From chaos to the systematic harmonization of multiple reference models: A harmonization framework applied in two case studies At the present time, we can observe that in an effort to deal with the issue of quality, a variety of models, standards and methodologies have been developed to give support in different domains of the IT industry. This wide range of heterogeneous models makes it possible to resolve multiple needs. In recent years, as the integration of different models has increased, organizations have started to note that their business and technical processes can be aligned with more than one model. Currently, however, we are not aware of any other attempts to provide an explicit and systematic solution that would allow us to address the issue of harmonization of multiple reference models in such a way as to satisfy the needs of the companies. In the quest to help support the work of harmonization of multiple models, this paper presents (i) a framework that defines elements needed to support the harmonization of multiple reference models, (ii) a process, which is the backbone and way of integrating all the elements defined in the framework thus allowing the implementation of a harmonization project to be guided systematically, harmonizing multiple models through the configuration of a harmonization strategy, and (iii) a set of methods, which allows us to know what to do, as well as how to put two or more models in consonance with each other. The experience of the application of our proposal is illustrated in two case studies. The findings obtained show that the harmonization process has enabled us to harmonize and put the models involved in consonance with each other.

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

harmonization process
harmonization of multiple models
harmonization

multi-model
improvement process
spi
case study


The on-line shortest path problem under partial monitoring The on-line shortest path problem is considered under various models of partial monitoring. Given a weighted directed acyclic graph whose edge weights can change in an arbitrary (adversarial) way, a decision maker has to choose in each round of a game a path between two distinguished vertices such that the loss of the chosen path ( defined as the sum of the weights of its composing edges) be as small as possible. In a setting generalizing the multi-armed bandit problem, after choosing a path, the decision maker learns only the weights of those edges that belong to the chosen path. For this problem, an algorithm is given whose average cumulative loss in n rounds exceeds that of the best path, matched off-line to the entire sequence of the edge weights, by a quantity that is proportional to 1/root n and depends only polynomially on the number of edges of the graph. The algorithm can be implemented with complexity that is linear in the number of rounds n (i.e., the average complexity per round is constant) and in the number of edges. An extension to the so-called label efficient setting is also given, in which the decision maker is informed about the weights of the edges corresponding to the chosen path at a total of m << n time instances. Another extension is shown where the decision maker competes against a time-varying path, a generalization of the problem of tracking the best expert. A version of the multi-armed bandit setting for shortest path is also discussed where the decision maker learns only the total weight of the chosen path but not the weights of the individual edges on the path. Applications to routing in packet switched networks along with simulation results are also presented.

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

on-line learning
multi-armed bandit problem


a wireless hybrid contention/tdma-based mac for real-time mobile application Wireless communication has been successfully used in a variety of mobile applications, including those with real-time requirements. In such systems, timing guarantees are normally obtained by using a TDMA-based Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, relying in a coordinator node in charge of time-slots allocation. However, certain applications cannot make use of such coordinator because it simply does not exist, normally due to restrictions in the operation environment. To solve this problem we present in this paper a MAC protocol that operates without a central coordinator, with minimum global information, and with no previous assignments of roles to nodes nor resource reservations. Our proposed Hybrid Contention/TDMA-based (HCT) MAC is specially designed to work with ad-hoc wireless networks organized in clusters, providing timely bounded communications both inside and outside the clusters. This paper presents a detailed description of the resource reservation procedure of HCT, including an analytical analysis of its expected performance.

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


On 1-systems of Q(6,q),q even In this paper, a method is developed to study locally hermitian 1-systems of Q(6, q), q even, by associating a kind of flock in PG( 4, q) to them. This method is applied to a known locally hermitian 1-system of Q(6, 2(2)e), which was discovered by Offer as a spread of the hexagon H(2(2e)). The results concerning this spread appear to be suitable for generalization and enable us to find new classes of 1-systems of Q( 6, q), q even. We also prove that a locally hermitian 1-system of Q( 6, q), q even, which is not contained in a 5-dimensional subspace, is semi-classical if and only if it belongs to the new classes we describe. Finally, from the new classes of 1-systems arise new classes of semipartial geometries.

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


Experience of using a lightweight formal specification method for a commercial embedded system product line A simple specification method is introduced and the results of its application to a series of projects in Philips are reported. The method is principally designed to ensure that that every unusual scenario is considered in a systematic way. In practice, this has led to high-quality specifications and accelerated product development. While the straightforward tabular notation used has proved readily understandable to non-technical personnel, it is also a formal method, producing a model of system behaviour as a finite state machine. In this respect, the notation is unusual in being designed to preserve as far as possible a view of the overall system state and how this changes. The notation also features a constraint table which may be described as a kind of spreadsheet for invariants to help define the states of the system.

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

lightweight formal methods
finite state machines
tabular notations
embedded systems
user interface specification


A Note on Shape Preserving Weighted Uniform Approximation In this paper, new results concerning shape preserving weighted uniform approximation on the real line are presented.

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

weighted polynomial approximation on the real line


Out-of-order durable event processing in integrated wireless networks Many events in real world applications are long-lasting events which have certain durations. The temporal relationships among those durable events are often complex. Processing such complex events has become increasingly important in applications of wireless networks. An important issue of complex event processing is to extract patterns from event streams to support decision making in real-time. However, network latencies and machine failures in wireless networks may cause events to be out-of-order. In this work, we analyze the preliminaries of event temporal semantics. A tree-plan model of out-of-order durable events is proposed. A hybrid solution is correspondingly introduced. Extensive experimental studies demonstrate the efficiency of our approach. (C) 2010 Elsevier 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 O O O O O B I O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

durable events
complex events
wireless networks


An inexact interior point method for the large-scale simulation of granular material Non-smooth contact dynamics provides an increasingly popular simulation framework for granular material. In contrast to classical discrete element methods, this approach is stable for arbitrary time steps and produces visually acceptable results in very short computing time. Yet when it comes to the prediction of draft forces, non-smooth contact dynamics is typically not accurate enough. We therefore propose to combine the method class with an interior point algorithm for higher accuracy. Our specific algorithm is based on the so-called Jordan algebras and exploits the relation to symmetric cones in order to tackle the conical constraints that are intrinsic to frictional contact problems. In every interior point iteration a linear system has to be solved. We analyze how the interior point method behaves when it is combined with Krylov subspace solvers and incomplete factorizations. We show that efficient preconditioners and efficient linear solvers are essential for the method to be applicable to large-scale problems. Using CG as a linear solver and incomplete LU factorizations, we substantially improve the accuracy in comparison to the projected GauJacobi solver.

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

granular material
symmetric cones
interior point method

non-smooth dynamical systems
cone complementarity problem
jordan algebra


A case study on consistency management of business and IT process models in banking Organizations that adopt process modeling often maintain several co-existing models of the same business process. These models target different abstraction levels and stakeholder perspectives. Maintaining consistency among these models has become a major challenge for such organizations. Although several academic works have discussed this challenge, little empirical investigation exists on how people perform process model consistency management in practice. This paper aims to address this lack by presenting an in-depth empirical study of a business-driven engineering process deployed at a large company in the banking sector. We analyzed more than 70 business process models developed by the company, including their change history, with over 1,000 change requests. We also interviewed 9 business and IT practitioners and surveyed 23 such practitioners to understand concrete difficulties in consistency management, the rationales for the specification-to-implementation refinements found in the models, strategies that the practitioners use to detect and fix inconsistencies, and how tools could help with these tasks. Our contribution is a set of eight empirical findings, some of which confirm or contradict previous works on process model consistency management found in the literature. The findings provide empirical evidence of (1) how business process models are created and maintained, including a set of recurrent patterns used to refine business-level process specifications into IT-level models; (2) what types of inconsistencies occur; how they are introduced; and what problems they cause; and (3) what stakeholders expect from tools to support consistency management.

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

business processes
process refinement patterns


Pharmacological Regulation of the Late Steps of Exocytosis We used amperometry to analyze the role of several second messengers and drugs in the exocytotic kinetics of bovine chromaffin cells. Activation of PKG produces a slowing down of exocytosis, which is not generally accompanied by changes in the net granule content of catecholamines. These effects are also observed after mild PKA activation. However, strong PKA stimulation also causes an increase in the apparent granule content of catecholamines, suggesting the presence of composed fusion. Conversely, PKC activation promotes acceleration of the exocytotic process. We also analyzed the contribution of different Ca2+ channel subtypes to the exocytotic kinetics at the single event level. Although N-subtype channels do not contribute to total catecholamine release, their blockade produces a slowing down of exocytosis without changes in granule content. However, L or P/Q blockade causes, in addition, a reduction in the apparent granule content. The L-type agonist BAY-K-8644 produces giant secretory amperometric spikes, indicating that Ca2+ favors composed fusion prior to exocytosis. Our data suggest that second messengers continuously regulate exocytotic kinetics and granule content. In addition, several well-known antihypertensive agents, such as sodium nitroprusside, organic nitrates, hydralazine, or Ca2+ antagonists, could be acting through these novel mechanisms on sympathetic synapses by changing the synaptic performance, thereby producing additional vasodilatory effects.

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


An evolutionary economic-statistical design for VSI X control charts under non-normality Since Reynolds et al. [1] proposed the variable sampling interval (VSI) X? control chart, the statistical properties of the chart have been discussed and shown to be better than the traditional control chart in which the sampling intervals length are fixed. However, the VSI charts are, like the traditional charts, still costly when they are used for the prevention of defective products. For this reason, an appropriate design is necessary before it is used. In this paper, a VSI X? control chart is used for monitoring non-normal process data, which is widely encountered in practice. Then, a cost-quality model based on the Burr distribution is proposed for constructing an economic-statistical design for the VSI X? chart. The design of the chart has been developed considering the optimisation of the cost function in this model posed by statistical constraints. The design parameters can be derived through the evolutionary search method, and the overall finding indicates that the designed VSI chart always outperforms the traditional control chart with respect to the expected cost per unit time. This model is also suitable for normally distributed data; thus, it is suitable for a general application.

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

control charts
variable sampling interval


Importance Sampling Techniques for Path Tracing in Participating Media We introduce a set of robust importance sampling techniques which allow efficient calculation of direct and indirect lighting from arbitrary light sources in both homogeneous and heterogeneous media. We show how to distribute samples along a ray proportionally to the incoming radiance for point and area lights. In heterogeneous media, we decouple ray marching from light calculations by computing a representation of the transmittance function that can be quickly evaluated during sampling, at the cost of a small amount of bias. This representation also allows the calculation of another probability density function which can direct samples to regions most likely to scatter light. These techniques are orthogonal and can be combined via multiple importance sampling to further reduce variance. Our method has very modest per-ray memory requirements and does not require any preprocessing, making it simple to integrate into production ray tracing based renderers.

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

7 [computer graphics]: three-dimensional graphics and realismuradiosity


Spectral modelling of mantle convection in a non orthogonal geometry: application to subduction zones ? We present a two-dimensional numerical convection model, in a parallelogram-shaped domain adapted to the geometry of subduction zones. The NavierStokes problem is solved by a pseudo-spectral solver (named projection-diffusion) coupled to the Richardson iterative scheme. In a convective domain, representative of the upper mantle, plate tectonic parameters are fixed by imposing the velocities on the domain boundaries. In particular, the subducting plate, located on one side of the domain box, moves and dips at constant velocity. The model is validated for the zero obliquity configuration for three boundary conditions: first, for free boundaries, second, for a rigid upper boundary; and third, for a rigid upper and lateral boundary. We also report preliminary results of experiments for a non-zero obliquity at a Rayleigh number value of 104, a motionless overriding plate, subduction velocities smaller than 4cm/yr, and subduction dip angles steeper than 60. Concerning the evolution of the flow and thermal structures with the subduction movement and geometry, the model predicts the occurrence of a recirculation process, characterised by the formation of an extra convection cell above the subducted plate. Recirculation starts at a critical subduction intensity that is dependent on the subduction geometry: the lower the subduction dip angle, the lower the critical subduction velocity. A critical subduction geometry is predicted by the model because the extra convection cell exists even at very low subduction velocities and subduction dip angles less than 65.

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

numerical modelling
earths upper mantle
plate velocity


Numerical Policy Error Bounds for \(\eta \)-Concave Stochastic Dynamic Programming with Non-interior Solutions This paper derives explicit error bounds for numerical policies of \(\eta \)-concave stochastic dynamic programming problems, without assuming the optimal policy is interior. We demonstrate the usefulness of our error bound by using it to pinpoint the states at which the borrowing constraint binds in a widely used income fluctuation problem with standard calibrations and a firm production problem with financial constraints.

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

accuracy test
computable policy error bound
noninterior solution
euler equation error
c63
e21


Adaptive coding schemes for support of multicast audio to wireless devices The mobile wireless environment, characterized by dynamically varying bandwidth and signal quality, provides a harsh environment for audio and video applications. Insufficient bandwidth leads to losses and delays which significantly reduce the quality of playback at the receiver. Such an environment demands application support for bandwidth adaptation. Audio applications in particular have traditionally operated at fixed rates and are prime candidates for enhancement. We propose a DCT-based audio decomposition (DAD) scheme for real-time general audio streams in the multicast environment which allows audio quality to be traded off against reductions in bandwidth usage. We compare the performance of DAD, using objective and subjective measures, against two other schemes which also support adaptation to restricted bandwidth. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


automated testing of non-functional requirements We present an open-source toolkit that enables automated testing of non-functional requirements. Our toolkit offers an alternative to current approaches (e.g. testing suites) by being lightweight, flexible, free and by reusing libraries and executables found on common operating systems and platforms. The toolkit provides developers and project managers with reports about the system under development. We would like to advocate the importance of non-functional testing, especially in the context of agile projects, and we have experienced significant risk reductions in our projects when using the toolkit described here.

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

non-functional requirements
open source
metrics


Power-aware SoC test planning for effective utilization of port-scalable testers Many system-on-chip (SoC) integrated circuits contain embedded cores with different scan frequencies. To better meet the test requirements for such heterogeneous SoCs, leading tester companies have recently introduced port-scalable testers, which can simultaneously drive groups of channels at different data rates. However, the number of tester channels available for scan testing is limited; therefore, a higher shift frequency can increase the test time for a core if the resulting test access architecture reduces the bit-width used to access it. We present a scalable test planning technique that exploits port scalability of testers to reduce SoC test time. We compare the proposed heuristic optimization method to two baseline methods based on prior works that use a single scan data rate for all embedded cores. We also propose a power-aware test planning technique to effectively utilize port-scalable testers under constraints of test power consumption. Experimental results are presented for power-aware test scheduling to illustrate the impact of power constraints on overall test time.

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

algorithms
design
reliability
port-scalable testers
integer linear programming


A route-aware MAC for wireless multihop networks with a convergecast traffic pattern The MAC layer for multihop wireless networks has drawn considerable research attention in the last few years. We focus here on the wireless multihop networks with a convergecast traffic pattern: the whole traffic is destined to a sink/gateway. We propose first to select a k-tree core, i.e. a sub-tree of the shortest paths to the sink containing exactly k-leaves. In particular, these k-tree core nodes are chosen among the nodes that must forward most traffic. We design c-mac, an optimized MAC layer for this kind of topology. c-mac is derived from the CSMA-CA like approaches and consists in giving a larger priority to the k-tree core nodes. Moreover, a proper coordination among the k-tree core nodes permits to limit collisions among them. Simulation results show that organizing the transmissions in c-mac permits to achieve a much larger throughput than the original ieee 802.11 like protocol it is based on. This simple solution can be adapted to most CSMA-CA like protocols, and is particularly relevant for WSN or WMN in which traffic is mostly destined to the sink/gateway.

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


Computational model underlying the one-way quantum computer In this paper we present the computational model underlying the one-way quantum computer which we introduced recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5188 (2001)]. The one-way quantum computer has the property that any quantum logic network can be simulated on it. Conversely, not all ways of quantum information processing that are possible with the one-way quantum computer can be understood properly in network model terms. We show that the logical depth is, for certain algorithms, lower than has so far been known for networks. For example, every quantum circuit in the Clifford group can be performed on the one-way quantum computer in a single step.

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

models for quantum computation
temporal complexity


Automatic fine-grained area detection for thin client systems The widespread availability of cloud infrastructures is fueling new interest in the thin client computing paradigm. However, current thin client protocols are not designed to handle new content types as often encountered in state-of-the-art applications (e.g. multimedia editing, gaming, multimedia playback). Conveying this content using traditional thin client protocols typically results in a combination of excessive resource usage and low visual quality. In this paper, we propose an approach where the content type can vary for different portions of the screen (e.g. combination of static text and video). Once the different content types have been detected, each of them can be encoded using the most appropriate algorithm. We present two algorithms for this runtime detection. The first algorithm is operating at the pixel level, thereby being independent of the actual thin client protocol used. The second algorithm assumes the presence of a rectangle-based thin client protocol (such as the popular VNC protocol), trading independence for improved performance. The appropriate parameter settings for these algorithms are experimentally determined. Furthermore, their influence is studied in detail in terms of detection accuracy, and the time to perform the algorithms is analysed. Accurate hints are derived within less than 10ms, indicating the high potential of this approach for use in next generation thin client systems.

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

encoding
differentiation
content classification


A new approach to target recognition for LADAR data We discuss target detection in LADAR intensity images. Thirteen features, eleven of which come from an asymmetric co-occurrence matrix, are extracted from region-of-interest windows in each image, Two methods of feature selection are applied to the extracted vectors. Random selection leads to a pair of selected features for a nearest-neighbor rule (I-nn) detector. Extended back-propagation leads to six selected features using a modified multilayered perceptron (MLP) network, The I-nn detector achieves a test-error rate of about 16% at a false-alarm rate of 8%. The MLP has a test-error rate of about 12% with a false-alarm rate of 6%.

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

automatic target recognition
co-occurrence matrix
k-nn classifier
neural networks


Facebook as learning platform: Argumentation superhighway or dead-end street? Most SNSs including Facebook are more a broadcast tool than a discussion tool. Groups of Facebook users (i.e., friends) tend to confirm rather than discuss and/or argue. Flat-structured discussions such as what Facebook affords impede discussion and argumentation. Most SNSs including Facebook are not well-suited for knowledge construction via discussion and argumentation.

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

facebook argumentation discussion learning


An integrated face recognition system based on multiscale local discriminatory features Despite some successes, the process of Automatic Facial Recognition (AFR) remains a significant challenge when unconstrained imaging conditions are involved. The authors believe that this occurs because an effective feature extraction method of facial images has not been found so far. In this paper a new approach to extract powerful local discriminatory features is described. First, the wavelet transform is used for extraction of multi-resolution coarse features, and then the emphasis is placed on the extraction of Multiscale fine Local Discriminatory Features (MLDFs). Instead of using traditional wavelet features, the authors examine the multiscale local statistical characteristics to derive stronger discriminatory features based on some important wavelet subbands. To efficiently utilise potentials of the extracted multi-MLDFs, an integrated recognition system is developed where the multi-classifiers first conduct the corresponding coarse classification, then a decision making scheme is used to associate different priorities with each of the classifiers to make the final recognition. Experiments have shown that this scheme provides superior performance to popular methods, such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA or Eigenface), wavelet features, neural networks, etc.

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

face recognition
feature extraction
wavelet transform


Alignment of optical maps We introduce a new scoring method for calculation of alignments of optical maps. Missing cuts, false cuts, and sizing errors present in optical maps are addressed by our alignment score through calculation of corresponding likelihoods. The size error model is derived through the application of Central Limit Theorem and validated by residual plots collected from real data. Missing cuts and false cuts are modeled as Bernoulli and Poisson events, respectively, as suggested by previous studies. Likelihoods are used to derive an alignment score through calculation of likelihood ratios for a certain hypothesis test. This allows us to achieve maximal descriminative power for the alignment score. Our scoring method is naturally embedded within a well known DP framework for finding optimal alignments.

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

optical mapping
restriction mapping
dynamic programming
likelihood ratio


Aspects of modeling dynamical systems by differential-algebraic equations In recent years the analysis and synthesis of control systems in descriptor form has been established. The general description of dynamical systems by differential-algebraic equations (DAE) is important for many applications in mechanics and mechatronics, in electrical and electronic engineering, and in chemical engineering as well. In this contribution the pros and cons of system modelling by differential-algebraic equations are discussed and an actual state of the art of descriptor systems is presented. Firstly, the advantages of modelling are touched in general and illustrated in detail by Lagranges equations of first kind, by subsystem modeling and by the statement of the tracking control problem. Secondly, the development of tools for numerical integration is discussed resulting in the comment that today stable and efficient DAE solvers exist and that the simulation of descriptor systems is not a problem any longer. Thirdly, the methods of analyzing and designing descriptor systems are considered. Here, linear and nonlinear systems have to be distinguished. For linear descriptor systems more or less the required methods to solve usual control tasks are available in principal. But actually a related program package for fast and reliable application of these methods is still missed. However, in the near future such a toolbox is expected. Main difficulties arise for nonlinear problems. A few results on stability and optimal control are known only and still a lot of research work has to be effected. In spite of these deficiencies, all over the descriptor system approach is very attractive for modeling and simulation, and will become attractive more and more for analysis and design.

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

differential-algebraic equations
singular control systems


A further step forward in measuring journals scientific prestige: The SJR2 indicator A new size-independent indicator of scientific journal prestige, the SJR2 indicator, is proposed. This indicator takes into account not only the prestige of the citing scientific journal but also its closeness to the cited journal using the cosine of the angle between the vectors of the two journals cocitation profiles. To eliminate the size effect, the accumulated prestige is divided by the fraction of the journal's citable documents, thus eliminating the decreasing tendency of this type of indicator and giving meaning to the scores. Its method of computation is described, and the results of its implementation on the Scopus 2008 dataset is compared with those of an ad hoc Journal Impact Factor, JIF(3y), and SNIP, the comparison being made both overall and within specific scientific areas. All three, the SJR2 indicator, the SNIP indicator and the JIF distributions, were found to fit well to a logarithmic law. Although the three metrics were strongly correlated, there were major changes in rank. In addition, the SJR2 was distributed more equalized than the JIF by Subject Area and almost as equalized as the SNIP, and better than both at the lower level of Specific Subject Areas. The incorporation of the cosine increased the values of the flows of prestige between thematically close journals.

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

academic journals
eigenvector centrality
citation networks


Fingerprint verification by fusion of optical and capacitive sensors A few works have been presented so far on information fusion for fingerprint verification. None, however, have explicitly investigated the use of multi-sensor fusion, in other words, the integration of the information provided by multiple devices to capture fingerprint images. In this paper, a multi-sensor fingerprint verification system based on the fusion of optical and capacitive sensors is presented. Reported results show that such a multi-sensor system can perform better than traditional fingerprint matchers based on a single sensor.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 fingerprint verification systems


Approximate Sorting We show that any comparison based, randomized algorithm to approximate any given ranking of n items within expected Spearman's footrule distance n(2)/v (n) needs at least n (min {log v(n), log n} - 6) comparisons in the worst case. This bound is tight up to a constant factor since there exists a deterministic algorithm that shows that 6 n log v (n) comparisons are always sufficient.

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

algorithms
spearman's footrule metric
kendall's tau metric


Forecasting of landslide disasters based on bionics algorithm (Part 1: Critical slip surface searching) Two key issues for landslide forecasting include searching critical slip surfaces and determining their parameters. To solve the former aspect of this problem, a new critical slip surface search method based on an immunised continuous ant colony algorithm is proposed. Artificial immune system and evolutionary algorithms are combined with a continuous ant colony algorithm to form a new bionics algorithm (the immunised continuous ant colony algorithm) for continuous optimisation. The new bionics algorithm was then combined with a limit equilibrium analysis to form a new global optimisation algorithm to search critical slip surfaces. Finally, the proposed method is verified through five typical numerical examples and is compared with a continuous ant colony algorithm and previous studies in the literature. The results indicate that the applicability, validity and effectiveness of the new method are all improved over previous studies and over the continuous ant colony algorithm.

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


Thresholding based image segmentation aided by Kleene Algebra This paper proposes a thresholding based segmentation method aided by Kleene Algebra. For a given image including some regions of interest (ROIs for short) with the coherent intensity level, assume that we can segment each ROI on applying thresholding technique. Three segmented states are then derived for every ROI: Shortage denoted by logic value 0, Correct denoted by 1 and Excess denoted by a. The segmented states for every ROI in the image can be then expressed on a ternary logic system. Our goal is then set to find "Correct (1)" state for every ROI. First, unate function, which is a model of Kleene Algebra, based procedure is proposed. However, this method is not complete for some cases, that is, correctly segmented ratio is about 70% for three and four ROI segmentation. For the failed cases, Brzozowski operations, which are defined on De Morgan algebra, can accommodate to completely find all "Correct" states. Finally, we apply these procedures to segmentation problems of a human brain MR image and a foot CT image. As the result, we can find all "1" states for the ROIs, i.e., we can correctly segment the ROIs.

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

kleene algebra
unate function
brzozowski operations
image segmentation
thresholding


An accurate performance model for network-on-chip and multicomputer interconnection networks In this paper, we present a mathematical background for a new approach for performances modeling of interconnection networks, based on analyzing the packet blocking and waiting time spent in each channel passing through all possible paths in the channel dependency graph. We have proposed a new, simple and very accurate analytical model for deterministic routing in wormhole networks, which is general in terms of the network topology and traffic distribution. An accurate calculation of the variance of the service time has been developed, which overcomes the rough approximation used, as a rule, in the existing models. The model supports two-dimensional mesh topologies, widely used in network-on-chip architectures, and multidimensional topologies, popular in multicomputer architectures. It is applicable even for irregular topologies and arbitrary application-specific traffic. Results obtained through simulation show that the model achieves a high degree of accuracy.

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

interconnection network
network on chip
performance modeling


Measuring and adapting behavior during product interaction to influence affect Sometimes, the way in which we interact with products implicitly communicates how we feel. Based on previous studies on how emotions can be detected and communicated via product interaction, we discuss how an interactive product could influence affect by responding and changing behaviors expressing affect. We discuss the proposal of the affective feedback loop in product interaction by its implementation in the prototype of a pen that senses two implicit behaviors related to restlessness, rock and roll. Furthermore, the pen provides inherent feedback, focusing on the perceptual motor skills, as a means to reflect on these behaviors. The pen was evaluated in an experiment, by which we explored whether this type of feedback would influence the emotional experience. Two participant groups were compared, and participants that used the pen with feedback showed a lower heart rate throughout the whole experiment. Because these participants were not aware that the pen provided any feedback, we propose the concept of unaware interaction and discuss what its implications are for design.

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

emotional experience
product interaction
inherent feedback


A study of image contrast restriction in displays using diffractive spatial light modulators The peculiarities of 1D projection displays using spatial light modulators (SLM1) are considered. The conditions for high contrast images in SLM are investigated. It is shown that an amplitude imbalance between the light reflected from the passive and active parts of SLM gratings imposes a limitation on the achievable contrast ratio. This imbalance may come from errors in SLM structure sizes and from diffraction effects inside SLM layers. The key point is the relationship between ridge and hole sizes in SLM diffraction structures. It is shown that odd diffraction orders (especially 1st order) have a significantly decreased sensitivity to ridge/hole tolerances. This phenomenon affects the SLMs contrast ratio. The optimal ridge/hole ratio for different SLM diffraction orders has been found. To test the theory, experimental samples were manufactured and contrast ratio measurements were carried out. The experimental data are in good agreement with the theoretical results.

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


Statistical hypothesis pruning for identifying faces from infrared images A Bayesian approach to identify faces from their IR facial images amounts to testing of discrete hypotheses in presence of nuisance variables such as pose, facial expression, and thermal state. We propose an efficient, low-level technique for hypothesis pruning, i.e. shortlisting high probability subjects from given observed image(s). (This subset can be further tested using some high-level model for eventual identification.) Hypothesis pruning is accomplished using wavelet decompositions (of the observed images) followed by analysis of lower-order statistics of the coefficients. Specifically, we filter infrared (IR) images using bandpass filters and model the marginal densities of the outputs via a parametric family that was introduced by Grenader and Srivastava [IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 23 (2001) 424]. IR images are compared using an L2-metric between the Marginals computed directly from the parameters. Results from experiments on IR face identification and statistical pruning are presented.

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

infrared image analysis
nighttime face identification
bessel k forms
image statistics
hypothesis selection


On the Undecidability of Attractor Properties for Cellular Automata The attractor properties in Cellular Automata dynamical systems have been extensively investigated and well characterized. We consider here two attractor classification for Cellular Automata and we prove the computational undecidability of some questions related to such classifications.

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

cellular automata
computational undecidability


Adaptive synchronization for stochastic neural networks of neutral-type with mixed time-delays ? In this paper, an adaptive feedback controller is proposed to achieve the synchronization of neutral-type neural networks with stochastic perturbation and parameter uncertainties. Based on LaShall-type invariance principle for stochastic differential delay equations, the stochastic analysis theory and the adaptive feedback control technique, we develop a linear matrix inequality approach to derive some new adaptive synchronization criteria. A numerical example and its simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the results.

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

adaptive synchronization
stochastic perturbation
parameter uncertainties

neutral-type neural networks
mixed time-delays


Gait recognition for human identification based on ICA and fuzzy SVM through multiple views fusion This paper proposes a gait recognition method using multiple gait features representations based on independent component analysis (ICA) and genetic fuzzy support vector machine (GFSVM) for the purpose of human identification at a distance. Firstly, the moving human figures are subtracted using simple background modeling to obtain binary silhouettes. Secondly, these silhouettes are characterized with three kinds of gait representations including Fourier descriptor, wavelet descriptor and pseudo-Zernike moment. Then, ICA and GFSVM classifier are chosen for recognition and the method is tested on two gait databases. Comparative performance between these feature representations is investigated and better performance has been achieved than either one individually. Meanwhile, one multiple views fusion recognition approach on the decision level based on product of sum (POS) rule is introduced to overcome the limitation of most single view recognition methods, which achieves better performance than the traditional rank-based fusion rules. Experimental results show that our method has encouraging recognition accuracy.

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

gait recognition
ica
multiple views fusion

genetic fuzzy svm
multiple feature representations


Fully stressed design of passive controllers in framed structures for seismic loadings This paper addresses the optimal design problem of added damping in framed structures. Interstory performance indices for linear and nonlinear structures are chosen and restricted to allowable values under the excitation of an ensemble of realistic ground motion records. Optimality criteria are formulated based on fully stressed characteristics of the optimal solution, and a simple analysis/redesign procedure is proposed for attaining optimal designs. Results of four examples presented compare well to those obtained using formal gradient-based optimization.

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

viscous dampers
earthquake engineering
passive control


Analysis of copositive optimization based linear programming bounds on standard quadratic optimization The problem of minimizing a quadratic form over the unit simplex, referred to as a standard quadratic optimization problem, admits an exact reformulation as a linear optimization problem over the convex cone of completely positive matrices. This computationally intractable cone can be approximated in various ways from the inside and from the outside by two sequences of nested tractable convex cones of increasing accuracy. In this paper, we focus on the inner polyhedral approximations due to Y?ld?r?m(Optim Methods Softw 27(1):155173, 2012) and the outer polyhedral approximations due to de Klerk and Pasechnik (SIAM J Optim 12(4):875892, 2002). We investigate the sequences of upper and lower bounds on the optimal value of a standard quadratic optimization problem arising from these two hierarchies of inner and outer polyhedral approximations. We give complete algebraic descriptions of the sets of instances on which upper and lower bounds are exact at any given finite level of the hierarchy. We identify the structural properties of the sets of instances on which upper and lower bounds converge to the optimal value only in the limit. We present several geometric and topological properties of these sets. Our results shed light on the strengths and limitations of these inner and outer polyhedral approximations in the context of standard quadratic optimization.

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

standard quadratic optimization
polyhedral approximations


Responsive security for stored data We present the design of a distributed store that offers various levels of security guarantees while tolerating a limited number of nodes that are compromised by an adversary. The store uses secret sharing schemes to offer security guarantees, namely, availability, confidentiality, and integrity. However, a pure secret sharing scheme could suffer from performance problems and high access costs. We integrate secret sharing with replication for better performance and to keep access costs low. The trade offs involved between availability and access cost on one hand and confidentiality and integrity on the other are analyzed. Our system differs from traditional approaches such as state machine or quorum-based replication that have been developed to tolerate Byzantine failures. Unlike such systems, we augment replication with secret sharing and offer weaker consistency guarantees. We demonstrate that such a hybrid scheme offers-additional flexibility that is not possible with replication alone.

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

security
replication
secret sharing
availability
confidentiality

byzantine fault tolerance
data integrity
distributed storage service


Multiple spin-block decisions We study the online problem of holding a number of idle threads on an application server, which we have ready for processing new requests. The problem stems from the fact that both creating/deleting and holding threads is costly, but future requests and completion times are unpredictable. We propose a practical scheme of barely random discrete algorithms with competitive ratio arbitrarily close to e/(e-1), where e approximate to 2.718 is Euler's number. The competitive ratio is sharply concentrated for any input. The results are generalizations of the well-known result for the rent-to-buy problem.

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

multithreading
spin-block problem
online algorithms
randomization
implementation issues


investigating the effect of real-time stylisation techniques on user task performance In this paper, we present a perceptual experiment whose results aid the creation of non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) styles which can positively affect user task performance in real-time scenes. In a visual search task designed to test people's perception of abstracted scenes, different types of stylisation are used to investigate how reaction times can be affected. We show how NPR techniques compare against non-stylised renderings, compare the effectiveness of different styles, determine how varying each style can affect performance and investigate how these styles perform with objects of varying complexity. The results show that NPR can be a useful tool for increasing the saliency of target objects while reducing the visual impact of the rest of the scene. However, it is also shown that the success of each style depends largely on the scene context and also on the level of stylisation used. We believe the results from this study can help in the creation of effective NPR styles in the future. Supplementary material can be found at http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/skrbal/redmond/.

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


A social network-based trust-aware propagation model for P2P systems Trust is an important mechanism to promote cooperation among persons in social network. As a security mechanism, it is widely implemented computer networks. In P2P applications, trust among cooperating peers is an essential precondition. It is becoming increasing vital in open, distributed, dynamic and anonymous networks to protect against malicious peers. This paper proposed a trust-aware propagation model based on the social network and with the basis of analyzing aware-computing to attempt to discover the propagation characteristics and regularity of trust being as network stability factor, and to reveal the functional mechanism of trust in the network security, which can improve the stability and robustness of the network. Firstly, we proposed a trust-aware propagation framework that contains three layers: propagation layer, aware layer, and computation layer. And then, the trust-aware propagation algorithm is presented to implement the formation of trust networks as fast as in P2P. A fitness function for peers computes their fitness degree based on contextual information to provide an initial entity identification mechanism, and the process of trust-aware propagation based on Markov process is defined to apperceive of trust among peers to ulteriorly form trust alliance. Thirdly, we built the dynamics model of trust propagation in order to deeply analyze the stability of trust networks. Next, three propagation strategies is proposed for implementing trust propagation. Finally, simulation experiments are carried in the bio-network platform. The results show that the trust-aware propagation model can effectively enhance the security and stability of P2P network, and improve the availability of the peers resources.

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

trust
p2p network
markov process
social network


Construction of mappings with attracting cycles In [1], two methods to construct polynomial mappings with periodic points are given with Lagrange interpolation and Newton interpolation, and a conjecture that such polynomial mappings with chaotic behaviors should be a "generalized primitive polynomial" is raised. In this paper, we additionally consider stability of periodic points and give a new method to construct polynomial mappings with attracting cycles or superstable cycles. Based on this construction, we show how to further construct a mapping which is not in polynomial forms but possesses the same periodicity. We also discuss properties of :inch polynomials with integer cycles. Finally, we point out a falsity in [I] and give counterexamples against the conjecture in [1]. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

attracting cycle
multiplicator
perturbation


what makes a representative user representative? a participatory poster We compare six definitions of the concept of "representative user," including interpretations based in statistics, grounded theory, political theory and design practice. This participatory poster invites conference participants to contribute their own interpretations.

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

task analysis
representations
participatory design
work analysis
requirements analysis
field studies


Nanoindentation testing of SU-8 photoresist mechanical properties In this work, quasi-static and dynamic tests for the mechanical properties of SU-8 using a nanomechanical triboindenter were performed. Loaddisplacement data for the indenter as it is driven into and withdrawn from the photoresist patterns are reported. Berkovich-shaped indenter was used in the experimental measurements of the following mechanical properties: reduced elastic modulus, hardness, energy storage modulus and energy loss modulus. The Youngs modulus of the SU-8 photoresist was also determined.

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 B I O O O O O O O


The direct discontinuous Galerkin (DDG) viscous flux scheme for the high order spectral volume method The direct discontinuous Galerkin (DDG) method was developed by Liu and Yan to discretize the diffusion flux. It was implemented for the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) formulation. In this paper, we perform four tasks: (i) implement the direct discontinuous Galerkin (DDG) scheme for the spectral volume method (SV) method, (ii) design and implement two variants of DDG (called DDG2 and DDG3) for the SV method, (iii) perform a Fourier type analysis on both methods when solving the 1D diffusion equation and combine the above with a non-linear global optimizer, to obtain modified constants that give significantly smaller errors (in 1D), (iv) use the above coefficients as starting points in 2D. The dissipation properties of the above schemes were then compared with existing flux formulations (local discontinuous Galerkin, Penalty and BR2). The DDG, DDG2 and DDG3 formulations were found to be much more accurate than the above three existing flux formulations. The accuracy of the DDG scheme is heavily dependent on the penalizing coefficient for the odd ordered schemes. Hence a loss of accuracy was observed even for mildly non-uniform grids for odd ordered schemes. On the other hand, the DDG2 and DDG3 schemes were mildly dependent on the penalizing coefficient for both odd and even orders and retain their accuracy even on highly irregular grids. Temporal analysis was also performed and this yielded some interesting results. The DDG and its variants were implemented in 20 (on triangular meshes) for Navier-Stokes equations. Even the non-optimized versions of the DDG displayed lower errors than the existing schemes (in 2D). In general, the DDG and its variants show promising properties and it indicates that these approaches have a great potential for higher dimension flow problems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

spectral volume
penalty
ddg
ddg2
ddg3
high order


A neural network approach for remaining useful life prediction utilizing both failure and suspension histories Artificial neural network (ANN) methods have shown great promise in achieving more accurate equipment remaining useful life prediction. However, most reported ANN methods only utilize condition monitoring data from failure histories, and ignore data obtained from suspension histories in which equipments are taken out of service before they fail. Suspension history condition monitoring data contain useful information revealing the degradation of equipment, and will help to achieve more accurate remaining useful life prediction if properly used, particularly when there are very limited failure histories, which is the case in many applications. In this paper, we develop an ANN approach utilizing both failure and suspension condition monitoring histories. The ANN model uses age and condition monitoring data as inputs and the life percentage as output. For each suspension history, the optimal predicted life is determined which can minimize the validation mean square error in the training process using the suspension history and the failure histories. Then the ANN is trained using the failure histories and all the suspension histories with the obtained optimal predicted life values, and the trained ANN can be used for remaining useful life prediction of other equipments. The key idea behind this approach is that the underlying relationship between the inputs and output of ANN is the same for all failure and suspension histories, and thus the optimal life for a suspension history is the one resulting in the lowest ANN validation error. The proposed approach is validated using vibration monitoring data collected from pump bearings in the field.

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

remaining useful life
prediction
suspension history


Attribute clustering for grouping, selection, and classification of gene expression data This paper presents an attribute clustering method which is able to group genes based on their interdependence so as to mine meaningful patterns from the gene expression data. It can be used for gene grouping, selection, and classification. The partitioning of a relational table into attribute subgroups allows a small number of attributes within or across the groups to be selected for analysis. By clustering attributes, the search dimension of a data mining algorithm is reduced. The reduction of search dimension is especially important to data mining in gene expression data because such data typically consist of a huge number of genes (attributes) and a small number of gene expression profiles (tuples). Most data mining algorithms are typically developed and optimized to scale to the number of tuples instead of the number of attributes. The situation becomes even worse when the number of attributes overwhelms the number of tuples, in which case, the likelihood of reporting patterns that are actually irrelevant due to chances becomes rather high. It is for the aforementioned reasons that gene grouping and selection are important preprocessing steps for many data mining algorithms to be effective when applied to gene expression data. This paper defines the problem of attribute clustering and introduces a methodology to solving it. Our proposed method groups interdependent attributes into clusters by optimizing a criterion function derived from an information measure that reflects the interdependence between attributes. By applying our algorithm to gene expression data, meaningful clusters of genes are discovered. The grouping of genes based on attribute interdependence within group helps to capture different aspects of gene association patterns in each group. Significant genes selected from each group then contain useful information for gene expression classification and identification. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, we applied it to two well-known gene expression data sets and compared our results with those obtained by other methods. Our experiments show that the proposed method is able to find the meaningful clusters of genes. By selecting a subset of genes which have high multiple-interdependence with others within clusters, significant classification information can be obtained. Thus, a small pool of selected genes can be used to build classifiers with very high classification rate. From the pool, gene expressions of different categories can be identified.

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

data mining
attribute clustering
gene expression classification


a theory of personalized recommendations 35 Internet users were assigned to one of seven discussion groups where they expressed views on interacting with a recommendation system (RS). Grounded theory analysis of the data yielded a theory that highlights factors affecting an individual's decision to use personalized predictions.

O O O O 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

personalization
collaborative filtering
recommendation systems


syllabic level automatic synchronization of music signals and text lyrics We present a framework to synchronize pop music to corresponding text lyric. We refine line level alignment achievable by existing work to syllabic level by using a dynamic programming process. Our main contribution is using music knowledge to constrain the dynamic programming search. This is done by modeling (1) non-uniform note length distribution and (2) a note length distribution for each section type (for example intro, chorus, and bridge). These reduce alignment error by 6.4\% and improve time efficiency by a factor of 2.2.

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

voice alignment
hidden markov model
music structure


Data structures in Java for matrix computations In this paper we show how to utilize Java's native arrays for matrix computations. The disadvantages of Java arrays used as a 2D array for dense matrix computation are discussed and ways to improve the performance are examined. We show how to create efficient dynamic data structures for sparse matrix computations using Java's native arrays. This data structure is unique for Java and shown to be more dynamic and efficient than the traditional storage schemes for large sparse matrices. Numerical testing indicates that this new data structure, called Java Sparse Array, is competitive with the traditional Compressed Row Storage scheme on matrix computation routines. Java gives increased flexibility without losing efficiency. Compared with other object-oriented data structures Java Sparse Array is shown to have the same flexibility. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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


A novel hybrid decision-making model for selecting locations in a fuzzy environment The criteria in multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems often have independent and dependent characteristics simultaneously, so they cannot be evaluated by conventional additive or non-additive measures in real-life environments. This paper proposes a new hybrid MCDM model to solve location selection problems, and the results of solving MCDM problems tallied with real-life circumstances due to the use of two concepts in the new hybrid model. The concepts comprise a new structural model and a new evaluation method. The new structural modeling technique is used to draw the hierarchical/network framework, and the MCDM problem is solved using the proposed evaluation method. Here, the fuzzy ANP (analytic network process) is used to construct fuzzy weights of all criteria. Linguistic terms characterized by triangular fuzzy numbers are then used to denote the evaluation values of all alternatives versus various criteria. Finally, the aggregation fuzzy assessments of different alternatives are ranked to determine the best selection. Furthermore, this paper uses a numerical example for selecting the location of an international distribution center in Pacific Asia to illustrate the proposed method. Through this example, this paper demonstrates the applicability of the proposed method, and the results show that this method is an effective means for tackling MCDM problems. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy mcdm
fuzzy decision
topsis
dematel


Forecasting Risk Impact on ERP Maintenance with Augmented Fuzzy Cognitive Maps Worldwide, firms have made great efforts to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Despite these efforts, ERP adoption success is not guaranteed. Successful adoption of an ERP system also depends on proper system maintenance. For this reason, companies should follow a maintenance strategy that drives the ERP system toward success. However, in general, ERP maintenance managers do not know what conditions they should target to successfully maintain their ERP systems. Furthermore, numerous risks threaten these projects, but they are normally dealt with intuitively. To date, there has been limited literature published regarding ERP maintenance risks or ERP maintenance success. To address this need, we have built a dynamic simulation tool that allows ERP managers to foresee the impact of risks on maintenance goals. This research would help professionals manage their ERP maintenance projects. Moreover, it covers a significant gap in the literature.

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


On-line self-checking of replication consistency for autonomic computing In this paper we are concerned with the live verification of the consistency of a replicated system, an issue that has not been addressed by the research community so far. We consider the problem of how to enable the system to detect automatically and in production whether the invariants defining the correctness of object replication are violated. This feature could greatly improve the dependability of distributed applications and is necessary for constructing self-managing and self-healing replicated systems. We focus on systems that enforce strongly consistent replication: all replicas of each object must be kept "continuously" in-sync. This replication strategy is appropriate for application domains where correctness guarantees in spite of failures are more important than performance and scalability. We present the design and implementation of a replicated web service capable of self-checking whether all replicas are indeed kept in sync. This check occurs on-line, transparently to clients. We also discuss the performance cost of self-checking in our prototype.

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

availability
web services
self-check
on-line testing
fault detectors


Convergence analysis of Legendre spectral projection methods for Hammerstein integral equations of mixed type In this paper, we consider the Legendre spectral Galerkin and Legendre spectral collocation methods to approximate the solution of Hammerstein integral equations of mixed type. We prove that the approximated solutions of the Legendre Galerkin and Legendre collocation methods converge to the exact solution with the same orders, \(\mathcal {O}(n^{-r})\) in \(L^{2}\)-norm and \(\mathcal {O}(n^{\frac{1}{2}-r})\) in infinity norm, and the iterated Legendre Galerkin solution converges with the order \(\mathcal {O}(n^{-2r})\) in both \(L^{2}\)-norm and infinity norm, whereas the iterated Legendre collocation solution converges with the order \(\mathcal {O}(n^{-r})\) in both \(L^{2}\)-norm and infinity norm, n being the highest degree of Legendre polynomial employed in the approximation and r being the smoothness of the kernels.

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

hammerstein integral equations
mixed type


Experimenting with electromagnetism using augmented reality: Impact on flow student experience and educational effectiveness Educational researchers have recognized Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology with great potential to impact affective and cognitive learning outcomes. However, very little work has been carried out to substantiate these claims. The purpose of this study was to assess to which extent an AR learning application affects learners' level of enjoyment and learning effectiveness. The study followed an experimental/control group design using the type of the application (AR-based, web-based) as independent variable. 64 high school students were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group to learn the basic principles of electromagnetism. The participants' knowledge acquisition was evaluated by comparing pre- and post-tests. The participants' level overall-state perception on flow was measured with the Flow State Scale and their flow states were monitored throughout the learning activity. Finally, participants' perceptions of benefits and difficulties of using the augmented reality application in this study were qualitatively identified. The results showed that the augmented reality approach was more effective in promoting students' knowledge of electromagnetic concepts and phenomena. The analysis also indicated that the augmented reality application led participants to reach higher flow experience levels than those achieved by users of the web-based application. However, not all the factors seem to have influence on learners' flow state, this study found that they were limited to: concentration, distorted sense of time, sense of control, clearer direct feedback, and autotelic experience. A deeper analysis of the flow process showed that neither of the groups reported being in flow in those tasks that were very easy or too difficult. However, for those tasks that were not perceived as difficult and included visualization clues, the experimental group showed higher levels of flow that the control group. The study suggests that augmented reality can be exploited as an effective learning environment for learning the basic principles of electromagnetism at high school provided that learning designers strike a careful balance between AR support and task difficulty. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

secondary education
simulations
interactive learning environments
applications in subject areas


Development of a web-based mobile airline ticketing model with usability features Purpose - Development of mobile commerce (m-commerce) environments that have user-friendly features is important to accelerate the adoption of m-commerce. The current research studies web-based features that are crucial to the success of mobile air ticketing commerce. Design/methodology/approach - There are two phases involved. In the first phase, the current research develops a web-based mobile airline ticketing (W-MAT) model to study usability features necessary to perform mobile air ticketing commerce. Thirty-six features are mapped and identified based on the W-MAT model. In the second phase, the air ticketing web sites for 27 most popular airline companies and online air travel agencies are examined to analyze their existing implementation patterns on these 36 features. The pattern analysis is based on web site features analysis and web site versatility analysis. Findings - The analysis of web site features resulted in the development of an adoption feature pyramid that classified the 36 features into three categories. The analysis of web site versatility was based on multivariate cluster analysis that classified these 27 web sites into four groups. Practical implications - The findings on web site features and web site versatility analyses in the current research are beneficial to future m-commerce airline companies and air travel agencies, mobile device developers, and air ticketing m-commerce interface designers. Originality/value - The study concludes that the W-MAT model-based air ticketing features with usability emphasis are crucial to develop efficient mobile air ticketing web sites; and thereby, accelerating the adoption of m-commerce for the air travel industry in the near future.

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

electronic commerce
internet
airlines
mobile communication systems
customer satisfaction


Fuzzy logic derivation of neural network models with time delays in subsystems This paper extends the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model representation to analyze the stability of interconnected systems in which there exist time delays in subsystems. A novel stability criterion which can be solved numerically is presented in terms of Lyapunov's theory for fuzzy interconnected models. In this paper, we use linear difference inclusion (LDI) state-space representation to represent the fuzzy model. Then, the linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization algorithm is employed to find common solution and then guarantee the asymptotic stability.

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


mirroring bodily experiences over time The Affective Health system is a mobile lifestyle application that aims to empower people to reflect on their lives and lifestyles. The system logs a mixture of biosensor-data and other contextually oriented data and transforms these to a colorful, animated expression on their mobiles. It is intended to create a mirror and thereby empower users to see activity patterns and relate these to their experiences of stress. People's different cultural backgrounds and their different physiological and psychological composition give them different perceptions and associations of time. We explore the time dimension of our system through working through a set of different designs that organize events as time going linearly forward, in a circular movement or relating to geographical places. Here we discuss the process of designing a mobile interface for presenting temporal data in a way that allows multiple and subjective interpretation.

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


Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure - An iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity and irregularity A computationally implemented model of the transmission of linguistic behavior over time is presented. In this model [the iterated learning model (ILM)], there is no biological evolution, natural selection, nor any measurement of the success of the agents at communicating (except for results-gathering purposes). Nevertheless, counter to intuition, significant evolution of linguistic behavior Is observed, From an initially unstructured communication system (a protolanguage), a fully compositional syntactic meaning-string mapping emerges. Furthermore, given a nonuniform: frequency distribution over a meaning space and a production mechanism that prefers short strings, a realistic distribution of string lengths and patterns of stable irregularity emerges, suggesting that the ILM is a good model for the evolution of some of the fundamental features of human language.

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


An Improved Approximation Algorithm for RESOURCE ALLOCATION We study the problem of finding a most profitable subset of n given tasks, each with a given start and finish time as well as profit and resource requirement, that at no time exceeds the quantity B of available resource. We show that this NP-hard RESOURCE ALLOCATION problem can be (1/2 - epsilon)-approximated in randomized polynomial time, which improves upon earlier approximation results.

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 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

approximation algorithm
resource allocation


User attributes in processing 3D VR-enabled showroom: Gender, visual cognitive styles, and the sense of presence ? We examine viewers imagery styles on their experience of a 3D VR embedded interface. The moderating effect of gender on the relationship between visual cognitive style and presence is identified. Womens object imagery style positively affects their sense of presence. Mens spatial visualization negatively affects their sense of presence. Different experiences of the VR embedded interface by gender are from their visual information processing styles.

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


Toward Improved Biochips Based on Rolling Circle AmplificationInfluences of the Microenvironment on the Fluorescence Properties of Labeled DNA Oligonucleotides Microarrays have become an increasingly important tool for biotechnology and molecular diagnostics. Despite many advantages, their sensitivity is still insufficient for such tasks as the analysis of small sample quantities and for the detection of alterations in gene expression of low-abundance genes. Accordingly, amplification strategies are necessary. Approaches to amplify the signal intensity include the increase of the number of dye molecules per target through either particle labels or rolling circle amplification, as used for this study.

O O B 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 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

rolling circle amplification
fluorescence
biochips
microarrays

signal amplification
cy3-labeled oligonucleotides
dna technology


An event study of environmentally conscious shareholders in the Japanese power industry The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of anti-nuclear power resolutions being proposed (and defeated) at an electric power company's annual general meeting of shareholders on the share price of the power company concerned. Using an event study methodology on a sample of eight Japanese electric power companies over a 6-year period (199196), it is found that there are no significant abnormal returns on shares for those companies where anti-nuclear resolutions are introduced (and defeated). In addition, the abnormal returns do not appear to exhibit any systematic behaviour related to a number of measures for the support the resolutions received. For power companies where anti-nuclear power resolutions are not introduced, there also do not appear to be any significant abnormal returns around the time of their annual meeting of shareholders. Rather than adopt the standard two-step estimation method that is typically used in event studies, an efficient estimation suggested by McKenzie and McAleer (Paper presented at the 16th South American Meetings of the Econometric Society, Lima, Peru, 1114 August 1998) is used to estimate the parameters of interest and conduct inference.

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

efficiency
environment protection
generated regressor
nuclear power
panel data


Evolution of Synchronization and Desynchronization in Digital Organisms We present a study in the evolution of temporal behavior, specifically synchronization and desynchronization, through digital evolution and group selection. In digital evolution, a population of self-replicating computer programs exists in a user-defined computational environment and is subject to instruction-level mutations and natural selection. Group selection links the survival of the individual to the survival of its group, thus encouraging cooperation. Previous approaches to engineering synchronization and desynchronization algorithms have taken inspiration from nature: In the well-known firefly model, the only form of communication between agents is in the form of flash messages among neighbors. Here we demonstrate that populations of digital organisms, provided with a similar mechanism and minimal information about their environment, are capable of evolving algorithms for synchronization and desynchronization, and that the evolved behaviors are robust to message loss. We further describe how the evolved behavior for synchronization mimics that of the well-known Ermentrout model for firefly synchronization in biology. In addition to discovering self-organizing behaviors for distributed computing systems, this result indicates that digital evolution may be used to further our understanding of synchronization in biology.

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

synchronization
desynchronization
cooperation
digital evolution


Tools for analyzing intersecting tracks: The x2sys package I present a new set of tools for detection of intersections among tracks in 2-D Cartesian or geographic coordinates. These tools allow for evaluation of crossover errors at intersections, analysis of such crossover errors to determine appropriate linear models of systematic corrections for each track, and application of these corrections and further adjustments to data that completely eliminates crossover discrepancies from final 2-D data compilations. Unlike my older x_system tools, the new x2sys tools implement modern algorithms for detecting track intersections and are capable of reading a wide range of data file formats, including data files following the netCDF COARDS convention. The x2sys package contains several programs that address the various tasks needed to undertake a comprehensive crossover analysis and is distributed as a supplement to the Generic Mapping Tools, making them available for all computer platforms and architectures.

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

track intersection
leveling
data quality improvement