Comparison of childrens gaming scores to NEPSY-II scores: Validation of computer games as cognitive tools For 11/15 games the childrens game and NEPSY-II performances significantly correlated. Many games predicted to use cognitive skills, correlated with right NEPSY-II measures. Additional skills also correlated with games, emphasizing the complexity of game play. Analysis confirmed at least one cognitive category for each game, except memory. Similar games could be used to practice or monitor cognition of schoolchildren.

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


High intensity focused ultrasound lithotripsy with cavitating microbubbles In the medical ultrasound field, microbubbles have recently been the subject of much interest. Controlling actively the effect of the microbubbles, a novel therapeutic method has been investigated. In this paper, our works on high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) lithotripsy with cavitating microbubbles are reviewed and the cavitation detection method to optimize the HIFU intensity is investigated. In the HIFU lithotripsy, collapse of the cloud cavitation is used to fragment kidney stones. Cloud cavitation is potentially the most destructive form of cavitation. When the cloud cavitation is acoustically forced into a collapse, it has the potential to concentrate a very high pressure. For the control of the cloud cavitation collapse, a novel two-frequency wave (cavitation control [C-C] waveform) is designed; a high-frequency ultrasound pulse (14MHz) to create the cloud cavitation and a low-frequency trailing pulse (500kHz) following the high-frequency pulse to force the cloud into collapse. High-speed photography showed the cavitation collapse on the stone and the shock-wave emission from the cloud. In vitro erosion tests of model and natural stones were also conducted. In the case of model stones, the erosion rate of the C-C waveform showed a distinct advantage with the combined high- and low-frequency waves over either wave alone. For the optimization of the high-frequency ultrasound intensity, the subharmonic acoustic pressure was examined. The results showed relationship between the subharmonic pressure from cavitating bubbles induced by the high-frequency ultrasound and eroded volume of the model stones. Natural stones were eroded and most of the resulting fragments were less than 1mm in diameter. The method has the potential to provide a novel lithotripsy system with small fragments and localized cavitating bubbles on a stone.

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

high intensity focused ultrasound (hifu)


Application of r- and hr-adaptive BEM to two-dimensional elastic problem This paper presents r- and hr-adaptive boundary element methods. The error analysis is done by the sample point error estimation scheme. Then, the error indicator is defined as the product of the computational errors and the fundamental solutions. Mesh refinement is carried out so that the error indicator distributes almost uniformly on whole boundary elements at the refined mesh. The present method is applied to the two-dimensional elastic problem in order to confirm its validity.

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

boundary element method
adaptive scheme
sample point error analysis
two-dimensional elastic problem


Nanoscale phase separation in AgGeSe glasses We have investigated the materials formed by Ag photodiffusion in Se-rich GeSe thin glass films. The amount of Ag that can be incorporated by this method saturates at a level dependent on the quantity of Se in the starting glass. The photodiffused Ag reacts with the Se to form distinct Ag2Se and Ge-rich backbone phases as determined by Raman and XRD analyses. The conducting Ag2Se phases exist as nano-crystals with a size in the order of 2 nm in the backbone structure.

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

chalcogenide glasses
nano-crystals
raman spectroscopy
x-ray diffraction


Classification of vitreousness in durum wheat using soft X-rays and transmitted light images Hardness is a kernel characteristic that influences both milling and processing characteristics of wheat. It is one characteristic that is used for segregating wheat to meet the needs for various products. Kernel virteousness is a visual marker for hardness and is the characteristic assessed during the grading process. The potential of classifying vitreous and non-vitreous durum wheat kernels, in crease-down position, using imaging systems based on real time soft X-rays or transmitted light was assessed in this study. Durum wheat kernels at 14, 15 and 16% moisture contents were used as samples in this study. Image features modeling gray level distribution, textural and shape moments were measured and used to develop a classification system for vitreous and non-vitreous durum wheat kernels. The classification accuracies were 76% for vitreous kernels and 82% for non-vitreous kernels at 16% moisture content using the soft X-ray system but for the transmitted light system, the classification accuracies were 86% for vitreous and 93% for non-vitreous kernels. Moisture content had no effect on classifying vitreous or non-vitreous kernels by the transmitted light system but the classification accuracies increased with moisture content for non-vitreous kernels by the soft X-ray system.

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

vitreous kernels
transmitted light images

non-vitreous kernels
soft x-ray images
image analysis


Adjoint-based error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement for the RANS and k-omega turbulence model equations article we present the extension of the a posteriori error estimation and goal-oriented mesh refinement approach from laminar to turbulent flows, which are governed by the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes and k-omega turbulence model (RANS-k omega) equations. In particular, we consider a discontinuous Galerkin discretization of the RANS-k omega equations and use it within an adjoint-based error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement algorithm that targets the reduction of the discretization error in single as well as in multiple aerodynamic force coefficients. The accuracy of the error estimation and the performance of the goal-oriented mesh refinement algorithm is demonstrated for various test cases, including a two-dimensional turbulent flow around a three-element high lift configuration and a three-dimensional turbulent flow around a wing-body configuration. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. 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 B I O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O 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

goal-oriented mesh refinement
discontinuous galerkin method


3D depth information extraction with omni-directional camera A novel omni-directional 3D camera framework is proposed. The omni-directional camera and infrared dot matrix structured light can be merged. The model can reveal the relation between the object depth and its pixel offset. We can obtain the pixel offset with the sequence coding algorithm.

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

depth measurement
omni-directional image
infrared laser
real-time systems


REIT volatility prediction for skew-GED distribution of the GARCH model This study investigates how specification of return distribution for REIT influences the performance of volatility forecasting using three GARCH models (GARCH-N, GARCH-ST and GARCH-SGED). Daily prices on the REIT provide an empirical sample for discussing and comparing relative ability to accurately out-of-sample volatility, given the growth potential of REIT markets in the United State from the perspective of global investors. Empirical results indicate that the GARCH-SGED model is superior to the GARCH-N and GARCH-ST model in forecasting REIT volatility in the United State, for all forecast horizons in which model selection is based on MSE or MAE. Meanwhile, the DM-tests further confirm that volatility forecasts using the GARCH-SGED model are more accurate than those generated using the GARCH-N and GARCH-ST model in all cases. These findings demonstrate the significant influences of both skewness and tail-thickness on the conditional distribution of returns.

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


Unidata's Common Data Model mapping to the ISO 19123 Data Model Access to real-time distributed Earth and Space Science (ESS) information is essential for enabling critical Decision Support Systems (DSS). Thus, data model interoperability between the ESS and DSS communities is a decisive achievement for enabling cyber-infrastructure which aims to serve important societal benefit areas. The ESS community is characterized by a certain heterogeneity, as far as data models are concerned. Recent spatial data infrastructures implement international standards for the data model in order to achieve interoperability and extensibility. This paper presents well-accepted ESS data models, introducing a unified data model called the Common Data Model (CDM). CDM mapping into the corresponding elements of the international standard coverage data model of ISO 19123 is presented and discussed at the abstract level. The mapping of CDM scientific data types to the ISO coverage model is a first step toward interoperability of data systems. This mapping will provide the abstract framework that can be used to unify subsequent efforts to define appropriate conventions along with explicit agreed-upon encoding forms for each data type. As a valuable case in point, the content mapping rules for CDM grid data are discussed addressing a significant example.

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

common data model
coverage
data model
iso 19123
scientific data types


Parallel complexity of computations with general and Toeplitz-like matrices filled with integers and extensions Computations with Toeplitz and Toeplitz-like matrices are fundamental for many areas of algebraic and numerical computing. The list of computational problems reducible to Toeplitz and Toeplitz-like computations includes, in particular, the evaluation of the greatest common divisor (gcd), the least common multiple (lcm), and the resultant of two polynomials, computing Pade approximation and the Berlekamp-Massey recurrence coefficients, as well as numerous problems reducible to these. Transition to Toeplitz and Toeplitz-like computations is currently the basis for the design of the parallel randomized NC (RNC) algorithms for these computational problems. Our main result is in constructing nearly optimal randomized parallel algorithms for Toeplitz and Toeplitz-like computations and, consequently, for numerous related computational problems ( including the computational problems listed above), where all the input values are integers and all the output values are computed exactly. This includes randomized parallel algorithms for computing the rank, the determinant, and a basis for the null-space of an n x n Toeplitz or Toeplitz-like matrix A filled with integers, as well as a solution x to a linear system A x = f if the system is consistent. Our algorithms use O ((log n) log(n log \\A\\)) parallel time and O (n log n) processors, each capable of performing (in unit time) an arithmetic operation, a comparision, or a rounding of a rational nu ber to a closest integer. The cost bounds cover the cost of the veri cation of the correctness of the output. The computations by these algorithms can be performed with the precision of O (n log \\A\\) bits, which matches the precision required in order to represent the output, except for the rank computation, where the precision of the computation decreases. The algorithms involve either a single random parameter or at most 2n - 1 parameters. The cited processor bounds are less by roughly factor n than ones supported by the known algorithms that run in polylogarithmic arithmetic time and do not use rounding to the closest integers. Technically, we rst devise new algorithms supporting our old nearly optimal complexity estimates for parallel computations with general matrices filled with integers. Then we decrease dramatically, by roughly factor n(1.376), the processor bounds required in these algorithms in the case where the input matrix is Toeplitz-like. Our algorithms exploit and combine some new techniques ( which maybe of independent interest, e.g., in the study of parallel and sequential computation of recursive factorization of integer matrices) as well as our earlier techniques of variable diagonal ( relating to each other several known algebraic and numerical methods), stream contraction, and the truncation of displacement generators in Toeplitz-like computations; our development and application of these techniques maybe of independent interest.

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

randomized algorithms
toeplitz matrix computations
toeplitz-like matrices
polynomial gcd
displacement rank
computational complexity
block gauss-jordan decomposition
p-adic lifting
newton-hensel's lifting


creating abstract superclasses by refactoring This paper focuses on object-oriented programming and one kind of structure-improving transformation (refactoring) that is unique to object-oriented programming: finding abstract superclasses. We decompose the operation of finding an abstract superclass into a set of refactoring steps, and provide examples. We discuss techniques that can automate or automatically support these steps. We also consider some of the conditions that must be satisfied to perform a refactoring safely; sometimes to satisfy these conditions other refactorings must first be applied.

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

object-oriented programming
structure
abstraction
automation


Building look & feel concept models from color combinations With applications in image classification, retrieval, and color transfer In this paper, we tackle the problem of associating combinations of colors to abstract concepts (e. g. capricious, classic, cool, delicate, etc.). Since such concepts are difficult to represent using single colors, we consider combinations of colors or color palettes. We leverage two novel databases for color palettes, and learn categorization models using both low and high level descriptors. It is shown that the Bag of Colors and Fisher Vectors are the most rewarding descriptors for palettes categorization and retrieval. A simple but novel and efficient method for cleaning weakly annotated data, whilst preserving the visual coherence of categories is also given. Finally, we demonstrate that abstract category models learned on color palettes can be used in different applications such as image personalization, concept-based palette, and image retrieval and color transfer.

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

pattern recognition
color vision
aesthetics


reducing memory requirements of nested loops for embedded systems Most embedded systems have limited amount of memory. In contrast, the memory requirements of code (in particular loops) running on embedded systems is significant. This paper addresses the problem of estimating the amount of memory needed for transfers of data in embedded systems. The problem of estimating the region associated with a statement or the set of elements referenced by a statement during the execution of the entire set of nested loops is analyzed. Aquantitative analysis of the number of elements referenced is presented; exact expressions for uniformly generated references and a close upper and lower bound for non-uniformly generated references are derived. In addition to presenting an algorithm that computes the total memory required, we discuss the effect of transformations on the lifetimes of array variables, i.e., the time between the first and last accesses to a given array location. A detailed analysis on the effect of unimodular transformations on data locality including the calculation of the maximum window size is discussed. The term maximum window size is introduced and quantitative expressions are derived to compute the window size. The smaller the value of the maximum window size, the higher the amount of data locality in the loop.

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

requirements
value
lower bound
data locality
region
analysis
size
code
data
algorithm
paper
effect
embedded systems

variability present estimates locatability association computation express arrays memorialized timing windows


modeling epidemic information dissemination on mobile devices with finite buffers Epidemic algorithms have recently been proposed as an effective solution for disseminating information in large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) systems and in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). In this paper, we present a modeling approach for steady-state analysis of epidemic dissemination of information in MANET. As major contribution, the introduced approach explicitly represents the spread of multiple data items, finite buffer capacity at mobile devices and a least recently used buffer replacement scheme. Using the introduced modeling approach, we analyze seven degrees of separation (7DS) as one well-known approach for implementing P2P data sharing in a MANET using epidemic dissemination of information. A validation of results derived from the analytical model against simulation shows excellent agreement. Quantitative performance curves derived from the analytical model yield several insights for optimizing the system design of 7DS.

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

peer-to-peer data sharing
analytical performance modeling


Generalization of Coons' construction Two schemes for surface construction are presented in this paper. The first one is a substantial generalization of Coons' method, where instead of four curves four surface patches are the input data in the surface definition. The second scheme generalizes the Gordon-Coons construction of triangular patches by combining three surfaces and an appropriate correction term. In both cases the resulting surface fits one boundary curve of each constituent, and its shape is influenced not only by boundary data but also by the shapes of the given surfaces and additional shape parameters. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

coons surfaces
convex combination
blending surfaces
surface modelling


Optimal design of shells against buckling by means of the simulated annealing method In this paper, the problem of optimal design of shells against instability under combined state of loadings is considered. We look for the shape of a meridian as well as the thickness of a shell, which ensures the maximal critical value of the loading parameter. The equality constraining the volume of material and the capacity of a shell are considered. The concept of a shell of uniform stability is applied.

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


Some approximation theorems for functions of two variables through almost convergence of double sequences The idea of almost convergence for double sequences was introduced by Moricz and Rhoades [Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 104 (1988) 283-294]. In this paper, we use this concept to prove a Korovkin type approximation theorem for functions of two variables along with a supporting example. Further, we present some consequences of our main theorem.

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

almost convergence
korovkin type approximation theorem


Model-based robust fault detection and isolation of an industrial gas turbine prototype using soft computing techniques This study proposes a model-based robust fault detection and isolation (RFDI) method with hybrid structure. Robust detection and isolation of the realistic faults of an industrial gas turbine in steady-state conditions is mainly considered. For residual generation, a bank of time-delay multilayer perceptron (MLP) models is used, and in fault detection step, a passive approach based on model error modelling is employed to achieve threshold adaptation. To do so, local linear neuro-fuzzy (LLNF) modelling is utilised for constructing error-model to generate uncertainty interval upon the system output in order to make decision whether a fault occurred or not. This model is trained using local linear model tree (LOLIMOT) which is a progressive tree-construction algorithm. Simple thresholding is also used along with adaptive thresholding in fault detection phase for comparative purposes. Besides, another MLP neural network is utilised to isolate the faults. In order to show the effectiveness of proposed RFDI method, it was tested on a single-shaft industrial gas turbine prototype model and has been evaluated based on the gas turbine data. A brief comparative study with the related works done on this gas turbine benchmark is also provided to show the pros and cons of the presented RFDI method.

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

robust fault detection and isolation
neural network
industrial gas turbine
model error modelling

local linear neuro-fuzzy network
local linear model tree (lolimot)


Factors affecting e-collaboration technology use among management students This paper describes an exploratory study of 225 management students in a medium-sized university in southern Spain. The influences of gender and previous experience as determinants of technology use were analysed. Furthermore, a modified Technology Acceptance Model, using SEM, was applied to explain the influence of perceived computer self-efficacy on the intention to use Internet-based e-collaboration technologies in the learning-teaching process. This was completed with qualitative data from unstructured interviews with ten students. Our results suggest that the management student cannot be considered an advanced user of the Internet. Computer self-efficacy has a positive influence on intention to use the system. This intention is also influenced by attitude towards the system, but not directly by perceived usefulness. These and other contradictory findings are analysed in the paper. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

applications in subject areas
computer-mediated communication
cooperative/collaborative learning
country-specific developments
teaching/learning strategies


Learning switching dynamic models for objects tracking ? Many recent tracking algorithms rely on model learning methods. A promising approach consists of modeling the object motion with switching autoregressive models. This article is involved with parametric switching dynamical models governed by an hidden Markov Chain. The maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of those models is described. The formulas of the EM algorithm are detailed. Moreover, the problem of choosing a good and parsimonious model with BIC criterion is considered. Emphasis is put on choosing a reasonable number of hidden states. Numerical experiments on both simulated and real data sets highlight the ability of this approach to describe properly object motions with sudden changes. The two applications on real data concern object and heart tracking.

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

hidden markov chain
em algorithm
bic criterion


Stochastic approximation and rate-distortion analysis for robust structure and motion estimation Recent research on structure and motion recovery has focused on issues related to sensitivity and robustness of existing techniques. One possible reason is that in practical applications, the underlying assumptions made by existing algorithms are often violated. In this paper, we propose a framework for 3D reconstruction from short monocular video sequences taking into account the statistical errors in reconstruction algorithms. Detailed error analysis is especially important for this problem because the motion between pairs of frames is small and slight perturbations in its estimates can lead to large errors in 3D reconstruction. We focus on the following issues: physical sources of errors, their experimental and theoretical analysis, robust estimation techniques and measures for characterizing the quality of the final reconstruction. We derive a precise relationship between the error in the reconstruction and the error in the image correspondences. The error analysis is used to design a robust, recursive multi-frame fusion algorithm using "stochastic approximation" as the framework since it is capable of dealing with incomplete information about errors in observations. Rate-distortion analysis is proposed for evaluating the quality of the final reconstruction as a function of the number of frames and the error in the image correspondences. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm, examples of depth reconstruction are shown for different video sequences.

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

structure and motion estimation
error analysis

robbins-monro stochastic approximation
rate distortion theory


Atlas.txt: exploring linguistic grounding techniques for communicating spatial information to blind users This paper describes exploratory research into automatically describing geo-referenced information to blind people. The goal is to produce texts giving an overview of the spatial layout, and a central concern of such texts is that they employ an appropriate linguistic reference frame which enables blind hearers to ground the information. The research presented in this paper was based on two hypotheses: (1) directly perceivable reference frames are easier to ground and (2) spatial descriptions drawn from composite reference frame systems composed of more than one reference frame are easier to ground. An experiment exploring text comprehension on a range of texts employing different reference frame systems is presented. The main results indicate that the second hypothesis is supported. A prototype of a natural language generation system, which generates texts describing geo-referenced information from data, is described.

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

geo-referenced spatial information
reference frame preference


Fuzzy soft set-based approach to prioritizing technical attributes in quality function deployment Quality function deployment is a planning and problem-solving tool for translating customer requirements into the technical attributes of a product. To obtain the rating order of technical attributes is a crucial step in applying quality function deployment. Based on the fuzzy soft theory proposed by Maji et al., which is a new mathematical tool to deal with uncertainties, a novel approach is proposed in this paper in order to prioritize technical attributes. We utilize the relative deviation between scores of customer requirements and their average to construct membership function in order to construct fuzzy soft sets. The weights of customer requirements and the final importance of technical attributes are obtained from fuzzy soft sets derived from raw data without other information. An illustrated example is cited to demonstrate the application of the proposed approach.

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

quality function deployment
technical attributes
customer requirements


Performance analysis of an M/G/1 queueing system under Bernoulli vacation schedules with server setup and close down periods This paper is concerned with the analysis of a single server queueing system subject to Bernoulli vacation schedules with server setup and close down periods. An explicit expression for the probability generating function of the number of customers present in the system is obtained by using imbedded Markov chain technique. The steady state probabilities of no customer in the system at the end of vacation termination epoch and a service completion epoch are derived. The mean number of customers served during a service period and the mean number of customers in the system at an arbitrary epoch are investigated under steady state. Further, the Laplace-Stieltjes transform of the waiting time distribution and its corresponding mean are studied. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the effect of system parameters on the performance measures. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

probability generating function
imbedded markov chain
setup and close down periods
waiting time


Gaussian skewness approximation for dynamic rate multi-server queues with abandonment The multi-server queue with non-homogeneous Poisson arrivals and customer abandonment is a fundamental dynamic rate queueing model for large scale service systems such as call centers and hospitals. Scaling the arrival rates and number of servers arises naturally when a manager updates a staffing schedule in response to a forecast of increased customer demand. Mathematically, this type of scaling ultimately gives us the fluid and diffusion limits as found in Mandelbaum et al., Queueing Syst 30:149201 (1998) for Markovian service networks. The asymptotics used here reduce to the Halfin and Whitt, Oper Res 29:567588 (1981) scaling for multi-server queues. The diffusion limit suggests a Gaussian approximation to the stochastic behavior of this queueing process. The mean and variance are easily computed from a two-dimensional dynamical system for the fluid and diffusion limiting processes. Recent work by Ko and Gautam, INFORMS J Comput, to appear (2012) found that a modified version of these differential equations yield better Gaussian estimates of the original queueing system distribution. In this paper, we introduce a new three-dimensional dynamical system that is based on estimating the mean, variance, and third cumulant moment. This improves on the previous approaches by fitting the distribution from a quadratic function of a Gaussian random variable.

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

abandonment
asymptotics
fluid and diffusion limits
skewness

multi-server queues
dynamical systems
time-varying rates
time inhomogeneous markov processes
hermite polynomials
cumulant moments
33c45
60k25


reading and writing fluid hypertext narratives We describe a new way to present and author hypertext narratives. The Fluid Reader constructs a unified interactive text from the content of multiple nodes and allows a reader to explore alternative paths within it. The Fluid Reader has been available as a hands-on museum exhibit for nearly a year to date, where it has been enjoyed by readers of all ages. Its success has prompted further interest and development in Fluid hypertexts. We have designed and implemented an authoring tool called the Fluid Writer that uses a new treetable visualization to help authors construct and manage alternative paths in a Fluid hypertext. Finally, an exploration of the narrative implications of Fluid hypertext suggests that it may be more suitable than conventional hypertext for formulaic fictions such as mystery stories.

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

help
authoring
hypertext
visualization
text
narrative
museum
fluid reader
treetable
writing
fluid writer
exploration

interaction
authoring tool
contention
fluid documents
developer
fluid hypertext
hypertext narrative
read
stretchtext
management


Image segmentation by clustering of spatial patterns This letter describes an approach to perceptual segmentation of images through the means of clustering of spatial patterns. An image is modeled as a set of spatial patterns defined on a rectangular lattice. The distance between a spatial pattern and each cluster is defined as a combination of the Euclidean distance in the feature space and the spatial dissimilarity which reflects how much of the patterns neighbourhood is occupied by other clusters. Our approach has been compared with the Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM) algorithm, a spatial fuzzy clustering algorithm and a Markov Random Field (MRF) based algorithm by segmenting synthetic images, texture mosaics and natural images. The results of those comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach can segment images more effectively and provide more robust segmentation results.

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

image segmentation
spatial pattern
fuzzy clustering


Similarity and familiarity: Second language sentence recognition in first- and second-language multi-talker babble ? The intelligibility of speech in noisy environments depends not only on the functionality of listeners peripheral auditory systems, but also on cognitive factors such as their language learning experience. Previous studies have shown, for example, that normal-hearing listeners attending to a non-native language have more difficulty in identifying speech targets in noisy conditions than do native listeners. Furthermore, native listeners have more difficulty in understanding speech targets in the presence of speech noise in their native language versus a foreign language. The present study addresses the role of listeners experience with both the target and noise languages by examining second-language sentence recognition in first- and second-language noise. Native English speakers and non-native English speakers whose native language is Mandarin were tested on English sentence recognition in English and Mandarin 2-talker babble. Results show that both listener groups experienced greater difficulty in English versus Mandarin babble, but that native Mandarin listeners experienced a smaller release from masking in Mandarin babble relative to English babble. These results indicate that both the similarity between the target and noise and the language experience of the listeners contribute to the amount of interference listeners experience when listening to speech in the presence of speech noise.

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

speech-in-noise perception
informational masking
multi-talker babble
bilingual speech perception


design of an indoor climate monitoring and control unit using the pic microcontroller Climate control in indoor environments like operation theatres, homes and offices can be done using a PIC microcontroller. The availability of an in-built 12C module, power saving SLEEP mode and the low power consumption of the PIC microcontroller makes it feasible for a cost effective system. Several sensors connected to the PIC microcontroller monitor the climatic conditions within the room. Actuators are used for feedback control. A 3-key keypad user interface is provided along with a 16x2 alphanumeric LCD display. A real time clock (RTC) is interfaced to the microcontroller to enable the system to perform preprogrammed actions.

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

real time system
microcontrollers
analog - digital conversion


exploring touch and breath in networked wearable installation design This paper describes the artistic design concepts for the interactive wearable artworks tendrils and exhale exhibited at ACM Multimedia 2010 Interactive Art Program in Firenze Italy at the at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi from 25 October through 6 November, 2010. These wearable art works are based in artistic exploration influenced by the somatic turn : an approach to designing for experience using body based practices that highlight the concept of somaesthetics as an approach to the design of expressive interaction. The interactive wearable art installations tendrils and exhale emphasize the experience of self-observation, poetics, materiality, and computational semantics that support sensory input such as touch and breath. In the context of interaction, somaesthetics offers a bridging strategy between embodied practices based in somatics, and the design for an aesthetics of interaction in wearable technology. These artworks illustrate the value of exploring artistic design strategies that employ a somaesthetic approach, and exemplify this approach in the design of a networked, wearable interactive art.

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

art/design installation
interaction aesthetics
kinaesthesia
user experience
materials exploration
embodiment
wearable interaction


A paradigm for handwriting-based intelligent tutors This paper presents the interaction design of, and demonstration of technical feasibility for, intelligent tutoring systems that can accept handwriting input from students. Handwriting and pen input offer several affordances for students that traditional typing-based interactions do not. To illustrate these affordances, we present evidence, from tutoring mathematics, that the ability to enter problem solutions via pen input enables students to record algebraic equations more quickly, more smoothly (fewer errors), and with increased transfer to non-computer-based tasks. Furthermore our evidence shows that students tend to like pen input for these types of problems more than typing. However, a clear downside to introducing handwriting input into intelligent tutors is that the recognition of such input is not reliable. In our work, we have found that handwriting input is more likely to be useful and reliable when context is considered, for example, the context of the problem being solved. We present an intelligent tutoring system for algebra equation solving via pen-based input that is able to use context to decrease recognition errors by 18% and to reduce recognition error recovery interactions to occur on one out of every four problems. We applied user-centered design principles to reduce the negative impact of recognition errors in the following ways: (1) though students handwrite their problem-solving process, they type their final answer to reduce ambiguity for tutoring purposes, and (2) in the small number of cases in which the system must involve the student in recognition error recovery, the interaction focuses on identifying the students problem-solving error to keep the emphasis on tutoring. Many potential recognition errors can thus be ignored and distracting interactions are avoided. This work can inform the design of future systems for students using pen and sketch input for math or other topics by motivating the use of context and pragmatics to decrease the impact of recognition errors and put user focus on the task at hand.

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

intelligent tutoring systems
pen input
mathematics
interaction design

handwriting recognition
cognitive tutors
human-computer interaction
educational technology


Boosting feature selection for Neural Network based regression The head pose estimation problem is well known to be a challenging task in computer vision and is a useful tool for several applications involving humancomputer interaction. This problem can be stated as a regression one where the input is an image and the output is pan and tilt angles. Finding the optimal regression is a hard problem because of the high dimensionality of the input (number of image pixels) and the large variety of morphologies and illumination. We propose a new method combining a boosting strategy for feature selection and a neural network for the regression. Potential features are a very large set of Haar-like wavelets which are well known to be adapted to face image processing. To achieve the feature selection, a new Fuzzy Functional Criterion (FFC) is introduced which is able to evaluate the link between a feature and the output without any estimation of the joint probability density function as in the Mutual Information. The boosting strategy uses this criterion at each step: features are evaluated by the FFC using weights on examples computed from the error produced by the neural network trained at the previous step. Tests are carried out on the commonly used Pointing 04 database and compared with three state-of-the-art methods. We also evaluate the accuracy of the estimation on FacePix, a database with a high angular resolution. Our method is compared positively to a Convolutional Neural Network, which is well known to incorporate feature extraction in its first layers.

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

boosting
regression
fuzzy functional criterion


Surface roughness prediction in machining using soft computing A study is presented to model surface roughness in end milling using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and genetic algorithms (GAs). The machining parameters, namely, the spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and the workpiece-tool vibration amplitude have been used as inputs to model the workpiece surface roughness. The number and the parameters of membership functions used in ANFIS along with the most suitable inputs are selected using GAs maximising the modelling accuracy. The ANFIS with GAs (GA-ANFIS) are trained with a subset of the experimental data. The trained GA-ANFIS are tested using the set of validation data. The procedure is illustrated using the experimental data of a CNC vertical machining centre in end-milling of 6061 aluminum. Results are compared with other soft computing techniques like genetic programming (GP) and artificial neural network (ANN). The results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in modelling the surface roughness.

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

computational intelligence
fuzzy logic
genetic algorithm
process monitoring
surface texture
average roughness


The value of competitive information in forecasting FMCG retail product sales and the variable selection problem We incorporate competitive information to forecast product sales for retailers. We investigate the forecasting accuracy for promoted and non-promoted period. Competitive information substantially increases forecasting accuracy.

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

business analytics
or in marketing
retailing
promotions


asynchronous distributed pf algorithm for wsn target tracking Particle filtering (PF) has been widely used in solving nonlinear/non Gaussian filtering problems. Inferring to the target tracking in a wireless sensor network (WSN), distributed PF (DPF) was used due to the limitation of nodes' computing capacity. In this paper, a novel filtering method -- asynchronous DPF (ADPF) for target tracking in WSN is proposed. There are two keys in the proposed algorithm. Firstly, instead of transferring value and weight of particles, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used to approximate the posteriori distribution, and only GMM parameters need to be transferred which can reduce the bandwidth and power consumption. Secondly, in order to use sampling information effectively, when target moving to the next cluster head region, the GMM parameters are transfer to the next cluster head, and combine with the new local GMM parameters to compose the new GMM parameters incrementally. The ADPF can also deal with the situation of different number of nodes in different cluster when using the dynamic cluster structure. The proposed ADPF is compared to some other DPF for WSN target tracking, and the experimental results show that not only the precision is improved, but also the bandwidth and power is reduced.

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


Fuzzy morphisms between graphs A generic definition of fuzzy morphism between graphs (GFM) is introduced that includes classical graph related problem definitions as sub-cases (such as graph and subgraph isomorphism). The GFM uses a pair of fuzzy relations, one on the vertices and one on the edges. Each relation is a mapping between the elements of two graphs. These two fuzzy relations are linked with constraints derived from the graph structure and the notion of association graph. The theory extends the properties of fuzzy relation to the problem of generic graph correspondence. We introduce two complementary interpretations of GFM from which we derive several interesting properties. The first interpretation is the generalization of the notion of association compatibility. The second is the new notion of edge morphism. One immediate application is the introduction of several composition laws. Each property has a theoretical and a practical interpretation in the problem of graph correspondence that is explained throughout the paper. Special attention is paid to the formulation of a non-algorithmical theory in order to propose a first step towards a unified theoretic framework for graph morphisms. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Mitral annulus segmentation from four-dimensional ultrasound using a valve state predictor and constrained optical flow Measurement of the shape and motion of the mitral valve annulus has proven useful in a number of applications, including pathology diagnosis and mitral valve modeling. Current methods to delineate the annulus from four-dimensional (4D) ultrasound, however, either require extensive overhead or user-interaction, become inaccurate as they accumulate tracking error, or they do not account for annular shape or motion. This paper presents a new 4D annulus segmentation method to account for these deficiencies. The method builds on a previously published three-dimensional (3D) annulus segmentation algorithm that accurately and robustly segments the mitral annulus in a frame with a closed valve. In the 4D method, a valve state predictor determines when the valve is closed. Subsequently, the 3D annulus segmentation algorithm finds the annulus in those frames. For frames with an open valve, a constrained optical flow algorithm is used to the track the annulus. The only inputs to the algorithm are the selection of one frame with a closed valve and one user-specified point near the valve, neither of which needs to be precise. The accuracy of the tracking method is shown by comparing the tracking results to manual segmentations made by a group of experts, where an average RMS difference of 1.670.63mm was found across 30 tracked frames.

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

mitral valve
annulus
tracking
segmentation
ultrasound


a new gaussian mixture conditional random field model for indoor image labeling In this paper we present a new conditional random field (CRF) model based on Gaussian mixture potentials for indoor image labeling, which is useful in interactive room decoration system. Indoor images which posses many spatial regularities can be efficiently modeled by probabilistic graphical models such as CRF. The potential functions in CRF are usually set empirically and differently for different features depending on applications. We propose a new CRF model based on a general Gaussian mixture potential for different group of features, which has the advantage of labeling accuracy and training simplicity. The new model with belief propagation inference and stochastic gradient descent training is applied to floor region labeling of indoor images in Labelme database. Simulation results and visual effects prove our analysis. Comparing to other CRF models the new approach is more efficient for indoor image labeling tasks.

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


Curve interpolation with arbitrary end derivatives An algorithm for interpolating data points with end derivative constraints is presented. The interpolating curve passes through the given points and at the same time assumes the derivatives specified. For degree p interpolation, up to p-1 derivatives may be specified resulting in Cp-1 continuous curve interpolants. The method is useful to piece individual curve segments together or to create closed curves with various degrees of smoothness.

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

algorithms
b-splines
curves and surfaces
data interpolation


Bounded Kernel-Based Online Learning A common problem of kernel-based online algorithms, such as the kernel-based Perceptron algorithm, is the amount of memory required to store the online hypothesis, which may increase without bound as the algorithm progresses. Furthermore, the computational load of such algorithms grows linearly with the amount of memory used to store the hypothesis. To attack these problems, most previous work has focused on discarding some of the instances, in order to keep the memory bounded. In this paper we present a new algorithm, in which the instances are not discarded, but are instead projected onto the space spanned by the previous online hypothesis. We call this algorithm Projectron. While the memory size of the Projectron solution cannot be predicted before training, we prove that its solution is guaranteed to be bounded. We derive a relative mistake bound for the proposed algorithm, and deduce from it a slightly different algorithm which outperforms the Perceptron. We call this second algorithm Projectron++. We show that this algorithm can be extended to handle the multiclass and the structured output settings, resulting, as far as we know, in the first online bounded algorithm that can learn complex classification tasks. The method of bounding the hypothesis representation can be applied to any conservative online algorithm and to other online algorithms, as it is demonstrated for ALMA(2). Experimental results on various data sets show the empirical advantage of our technique compared to various bounded online algorithms, both in terms of memory and accuracy.

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

kernel methods
support vector machines
bounded support set


Three-dimensional fabrication of free-standing epitaxial semiconductor nanostructures obtained by focused ion beam Patterning by EBL of epitaxial SiGe semiconductor material film. Fabrication method to realize free-standing semiconductor nanostructures. Tuning of the FIB process on epitaxial SiGe material.

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

free-standing epitaxial ge nanostructures


Grid computing and active services Recent activities in Grid computing point in the direction of an open service architecture merging computational infrastructure with Grid services and Web services. We also see advantages in adding facilities offered by distributed object computing environments with their interoperable references and services. The use of open service architectures introduces the possibility of composing structures of nested services. In this paper we discuss architectural aspects of middleware for Grid computing based on an infrastructure of distributed clusters and/or also services, and an access portal as a demonstration project in progress. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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


Undesirable input-output two-phase DEA model in an environmental performance audit Widespread environmental concern provides an opportunity for the development of environmental auditing. This study aims to analyze ideas that address evaluation difficulties in an environmental performance audit and to promote the application of environmental performance audit in energy saving and emission reduction toward a high-end direction. An improved data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is applied in the environmental performance audit by data translation and the transformation method. With benchmark management considered, a two-phase DEA model algorithm is proposed to solve restricted inputs and outputs for pollutants or wastes as well as to overcome the relative efficiency of defects in traditional DEA evaluation. In the case study of a domestic sewage treatment plant, the model is found to improve the flexibility and effectiveness of the application. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

environmental performance audit
data envelopment analysis
benchmark management

data translation and transformation method


a machine learning approach for improved bm25 retrieval Despite the widespread use of BM25, there have been few studies examining its effectiveness on a document description over single and multiple field combinations. We determine the effectiveness of BM25 on various document fields. We find that BM25 models relevance on popularity fields such as anchor text and query click information no better than a linear function of the field attributes. We also find query click information to be the single most important field for retrieval. In response, we develop a machine learning approach to BM25-style retrieval that learns, using LambdaRank, from the input attributes of BM25. Our model significantly improves retrieval effectiveness over BM25 and BM25F. Our data-driven approach is fast, effective, avoids the problem of parameter tuning, and can directly optimize for several common information retrieval measures. We demonstrate the advantages of our model on a very large real-world Web data collection.

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

learning to rank
retrieval models
web search


A CSP model for simple non-reversible and parallel repair plans This work presents a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) model for the planning and scheduling of disassembly and assembly tasks when repairing or substituting faulty parts. The problem involves not only the ordering of assembly and disassembly tasks, but also the selection of them from a set of alternatives. The goal of the plan is the minimization of the total repairing time, and the model considers, apart from the durations and resources used for the assembly and disassembly tasks, the necessary delays due to the change of configuration in the machines, and to the transportation of intermediate subassemblies between different machines. The problem considers that sub-assemblies that do not contain the faulty part are nor further disassembled, but allows non-reversible and parallel repair plans. The set of all feasible repair plans are represented by an extended And/Or graph. This extended representation embodies all of the constraints of the problem, such as temporal and resource constraints and those related to the selection of tasks for obtaining a correct plan.

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

planning scheduling constraints assembly disassembly repair


a data warehouse appliance for the mass market Vast majority of the data warehouses have less than few terabytes of data and their performance for complex queries on traditional database systems are often not very satisfactory. Data warehouse appliances have been announced by vendors (HP Oracle Exadata Storage server, HP Neoview, Neteeza etc.) to address this burgeoning need. Most of these involve creating a large parallel database systems using scale-out of commodity machines and/or pushing filters into disk retrieval system to reduce the data coming to memory; these done along the lines pioneered by research projects such as Gamma, Bubba and other prior database machine research. These approaches deliver performance by deploying many CPUs, large amount of memory, large number of disk-heads & disk space and in effect extracting performance by under utilizing the resources -- albeit very inexpensive commodity resources. In contrast we propose a database system in a box (i.e., a single system) that can deliver high performance for complex queries while utilizing much less resources (memory, disks etc.); i.e., better resource utilization and therefore lower cost. This approach consists of using column store (pioneered in the Bubba project) which has the effect of 1) reducing the need for large number of disk heads (i.e., I/O bandwidth); and 2) reducing the need for large amount of memory for achieving memory-resident query execution. Having mitigated the disk I/O problem using column store & memory, the Von Neumann bottleneck becomes the force majeure. This problem has been pursued by database researchers in the context of cache-conscious query execution. Unfortunately, traditional CPUs provide limited control to "page" the data into the cache and retain it there to leverage the cache effectively. Our approach is to leverage a custom dataflow machine that can be coupled with a large memory and thereby practically eliminating the Von Neumann bottleneck. Besides mitigating this bottleneck, the exploitation of fine-grained pipelined and operator parallelism in hardware provides significant performance improvement. This results in a low-cost high-performance database appliance for vast majority of the data warehouse market. Kickfire has shown that such an appliance can deliver both price/performance and raw performance as compared to the competitive approaches. Note that this high performance appliance does not preclude leveraging scale-out; i.e., it can itself be used to scale-out to a much larger database in the future.

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


Formulating SoC test scheduling as a network transportation problem A formulation of core-based system-on-chip (SoC) test scheduling as a network transportation problem is presented. Given a set of tests, with demands for transportation of test bits (either for test stimuli or test response) and unrelated parallel test resources (e.g., test access mechanisms or built-in self-test engines), the authors determine the start times and resource mappings of all the tests such that the finish time for the complete SoC test is Minimized. The problem is NP-hard and they present an approximation algorithm using a result from the solution of the single source unsplittable flow problem. The proposed method uses the number of test bits that need to be transported for a test as the invariant and is hence relatively independent of the test application and execution model. Experimental results on benchmark SoCs demonstrate that their method outperforms the state-of-the-art integer linear programming formulations, not only in terms of schedule quality, but also significantly reduces the computation time.

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

scheduling
single source unsplittable flow

parallel unrelated multiprocessor scheduling


Dynamic dipole and quadrupole phase transitions in the kinetic spin-1 model The dynamic phase transitions have been studied, within a mean-field approach, in the kinetic spin-1 Ising model Hamiltonian with arbitrary bilinear and biquadratic pair interactions in the presence of a time varying (sinusoidal) magnetic field by using the Glauber-type stochastic dynamics. The nature (first- or second-order) of the transition is characterized by investigating the behavior of the thermal variation of the dynamic order parameters. The dynamic phase transitions (DPTs) are obtained and the phase diagrams are constructed in the temperature and magnetic field amplitude plane and found six fundamental types of phase diagrams. Phase diagrams exhibit one or two dynamic tricritical points depending on the biquadratic interaction (K). Besides the disordered (D) and ferromagnetic (F) phases, the FQ + D, F + FQ and F + D coexistence phase regions also exist in the system and the F and F + D phases disappear for high values of K.

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

dynamic phase transition
oscillating magnetic field
mean-field dynamic equations of motion
spin-1 model
glauber-type stochastic dynamics


CMP support for large and dependent speculative threads Thread-level speculation (TLS) has proven to be a promising method of extracting parallelism from both integer and scientific workloads, targeting speculative threads that range in size from hundreds to several thousand dynamic instructions and which have minimal dependences between them. However, recent work has shown that TLS can offer compelling performance improvements when targeting much larger speculative threads of more than 50,000 dynamic instructions per thread with many frequent data dependences between them. To support such large and dependent speculative threads, the hardware must be able to buffer the additional speculative state and must also address the more challenging problem of tolerating the resulting cross-thread data dependences. In this paper, we present a chip-multiprocessor (CMP) support for large speculative threads that integrates several previous proposals for the TLS hardware. We also present a support for subthreads: a mechanism for tolerating cross-thread data dependences by checkpointing speculative execution. Through an evaluation that exploits the proposed hardware support in the database domain, we find that the transaction response time for three of the five transactions from TPC-C (on a simulated four-processor chip-multiprocessor) speed up by a factor of 1.9 to 2.9.

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

multiprocessor systems
thread-level speculation
databases
cache coherence


A decision support system for patient scheduling in travel vaccine administration The administration of travel vaccines presents a number of operations management challenges. The interplay between shared consumption of multi-dose vaccine packages, rapid spoilage upon opening, the high cost of wastage, and the unique vaccination needs of the patients makes for a very interesting and complex scheduling problem that could benefit from computerized decision support. We compare the performance of a novel binary integer programming model and a genetic algorithm solution technique with conventional scheduling approaches. Computational results show that significant cost savings can be achieved with the DSS while simultaneously considering scheduling preferences of patients and mitigating scheduling inconvenience.

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


The Wheatstone bridge-based analog adaptive filter with application in echo cancellation In this paper, a new analog adaptive filter is introduced with application in adaptive echo cancellation namely, the Wheatstone bridge-based analog adaptive filter (WAAF). It is proved the WAAF is a variable weight analog IIR filter. IIR filter weights vary with gate-source voltage control of a MOSFET transistor in triode region. The best balance point control of the WAAF is achieved using least mean square (LMS) algorithm. It is proved that analog LMS algorithm converges faster than digital LMS adaptive filter. The superiority of the proposed WAAF is observed in the designing process, computational cost, convergence speed and real time operation. Also, experimental results show ability of the proposed WAAF in the hybrid circuit of the telephone echo cancellation.

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

wheatstone bridge
analog-lms algorithm
analog-iir filter
hybrid echo cancellation


Integrated network barriers Integrated Network Barriers (INBs) are a network protocol for parallel processors. INBs are both pipelinable and have low latency. In this paper, we show that INBs implement barriers-which ensure that all prebarrier operations of any processor appear to complete before any post-barrier operations-and we show how to construct efficient, deadlock-free barriers for any interconnection network and routing function which has an acyclic queue dependency graph. As a special case, INBs can be implemented for any network and routing function for which there exists an acyclic channel dependency graph.

B I I 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 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

barrier synchronization
high-performance computing
interconnection networks
parallel processing


RISE: A general simulation interoperability middleware container In recent years, new services on the Internet have enabled global cooperation; in particular, the Web has enabled new distributed simulation technology. Much research has been devoted to develop middleware interoperability methods on the Web. However, most existing methods have constraints in the structural rules that are placed on the design of middleware interoperability methods. For example, such constraints make it difficult to enhance interoperability via decoupling systems implementations and design, which is essential in open computing networks, as in the case of the Web. In order to achieve such objectives we present the RISE (RESTful Interoperability Simulation Environment) middleware. This all-purpose WS-based distributed simulation middleware decouples design and implementation while allowing composition scalability and dynamicity. Furthermore, it supports experiment-oriented frameworks and has the ability to put Web 2.0 services in the simulation loop. RISE is the first existing middleware to achieve such objectives, and the first to employ RESTful Web-services. We present the foundations for meeting the above objectives, and the distinct characteristics of RISE from existing Web-based approaches.

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

web services
rest
experimental framework
semantic web


discovering high-impact success factors in capstone software projects Capstone software projects in the undergraduate Computer Science curriculum provide valuable learning experiences for the students if the project is successful. Naturally, the team composition and teamwork affect the project results. The aim of this paper is to find a connection between successful projects and team properties. Early recognition would be useful when the teacher or team instructor tries to help the teams to overcome possible obstacles caused by personal or team weaknesses. We gathered a vast amount of data on 40 students during selected capstone projects with questionnaires, interviews and expert observation over five semesters. The paper shows our measurement technique and its ability to reflect success in the capstone projects. Close examination of the data revealed that certain team properties and operations were more significant in relation to expert evaluation than other. These factors are called high-impact factors for successful projects. Most significant were pre-learned skills in Computer Science curriculum, communication, coordination, and teamwork. Some success signs were evident from the beginning of the projects, including attitudes and personal needs.

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

improvement
software project
success factor


A robust testing procedure for the equality of covariance matrices In classical statistics the likelihood ratio statistic used in testing hypotheses about covariance matrices does not have a closed form distribution, but asymptotically under strong normality assumptions is a function of the ?2 ? 2 -distribution. This distributional approximation totally fails if the normality assumption is not completely met. In this paper we will present multivariate robust testing procedures for the scatter matrix ? ? using S-estimates. We modify the classical likelihood ratio test (LRT) into a robust LRT by substituting the robust estimates in the formula in place of classical estimates. A nonlinear formula is also suggested to approximate the degrees of freedom for the approximated Wishart distribution proposed for S-estimates of the shape matrix ? ? . We present simulation results to compare the validity and the efficiency of the robust likelihood test to the classical likelihood test.

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


Fault-tolerant broadcasting in 2-D wormhole-routed meshes In this paper, a fault-tolerant broadcast scheme in 2-D meshes with randomly generated faults is provided. This approach is based on an early work on time-step optimal broadcasting in square-shape fault-free 2-D meshes with optimal total communication distance (TCD). An extension to any rectangular-shape fault-free 2-D meshes is first given. The fault block model is used in which all faulty nodes in the system are contained in a set of disjoint blocks. The boundary lines of blocks divide the whole mesh into a set of fault-free polygons and a sequence of rectangular fault-free regions is derived from these polygons. The broadcast process is carried out at two levels: inter-region and intra-region. In the inter-region-level broadcast, the broadcast message is sent from a given source to a special node (called eye [1]) in each rectangular fault-free region. In the intra-region-level broadcast, the extended optimal fault-free broadcast is applied. Some analytical results are given including an upper bound of TCD.

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


Computing fuzzy process efficiency in parallel systems This paper deals with parallel process systems in which the input and output data are fuzzy. The \(\upalpha \)-level based approach is used to compute the fuzzy system efficiency and a simple procedure is proposed to estimate the fuzzy efficiency of the different processes. The main contribution of the paper is estimating the latter taking into account the variability of the process efficiencies compatible with a given value of the system efficiency. This variability comes from the existence of alternative optimal weights in the system efficiency multiplier network DEA models. The computation of the fuzzy system efficiency involves one Linear and one Non-linear Program for each \(\upalpha \)-cut while the computation of each process efficiency requires solving just a couple of related Linear Programs for each \(\upalpha \)-cut. The proposed approach is illustrated with a parallel systems dataset extracted from the literature.

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 O 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


Class-switching neural network ensembles This article investigates the properties of class-switching ensembles composed of neural networks and compares them to class-switching ensembles of decision trees and to standard ensemble learning methods, such as bagging and boosting. In a class-switching ensemble, each learner is constructed using a modified version of the training data. This modification consists in switching the class labels of a fraction of training examples that are selected at random from the original training set. Experiments on 20 benchmark classification problems, including real-world and synthetic data, show that class-switching ensembles composed of neural networks can obtain significant improvements in the generalization accuracy over single neural networks and bagging and boosting ensembles. Furthermore, it is possible to build medium-sized ensembles (?200 ? 200 networks) whose classification performance is comparable to larger class-switching ensembles (?1000 ? 1000 learners) of unpruned decision trees.

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

neural networks
bagging
boosting
decision trees

ensembles of classifiers
class-switching


a new multimedia information data mining method In this paper, we proposed an annotated multimedia information data mining method. We present a Bayesian hierarchical framework model for mining objects in multimedia data. The Multimedia can switch between different shots, the unknown objects can leave or enter the scene at multiple times, and the background can be clustered. The proposed framework model consists of annotation part and Bayesian hierarchical mining part. This algorithm has several advantages over traditional distance-based agglomerative mining algorithms. Bayesian hierarchical hypothesis testing is used to decide which merges are advantageous and to output the recommended depth of the tree. The framework model can be interpreted as a novel fast bottom-up approximate inference method for a process mixture model. We describe procedures for learning the model hyperparameters, computing the predictive distribution, and extensions to the framework model. Experimental results on virtual reality multimedia data sets demonstrate useful properties of the framework model.

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 O O O O O O O O O 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


Performance of derivative free search ANN training algorithm with time series and classification problems A Manhattan search algorithm to minimize artificial neural network error function is outlined in this paper. From an existing position in Cartesian coordinate, a search vector moves in orthogonal directions to locate minimum function value. The search algorithm computes optimized step length for rapid convergence. This step is performed when consecutive search is successful in minimizing function value. The optimized step length identifies favorable descent direction to minimize function value. The search method is suitable for complex error surface where derivative information is difficult to obtain or when the error surface is nearly flat. The rate of change in function value is almost negligible near the flat surface. Most of the derivative based training algorithm faces difficulty in such scenarios. This algorithm avoids derivative information of an error function. Therefore, it is an attractive search method when derivative based algorithm faces difficulty due to complex ridges and flat valleys. In case the algorithm gets into trapped minimum, the search vector takes steps to move out of a local minimum by exploring neighborhood descent search directions. The algorithm differs from the first and second order derivative based training methods. To measure the performance of the algorithm, estimation of electric energy generation model from Fiji Islands and L-T letter recognition problems are solved. Bootstrap analysis shows that the algorithms predictive and classification abilities are high. The algorithm is reliable when solution to a problem is unknown. Therefore, the algorithm identifies benchmark solution.

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

neural network
manhattan search
derivative free
convergence
bootstrap
benchmark


Development of a System that Generates Structured Reports for Chest X-ray Radiography Objectives: Radiology reports are typically made in narrative form; this is a barrier to the implementation of advanced applications for data analysis or a decision support. We developed a system that generates structured reports for chest x-ray radiography. Methods: Based on analyzing existing reports, we determined the fundamental sentence structure of findings as compositions of procedure, region, finding, and diagnosis. We categorized the observation objects into lung, mediastinum, bone, soft tissue, and pleura and chest wall. The terms of region, finding, and diagnosis were associated with each other. We expressed the terms and the relations between the terms using a resource description framework (RDF) and developed a reporting system based on it. The system shows a list of terms in each category, and modifiers can be entered using templates that are linked to each term. This system guides users to select terms by highlighting associated terms. Fifty chest x-rays with abnormal findings were interpreted by five radiologists and reports were made either by the system or by the free-text method. Results: The system decreased the time needed to make a report by 12.5% compared with the free-text method, and the sentences generated by the system were well concordant with those made by free-text method (F-measure = 90%). The results of the questionnaire showed that our system is applicable to radiology reports of chest x-rays in daily clinical practice. Conclusions: The method of generating structured reports for chest x-rays was feasible, because it generated almost concordant reports in shorter time compared with the free-text method.

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

chest x-ray photography
radiology report
structured report
information model


E-shaver: An improved DullRazor for digitally removing dark and light-colored hairs in dermoscopic images We present an efficient and improved method for hair removal from dermoscopic images, which is faster and can remove hairs more effectively as compared to the existing and widely used DullRazor. To do so, we first detect the predominant orientation of hairs in the image by using Radon transform, followed by filtering the image by Prewitt filters using the orientation of existing hairs. Undesirable effects, such as non-hair structures and noise are removed from the image by thresholdingaveragingthresholding, followed by smoothing. The proposed scheme has the advantage of removing bubbles, as well. Implementation of our proposed scheme on different dermoscopic images validates its improved performance.

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

dermoscopy
digital hair removal
edge detection
prewitt filter


Tiny surface defect inspection of electronic passive components using discrete cosine transform decomposition and cumulative sum techniques Passive components, owing to their low or no power consumption, are widely used in modern electronic devices. Nevertheless, tiny defects that often appear in the surface of passive components impair not only their appearances but also their functions. This paper proposes a global approach for the automated visual inspection of tiny surface defects in SBL (Surface Barrier Layer) chips, whose random surface texture contains no repetitions of basic texture primitives. The proposed method, taking advantage of the DCT decomposition and the cumulative sum techniques, does not requires textural features, the lack of which often limits the application of feature extraction-based methods. We apply the cumulative sum algorithm to the oddodd matrix that gathers most power spectra in the decomposed DCT frequency domain, and select the large-magnitude frequency values that represent the background texture of the surface. Then, by reconstructing the frequency matrix without the selected frequency values, we eliminate random texture patterns and retain anomalies in the restored image. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in inspecting tiny defects in random textures.

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

tiny surface defect inspection
electronic passive components
discrete cosine transform decomposition


Searching trademark databases for verbal similarities We review various issues related to techniques for searching through collections of trademarks for phonetic and other verbal similarities. Based on recent case studies, we survey judicial arbitrations that have established whether trademarks are similar or not and comment on popular algorithms for performing approximate searches, both phonetically and based on letter sequences. The particularities of international registrations and multilingual trademarks are also discussed. Overall, fuzzy searching for verbal similarities is a difficult task that calls for a cautious attitude. No solution can guarantee a fully automatic procedure. A manual validation of results will always need to be performed.

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

phonetic searches
verbal similarity
wipo


Persistence and half-life of URL citations cited in LIS open access journals Purpose - The main purpose of the present study is to examine the availability and persistence of URL citations in two LIS open access journals. It also intended to calculate the half-life period of URL citations cited in journal articles. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 2,890 URL citations cited in 689 research articles published in LIS journals spanning a period of 14 years (1996-2009) were extracted. In order to check the accessibility of URL citations, W3C link checker was used. After the initial check, inactive URL citations were listed. Domains and HTTP errors associated with inactive URL citations were identified for further analysis. The half-life period was calculated using the formula t(h) = [t ln(0.5)]/[ln W(t) - ln W(0)]. Findings - The research findings indicated that 57.61 percent (397 of 689) of articles have URL citations and percentage of URL citations increased from 5.98 percent in 1996 to 2739 percent in 2009. It was found that 26.08 percent of all citations were not accessible during the time of testing and the majority Of errors were due to HTTP 404 error code (not found). The domains.net and.gov were more stable compared to the domains.com/.co,.org, and.edu. The half-life was computed to be approximately 115 years, which compares favorably against earlier research works. Originality/value - This is a comprehensive study on the availability and persistence of URL citations cited in LIS journals articles spanning a period of 14 years. The findings of the study will be helpful to authors, publishers and editorial staff to improve existing URL citation conventions and to promote URL use to ensure that URL citations are accessible in future.

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

worldwide web
half-life
referencing
information retrieval
online access


Investigations of an improved PV system topology using multilevel boost converter and line commutated inverter with solutions to grid issues Multilevel boost converter and line commutated inverter are used. The output is fed to single phase utility grid and separately excited DC motor. Charging of battery under grid failure. Grid issues such as voltage swell, brownout and blackout are addressed. MPPT is implemented with simple controllers.

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

line commutated inverter
multilevel boost converter
grid issues