Feature selection and classification model construction on type 2 diabetic patients' data Objective: Diabetes affects between 2% and 4% of the global population (up to 10% in the over 65 age group), and its avoidance and effective treatment are undoubtedly crucial public health and health economics issues in the 21st century. The aim of this research was to identify significant factors influencing diabetes control, by applying feature selection to a working patient management system to assist with ranking, classification and knowledge discovery. The classification models can be used to determine individuals in the population with poor diabetes control status based on physiological and examination factors. Methods: The diabetic patients' information was collected by Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust (UCHT) from year 2000 to 2004 as part of clinical management. In order to discover key predictors and latent knowledge, data mining techniques were applied. To improve computational efficiency, a feature selection technique, feature selection via supervised model construction (FSSMC), an optimisation of ReliefF, was used to rank the important attributes affecting diabetic control. After selecting suitable features, three complementary classification techniques (Naive Bayes, IB1 and C4.5) were applied to the data to predict how well the patients' condition was controlled. Results: FSSMC identified patients' 'age', 'diagnosis duration', the need for 'insulin treatment', 'random blood glucose' measurement and 'diet treatment' as the most important factors influencing blood glucose control. Using the reduced features, a best predictive accuracy of 95% and sensitivity of 98% was achieved. The influence of factors, such as 'type of care' delivered, the use of 'home monitoring', and the importance of 'smoking' on outcome can contribute to domain knowledge in diabetes control. Conclusion: In the care of patients with diabetes, the more important factors identified: patients' 'age', 'diagnosis duration' and 'family history', are beyond the control of physicians. Treatment methods such as 'insulin', 'diet' and 'tablets' (a variety of oral medicines) may be controlled. However lifestyle indicators such as 'body mass index' and 'smoking status' are also important and may be controlled by the patient. This further underlines the need for public health education to aid awareness and prevention. More subtle data interactions need to be better understood and data mining can contribute to the clinical evidence base. The research confirms and to a lesser extent challenges current thinking. Whilst fully appreciating the requirement for clinical verification and interpretation, this work supports the use of data mining as an exploratory tool., particularly as the domain is suffering from a data explosion due to enhanced monitoring and the (potential) storage of this data in the electronic health record, FSSMC has proved a useful feature estimator for large data sets, where processing efficiency is an important factor. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

blood glucose
data mining
classification
feature selection


an implementation of a software development track in an information technology degree program This paper will layout the University of Cincinnati's efforts in creating a software development track specialization for an information technology (IT) degree program to be started in the autumn quarter of 2004. The work done creating such an academic specialization for students is based on ACM SIGITE's initial implementation of IT curriculum guidelines. Input for the IT software development specialty was also obtained from faculty, students, and industry partners. Processes by which specific course offerings were chosen will be detailed; objectives of the track and courses, desired outcomes for students, content, and associated hands-on activities. In all, the paper will present a means by which a software development track can be successfully implemented in information technology programs at other universities that are interested in such an endeavor.

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

curriculum
software
information technology


Optimizations of a GPU accelerated heat conduction equation by a programming of CUDA Fortran from an analysis of a PTX file The Fortran language has been commonly used for many kinds of scientific computation. In this paper, we focus on the solution of an unsteady heat conduction equation, which is one of the simplest problems for thermal dynamics. Recently, a GPU (graphics processing unit) has been enhanced with a Fortran programming language capability employing CUDA (compute unified device architecture), known as CUDA Fortran. We find that the speed performance of a system using an ordinary program coding of CUDA Fortran is lower than that of systems using a program coding of CUDA C. We also find that intermediate assembly files PTX (parallel thread execution) of the two languages are not coincident. Therefore, by comparing the PTX files from the two coding programs we could detect the bottleneck that causes the speed reduction. We propose three optimization techniques that can enable the calculated speeds using CUDA Fortran and CUDA C to be coincident. The optimizations can be performed by the Fortran language when improved by an analyzed PTX file. It is thus possible to improve the performance of CUDA Fortran by adding a correction to it, which happens to be at a programming language level.

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

gpu
fortran
cuda
c
heat conduction equation
ptx


Deterministic Error Analysis of Support Vector Regression and Related Regularized Kernel Methods We introduce a new technique for the analysis of kernel-based regression problems. The basic tools are sampling inequalities which apply to all machine learning problems involving penalty terms induced by kernels related to Sobolev spaces. They lead to explicit deterministic results concerning the worst case behaviour of epsilon- and nu-SVRs. Using these, we show how to adjust regularization parameters to get best possible approximation orders for regression. The results are illustrated by some numerical examples.

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

sampling inequality
radial basis functions
approximation theory
reproducing kernel hilbert space
sobolev space


On the scalability of biocomputing algorithms: The case of the maximum clique problem The paper aims at demonstrating and confirming that breadth first search or pruning techniques can substantially improve the effectiveness of biomolecular algorithms. A breadth first search-based DNA algorithm solving the maximum clique problem for a graph is presented, and its complexity and scalability parameters are studied. The analysis shows that parameters like the number of steps, the length and volume of DNA strands, the number of enzymes and the concentration of the molecules encoding solutions are dramatically improved in comparison with previous approaches to the same problem and, theoretically, they would allow to process graphs with thousands of vertices. These parameters are also compared with several related results focusing on the scalability of DNA computing methods. Finally, an analysis of error-resistance of the algorithm is given. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

dna computing
breadth first search
maximum clique problem


on the application of software metrics to uml models In this position paper we discuss a number of issues relating to model metrics, with particular emphasis on metrics for UML models. Our discussion is presented as a series of nine observations where we examine some of the existing work on applying metrics to UML models, present some of our own work in this area, and specify some topics for future research that we regard as important. Furthermore, we identify three categories of challeges for model metrics and describe how our nine observations can be partitioned into these categories.

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


A holistic understanding of non-users adoption of university campus wireless network: An empirical investigation We model the factors for campus wireless networks adoption from a perspective of non-users. We identified the enablers and motivators in a changing learning environment. The non-user perspective helps fathom different constituents in education technology innovation adoption.

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

change management
university wireless network
technology adoption


impact of interconnect length changes on effective materials properties (dielectric constant) This paper presents models and a methodology to evaluate tradeoffs between technology and design to obtain the highest frequency in ULSI design projects and quantifies the performance improvement that can be expected. With respect to the standard chip design process, it is well known in the academic community that circuits and chips are required to satisfy specific constraints, most notably the requirement that all signals must have zero slack when the transistors and wires are manufactured at some pre-specified technology node. To amortize the cost of the design process, which is time-consuming and complex, there is a need to migrate the designs to future technology nodes with minimal redesign. However, this problem and the associated implications of design migration are less well known, and at present there are no existing models to help designers evaluate whether migrated designs will operate successfully in a future technology or whether migrated designs will fail and thus cause chip failure. Thus, there is a need for research to evaluate the impact of design changes on chip performance. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate and quantify the performance impact of design changes, where we express the impact on performance as an effective change in dielectic constant in the wire environment. In this study, as in a previous study[1], performance estimates obtained from the model are compared with values obtained for interconnections in 18 ASIC-like control logic designs in the Instruction Fetch Unit (IFU) of the 1.3GHz POWER4 microprocessor.

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

routing
interconnect model
path delay
rent
cycle time


Advances in micromilling techniques: a new apparatus for acquiring high-resolution oxygen and carbon stable isotope values and major/minor elemental ratios from accretionary carbonate A computer-controlled micromilling apparatus that permits discrete sampling of accretionary biogenic carbonate specimens with micron-scale resolution has been developed for the purpose of acquiring high-resolution ?13C and ?18O values, and major/minor elemental chemistry. Secular variation in stable isotope ratios and major/minor elemental composition records inter-annual and intra-annual changes in the environmental parameters or animal behavior for extant and extinct species. A polished specimen is attached to a stage beneath a fixed micro-milling head, and viewed on a large-screen monitor via a color digital camera. Growth bands (analogous to tree rings) are generally a result of variable accretion rates in biogenic carbonates. These growth features are first digitized in real-time as a series of three-dimensional coordinates. To better characterize complex growth features, intermediate coordinates are interpolated using a cubic spline fit through the digital points. Intermediate sampling paths, which mimic less visible daily growth banding, are in turn calculated between digitized curves. Sampling path arrays serve to guide three high precision actuators, which position the sample stage relative to the fixed micromilling head. A fourth actuator provides vertical control of the digital color camera (compensating for vertical movement of the z-axis stage actuator) keeping the specimen image focused. This new micromilling device permits high-resolution sampling of complex internal structures via a user-friendly program interface.

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

life history
otolith
paleoclimate
microsample
stable isotopes


Identifying patterns in rare earth element patents based on text and data mining Rare earth elements (REE) are needed to produce many cutting-edge products, and their depletion is a major concern. In this paper, we identify unique characteristics of REE-related patents granted from 1975 to 2013 in five large patent offices around the world. Through topic detection and clustering of patent text, we found that purification processes related to oxides, nitrogen oxide, and exhaust gas were highlighted in the Korean Intellectual Property Office and Japan Patent Office (JPO). Molecular sieve, dispersion, and preparation methods involving yttrium, cerium, methane, zirconium, and ammonia were prominent in the China Patent and Trademark Office (CPTO) in the areas of performing operation and transporting. Quadratic assignment procedure correlation analysis was performed for IPC co-occurrence among REE patents in different offices, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office showed significantly different patterns than the CPTO and JPO. Furthermore, using betweenness centrality as an indicator of technology transition, the manufacture and treatment of nanostructures, nanotechnology for materials and surface science, and electrodes were identified as important REE technologies to be protected in Korea. In Japan, the technological areas identified as important for protection were the apparatuses and processes of manufacturing or assembling devices, compounds of iron, and materials. Our study results offer insights into national strategies for REE-related technologies in each country.

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 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 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 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

rare earth elements
patent
topic detection

applications in engineering and industry)


Towards robust broadcasting of geometry data We present new algorithms for the robust transmission of geometric datasets, i.e. transmission which allows the receiver to recover (an approximation of) the original geometric object even if parts of the data get lost on the way. These algorithms can be considered as hinted point cloud triangulation schemes since the general manifold reconstruction problem is simplified by adding tags to the vertices and by providing a coarse base mesh which determines the global surface topology. Robust transmission techniques exploit the geometric coherence of the data and do not require redundant transmission protocols on lower software layers. As an example application scenario, we describe the teletext-like broadcasting of three-dimensional (3D) models.

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

multimedia databases
digital libraries
3d videotext
interactive broadcasting
polygonal meshes


Adaptive interaction and its application to neural networks ? Adaptive interaction is a new approach to introduce adaptability into man-made systems. In this approach, a system is decomposed into interconnected subsystems that we call devices and adaptation occurs in the interactions. More precisely, interaction weights among these devices will be adapted in order to achieve the objective of minimizing a given cost function. The adaptation algorithm developed is mathematically equivalent to a gradient descent algorithm but requires only local information in its implementation. One particular application of adaptive interaction that we study in this paper is in neural networks. By applying adaptive interaction, we can achieve essentially the same adaptation as that using the well-known back-propagation algorithm but without the need of a feedback network to propagate the errors, which has many advantages in practice. A simulation is provided to show the effectiveness of our approach.

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


INSL3/RXFP2 Signaling in Testicular Descent Mutations of the insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) hormone or its receptor, RXFP2, cause intraabdominal cryptorchidism in male mice. Specific RXFP2 expression in mouse gubernacula was detected at embryonic day 14.5 and markedly increased after birth in the developing cremaster muscle, as well as in the epididymis and testicular Leydig and germ cells. INSL3 treatment stimulated cell proliferation of embryonic gubernacular and Leydig cells, implicating active INSL3-mediated signaling. The transcription factor SOX9, a known male sex determination factor, upregulated the activity of the RXFP2 promoter. INSL3 is sufficient to direct the first transabdominal phase of testicular descent in the absence of hypothalamicpituitarygonadal axis signaling or Hoxa10, although these factors are important for inguinoscrotal testicular descent. Similarly, conditional ablation of the androgen receptor gene in gubernacular cells resulted in disruption of inguinoscrotal descent. We performed mutation screening of INSL3 and RXFP2 in human patients with cryptorchidism and control subjects from different populations in Europe and the USA. Several missense mutations were described in both the INSL3 and RXFP2 genes. A novel V39G INSL3 mutation in a patient with cryptorchidism was identified; however, the functional analysis of the mutant peptide did not reveal compromised function. In more than 2000 patients and controls analyzed to date, the T222P RXFP2 mutation is the only one strongly associated with the mutant phenotype. The T222P mutant receptor, when transfected into 293T cells, had severely decreased cell membrane expression, providing the basis for the functional deficiency of this mutation.

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


Automatic analysis of electro-encephalogram sleep spindle frequency throughout the night A fully automatic method to analyse electro-encephalogram (EEG) sleep spindle frequency evolution during the night was developed and tested. Twenty all-night recordings were studied from ten healthy control subjects and ten sleep apnoea patients. A total of 22868 spindles were detected. The overall mean spindle frequency was significantly higher in the control subjects than in the apnoea patients (12.5Hz against 11.7Hz, respectively, p<0.004). The proposed method further identified the sleep depth cycles, and the mean spindle frequency was automatically determined inside each sleep depth cycle. In control subjects, the mean spindle frequency increased from 12.0Hz in the first sleep depth cycle to 12.6Hz in the fifth cycle. No such increase was observed in the sleep apnoea patients. This difference in the spindle frequency evolution was statistically significant (p<0.004). The advantage of the method is that no EEG amplitude thresholds are needed.

B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 incorporation of the semi-implicit linear equations into Newton's method to solve radiation transfer equations For large time steps, the nonlinear equations of radiation transfer may not be solved adequately by the semi-implicit linear approximation to yield physical solutions. This deficiency is rectified in three steps: the equations of the semi-implicit linear method are modified, the modified equations are incorporated into Newton's method to solve nonlinear equations, and the transfer equations are solved by the resulting method. The new method also uses the Photon Free Method to search for the solution in a lower dimensional space than the space of the underlying transfer equations. Two algorithms are developed from the new method; they solve the modified semi-implicit linear equations by different approaches. The first is a physics approach; it solves the linear equations approximately by the Grey Transport Approximation. The second is a mathematical approach; it solves the linear equations exactly by the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury formula of linear algebra. However, both algorithms yield the solution to the nonlinear system derived by the Photon Free Method. Therefore, their solutions are equal to within the specified tolerance of the nonlinear solver. Moreover, both methods can take advantage of the unconditional stability which comes with the implicit differencing of the time derivative. The time step which both methods can take is much larger than the time step in which time discretization error is discernible. We shall relate the mathematical approach to the Photon Free Method. Numerical results for three test problems are presented. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

radiation transport
nonlinear systems
newton


Social desirability is the same in offline, online, and paper surveys: A meta-analysis This meta-analysis compares social desirability between paper and computer surveys. Social desirability in computer (Internet/offline) and paper surveys is the same. Some of the large effects found in the past may have been due to sampling error.

B I 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

meta-analysis
self-disclosure
decline effect


Partition-based vector filtering technique for suppression of noise in digital color images A partition-based adaptive vector filter is proposed for the restoration of corrupted digital color images. The novelty of the filter lies in its unique three-stage adaptive estimation. The local image structure is first estimated by a series of center-weighted reference filters. Then the distances between the observed central pixel and estimated references are utilized to classify the local inputs into one of preset structure partition cells. Finally, a weighted filtering operation, indexed by the partition cell, is applied to the estimated references in order to restore the central pixel value. The weighted filtering operation is optimized off-line for each partition cell to achieve the best tradeoff between noise suppression and structure preservation. Recursive filtering operation and recursive weight training are also investigated to further boost the restoration performance. The proposed filter has demonstrated satisfactory results in suppressing many distinct types of noise in natural color images. Noticeable performance gains are demonstrated over other prior-art methods in terms of standard objective measurements, the visual image quality and the computational complexity.

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

center-weighted vector median (cwvm) filter

constrained least mean-square (lms) algorithm

partition-based adaptive vector (pbtvm) filter


A robust optimization approach to wind farm diversification A novel wind farm diversification method is proposed based on robust optimization model. Our model can be formulated as a linear programming and conic quadratic programming which could be efficiently solved. Case studies demonstrate that the advantages of the robust optimization formulation increase where the uncertainty grows.

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

wind farm diversification
robust optimization
linear programming
conic quadratic programming


Design wizards and visual programming environments for GenVoca generators Domain-specific generators will increasingly rely on graphical languages for declarative specifications of target applications. Such languages will provide front-ends to generators and related tools to produce customized code on demand. Critical to the success of this approach will be domain-specific design wizards, tools that guide users in their selection of components for constructing particular applications. In this paper, we present the P3 ContainerStore graphical language, its generator, and design wizard.

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

self-adaptive software
architectural optimizations
refinements
applications product-lines


a history-centric approach for enhancing web browsing experiences Browsing Web pages, which plays an important part of our daily creative knowledge work, often includes purposefully revisiting pages we have browsed before. Many of the existing tools and approaches for revisitation clearly distinguish the use of history from Web browsing. The approach presented in this paper blurs the distinction between browsing the Web and visiting stored pages in a personal Web browsing history database. The HCB (History-Centric Browsing) system allows a user to browse a previously visited Web page stored in the history database in the same way as browsing a page on the Web. The system associates pages from the database to the currently displayed page through three types of relevancies: temporal sequence, URL/location-based proximity, and content similarity. The HCB-stat, HCB-vis, and HCB-tempo components use the associations to enrich the current page-viewing experience.

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

enhanced web browsing experience
interaction design


Local Feature Based Geometric-Resistant Image Information Hiding Watermarking aims to hide particular information into some carrier but does not change the visual cognition of the carrier itself. Local features are good candidates to address the watermark synchronization error caused by geometric distortions and have attracted great attention for content-based image watermarking. This paper presents a novel feature point-based image watermarking scheme against geometric distortions. Scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) is first adopted to extract feature points and to generate a disk for each feature point that is invariant to translation and scaling. For each disk, orientation alignment is then performed to achieve rotation invariance. Finally, watermark is embedded in middle-frequency discrete Fourier transform (DFT) coefficients of each disk to improve the robustness against common image processing operations. Extensive experimental results and comparisons with some representative image watermarking methods confirm the excellent performance of the proposed method in robustness against various geometric distortions as well as common image processing operations.

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

visual cognition
image watermarking
scale invariant feature transform
orientation alignment
discrete fourier transform


THE USE OF EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS TO OPTIMIZE INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS ELECTRICITY SUPPLY This paper formulates a unit commitment optimization problem for renewable energy sources distributed in a micro-grid formed by a complex of intelligent buildings of both office and residential characters, including a wide range of amenities. We present a general description of the solution of this task using the simulated annealing heuristic optimization technique. The experiment was processed in the specialized computer program. For comparison, Appendix A of the article describes the Lagrange multipliers optimization method as the conventional alternative to the used heuristic technique. A description of the concept of intelligent buildings is provided in Appendix B.

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


Structural analysis in the dynamical modelling of chemical engineering systems The dynamical modelling of physical (bio-)chemical processes based on first principles considerations is analysed from a structural point of view. Based on a classification of the variables and equations that occur in such models, we propose a general framework that can help to organise the model in a transparent way and to analyse efficiently its solvability properties. We show that a well-known tool in the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems, the Zero Dynamics Algorithm, can be used in the analysis of higher index models and also in index reduction. The symbolic computations involved in this algorithm are readily available in the form of nonlinear system analysis packages. The proposed methods are illustrated by a few simple concrete examples.

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

first principles modelling
differential-algebraic systems


Information assimilation framework for event detection in multimedia surveillance systems Most multimedia surveillance and monitoring systems nowadays utilize multiple types of sensors to detect events of interest as and when they occur in the environment. However, due to the asynchrony among and diversity of sensors, information assimilation - how to combine the information obtained from asynchronous and multifarious sources is an important and challenging research problem. In this paper, we propose a framework for information assimilation that addresses the issues - "when", "what" and "how" to assimilate the information obtained from different media sources in order to detect events in multimedia surveillance systems. The proposed framework adopts a hierarchical probabilistic assimilation approach to detect atomic and compound events. To detect an event, our framework uses not only the media streams available at the current instant but it also utilizes their two important properties - first, accumulated past history of whether they have been providing concurring or contradictory evidences, and - second, the system designer's confidence in them. The experimental results show the utility of the proposed framework.

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

information assimilation
multimedia surveillance
event detection

agreement coefficient
confidence fusion
compound and atomic events


Image structure clustering for image quality verification of color retina images in diabetic retinopathy screening Reliable verification of image quality of retinal screening images is a prerequisite for the development of automatic screening systems for diabetic retinopathy. A system is presented that can automatically determine whether the quality of a retinal screening image is sufficient for automatic analysis. The system is based on the assumption that an image of sufficient quality should contain particular image structures according to a certain pre-defined distribution. We cluster filterbank response vectors to obtain a compact representation of the image structures found within an image. Using this compact representation together with raw histograms of the R, G, and B color planes, a statistical classifier is trained to distinguish normal from low quality images. The presented system does not require any previous segmentation of the image in contrast with previous work. The system was evaluated on a large, representative set of 1000 images obtained in a screening program. The proposed method, using different feature sets and classifiers, was compared with the ratings of a second human observer. The best system, based on a Support Vector Machine, has performance close to optimal with an area under the ROC curve of 0.9968.

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

image quality
retina
screening
diabetic retinopathy
image structure


A spatial decay in the linear theory of microstretch piezoelectricity The electromagnetic theory of microstretch elasticity is an adequate tool to describe the behavior of porous bodies, animal bones and solids with deformable microstructures. In this paper we study the linear theory of microstretch piezoelectricity. First, we establish a spatial decay estimate. Then, we obtain an upper bound for the amplitude term. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

microstretch elastic solids
spatial decay estimates


Control of bridge cranes with distributed-mass payloads under windy conditions Using a combined scheme to control bridge cranes under windy conditions. The payload states do not need to be measured on-the-fly. Numerous simulations are performed to validate the robustness of the method. Experiments from a crane with distributed-mass beam validate effectiveness.

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

bridge crane
wind disturbance
distributed-mass beam
vibration control


When conceptual model meets grammar: A dual approach to XML data modeling In this paper we introduce a novel approach to conceptual modeling for XML schemas. Compared to other approaches, it allows for modeling of a whole family of XML schemas related to a particular application domain. It is integrated in a well-established way of software-engineering, namely Model-Driven Development (MDD). It allows software-engineers to naturally model their application domain using a conceptual schema at the platform-independent level of the MDD hierarchy. From there they can design the desired XML schemas in a form of conceptual schemas at the platform-specific level of MDD hierarchy. Schemas at the platform-specific level are then automatically translated to particular XML schemas. Beside this forward-engineering direction, reverse-engineering direction integrating existing XML schemas into the MDD hierarchy is supported as well. We provide several theoretical results which ensure correctness of the introduced approach. We exploit regular tree grammars to formalize XML schemas. We formalize the bindings between the schemas at the two MDD levels and between schemas at the platform-specific level and XML schemas. We prove that conceptual schemas specify the target XML schemas unambiguously. We also prove the expressive power of the conceptual schemas. And, finally, we prove correctness of the introduced translation algorithms between platform-specific and XML schema levels.

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 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 B I O

xml schema
conceptual modeling
regular tree grammars


Fast Handoff among IEEE 802.11r Mobility Domains This paper deals with secure fast handoff among access points (APs) of different IEEE 802.11r mobility domains. We leverage standard IEEE 802.11i mechanisms to let a station preauthenticate and establish a pairwise transient key with some target AP beforehand. Upon reassociation, the new AP aware of the preauthenticated station can thus complete handoff sooner than would otherwise be required. In order to resolve target APs timely, we introduce a location server that maintains network topology of an autonomous system covering multiple mobility domains. The location server assesses with which AP(s) the mobile station may reassociate next using its migration tendency. Accordingly the station is instructed to preauthenticate with fewer potential next APs than unnecessary. Performance discussions indicate that our proposal is effective in practice. Our approach is not only complementary to emerging IEEE 802.11r-based techniques but also useful to any network-layer fast handoff schemes for streamlined communication.

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

wireless local area network
preauthentication
ieee 802.11r
ieee 802.11i


DYNAMIC RANGE EXTENSION OF CMOS IMAGE SENSORS USING MULTI-INTEGRATION TECHNIQUE WITH COMPACT READOUT A multi-integration technology with compact readout method to extend CMOS image sensor's dynamic range is presented. Compared with the timing of rolling readout, compact readout extends the available pixel readout time by adjusting the time-domain offset between two adjacent rows and each integration time in one frame. Thus the column readout bus is working continuously rather than intermittently, which makes good use of the whole integration time and the available readout time can be extended. This dynamic range extension technology was implemented on a prototype chip with a 128 x 128 pixel array. The pixel readout time with compact readout method is almost as 3 times long as the one with rolling readout method while 39 dB dynamic range extension is achieved at 120 fps.

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

cmos image sensor
wide dynamic range
multi-integration
multiple exposures


Adaptive chirp-based time-frequency analysis of speech signals In this paper, a new method for time-frequency analysis of speech signals is proposed. Given that the fundamental frequency of voiced speech often undergoes rapid fluctuation and in these cases the classical spectrogram suffers from blurring and artifacts, an adaptive analysis basis composed of quadratic chirps is what we consider. The analysis basis of the proposed Short-Time Fan-Chirp Transform (FChT) is defined univocally by the analysis window length and by the frequency variation rate, this parameter being predicted from the last computed spectral segments. The prediction algorithm is based on time tracking the joint trajectory of the harmonic contours, this process also provides a voiced/unvoiced detection parameter. Comparative results between the proposed Short-Time FChT and popular time-frequency techniques reveal an improvement in spectral and time-frequency representation. Since the signal can be synthesized from its FChT, the proposed method is suitable for filtering purposes. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

time-frequency analysis
harmonically related chirps
fan-chirp transform


Detachable Object Detection: Segmentation and Depth Ordering from Short-Baseline Video We describe an approach for segmenting a moving image into regions that correspond to surfaces in the scene that are partially surrounded by the medium. It integrates both appearance and motion statistics into a cost functional that is seeded with occluded regions and minimized efficiently by solving a linear programming problem. Where a short observation time is insufficient to determine whether the object is detachable, the results of the minimization can be used to seed a more costly optimization based on a longer sequence of video data. The result is an entirely unsupervised scheme to detect and segment an arbitrary and unknown number of objects. We test our scheme to highlight the potential, as well as limitations, of our approach.

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

video segmentation
occlusion
layers
graph cuts
ordering constraints
model selection


In silico description of cobalt and nickel assimilation systems in the genomes of methanogens Methanogens are a diverse group of organisms that can live in a wide range of environments. Herein, cobalt and tungsten assimilation pathways have proposed to be established in the genomes of Methanococcus maripaludies C5 and Methanosarcina mazei Go1, respectively. All of the proteins involved in the proposed pathways were identified from public domain databases and then complied manually to reconstruct the pathways. The function of proteins with unknown function was assigned by a combined prediction approach. Totally, 17 proteins were identified to cobalt transport and assimilation processes whereas 7 proteins reported to tungsten assimilation system. Phylogenetic analysis of this study revealed that heavy metal transporter of methanogens could be evolved from closely related members in the different genera of methanogens. Nevertheless, genes encoding for metal resistance proteins could be originated from thermophilic and sulfur reducing bacteria. Many metalloenzymes in methanogens were very unique to the species of methanogens. It implied that these metal ions were utilized to produce the precursors for energy driven processes of methanogens. This study suggested that in combination of systems models and evolutionary inference can only correlate metabolic fluxes and physiological changes in methanogens. In silico models of this study will provide insights to design experiments for heavy metal assimilation processes of methanogens growing under heavy metal-rich environments and or in a laboratory condition.

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

heavy metals assimilation
metabolic behavior
phylogeny
energetic metabolism


A flow caching mechanism for fast packet forwarding Next generation access routers and edge devices need to provide functionalities, for layer-4 packet forwarding and firewall/security checks. Consequently, a challenging issue concerns how to achieve fast packet filtering and forwarding at low cost. This paper studies the flow caching mechanisms for fast layer-4 packet forwarding. We show by model analysis that flow caching performance is not very sensitive to the flow cache table lookup speed but it is sensitive to the cache hit ratio. By making use of the available layer-4 information, we introduce two filtering modules to enhance the cache hit ratio. We demonstrate, by real trace simulation, that by adding these two filtering modules, the cache miss ratio can be reduced by up to 50% and the full header filtering speed reduced by up to five-fold. The proposed flow caching mechanism is potentially useful for accessing routers and edge devices where costs are at a premium and where software based filtering modules are dynamically generated. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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


Comparative modelling of interregional transport flows: Applications to multimodal European freight transport This paper aims to compare the descriptive and predictive power of two classes of statistical estimation models for multimodal network flows, viz. the family of discrete choice models (i.e., logit and probit models) and the neural network model. The application concerns a large dataset on interregional European freight flows for two commodity categories (food and chemicals). After a concise exposition of policy issues, methodological and modelling questions and the database, a variety of experiments is carried out. The results show that in general the predictive potential of neural network models is higher than that of discrete choice analysis. The statistical results are also used to investigate the implications of various road charge systems (e.g., eco-taxes) on specific spatial segments of the European road network.

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 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

freight transport
discrete choice models

interregional european network
modal split analysis
neural networks


Opportunity-Based Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks Topology control is an effective method to improve the energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Traditional approaches are based on the assumption that a pair of nodes is either "connected" or "disconnected." These approaches are called connectivity-based topology control. In real environments, however, there are many intermittently connected wireless links called lossy links. Taking a succeeded lossy link as an advantage, we are able to construct more energy-efficient topologies. Toward this end, we propose a novel opportunity-based topology control. We show that opportunity-based topology control is a problem of NP-hard. To address this problem in a practical way, we design a fully distributed algorithm called CONREAP based on reliability theory. We prove that CONREAP has a guaranteed performance. The worst running time is O(vertical bar E vertical bar), where E is the link set of the original topology, and the space requirement for individual nodes is O(d), where d is the node degree. To evaluate the performance of CONREAP, we design and implement a prototype system consisting of 50 Berkeley Mica2 motes. We also conducted comprehensive simulations. Experimental results show that compared with the connectivity-based topology control algorithms, CONREAP can improve the energy efficiency of a network up to six times.

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

topology control transitional region network reachability


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


LabBase: Development and validation of an innovative food microbial growth responses database The ability to monitor the results of research on food safety could help the food industry to design safe foods and to control reliably their stability during the stages of processing and distribution. However, due to the large volume of data and information that exists in the international literature, the specific (and necessary) knowledge for making decisions on the safety of certain foods is difficult to glean, or such a process is only possible with the help of experienced scientific staff. Therefore, a systematic recording of such research data in food databases is required, allowing the user to find quickly and easily the requested information (e.g. depending on the food product or the production conditions and distribution). The user would have the ability to compare different foods or to perform scenarios of food manufacturing and distribution. This paper introduces a novel food microbial growth responses database, called LabBase that satisfies the above requirements, supported by innovative application software, designed for scientific and industrial use.

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

food microbial database
tertiary model
predictive microbiology
labbase database


Automatic Virus Particle Selection-The Entropy Approach This paper describes a fully automatic approach to locate icosahedral virus particles in transmission electron microscopy images. The initial detection of the particles takes place through automatic segmentation of the entropy-proportion image; this image is computed in particular regions of interest defined by two concentric structuring elements contained in a small overlapping window running over all the image. Morphological features help to select the candidates, as the threshold is kept low enough to avoid false negatives. The candidate points are subject to a credibility test based on features extracted from eight radial intensity profiles in each point from a texture image. A candidate is accepted if these features meet the set of acceptance conditions describing the typical intensity profiles of these kinds of particles. The set of points accepted is subjected to a last validation in a three-parameter space using a discrimination plan that is a function of the input image to separate possible outliers.

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 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

adenovirus
automatic detection
automatic particle selection
icosahedral particles


on the moments of the sampling distribution of particle swarm optimisers A method is presented that allows one to exactly determine all the characteristics of a PSO's sampling distribution and explain how it changes over time, in the presence stochasticity. The only assumption made is stagnation (particles are in search for a better personal best).

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


An extended QFD planning model for selecting design requirements with longitudinal effect consideration An extended QFD planning model is presented for selecting design requirements (DRs) that consider longitudinal effect. In the proposed model, the longitudinal effect is incorporated by introducing a time dimension into the existing house of quality structure. As a consequence of explicitly considering the longitudinal effect, the proposed model yields not only an optimal set of DRs but also the timing of their selection. The proposed model is demonstrated through a case study for improving customer loyalty in the high-speed internet service.

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

quality function deployment
project selection


Synthesizing e-government stage models - a meta-synthesis based on meta-ethnography approach Purpose - The growing interest in e-government raises the question of stages in e-government development. A few stage models for e-government have been proposed. Without a common e-government stage model, different research in e-government may be based on different stage models. This presents a difficulty in comparing and understanding different research results. In this research, we synthesize the existing e-government stage models so that there is a common frame of reference for researchers and practitioners in the area. Design/methodology/approach - This research utilizes a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology to synthesize different e-government stage models. The meta-synthesis follows the steps used in meta-ethnography. Findings - Five different e-government stage models were used in this research. We translated the stages within different models into one another and developed a new e-government stage model. The new e-government stage model has the following five stages: web presence, interaction, transaction, transformation, and e-democracy. Research limitations/implications - The paper contributes to e-government theory development. The new five-stage model provides a synthesized conceptual framework for researchers to evaluate and understand e-government development. Practical implications - The synthesized e-government stage model presents a road map for practitioners to follow in their e-government projects. Originality/value - The research uses an innovative and new research methodology to synthesize the existing research. It is one of the first research in the information systems area to make use of meta-synthesis approach to consolidate the existing qualitative research. This paper is also one of the one papers to systematically come up with an e-government stage model.

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

communication technologies
government
innovation


Criteria to design chaotic self-similar traffic generators A self-similar behavior characterizes the traffic in many real-world communication networks. This traffic is traditionally modeled as an ON/OFF discrete-time second-order selfsimilar random process. The self-similar processes are identified by means of a polynomially decaying trend of the autocovariance function. In this work we concentrate en two criteria to build a chaotic system able to generate self-similar trajectories. The first criterion relates self-similarity with the polynomially decaying trend of the autocovariance function. The second one relates self-similarity with the heavy-tailed ness of the distributions of the sojourn times in the ON and/or OFF states. A family of discrete-time chaotic systems is then devised among the countable piecewise affine Pseudo-Markov maps. These maps can be constructed so that the quantization of their trajectories emulates traffic processes with different Hurst parameters and average load. Some simulations are reported showing how, according to the theory, the map design is able to fit those specifications.

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

self-similar traffic
heavy-tailed distribution
piecewise-affine markov maps


QUANTUM SECURE DIRECT COMMUNICATION WITH QUANTUM IDENTIFICATION A one-way quantum secure direct communication protocol with quantum identification utilizing two-photon three-qubit linear cluster states is proposed. The protocol can be used to transmit a secret message and identify user's identification simultaneously. The transmission of information is instantaneous, i.e. the information can be decoded during the transmission and no final transmission of additional information is needed. We prove its robustness against attacks: Any attempt of an adversary to obtain information (and even a bit of information) necessarily induces some errors that the legitimate parties could notice, even in noisy environments. Moreover, this protocol achieves a high efficiency and source capacity since more qubits can be encoded on the same photon.

B I I I 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

quantum entanglement
quantum cryptography


Images of health technology in national and local strategies Objectives: This paper examines the potential of various models relating technology to society and institutional structures to inform health policy. Among the models discussed are various versions of technological determinism, social constructivism, actor network theory and critical theory. Methods: The paper considers recent developments in policy and strategy that aim to shape the way the UK's National Health Service (NHS) integrates Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into health care and considers what these alternative models highlight or emphasise, and how they might influence the activities of setting local implementation strategies. Results and Conclusions: Contemporary ICTs are often presented as having a particular relevance and power in reforming or transforming the delivery of health care. Understanding how such technologies might be conceived of, implemented and become an integral part of some future health care system is an important and challenging task that requires innovative theoretical treatments.

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

health policy
local implementation strategies

social shaping of technology
actor-network theory
nhs information technology policy


ADMIT-1: Automatic differentiation and MATLAB interface toolbox ADMIT-1 enables the computation of sparse Jacobian and Hessian matrices, using automatic differentiation technology, from a MATLAB environment. Given a function to be differentiated, ADMIT-1 will exploit sparsity if present to yield sparse derivative matrices (in sparse MATLAB form). A generic automatic differentiation tool, subject to some functionality requirements, can be plugged into ADMIT-1; examples include ADOL-C (C/C++ target functions) and ADMAT (MATLAB target functions). ADMIT-1 also allows for the calculation of gradients and has several other related functions. This article provides an introduction to the design and usage of ADMIT-1.

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

algorithms
computational differentiation
efficient computation of gradient
graph coloring
jacobians and hessians
user interface


A formal framework for business process modelling and design ? We present a formal framework for enterprise and business process modelling. The concepts of our framework (objectives and goals, roles and actors, actions and processes, responsibilities and constraints) allow business analysts to capture enterprise knowledge in a way that is both intuitive and mathematically formal. We also outline the basic steps of a methodology that allows business analysts to produce detailed, formal specifications of business processes from high-level enterprise objectives. The use of a formal language permits us to verify that the specifications possess certain correctness properties, namely that the responsibilities assigned to roles are fulfilled, and that constraints are maintained as a result of process execution.

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

enterprise modelling
situation calculus
congolog
formal verification


towards the convergence between hypermedia authoring languages and architecture description languages This paper presents a detailed comparison between the structural elements and definitions provided by Hypermedia Authoring Languages and Architecture Description Languages (ADL). ADLs are formal languages that can be used for representing a software architecture. Although it may look trivial to make a direct correspondence between ADL and hypermedia structural entities, such as components to nodes and connectors to links, interesting differences can be identified when observing them more closely. Based on the comparison results, a structural meta-model that can be specialized for use in both domains is proposed. Furthermore, the paper also presents an example of how the meta-model can be used for describing hypermedia document structures, showing how some features found in ADLs can be applied to hypermedia authoring languages. Our final goal is to integrate the contributions of document engineering and software architecture engineering and take advantage of the advances of one area in the other one. The current paper is the first step towards this direction.

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

architecture description languages
components
hypermedia authoring languages
connectors
adl


Building a project ontology with extreme collaboration and virtual design and construction This paper defines the concept of the tripod method of design that uses VDC modeling (multi-disciplinary performance-based virtual design and construction modeling), an integrated POP model (a formal and integrated model of Product, Organization and Process of the project) and Extreme Collaboration (a very rapid concurrent and technologically enabled social process of design). The paper focuses in particular on the generic ontology of the POP model, which specifies the related functional requirements, designed forms and predicted, observed and desired behaviors of the defined POP elements. With collateral drawings, models, analyses and explanations, the project specific POP model becomes the schematic and initial detailed design for the project. We describe use of the tripod method for the preliminary design of a large commercial building project. While large generic building project ontologies exist, e.g. the Industry Foundation Classes, we find that our ontology is so simple that teams using any design tools and methods can use it today, and it is helpful. We interpret our results as early evidence that the Tripod engineering process of VDC, Extreme Collaboration and use of a generic POP ontology together enable a design team to build a new integrated multidisciplinary project design model very rapidly. It can then be used to support downstream detailed design and construction planning and also reuse in other engineering projects.

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

pop ontology
vdc
virtual design and construction
extreme collaboration


Nuancing the relationship between motion sickness and postural stability The most cited theory on motion sickness is the conflict theory by Reason and Brand (1975) [1], stating that motion sickness occurs due to a conflict between the senses and stored patterns of motion. In addition, there seems to be evidence for another theory stating that postural instability is a necessary and sufficient condition preceding motion sickness (Riccio and Stoffregen, 1991 [2]). A number of additional observations reviewed in this paper, however, are nuancing the relationship at issue, thus devaluating the latter theory. Moreover, a central mechanism as assumed before (Bos and Bles, 2002 [20]), driving both our posture and motion sickness symptoms, may explain why and when postural instability is correlated with sickness, and when it is not.

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


Application of Totalistic Cellular Automata for Noise Filtering in Image Processing The selection of the neighbourhood is a very important part of the specification and training of Cellular Automata (CA) in image processing. Rather than guessing or assuming a specific neighbourhood, this paper investigates the selection of the neighbourhood and studies how the level of added noise in the image affects the selection of an optimal neighbourhood. To enhance the performance of noise removal using Cellular Automata, a basic totalistic CA (BTCA) model and a new weighted totalistic CA (WTCA) model are introduced. Both methods require much less memory storage and are feasible in practice even for very large neighbourhoods. Several experiments are presented to demonstrate that both proposed methods produce consistently better performance than the median filter and the traditional CA method for low noise levels, and for filtering at high noise levels, the WTCA model is shown an excellent performance compared to other methods.

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

cellular automata
image processing
neighbourhood
noise filtering
totalistic


Solving PDEs in irregular geometries with multiresolution methods I: Embedded Dirichlet boundary conditions ? In this work, we develop and analyze a formalism for solving boundary value problems in arbitrarily-shaped domains using the MADNESS (multiresolution adaptive numerical environment for scientific simulation) package for adaptive computation with multiresolution algorithms. We begin by implementing a previously-reported diffuse domain approximation for embedding the domain of interest into a larger domain (Li et al., 2009 [1]). Numerical and analytical tests both demonstrate that this approximation yields non-physical solutions with zero first and second derivatives at the boundary. This excessive smoothness leads to large numerical cancellation and confounds the dynamically-adaptive, multiresolution algorithms inside MADNESS. We thus generalize the diffuse domain approximation, producing a formalism that demonstrates first-order convergence in both near- and far-field errors. We finally apply our formalism to an electrostatics problem from nanoscience with characteristic length scales ranging from 0.0001 to 300 nm.

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

multiresolution analysis
domain embedding techniques


BOUNDED-PARAMETER PARTIALLY OBSERVABLE MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES: FRAMEWORK AND ALGORITHM Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are powerful for planning under uncertainty. However, it is usually impractical to employ a POMDP with exact parameters to model the real-life situation precisely, due to various reasons such as limited data for learning the model, inability of exact POMDPs to model dynamic situations, etc. In this paper, assuming that the parameters of POMDPs are imprecise but bounded, we formulate the framework of bounded-parameter partially observable Markov decision processes (BPOMDPs). A modified value iteration is proposed as a basic strategy for tackling parameter imprecision in BPOMDPs. In addition, we design the UL-based value iteration algorithm, in which each value backup is based on two sets of vectors called U-set and L-set. We propose four strategies for computing U-set and L-set. We analyze theoretically the computational complexity and the reward loss of the algorithm. The effectiveness and robustness of the algorithm are shown empirically.

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 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 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

planning under uncertainty
pomdp
modified value iteration

decision making under uncertainty
bounded-parameter
ulvi algorithm


Optimizing feedforward neural networks for control chart pattern recognition through genetic algorithms Pattern recognition is an important issue in statistical process control (SPC) because unnatural patterns exhibited by control charts can be associated with specific assignable causes adversely affecting the process. Artificial neural networks have been widely investigated as an effective approach to control chart pattern (CCP) recognition in recent years. However, an overwhelming majority of these applications has used trial-and-error experiments to determine the network architecture and training parameters, which are crucial to the performance of the network. In this paper, the genetic algorithm (CA) is used to evolve the configuration and the training parameter set of the neural network to solve the online CCP recognition problem. Numerical results are provided that indicate that the proposed CA can evolve neural network architecture while simultaneously determining training parameters to maximize efficiently the performance of the online CCP recognizers. Because the population size is a major parameter of CA processing speed, an investigation was also conducted to identify the effects of the population size on the performance of the proposed GA. This research further confirms the feasibility of using CA to evolve neural networks. Although a back-propagation-based CCP recognizer is the particular application presented here, the proposed CA methodology can be applied to neural networks in general.

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

control chart
pattern recognition
statistical process control
genetic algorithm


Existence and uniqueness theorems for fourth-order singular boundary value problems By constructing a special cone and using cone compression and expansion fixed point theorem, the existence and uniqueness are established for the following singular fourth-order boundary value problems: x((4)) (t) = f(t, x(t), -x '' (t)), t is an element of (0, 1), x(0) = x(1) = x ''(0) = x ''(1) = 0, where f(t, x, y) may be singular at t = 0.1; x = 0 and y = 0. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

B O B O O O B 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 O O O O 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

fourth-order boundary value problem
e-norm


New search algorithm for solving the maintenance scheduling problem for a family of machines In many real-world applications, the cost associate with maintenance could be very significant since the maintenance work is subcontract or repairmen have to make a special trip from some central place to carry out the work. The focus of this study is to optimally coordinate the maintenance schedule of machines to save the maintenance cost incurred, which is named as the maintenance scheduling problem for a family of machines (MSPFM). Before presenting our solution approach, we first review Goyal and Kusy's [Goyal, S.K. and Kusy, M.I., 1985, Determining economic maintenance frequency for a family of machines. Journal of the Operational Research Society , 36(12), 1125-1128.] model and their heuristic for solving the MSPFM. In this study, we conduct full analysis on the mathematical model for the MSPFM. By utilizing our theoretical results, we propose a new search algorithm that solves the optimal solution for the MSPFM very efficiently. Using 36,000 instances randomly generated, we show that our new search algorithm obtains better solutions than Goyal and Kusy's heuristic.

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

family of machines
maintenance
scheduling
search algorithm


Formal methods in practice Technology transfer from academic research to industrial practice is hampered by social, political, and economic problems more than by technical issues. This paper describes one instance of successful technology transfer based on a special-purpose language and an associated translation tool tailored to the customer's needs. The key lesson to be learned from this example is that mathematical formalisms must be transparent to the user. Formalisms can be effectively employed if they are represented by tools that fit into existing work processes. It is suggested that special-purpose, domain-specific languages and their translators are an important vehicle to transition advanced technology to practice. This approach enables domain experts to solve problems using familiar terminology. It enables engineers of all disciplines to utilize computers without becoming software engineers. In doing so, we not only mitigate the chronic shortage of qualified software personnel but also simplify the problem of requirements analysis and specification. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

domain-specific languages
code synthesis


Interplay between Ecological Communities and Evolution There is growing interest in the interplay between ecological interactions among community members and evolutionary processes. At all scales, from genetic variation within populations, through variation across populations, species, and clades, we find feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Ecological interactions are a source of selection that can drive local adaptation and speciation; conversely, how populations evolve in response to such selection can feed back to modify species interactions, communities, and ecological dynamics. We review ecoevolutionary linkages in theoretical and empirical studies in several areas including the following: (1) how intraspecific genetic variation affects communities, (2) multispecies interactions that cause diffuse selection and geographic mosaics of selection, (3) how rapid evolution can generate ecoevolutionary feedback, (4) interpretation of phylogenetic signal in community assembly, and (5) the macroevolutionary consequences of multispecies interactions. We highlight new approaches that may contribute to advances in each of these areas. We also discuss ways of linking these different disciplines, specifically by documenting feedbacks between evolution and ecological communities across multiple scales.

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

multispecies interactions
rapid evolution
diffuse selection

community evolution
multispecies coevolution
ecoevolutionary dynamics
community genetics
geographic mosaic of coevolution
community phylogenetics
cospeciation


Mitochondrial DNA-Deficient Models and Aging Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes 13 subunits of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) enzyme complexes I, III, IV, and V except complex II. MtDNA is more sensitive to oxidative damage than nuclear DNA. MtDNA defects are involved in many pathologies including aging. Several mtDNA-deficient cell culture, yeast, and animal models were generated to study the role of mtDNA in many physiological processes. Ethidium bromide (EB), an agent that is known to inhibit mtDNA replication with a negligible effect on nuclear DNA, is generally used to generate mtDNA-deficient models. The antibiotics chloramphenicol and doxycycline, which were known to inhibit mitochondrial translation, were also used to generate the same phenotype. Cultured mtDNA-deficient cells need uridine and pyruvate to survive. At the organismal level, uridine can be supplemented, but pyruvate supplementation can cause a worser phenotype because of lactic acidosis. In C. elegans, EB, when used during larval development, increases life span, but decreases, when used after the beginning of adult stage. This should be kept in mind since mitochondria-related genes are generally detected in genome-wide screening studies for longevity. We believe that conditional knockout studies need to be carried out for these genes after reaching adulthood. MtDNA mutator mouse did not show an increase of free radical production. Therefore, the downstream phenomena to mtDNA defects are likely ineffective pyrimidine synthesis (dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, DHODH, needs a functional respiratory chain) and excess NADH (decreased NAD pool) in addition to free radicals

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


Analysis by data mining in the emergency medicine triage database at a Taiwanese regional hospital Emergency medicine is the front line of medical service a hospital provides; also it is the department people seek medical care from immediately after an emergency happens. The statistics by the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, indicate that over years, the number of people at the emergency department has been increasing. The US has introduced and practiced the triage system in the emergency medicine in 1960, whereby to aid the emergency department in allocating the patients, to give them appropriate medical care by the fast decision of the nurses and doctors in case of the patients seriousness through their judgment. This study takes on the knowledge contained in the massive data of unknown characteristics in the triage database at a Taiwanese regional hospital, using the cluster analysis and the rough set theory as tools for data mining to extract, with the analysis software ROSE2 (Rough Sets Data Explorer) and through rule induction technique, the imprecise, uncertain and vague information of rules from the massive database, and builds the model that is capable of simplifying massive data while maintaining the accuracy in classifying rules. After analyzing and evaluating the knowledge obtained from relevant mining in the hospitals past medical data for the consumption of emergency medical resources, this thesis proposes suggestions as reference for the hospitals in subsequent elevation of medical quality and decrease in operative costs.

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

cluster analysis
data mining
emergency medicine
rough set
triage


a dialogue on responsibility, moral agency, and it systems The dialogue that follows was written to express some of our ideas and remaining questions about IT systems, moral agency, and responsibility. We seem to have made some progress on some these issues, but we haven't come to anything close to agreement on several important points. While the issues are becoming more clearly drawn, what we have discovered so far is closer to a web of connecting ideas, than to formal claims or final conclusions.

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

computer ethics
artificial agents
moral agents


Parallel sorting with limited bandwidth We study the problem of sorting on a parallel computer with limited communication bandwidth. By using the PRAM(m) model, where p processors communicate through a globally shared memory which can service m requests per unit time, we focus on the trade-off between the amount of local computation and the amount of interprocessor communication required for parallel sorting algorithms. Our main result is a lower bound of Omega(n log m/m log n) on the time required to sort n numbers on the exclusive-read and queued-read variants of the PRAM(m). We also show that Leighton's Columnsort can be used to give an asymptotically matching upper bound in the case where m grows as a fractional power of n. The bounds are of a surprising form in that they have little dependence on the parameter p. This implies that attempting to distribute the workload across more processors while holding the problem size and the size of the shared memory fixed will not improve the optimal running time of sorting in this model. We also show that both the lower and the upper bounds can be adapted to bridging models that address the issue of limited communication bandwidth: the LogP model and the bulk-synchronous parallel (BSP) model. The lower bounds provide further convincing evidence that efficient parallel algorithms for sorting rely strongly on high communication bandwidth.

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

parallel sorting
limited bandwidth
logp
bsp


the hidden injuries of overloading 'adt' The most commonly stated definition of abstract data type (ADT) is that it is a domain of values and the operations over that domain. So, for example, a language's built-in types, like int are seen to be ADTs. It is our opinion that a pure interpretation of this definition yields a semantics in which using an ADT is the same as using built-in types: the operations are side effect free and there is no concern over alias, shallow copy or synchronization problems. Unfortunately, the term abstract data type has over time been associated with at least three distinct meanings, and those incompatible definitions have often been conflated, causing confusion to students and textbook authors alike. We believe that this has resulted in a loss of appreciation for the value-based semantics of ADTs.

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

modeling
abstract data types
value semantics
data representation
interfaces
containers


a beyond 3g real-time testbed for an all-ip heterogeneous network This paper describes a real-time testbed emulating an all-IP B3G (Beyond 3rd Generation) network that includes UTRAN, GERAN, and WLAN emulation and the corresponding common core network based on DiffServ (Differentiated Services) technology and MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching). In such a complex scenario, considering real user applications and end-to-end (e2e) QoS, it is convenient to develop emulation platforms, where algorithms and applications can be tested in realistic conditions, not achievable by means of non-real-time simulations. Presented testbed will be used to evaluate three main objectives: to test the e2e QoS experienced by a user in a heterogeneous mobile environment with IP connectivity, to test and validate specific algorithms and mechanisms, and to evaluate real implementations of some subsystems.

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

end-to-end qos
real-time
heterogeneous networks


Overlapping Generations Model with Endogenous Labor Supply: General Formulation This paper develops a one-sector overlapping generations model with endogenous labor supply and nonseparable preferences. It demonstrates that local indeterminacy arises easily under gross substitutability as soon as there exist multiple steady states. We show also that, depending on whether leisure and second-period consumption are gross substitutes, local indeterminacy holds for very different parameter configurations. If gross substitutability is satisfied, the existence of multiple equilibrium paths requires the share of capital in the total income to be strong enough with respect to the elasticity of capital-labor substitution. On the other hand, if gross substitutability is violated, local indeterminacy necessitates the share of capital in the total income to be weak enough with respect to the elasticity of capital-labor substitution.

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

indeterminacy
overlapping generations
endogenous labor supply


Bounds on the performance of belief propagation decoding We consider Gallager's soft-decoding (belief propagation) algorithm for decoding low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, when applied to an arbitrary binary-input symmetric-output channel. By considering the expected values of the messages, we derive both lower and upper bounds on the performance of the algorithm. We also derive various properties of the decoding algorithm, such as a certain robustness to the details of the channel noise. Our results apply both to regular and irregular LDPC codes.

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

iterative decoding
low-density parity-check (ldpc) codes
sum product algorithm


Equivalence between the Trefftz method and the method of fundamental solution for the annular Green's function using the addition theorem and image concept In this paper, the Green's function for the annular Laplace problem is first derived by using the image method which can be seen as a special case of method of fundamental solutions. Three cases, fixedfixed, fixedfree and freefixed boundary conditions are considered. Also, the Trefftz method is employed to derive the analytical solution by using T-complete sets. By employing the addition theorem, both solutions are found to be mathematically equivalent when the number of Trefftz base and the number of image points are both infinite. On the basis of the same number of degrees of freedom, the convergence rate of both methods is compared with each other. In the successive image process, the final two images freeze at the origin and infinity, where their singularity strengths can be analytically and numerically determined in a consistent manner.

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

method of fundamental solutions
image method
trefftz method