression.

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

tissue counter analysis
image compression

medical image processing
teledermatology


Impact of ICT in Environmental Sciences: A citation analysis 19902007 Detecting trends on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the domain of environmental sciences is important to foresee new frontiers of modelling and software research. Here we analyze the impact of ICT in scientific papers published from 1990 to 2007 in all ISI journals and in those belonging to the Environmental Sciences category only. We thus determine some expanding, fluctuating or unexploited research directions. Quite unexpectedly, we find that the frequency of occurrence of many, yet not all, information technologies increased at significantly higher rates in the environmental studies than in the general sciences. We also contrast trends in the EMS journal to those of the entire domain and discuss differences in some details. Retrieving pertinent information for the comparison is certainly made difficult by some inconsistency in the use of keywords and the current lack of semantic oriented tools. Nevertheless, we find that this journal is leading the development on some research topics, like decision support systems or information systems.

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

meta-analysis
gis
dss
integration techniques
web and information technologies
data acquisition
data integration


Disk Paxos We present an algorithm, called Disk Paxos, for implementing a reliable distributed system with a network of processors and disks. Like the original Paxos algorithm, Disk Paxos maintains consistency in the presence of arbitrary non-Byzantine faults. Progress can be guaranteed as long as a majority of the disks are available, even if all processors but one have failed.

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

consensus
state machine
fault tolerance
distributed computing


An exact algorithm for the bilevel mixed integer linear programming problem under three simplifying assumptions We present an exact algorithm for the bilevel mixed integer linear programming (BMILP) problem under three simplifying assumptions. Although BMILP has been studied for decades and widely applied to various real world problems, there are only a few BMILP algorithms. Compared to these existing ones, our new algorithm relies on fewer and weaker assumptions, explicitly considers finite optimal, infeasible, and unbounded cases, and is proved to terminate finitely and correctly. We report results of our computational experiments on a small library of BMILP test instances, which we created and made publicly available online.

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


Term suggestion with similarity measure based on semantic analysis techniques in query logs Purpose - Term suggestion is a very useful information retrieval technique that tries to suggest relevant terms for users' queries, to help advertisers find more appropriate terms relevant to their target market. This paper aims to focus on the problem of using several semantic analysis methods to implement a term suggestion system. Design/methodology/approach - Three semantic analysis techniques are adopted latent semantic indexing (LSD, probabilistic latent semantic indexing (PLSI), and a keyword relationship graph (KRG) - to implement a term suggestion system. Findings - This paper shows that using multiple semantic analysis techniques can give significant performance improvements. Research limitations/implications - The suggested terms returned from the system may be out of date, since the system uses a batch processing mode to update the training parameter. Originality/value - The paper shows that the benefit of the techniques is to overcome the problems of synonymy and polysemy over the information retrieval field, by using a vector space model. Moreover, an intelligent stopping strategy is proposed to save the required number of iterations for probabilistic latent semantic indexing.

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

search engines
semantics
data management
query languages


An offset algorithm for polyline curves Polyline curves which are composed of line segments and arcs are widely used in engineering applications. In this paper, a novel offset algorithm for polyline curves is proposed. The offset algorithm comprises three steps. Firstly, the offsets of all the segments of polyline curves are calculated. Then all the offsets are trimmed or joined to build polyline curves that are called untrimmed offset curves. Finally, a clipping algorithm is applied to the untrimmed offset curves to yield the final results. The offset algorithm can deal with polyline curves that are self-intersection, overlapping or containing small arcs. The new algorithm has been implemented in a commercial system TiOpenCAD 8.0 and its reliability is verified by a great number of examples. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


NVLab, a Networking Virtual Web-Based Laboratory that Implements Virtualization and Virtual Network Computing Technologies In various ICT courses, it is necessary to establish a proper space where each learner has access to a set of network devices with which he/she can build and test networks with different structures and components. This will enable the learners to practice working on multiple devices as in the case of real world context, and freely apply modifications to the network structure to solve any issue that may arise with the current scenario. While on-campus facilities are designed to meet this criterion, current Web-based laboratories either have fixed network designs, or do not offer a number of real devices to work on. Taking a step forward toward building a Web-based laboratory, we used open source Virtualization and Virtual Network Computing technologies in NVLab, a system that offers the learners tools to draw, configure, test, and troubleshoot network designs using real Operating System instances running in the virtual mode on a host machine. The functionality of the system has been experimented by introducing a case study exercise to a group of remote learners as part of Computer Networks course. Evaluating the participants' advancement was done by comparing their answers to a level test prior and after completing the exercise. The evaluation showed that the learners achieved better results in the level test after completing the exercise and were able to use the system efficiently.

O O O O O O O O B 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 B 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

virtual network computing
virtualization

computer and information science education


Observer based biped walking control, a sensor fusion approach In humanoid walking research, the prevailing approach is to utilize an abstraction of the robot to a single center of mass (3D linear inverted pendulum mode). Smaller disturbances or an oscillation of the body are typical for a walking robot and must be addressed by an appropriate sensor feedback. To this end, this paper proposes a novel observer fusing joint angle sensors and force sensing resistors. This new method of sensor feedback in a preview control system balances the walk by damping those disturbances and oscillations of the body. Moreover, novel stabilizing methods for defining reference trajectories for the zero moment point and limbs are examined.

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


Understanding Image Concepts Using ISTOP Model In understanding an image there is a significant gap between scene level and object level. ISTOP model can parse an image form scene level to visual term, object and part level by context sensitive grammar The visual term is new concept which can bridge the gap between scene level and object level. The context used in the grammar can improve object detection as well as visual term detection.

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

latent svm
and-or graph
concept recognition
image parsing


A survey of the use of electronic resources at seven universities in Wuhan, China Purpose - The pm-pose of this paper is to report on users' information behaviour in China, a topic which has not been researched extensively. The aim is to help producers and providers collect and develop more electronic resources. Design/methodology/approach - The study investigates users' information behaviour at seven "211 Project" universities in Wuhan, a city in central China. These universities all have access to the resources of the National Science and Technology Library (NSTI,). The questionnaire includes questions about respondents' basic identifying information (educational level, job, etc.) and their information service requirements. Correlations among users' education level, users' jobs, users' retrieval methods, literature use, etc. were analysed. Findings - The results show that most NSTL users are graduate students and young staff members. and the number of male users surpasses female ones slightly. The purpose of the utilisation of electronic resources for customers is scientific research, teaching and the need for self-development. During a year, the demand of users is the highest in March and the lowest in August. The users' knowledge service types include learning the progress of science and technology, citation retrieval and analysis, statistical analysis, intelligent retrieval and knowledge aggregation. Practical implications - The findings suggest that electronic resource producers should offer more foreign literature and providers should improve the quality of services. Originality/value - The paper provides suggestions for the further improvement of NSTL to fulfill the information needs and requirements of users.

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

electronic media
consumer behaviour
user studies
academic libraries


On probabilistic inference by weighted model counting A recent and effective approach to probabilistic inference calls for reducing the problem to one of weighted model counting (WMC) on a propositional knowledge base. Specifically, the approach calls for encoding the probabilistic model, typically a Bayesian network, as a propositional knowledge base in conjunctive normal form (CNF) with weights associated to each model according to the network parameters. Given this CNF, computing the probability of some evidence becomes a matter of summing the weights of all CNF models consistent with the evidence. A number of variations on this approach have appeared in the literature recently, that vary across three orthogonal dimensions. The first dimension concerns the specific encoding used to convert a Bayesian network into a CNF. The second dimensions relates to whether weighted model counting is performed using a search algorithm on the CNF, or by compiling the CNF into a structure that renders WMC a polytime operation in the size of the compiled structure. The third dimension deals with the specific properties of network parameters (local structure) which are captured in the CNF encoding. In this paper, we discuss recent work in this area across the above three dimensions, and demonstrate empirically its practical importance in significantly expanding the reach of exact probabilistic inference. We restrict our discussion to exact inference and model counting, even though other proposals have been extended for approximate inference and approximate model counting. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Halftone banding reduction for a class of electrophotographic systems - Part II: Closed-loop control A new control configuration for laser printing process was proposed, which constructs a feedback controller for regulation of the motor/gear transmission subsystem using direct velocity measurement from the imaging component. Causal connection between banding artifact and transmission errors has been demonstrated previously. Two controller design approaches were suggested for reducing banding artifact. The proposed designs were based on the internal model principle and H-infinity robust control theories, both have two degree of freedom control structure. The controllers were implemented on a monochrome laser printer, for which latent images are formed on a cylindrical photoconductor drum. Experimental results showed significant reduction in the measured velocity error for the photoconcluctor drum as well as noticeable banding reduction on the printed images. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

contrast sensitivity function
electrophotography
h-infinity loop-shaping
linear matrix inequality
repetitive control


Age-Related Changes in Vestibular Function The objective of this study was to identify age-related changes in the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in normal older subjects and patients complaining of disequilibrium followed serially over time. Cross-sectional studies have found decreases in vestibular function in older subjects compared to younger subjects, but no prior longitudinal studies have been made following the same older subjects over time. We measured VOR responses using step and sinusoidal stimuli in 110 normal subjects and 51 patients with disequilibrium of unknown cause. This report focuses on 57 normal subjects who were able to return for five yearly examinations and 7 patients who were found to have severe bilateral vestibulopathy on the initial examination. In the normal subjects, there was a significant shortening of the VOR time constant to step changes in angular velocity and an amplitude-dependent decrease in gain and increase in phase lead of low-frequency sinusoidal responses over the five examinations. There was also a decrease in the gain of visual-vestibular responses at low frequencies of sinusoidal stimulation over the five examinations. The patients with bilateral vestibulopathy showed relatively little change in vestibular function over the five years of follow-up.

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

vestibulo-ocular reflex
balance disorders
visual-vestibular interaction


Thermoelectric power of SnO2 anisotropic thin films A calculation of thermoelectric power in fluorine-doped SnO2 thin films is carried out using the Boltzmann transport theory and including anisotropic effects over material as well as the degeneracy grade of the samples. Curves of thermoelectric power in dependence of the temperature and concentration of F-impurities are reported. Finally, the computed values are compared with those obtained experimentally.

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


A message passing strategy for array redistributions in a torus network The array redistribution problem occurs in many important applications in parallel computing. In this paper, we consider this problem in a torus network. Tori are preferred to other multidimensional networks (like hypercubes) due to their better scalability (IEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 50(10), 1201-1218, [2001]). We present a message combining approach that splits any array redistribution problem in a series of broadcasts where all sources send messages of the same size, thus a balanced traffic load is achieved. Unlike existing array redistribution algorithms, the scheme introduced in this work eliminates the need for data reorganization in the memory of the source and target processors. Moreover, the processing of the scheduled broadcasts is pipelined, thus the total cost of redistribution is reduced.

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

superclasses
pipeline
high performance fortran
communication scheduling


bursty content sharing mechanism for energy-limited mobile devices The strategy to send data in high speed bursts has been observed to be useful for energy-efficient communication of wireless applications. In this paper we investigate how to apply this approach to peer-to-peer (P2P) content sharing. Our main focus is on battery savings that can be achieved by properly shaping the traffic at the application level. Our primary target is BitTorrent based content sharing on mobile phones connected with 3G cellular networks. However, the results also apply to WLAN communication as well as to other energy-limited devices in addition to mobile phones. We propose a novel BitTorrent extension and evaluate it via flow-level simulations. In comparison to standard BitTorrent, the energy-limited peers can achieve 50\% energy savings without significantly affecting the download speeds of regular peers.

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

content-sharing
battery consumption
peer-to-peer
energy-efficiency


education of wireless and atm networking concepts using hands-on laboratory experience Traditional computer networking courses primarily tend to provide students with hands-on software development and network performance experience with TCP/IP and Ethernet networks. Our objectives are to enhance the curriculum of networking courses and the expertise of students by introducing next-generation networks such as wireless and ATM networks. To facilitate this, we have established a wireless ATM network instructional facility (NIF) at Washington State University (WSU). Projects based on ATM networks and wireless networks have been introduced in a course on undergraduate computer networks taught at WSU during Spring 1998. This paper describes the laboratory setup, the projects and assignments, and the feedback obtained from the students.

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

network
wireless networks
education
wireless
software development
expertise
experience
feedback
paper
laboratory
ethernet
curriculum

network performance
generation
computer network
assignment
concept
instruction
object
project
student


JOINT: Java ontology integrated toolkit A toolkit to support the development cycle of ontology-based applications was created. We carried out an experiment with 8 novice developers to compare the toolkit with another tool. Results suggest that our toolkit helps developers to create applications faster and with less errors. The tool was also successfully used to develop a complete intelligent education 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

integrated development environment
ontology-based software
ontology manipulation tool
ontology-driven software development


A numerical scheme for two-dimensional optimal control problems with memory effect A new formulation for multi-dimensional fractional optimal control problems is presented in this article. The fractional derivatives which are coming from the formulation of the problem are defined in the RiemannLiouville sense. Some terminal conditions are imposed on the state and control variables whose dimensions need not be the same. A numerical scheme is described by using the GrnwaldLetnikov definition to approximate the RiemannLiouville Fractional Derivatives. The set of fractional differential equations, which are obtained after the discretization of the time domain, are solved within the GrnwaldLetnikov approximation to obtain the state and the control variable numerically. A two-dimensional fractional optimal control problem is studied as an example to demonstrate the performance of the scheme.

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

fractional calculus
fractional hamiltonian
variational analysis
quadratic performance indices


Difference sphere: An approach to near light source estimation We present a novel approach for estimating light sources from a single image of a scene that is illuminated by major near point light sources, a few directional light sources and ambient light. We propose to employ a pair of reference spheres as light probes and introduce the difference sphere that we acquire by differencing the intensities of two image regions of the reference spheres. Because the effect by directional light sources and ambient light is eliminated by differencing, the key advantage of considering the difference sphere is that it enables us to identify near point light sources including their radiant intensities. We also show that analysis of gray level contours on spherical surfaces facilitates separate identification of multiple combined light sources and is well suited to the difference sphere. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the entire algorithm with experimental results while also investigating the applicability to an open scanner in indoor scene.

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

difference sphere
near light source
open scanner


transparent shader-based direct3d9 application parallelization for graphics cluster Vertex shader and pixel shader are new programmable units of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). According to their architecture and Direct3D9 application execution flow on single node, we present transparent shader-based Direct3D9 application parallelization strategy. We has divided graphics cluster into two types of logical node, i.e. resource distributing node (D-Node) and resource rendering node (R-Node). Among them, D-Node is responsible for converting Direct3D9 application to six kinds of rendering resource, including command stream, vertex shader, pixel shader, vertex stream, index stream and texture stream, R-Node is responsible for reconstructing Direct3D9 interface rendering command based on the description information and resource data of received rendering resource. Each R-Node distributes rendering task by computing the bounding box of multi-stream based scene data in the screen space. Experimental results have shown that this strategy can realize transparent shader-based Direct3D9 application parallelization and support high-resolution tiled display. In contrast to single node rendering, four nodes parallel rendering based on graphics cluster can not only promote rendering performance but also achieve average speedup at 2.9.

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


Data-Mining-Driven Neighborhood Search Metaheuristic approaches based on the neighborhood search escape local optimality by applying predefined rules and constraints, such as tabu restrictions (in tabu search), acceptance criteria (in simulated annealing), and shaking (in variable neighborhood search). We propose a general approach that attempts to learn (off-line) the guiding constraints that, when applied online, will result in effective escape directions from local optima. Given a class of problems, the learning process is performed off-line, and the results are applied to constrained neighborhood searches to guide the solution process out of local optimality. Computational results on the constrained task allocation problem show that adding these guiding constraints to a simple tabu search improves the quality of the solutions found, making the overall method competitive with state-of-the-art methods for this class of problems. We also present a second set of tests on the matrix bandwidth minimization problem.

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

data mining
off-line learning
metaheuristic optimization


Prediction of bankruptcy using support vector machines: an application to bank bankruptcy The purpose of this study was to apply support vector machines (SVMs) to bank bankruptcy analysis using practical steps. Although the prediction of the financial distress of companies is done using several statistical and machine learning techniques, bank classification and bankruptcy prediction still need to be investigated because few investigations have been conducted in this field of banking. In this study, SVMs were implemented to analyse financial ratios. Data sets from Turkish commercial banks were used. This study shows that SVMs with the Gaussian kernel are capable of extracting useful information from financial data and can be used as part of an early warning system.

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

bankruptcy prediction
bank classification
financial ratios
support vector machines


A "Twisting and Bending" model-based nonrigid image registration technique for 3-D ultrasound carotid images Atherosclerosis at the carotid bifurcation resulting in cerebral emboli is a major cause of ischemic stroke. Most strokes associated with carotid atherosclerosis can be prevented by lifestyle/dietary changes and pharmacological treatment's if identified early by monitoring carotid plaque changes. Registration of 3-D ultrasound (US) images of carotid plaque obtained at different time points is essential for sensitive monitoring of plaque changes in volume and surface morphology. This registration technique should be nonrigid, since different head positions during image acquisition sessions cause relative bending and torsion in the neck, producing nonlinear deformations between the images. We modeled the movement of the neck using a "twisting and bending" model with only six parameters for nonrigid registration. We evaluated the algorithm using 3-D US carotid images acquired at two different head positions to simulate images acquired at different times. We calculated the mean registration error (MRE) between the segmented vessel surfaces in the target image and the registered image using a distance-based error metric after applying our "twisting and bending" model-based nonrigid registration algorithm. We achieved an average registration error of 0.80 +/- 0.26 mm using our nonrigid registration technique, which was a significant improvement in registration accuracy over rigid registration, even with reduced degrees-of-freedom compared to the other nonrigid registration algorithms.

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

carotid artery plaque
ultrasound imaging


the accuracy of trace-driven simulations of multiprocessors In trace-driven simulation, traces generated for one set of system characteristics are used to simulate a system with different characteristics. However, the execution path of a multiprocessor workload may depend on the order of events occurring on different processing elements. The event order, in turn, depends on system charcteristics such as memory-system latencies and buffer-sizes. Trace-driven simulations of multiprocessor workloads are inaccurate unless the dependencies are eliminated from the traces.We have measured the effects of these inaccuracies by comparing trace-driven simulations to direct simulations of the same workloads. The simulators predicted identical performance only for workloads whose traces were timing-independent. Workloads that used first-come first-served scheduling and/or non-deterministic algorithms produced timing-dependent traces, and simulation of these traces produced inaccurate performance predictions. Two types of performance metrics were particularly affected: those related to synchronization latency and those derived from relatively small numbers of events. To accurately predict such performance metrics, timing-independent traces or direct simulation should be used.

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

scheduling dependencies order traces latency accuracy simulation synchronization workload event performance types direct multiprocessor predict

systems
memory system
trace driven simulation
process
timing
algorithm
buffers
effect
performance metric


Discovery of substrate cycles in large scale metabolic networks using hierarchical modularity A substrate cycle is a set of metabolic reactions, arranged in a loop, which does not result in net consumption or production of the metabolites. The cycle operates by transforming a cofactor, e.g. oxidizing a reducing equivalent. Substrate cycles have been found experimentally in many parts of metabolism; however, their physiological roles remain unclear. As genome-scale metabolic models become increasingly available, there is now the opportunity to comprehensively catalogue substrate cycles, and gain additional insight into this potentially important motif of metabolic networks.

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

substrate cycles
modularity
metabolic networks


ONLINE SET PACKING In online set packing (OSP), elements arrive online, announcing which sets they belong to, and the algorithm needs to assign each element, upon arrival, to one of its sets. The goal is to maximize the number of sets that are assigned all their elements: a set that misses even a single element is deemed worthless. This is a natural online optimization problem that abstracts allocation of scarce compound resources, e.g., multipacket data frames in communication networks. We present a randomized competitive online algorithm for the weighted case with general capacity (namely, where sets may have different values, and elements arrive with different multiplicities). We prove a matching lower bound on the competitive ratio for any randomized online algorithm. Our bounds are expressed in terms of the maximum set size and the maximum number of sets an element belongs to. We also present refined bounds that depend on the uniformity of these parameters.

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

competitive analysis
randomized algorithm
packet fragmentation
multipacket frames


A fuzzy behavior-based control for mobile robots using adaptive fusion units It is known that a behavior-based control approach is effective for acquiring an intelligent control system of robots. However, further improvements are required for making any behavior-based control system robust against changes in the environments. A module learning method has been applied in the framework of fuzzy behavior-based control to have an adaptive behavioral fusion. In this paper, an adaptive fusion strategy is proposed to adaptively select a cooperative fusion unit or competitive fusion unit, depending on the external sensor information. Some simulations are given to illustrate that the present control systems are flexible against the change of environments or untrained environments, compared to those with a conventional priority-based fusion unit.

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

behavioral fusion
module learning
sensor information

behavior-based control
fuzzy control
genetic algorithm
nonholonomic mobile robots s


Stabilization and attitude of a triaxial rigid body by Lie group methods This paper deals with the construction of algorithms which preserve the first integrals of a class of forced rigid motions, which retains a Hamiltonian structure, using Lie group methods such as those due to Lewis and Simo and Munthe-Kaas. For these mechanical systems, we also study the reconstruction of dynamical processes to describe the evolution of the orientation of the forced rigid body in space; for this we consider different algorithms to solve the kinematic equations. A comparison between these algorithms is made. Finally, we illustrate the numerical methods discussed here, studying the stabilization of the relative equilibrium corresponding to the stationary rotation about the intermediate axis in the presence of external torques about the minor axis.

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


Partial key recovery attack against RMAC In this paper new "partial" key recovery attacks against the RMAC block cipher based Message Authentication Code scheme are described. That is we describe attacks that, in some cases, recover one of the two RMAC keys much more efficiently than previously described attacks. Although all attacks, but one, are of no major threat in practice, in some cases there is reason for concern. In particular, the recovery of the second RMAC key (of k bits) may only require around 2(k/)2 block cipher operations (encryptions or decryptions). The RMAC implementation using triple DES proposed by NIST is shown to be very weak.

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


constructivism in computer science education Constructivism is a theory of learning which claims that students construct knowledge rather than merely receive and store knowledge transmitted by the teacher. Constructivism has been extremely influential in science and mathematics education, but not in computer science education (CSE). This paper surveys constructivism in the context of CSE, and shows how the theory can supply a theoretical basis for debating issues and evaluating proposals.

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

context education constructivism science theory mathematics learning paper knowledge

survey
computer science education
student


Learning non-linear time-scales with kernel ? ? -filters A family of kernel methods, based on the ? ? -filter structure, is presented for non-linear system identification and time series prediction. The kernel trick allows us to develop the natural non-linear extension of the (linear) support vector machine (SVM) ? ? -filter [G. Camps-Valls, M. Martnez-Ramn, J.L. Rojo-lvarez, E. Soria-Olivas, Robust ? ? -filter using support vector machines, Neurocomput. J. 62(12) (2004) 493499.], but this approach yields a rigid system model without non-linear cross relation between time-scales. Several functional analysis properties allow us to develop a full, principled family of kernel ? ? -filters. The improved performance in several application examples suggests that a more appropriate representation of signal states is achieved.

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

gamma filter
non-linear system identification


Information processing in dendrites - I. Input pattern generalisation In this paper and its companion, we address the question as to whether there are any general principles underlying information processing in the dendritic trees of biological neurons. In order to address this question, we make two assumptions. First, the key architectural feature of dendrites responsible for many of their information processing abilities is the existence of independent sub-units performing local non-linear processing. Second, any general functional principles operate at a level of abstraction in which neurons are modelled by Boolean functions. To accommodate these assumptions, we therefore define a Boolean model neuron-the multi-cube unit (MCU)-which instantiates the notion of the discrete functional sub-unit. We then use this model unit to explore two aspects of neural functionality: generalisation (in this paper) and processing complexity (in its companion). Generalisation is dealt with from a geometric viewpoint and is quantified using a new metric-the set of order parameters. These parameters are computed for threshold logic units (TLUs), a class of random Boolean functions, and MCUs. Our interpretation of the order parameters is consistent with our knowledge of generalisation in TLUs and with the lack of generalisation in randomly chosen functions. Crucially, the order parameters for MCUs imply that these functions possess a range of generalisation behaviour. We argue that this supports the general thesis that dendrites facilitate input pattern generalisation despite any local non-linear processing within functionally isolated sub-units. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

dendrites
boolean functions
generalisation


Map fusion for nested datatypes in intensional type theory A definitional extension LNGMIt of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC), that underlies the proof assistant Coq, is presented that allows also to program with nested datatypes that are not legal datatype definitions of CIC since they are "truly nested". LNGMIt ensures termination of recursively defined functions that follow iteration schemes in the style of N. Mendler. Characteristically for them, termination comes from polymorphic typing instead of structural requirements on recursive calls. LNGMIt comes with an induction principle and generalized Mendler-style iteration that allows a very clean representation of substitution for an untyped lambda calculus with explicit flattening, as an extended case study. On the generic level, a notion of naturality adapted to generalized Mendler-style iteration is developed, and criteria for it are established, in particular, a map fusion theorem for the obtained iterative functions. Concerning the case study, substitution is proven to fulfill two of the three monad laws, the third one only for "hereditarily canonical" terms, but this is rectified by a relativization of the whole construction to those terms. All the generic results and the case study have been fully formalized with the Coq system. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

datatypes with true nesting
naturality for generalized maps
monad laws for substitution
terminating recursion schemes


integrating cumulative context into computer games In this paper, we describe a cumulative context computer game, where accumulated contextual information of the players' activity levels, obtained through mobile sensors, is used to modify game state. Our implementation used a statistic-based, real-time version of the classic game of chess, where the statistics of the pieces depended on the activity of the users and the environment in which they performed the activity. Users found the game engaging and fun, and almost all of the participants altered their behaviors to enhance their performance in the game. This work provides a platform for further research into meaningful integration of cumulative context in games.

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

exertion interfaces
ubiquitous games
persuasive games


Training of neural models for predictive control This paper emphasises the link between neural model training and its role in model predictive control (MPC) algorithms. This role is of fundamental importance since in MPC at each sampling instant a model is used on-line to calculate predictions of future behaviour of the process and an optimal future control policy. Taking into account this particular function of models in MPC, a training algorithm of neural dynamic models is derived. An example identification problem of a methanolwater distillation process is discussed. The prediction accuracy of models obtained using the described algorithm and the classical backpropagation scheme is compared, which yields one-step ahead predictors.

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 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


improving web application testing with user session data Web applications have become critical components of the global information infrastructure, and it is important that they be validated to ensure their reliability. Therefore, many techniques and tools for validating web applications have been created. Only a few of these techniques, however, have addressed problems of testing the functionality of web applications, and those that do have not fully considered the unique attributes of web applications. In this paper we explore the notion that user session data gathered as users operate web applications can be successfully employed in the testing of those applications, particularly as those applications evolve and experience different usage profiles. We report results of an experiment comparing new and existing test generation techniques for web applications, assessing both the adequacy of the generated tests and their ability to detect faults on a point-of-sale web application. Our results show that user session data can produce test suites as effective overall as those produced by existing white-box techniques, but at less expense. Moreover, the classes of faults detected differ somewhat across approaches, suggesting that the techniques may be complimentary.

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

applications
users
test
reliability
data
experience
web application
attributes
paper
infrastructure
profiles
user
global
tools

point
functional
fault
critic
test generation
effect
informal
exploration
class
component


Analysis of the efficiency of the census transform algorithm implemented on FPGA Over the course of the last two decades, continuous advances in the stereo vision field have been documented. In this paper we present an analysis of the efficiency for the stereo vision algorithm of the Census Transform algorithm. In addition to the conventional correlation method based on Hamming distance minimization, we use two similarity measures: the Tanimoto and the Dixon-Koehler distances. Then, we compare its performance in terms of accuracy and hardware resources needed for implementation. These comparisons are performed by introducing a generalized model for each hardware architecture, scalable depending on design parameters such as Census Transform window size and maximum disparity range.

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

stereo vision
census transform
hamming distance

field programmable gate arrays
tanimoto distance
dixon koehler distance


a shared resource algorithm for distributed simulation We propose a distributed simulation method which is particularly well suited for the simulation of large synchronous networks. In general, distributed simulation has significant potential for alleviating the time and memory constraints often encountered when using conventional simulation techniques. Currently proposed methods for distributed simulation suffer performance degradation due to the employment of strategies for preventing deadlock and due to artificial blocking of processes. We describe a new method for doing distributed simulation which is deadlock free whenever the physical system being simulated is deadlock free. Furthermore, our method does not suffer from artificial blocking of processes.

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

deadlock strategies method simulation performance physical general algorithm resource

sharing
network
systems
synchronization
process
memorialized
timing
distributed simulation
constraint


Analysis of vehicle requirements in a general automated guided vehicle system based transportation system This paper considers a new model of automated guided vehicle system arising from modern transportation systems. The objective is to minimize the vehicle number in order to guarantee the stability of the system. An approximately analytical method is proposed and a numerical example based on simulation is also presented to illustrate the method. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

vehicle requirements
automated guided vehicle system
simulation


Graphical visualization of mean hydration from molecular dynamics simulations How does one characterize water solvating a complex solute? Specific hydration of proteins and nucleic acids plays a key role in many biological processes. However, traditional pairwise descriptions of solvent structure (radial distribution functions, etc.) are incapable of adequately describing the hydration of these complex solutes. We have developed methods to visualize the average three-dimensional water structure surrounding a solute, as seen in a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Applications to simple solutes [sodium ion, N-methyl acetamide, 18-crown-6, (hydroxymethyl)phenols] are presented, and the extension of the method to larger molecules of biochemical interest is discussed.

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

hydration visualization
amber
midasplus
n-methyl acetamide
crown ether
(hydroxymethyl)phenol


Output-sensitive algorithms for Tukey depth and related problems The Tukey depth (Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, vol. 2, pp. 523-531, 1975) of a point p with respect to a finite set S of points is the minimum number of elements of S contained in any closed halfspace that contains p. Algorithms for computing the Tukey depth of a point in various dimensions are considered. The running times of these algorithms depend on the value of the output, making them suited to situations, such as outlier removal, where the value of the output is typically small.

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

halfspace depth
computational statistics
computational geometry
fixed-parameter tractability


Energy consumption of CUDA kernels with varying thread topology The energy consumption and energy awareness of modern GPGPU devices becomes important with large GPGPU based system installations. Measurements of the average power consumption have been done and their predictions are reported in literature. However, by observing several repeatable impacts on energy consumption within our experiments we conclude that the available models are limited to ideal scheduling behavior. This conclusion results from relating the noticed impacts to the scheduling mechanisms on GPGPUs. Past work assumed that the consumed energy is considered to be linearly dependent on the thread count, but as we show this is only valid if perfect scheduling is feasible. We demonstrate this by revealing nonlinear increases of energy consumption in several particular cases. Thus we conclude that linear models for predicting the energy consumption are not always reliable.

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

cuda
energy awareness
energy consumption
gpgpu


A theory of automatic parameter selection for feature extraction with application to feature-based multisensor image registration This paper generalizes the previously developed automated edge-detection parameter selection algorithm of Yitzhaky and Peli. We generalize the approach to arbitrary multidimensional, continuous or discrete parameter spaces, and feature spaces. This generalization enables use of the parameter selection approach with more general image features, for use in feature-based multisensor image registration applications. We investigate the problem of selecting a suitable parameter space sampling density in the automated parameter selection algorithm. A real-valued sensitivity measure is developed which characterizes the effect of parameter space sampling on feature set variability. Closed-form solutions of the sensitivity measure for special feature set relationships are derived. We conduct an analysis of the convergence properties of the sensitivity measure as a function of increasing parameter space sampling density. For certain parameter space sampling sequence types, closed-form expressions for the sensitivity measure limit values are presented. We discuss an approach to parameter space sampling density selection which uses the sensitivity measure convergence behavior. We provide numerical results indicating the utility of the sensitivity measure for selecting suitable parameter values.

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


Efficient algorithms for constructing a pyramid from a terrain In [5], the following pyramid construction problem was proposed: Given nonnegative valued functions rho and mu in d variables, we consider the optimal pyramid maximizing the total parametric gain of rho against mu. The pyramid can be considered as the optimal unimodal approximation of rho relative to mu, and can be applied to hierarchical data segmentation. In this paper, we give efficient algorithms for a couple of two-dimensional pyramid construction 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

algorithm
numeric data
optimal reshaping


Numerical analysis of elastic wave propagation in unbounded structures The effectiveness of an absorbing layer with increasing damping has been shown. The layer can be used for mimicking semi-infinite boundary conditions. It can be applied for wave propagation related problems in 1-D, 2-D and 3-D. Its properties should be correlated with the characteristics of propagating waves. Its concept can be utilised by the Time-domain Spectral Finite Element Method.

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

unbounded structures
wave propagation
absorbing layer

time-domain spectral finite element method


Design of fractional delay filters In this paper, we will consider a simple scheme for designing fractional delay filters. This scheme makes use of IIR filter design and iterative methods to calculate the coefficients of the filters transfer function. The resultant filter is not only stable, but also has a unity gain in the whole frequency domain and best approximates the fractional delay operator at lower frequency. Examples are given to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed technique.

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

all-pass filters
digital filters
design of digital filters


automation & delegation to reduce lab management workload Ten years ago, the University of Florida employed over 80 students and 4 full-time staff members to run the public computer labs. Those 80+ students managed five lab locations containing 7 classrooms and 400+ computers. Today there are still over 60 student employees but only a single full-time staff member, to run the same number of facilities and classrooms. Software solutions and work procedures have been developed to continue to allow the same quality of service with increased lab hours and reduced staffing. The software solutions that were developed started as simple schedule management through a UNIX-based, student developed system. Today the Signin system manages time sheets, schedules, e-mail and phone lists, login locations and scheduling reports. Custom chat software makes it easier to interact with supervisors and co-workers, and a headcount system that is online and automated instead of on paper. Future improvements include changing the method of problem reporting and putting the employee database online. Procedurally we still need as much supervising today as we needed in the past. To make up for the lack of full-time staff we now have a crew of five to eight student supervisors. The student supervisors are each assigned to various tasks as well as keeping an eye on the students in the labs. They cover training new employees, scheduling the classes into the classrooms, updating the employee schedules and many other tasks.

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

software systems
technology consultants
instant messenger
circa labs


Emitter localisation from reception timestamps in asynchronous networks We address the problem of localising a mobile terminal (blind node) in unknown position from a set of anchor nodes in known positions. The proposed method does not require any form of node synchronisation nor measurement (or control) of the transmission times, which is difficult or anyway costly to achieve in practice. It relies exclusively on reception timestamps collected by the anchor nodes, according to their local clocks, that overhear packets transmitted by the blind node and by (at least one) other transmitting node(s) in known position, e.g., other anchors. The clock differences between the nodes are not eliminated ex ante through clock synchronisation, as in traditional ToA and TDoA methods. Instead, they are counteracted ex post, during the data processing stage, leveraging the data redundancy that is intrinsic to the multiple reception of the same packet by different (anchor) nodes. We validate the proposed method in different experimental settings, indoor and outdoor, using exclusively low-cost Commercial-Off-The-Shelf WiFi devices, achieving sub-metre accuracy in full line-of-sight conditions and metre-level accuracy in mild non-line-of-sight environment. The proposed method does not require that the blind node participate actively to the localisation procedure and can use opportunistically any legacy signal or packet available over-the-air for communication purposes. Considering the very minimal requirement on the systembasically, only that anchors in known positions are able to collect and share reception timestampsthe proposed approach can enable practical adoption of opportunistic and/or cooperative localisation on top of existing radio communication systems.

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

time-based localisation
opportunistic localisation
wifi testbed


Dynamic power saving mechanism for 3G UMTS system This paper investigates the power saving mechanism of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). UMTS discontinuous reception (DRX) is exercised between the network and a mobile station (MS) to save the power of the MS. The DRX mechanism is controlled by two parameters: the inactivity timer threshold t (I) and the DRX cycle t (D) . Analytic analysis and simulation model are proposed to study the optimal t (I) and t (D) selections that maximize the MS power saving under the given mean packet waiting time constraint. We also devise an adaptive algorithm called dynamic DRX (DDRX). This algorithm dynamically adjusts the t (I) and t (D) values to enhance the performance of UMTS DRX. Our study quantitatively shows how to select the best inactivity timer and DRX cycle values for various traffic patterns. We also show that DDRX nicely captures the user traffic patterns, and always adjusts the t (I) and t (D) close to the optimal values.

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

universal mobile telecommunications system (umts)


Numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with an upwind compact difference scheme A new finite difference method for the discretization of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is presented. The scheme is constructed on a staggered-mesh grid system. The convection terms are discretized with a fifth-order-accurate upwind compact difference approximation, the viscous terms are discretized with a sixth-order symmetrical compact difference approximation, the continuity equation and the pressure gradient in the momentum equations are discretized with a fourth-order difference approximation on a cell-centered mesh. Time advancement uses a three-stage Runge-Kutta method. The Poisson equation for computing the pressure is solved with preconditioning. Accuracy analysis shows that the new method has high resolving efficiency. Validation of the method by computation of Taylor's vortex array is presented. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

finite difference scheme
compact difference method
higher-order scheme
navier-stokes equations
incompressible flow


Sampling strategies in density-based sensitivity analysis Decision and policy-makers benefit from the utilization of computer codes in an increasing number of areas and applications. Several authorities and agencies recommend the utilization of proper sensitivity analysis methods in order to confidently entrust model results. In this respect, density-based techniques have recently attracted interest among academicians and practitioners, for their property to characterize uncertainty in terms of the entire distribution of an output variable. However, their estimation is a challenging task and, without a proper methodical approach, errors in the estimates can lead to misleading conclusions. In this work, we propose sampling plans for reducing the computational burden of sensitivity estimates while improving and controlling the accuracy in the estimation. We compare designs based on column substitutions and designs based on permutations. We investigate their behaviour in terms of type I and type II errors. We apply the methods to the Level E model, a computational tool developed by the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD for the assessment of nuclear waste disposal sites. Results show that application of the proposed sampling plans allows one to obtain confidence in the sensitivity estimates at a number of model runs several orders of magnitude lower than a brute-force approach. This assessment, based upon the entire distribution of the model output, provides us with ways to effectively reduce uncertainty in the model output, either by prioritizing the model factors that need to be better known or by prioritizing the areas where additional modelling efforts are needed.

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

global sensitivity analysis
importance measures
density-based
moment independent
computer experiments
sampling design


Semantic concept mining in cricket videos for automated highlight generation This paper presents a novel approach towards automated highlight generation of broadcast sports video sequences from its extracted events and semantic concepts. A sports video is hierarchically divided into temporal partitions namely, megaslots, slots, and semantic entities, namely concepts, and events. The proposed method extracts event sequence from video and classifies each sequence into a concept by sequential association mining. The extracted concepts and events within the concepts are selected according to their degree of importance to include those in the highlights. A parameter degree of abstraction is proposed, which gives a choice to the user about how concisely the extracted concepts should be produced for a specified highlight duration. We have successfully extracted highlights from recorded video of cricket match and compared our results with the manually-generated highlights by sports television channel.

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 O O O O O O O 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

event detection
association rule
sports video highlights


Docking and scoring of metallo-beta-lactamases inhibitors The performance of the AutoDock, GOLD and FlexX docking programs was evaluated for docking of dicarboxylic acid inhibitors into metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs). GOLD provided the best overall performance, with RMSDs between experimental and docked structures of 1.8-2.6 Angstrom and a good correlation between the experimentally determined MBL-inhibitor affinities and the GOLD scores. GOLD was selected for a test including a broad spectrum of inhibitors for which experimental MBL-inhibitor binding affinities are available. This study revealed that (1) for most compound classes (dicarboxylic acids, tetrazoles, sulfonylhydrazones, and peptide-like compounds) there is a good correlation between the experimentally determined MBL-inhibitor affinities and the GOLD scores, (2) the correlation only holds within a given class, that is, scores of compounds from different classes cannot be directly compared, (3) for some compound classes (e.g. small sulphur compounds) there is no direct correlation between the experimentally determined MBL-inhibitor affinities and the GOLD scores. Using partial least squares methods, a model with R-2 = 0.82 and Q(2) = 0.78 for the training set was obtained based on the GOLD score and descriptors associated with binding of the IMP-1 inhibitors to the enzyme. The external Q(2) for the test set is 0.73. This final model for prediction of IMP-1 MBL-inhibitor affinity handled all known classes of MBL-inhibitors, except small sulphur compounds.

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


Stochastic analysis of a system with redundant robots, one built-in safety unit, and common-cause failures This paper presents reliability and availability analyses of a mathematical model representing a robot-safety system having n-redundant robots and one built-in safety unit with common-cause failures. At least k robots must function successfully for the overall robot system success. The system failure rates and the partially failed system repair rates are assumed constant and the failed system repair time is assumed arbitrarily distributed. Markov and supplementary variable methods were used to develop generalized expressions for state probabilities, system availabilities, reliability, and mean time to failure. Some plots of these expressions are shown.

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

availability reliability repair robot safety system


Unsupervised hierarchical adaptation using reliable selection of cluster-dependent parameters Adaptation of speaker-independent hidden Markov models (HMMs) to a new speaker using speaker-specific data is an effective approach to improve speech recognition performance for the enrolled speaker. Practically, it is desirable to flexibly perform the adaptation without any prior knowledge or limitation on the enrolled adaptation data (e.g. data transcription, length and content). However, the inevitable transcription errors may cause unreliability in the model adaptation (or transformation). The variable length and content of adaptation data usually make it necessary to dynamically control the degree of sharing in transformation-based adaptation. This paper presents an unsupervised hierarchical adaptation algorithm for flexible speaker adaptation. We build a tree structure of HMMs such that the control of transformation sharing can be achieved. To perform the unsupervised learning, we apply Bayesian theory to estimate the transformation parameters and data transcription. To select the parameters for hierarchical model transformation, we developed a new algorithm based on the maximum confidence measure (MCM) and minimum description length (MDL) criteria. Experimental comparisons on unsupervised speaker adaptation show that the hybrid adaptation scheme based on MCM and MDL criteria achieves the best recognition results for any lengths of enrollment data.

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

speech recognition
unsupervised learning
confidence measure
speaker adaptation


Efficient methods for computing observation impact in 4D-Var data assimilation This paper presents a practical computational approach to quantify the effect of individual observations in estimating the state of a system. Such a methodology can be used for pruning redundant measurements and for designing future sensor networks. The mathematical approach is based on computing the sensitivity of the analyzed model states (unconstrained optimization solution) with respect to the data. The computational cost is dominated by the solution of a linear system, whose matrix is the Hessian of the cost function, and is only available in operator form. The right-hand side is the gradient of a scalar cost function that quantifies the forecast error of the numerical model. The use of adjoint models to obtain the necessary first- and second-order derivatives is discussed. We study various strategies to accelerate the computation, including matrix-free iterative solvers, preconditioners, and an in-house multigrid solver. Experiments are conducted on both a small-size shallow-water equations model and on a large-scale numerical weather prediction model, in order to illustrate the capabilities of the new methodology.

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 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

variational data assimilation
sensitivity analysis
matrix-free solvers


real world dynamic appearance enhancement with procam feedback In this paper, a dynamic appearance enhancement method for the less saturated object is proposed. The appearance enhancement method proposed in this paper is realized with a projector camera dynamic feed back system. Therefore, the proposed method has an ability of the rapid and continuous appearance enhancement and it is useful for the human visual perception assistance. Also, the system not requires a pre-captured appearance of the target.

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


Between entropy and subentropy The von Neumann entropy and the subentropy of a mixed quantum state are upper and lower bounds, respectively, on the accessible information of any ensemble consistent with the given mixed state. Here we define and investigate a set of quantities intermediate between entropy and subentropy.

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


Novel data condensing method using a prototype?s front propagation algorithm This work proposes a method for data condensing. The method is based on the selection of a generator of data prototypes. An algorithm for the front propagation of the prototypes? boundaries is performed in order to obtain the class boundaries given by a set of support vectors. The proposed method just has one tuning parameter and presents high classification rates even for complex topological and non-concave classes and low tendency to over-fitting. The most important advantage of the proposed method is its higher condensing rate without a significant detrimental effect on the classification rate. The algorithm is intended to be applied for condensing data in low memory devices and transmission of high-volume of data where data condensing could be crucial.

O O O O O O 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

data classification
machine learning
knn


Physically based cosmetic rendering Simulating realistic makeup effects is one of the important research issues in the 3D facial animation and cosmetic industry. Existing approaches based on image processing techniques, such as warping and blending, have been mostly applied to transfer one's makeup to another's. Although these approaches are intuitive and need only makeup images, they have some drawbacks, for example, distorted shapes and fixed viewing and lighting conditions. In this paper, we propose an integrated approach, which combines the KubelkaMunk model and a screen-space skin rendering approach, to simulate 3D makeup effects. The KubelkaMunk model is used to compute total transmittance when light passes through cosmetic layers, whereas the screen-space translucent rendering approach simulates the subsurface scattering effects inside human skin. The parameters of KubelkaMunk model are obtained by measuring the optical properties of different cosmetic materials, such as foundations, blushes, and lipsticks. Our results demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to render realistic cosmetic effects on human facial models, and different cosmetic materials and styles can be flexibly applied and simulated in real time. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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 B I O 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

skin rendering
translucent rendering
cosmetic rendering


Predicting the future We present a novel methodology for predicting future outcomes that uses small numbers of individuals participating in an imperfect information market. By determining their risk attitudes and performing a nonlinear aggregation of their predictions, we are able to assess the probability of the future outcome of an uncertain event and compare it to both the objective probability of its occurrence and the performance of the market as a whole. Experiments show that this nonlinear aggregation mechanism vastly outperforms both the imperfect market and the best of the participants. We then extend the mechanism to prove robust in the presence of public information.

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

information aggregation
information markets
experimental economics
mechanism design


Knowledge mining sensory evaluation data: genetic programming, statistical techniques, and swarm optimization Knowledge mining sensory evaluation data is a challenging process due to extreme sparsity of the data, and a large variation in responses from different members (called assessors) of the panel. The main goals of knowledge mining in sensory sciences are understanding the dependency of the perceived liking score on the concentration levels of flavors ingredients, identifying ingredients that drive liking, segmenting the panel into groups with similar liking preferences and optimizing flavors to maximize liking per group. Our approach employs (1) Genetic programming (symbolic regression) and ensemble methods to generate multiple diverse explanations of assessor liking preferences with confidence information; (2) statistical techniques to extrapolate using the produced ensembles to unobserved regions of the flavor space, and segment the assessors into groups which either have the same propensity to like flavors, or are driven by the same ingredients; and (3) two-objective swarm optimization to identify flavors which are well and consistently liked by a selected segment of assessors.

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

sensory science
non-linear optimization
variable selection
pareto genetic programming
hedonic evaluation
complexity control


Compositional Petri net approach to the development of concurrent and distributed systems In the paper, a formal model based on Petri nets is proposed in the context of a compositional approach to the development and analysis of complex concurrent and distributed systems. Multilabels of Petri nets are introduced allowing labeling a transition not only with a single symbol, but also with a multiset of symbols. Operations on multilabeled Petri nets-parallel composition and restriction-are defined. A definition of a Petri net entity is given based on the notion of multilabels. A Petri net entity is a Petri net with a set of multilabels, where each multilabel is regarded as an access point of the entity. The operation of entity composition is introduced. Equivalence of entities is defined based on bisimulation equivalence of Petri nets. It is shown that the equivalence relation is congruent with respect to entity composition. It is also demonstrated that the composition operation is commutative and associative.

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distributed systems
petri nets
petri net entity


Variation analysis of uncertain stationary independent increment processes A stationary independent increment process is an uncertain process with stationary and independent increments. This paper aims to calculate the variance of stationary independent increment processes, and gains that, for each fixed time, the variance is a constant multiplying the square of time. Based on this result, it is proved that the total variation of stationary independent increment process with finite variance is bounded almost surely. Besides, the quadratic variation of stationary independent increment process with finite variance is 0 almost surely and in mean.

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


compile-time decided instruction cache locking using worst-case execution paths Caches are notorious for their unpredictability. It is difficult or even impossible to predict if a memory access results in a definite cache hit or miss. This unpredictability is highly undesired for real-time systems. The Worst-Case Execution Time ( WCET ) of a software running on an embedded processor is one of the most important metrics during real-time system design. The WCET depends to a large extent on the total amount of time spent for memory accesses. In the presence of caches, WCET analysis must always assume a memory access to be a cache miss if it can not be guaranteed that it is a hit. Hence, WCETs for cached systems are imprecise due to the overestimation caused by the caches. Modern caches can be controlled by software. The software can load parts of its code or of its data into the cache and lock the cache afterwards. Cache locking prevents the cache's contents from being flushed by deactivating the replacement. A locked cache is highly predictable and leads to very precise WCET estimates, because the uncertainty caused by the replacement strategy is eliminated completely. This paper presents techniques exploring the lockdown of instruction caches at compile-time to minimize WCETs. In contrast to the current state of the art in the area of cache locking, our techniques explicitly take the worst-case execution path into account during each step of the optimization procedure. This way, we can make sure that always those parts of the code are locked in the I-cache that lead to the highest WCET reduction. The results demonstrate that WCET reductions from 54\% up to 73\% can be achieved with an acceptable amount of CPU seconds required for the optimization and WCET analyses themselves.

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


Efficient High Order Matching We present a computational approach to high-order matching of data sets in IR(d). Those are matchings based on data affinity measures that score the matching of more than two pairs of points at a time. High-order affinities are represented by tensors and the matching is then given by a rank-one approximation of the affinity tensor and a corresponding discretization. Our approach is rigorously justified by extending Zass and Shashua's hypergraph matching [40] to high-order spectral matching. This paves the way for a computationally efficient dual-marginalization spectral matching scheme. We also show that, based on the spectral properties of random matrices, affinity tensors can be randomly sparsified while retaining the matching accuracy. Our contributions are experimentally validated by applying them to synthetic as well as real data sets.

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high-order assignment
probabilistic matching
spectral relaxation