Function Approximation with Complex Neuro-Fuzzy System Using Complex Fuzzy Sets - A New Approach A new neuro-fuzzy computing paradigm using complex fuzzy sets is proposed in this paper. The novel computing paradigm is applied to the problem of function approximation to test its nonlinear mapping ability. A complex fuzzy set (CFS) is an extension of traditional type-1 fuzzy set whose membership is within the unit real-valued interval. For a CFS, the membership is extended to complex-valued state within the unit disc of the complex plane. For self-adaption of the proposed complex neuro-fuzzy system (CNFS), the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and Recursive Least Squares Estimator (RISE) algorithm are used in a hybrid way to adjust the free parameters of the CNFS. With the novel PSO-RLSE hybrid learning method, the CNFS parameters can be converged efficiently and quickly. By the PSO-RLSE method for the CNFS, fast learning convergence is observed and great performance in accuracy is shown. In the experimental results, the CNFS shows much better performance than its traditional neuro-fuzzy counterpart and other compared approaches. Excellent performance by the proposed approach has been shown.

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 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 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

complex fuzzy set
hybrid learning
function approximation

complex neuro-fuzzy system (cnfs)
pso-rlse


Distributed Throughput Maximization in Wireless Mesh Networks via Pre-Partitioning This paper considers the interaction between channel assignment and distributed scheduling in multi-channel multi-radio Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). Recently, a number of distributed scheduling algorithms for wireless networks have emerged. Due to their distributed operation, these algorithms can achieve only a fraction of the maximum possible throughput. As an alternative to increasing the throughput fraction by designing new algorithms, we present a novel approach that takes advantage of the inherent multi-radio capability of WMNs. We show that this capability can enable partitioning of the network into subnetworks in which simple distributed scheduling algorithms can achieve 100% throughput. The partitioning is based on the notion of Local Pooling. Using this notion, we characterize topologies in which 100% throughput can be achieved distributedly. These topologies are used in order to develop a number of centralized channel assignment algorithms that are based on a matroid intersection algorithm. These algorithms pre-partition a network in a manner that not only expands the capacity regions of the subnetworks but also allows distributed algorithms to achieve these capacity regions. We evaluate the performance of the algorithms via simulation and show that they significantly increase the distributedly achievable capacity region. We note that while the identified topologies are of general interference graphs, the partitioning algorithms are designed for networks with primary interference constraints.

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

channel assignment
distributed algorithms
local pooling
matroid intersection
scheduling


Analysis of Latency of Stateless Opportunistic Forwarding in Intermittently Connected Networks Stateless opportunistic forwarding is a simple fault-tolerant distributed scheme for packet delivery, data gathering, and information querying in intermittently connected networks by which packets are forwarded to the next available neighbors in a "random walk" fashion until they reach their intended destinations or expire. It has been employed in diverse situations, for instance, when: 1) the global network topology is not known or is highly dynamic; 2) the availability of the next-hop neighbors is not easily controllable; or 3) the relaying nodes are computationally constrained. Data delivery in sensor networks, ad hoc networks, and delay-tolerant networks are well-known applications besides searching in peer-to-peer networks. A major challenge for stateless opportunistic forwarding is the difficulty to predict the end-to-end latency. To facilitate latency evaluation, we study a simplified model of stateless opportunistic forwarding, namely a "weighted random walk" in a finite graph. This paper makes several contributions toward the analysis of this model. 1) By spectral graph theory we derive a general formula to efficiently compute the exact hitting and commute times of random walks with heterogeneous transition times at relay nodes. Such transition times can model the heterogeneous delivery times and availability periods of the next-hop neighbors. 2) We study a common class of distance-regular networks with a varying number of geographical neighbors and obtain exact and approximation formulas for the hitting time in such networks. 3) Based on these results, we study other sophisticated settings, such as random geographical locations, topology-aware forwarding, and multicopy random-walk forwarding. Our results provide the basic analytical tools for managing and controlling the performance of stateless opportunistic forwarding in finite networks.

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

intermittently connected networks
opportunistic forwarding
spectral graph theory


The equate-to-differentiate's way of seeing the prisoner's dilemma In this paper we advocate the application of the equate-to-differentiate rule to the prisoner's dilemma. As an alternative to the family of expected utility theory, the equate-to-differentiate approach [S. Li, A behavioral choice model when computational ability matters, Applied Intelligence 20 (2004) 147-163; S. Li, Equate-to-differentiate approach: an application in binary choice under uncertainty, Central European Journal of Operations Research 12 (3) (2004) 269-294] posits that the mechanism governing human risky decision making has never been one of maximising some kind of expectation, but rather some generalisation of dominance detection. In the light of the proposed representation system to describe uncertain alternatives, a decision maker's cognitive representation of the choice alternatives in the prisoner's dilemma situations is described by reference to two dimensions. The choice behaviour is thus modelled as a process in which the individual equates offered differences between alternatives on one dimension, but differentiates another one-dimensional difference as the determinant of the final choice. The predictions derived from these theoretical developments are empirically tested in six experiments with new data introduced to determine if people follow the theoretical prescriptions. In all these experiments, choices could be explained as a consequence of radically simplifying decision information. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

sure-thing principle
sunk cost
windfall gain
multi-investment
non-compatriot player


Do background colors improve program comprehension in the #ifdef hell? Software-product-line engineering aims at the development of variable and reusable software systems. In practice, software product lines are often implemented with preprocessors. Preprocessor directives are easy to use, and many mature tools are available for practitioners. However, preprocessor directives have been heavily criticized in academia and even referred to as #ifdef hell, because they introduce threats to program comprehension and correctness. There are many voices that suggest to use other implementation techniques instead, but these voices ignore the fact that a transition from preprocessors to other languages and tools is tedious, erroneous, and expensive in practice. Instead, we and others propose to increase the readability of preprocessor directives by using background colors to highlight source code annotated with ifdef directives. In three controlled experiments with over 70 subjects in total, we evaluate whether and how background colors improve program comprehension in preprocessor-based implementations. Our results demonstrate that background colors have the potential to improve program comprehension, independently of size and programming language of the underlying product. Additionally, we found that subjects generally favor background colors. We integrate these and other findings in a tool called FeatureCommander, which facilitates program comprehension in practice and which can serve as a basis for further research.

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

program comprehension
software product lines
preprocessors
featurecommander

empirical software engineering
software visualization


Gene set enrichment analysis for multiple continuous phenotypes Gene set analysis (GSA) methods test the association of sets of genes with phenotypes in gene expression microarray studies. While GSA methods on a single binary or categorical phenotype abounds, little attention has been paid to the case of a continuous phenotype, and there is no method to accommodate correlated multiple continuous phenotypes.

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

dna microarrays
linear combination test
nonlinear combination test
gene-set analysis


Inter-core Prefetching for Multicore Processors Using Migrating Helper Threads Multicore processors have become ubiquitous in today's systems, but exploiting the parallelism they offer remains difficult, especially for legacy application and applications with large serial components. The challenge, then, is to develop techniques that allow multiple cores to work in concert to accelerate a single thread. This paper describes inter-core prefetching, a technique to exploit multiple cores to accelerate a single thread. Inter-core prefetching extends existing work on helper threads for SMT machines to multicore machines. Inter-core prefetching uses one compute thread and one or more prefetching threads. The prefetching threads execute on cores that would otherwise be idle, prefetching the data that the compute thread will need. The compute thread then migrates between cores, following the path of the prefetch threads, and finds the data already waiting for it. Inter-core prefetching works with existing hardware and existing instruction set architectures. Using a range of state-of-the-art multiprocessors, this paper characterizes the potential benefits of the technique with microbenchmarks and then measures its impact on a range of memory intensive applications. The results show that inter-core prefetching improves performance by an average of 31 to 63%, depending on the architecture, and speeds up some applications by as much as 2.8x. It also demonstrates that inter-core prefetching reduces energy consumption by between 11 and 26% on average.

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 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 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

languages
chip multiprocessors
compilers
single-thread performance


A Higher Order Approach to Ontology Evolution in Physics A higher-order logical approach to ontology evolution is applied to examples in Physics. Based on this approach, a framework is proposed which includes a methodology for the formalisation of ontology evolution in higher-order logic and an implementation of this methodology in the theorem prover Isabelle. The proposed basic mechanisms for evolution are called ontology repair plans. These operate on ontologies formalised as contexts, i.e., as multiple logical theories. In such a setting, ontologies may contradict one another or introduce redundancies with respect to one another, without any of them containing logical contradictions or redundancies. When, though, an inconsistency or a redundancy between two or more ontologies becomes explicit, it may be resolved by the application of an ontology repair plan, as each plan compiles together a pattern for diagnosis and transformation rules for effecting a repair. The repair can combine the retraction and/or addition of axioms as well as the deeper modification of the language in which the ontology is represented.

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


Design and first tests of the CDF Run 2 farms The high energy physics experiment CDF, located in the anti-proton-proton collider at Fermilab, will write data in Run 2 at a rate of 20 MByte/s, twenty times the rate of Run 1. The offline production system must be able to handle this rate. Components of that system include a large PC farm, I/O systems to read/write data to and from mass storage, and a system to split the reconstructed data into physics streams which are required for analysis. All of the components must work together seamlessly to ensure the necessary throughput. A description will be given of the overall hardware and software design for the system. A small prototype farm has been used for about one year to study performance, to test software designs and for the first Mock Data Challenge. Results from the tests and experience from the first Mock Data Challenge will be discussed. The hardware for the first production farm is in place and will be used for the second Mock Data Challenge. Finally, the possible scaling of the system to handle larger rates foreseen later in Run 2 will be described. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 analysis
data management
high-energy physics


Progressive transmission of images: PC-based computations, using orthogonal matrix polynomials Two methods for reconstructing a 3-D image as its 2-D parallel slices are transmitted progressively, in some order, are presented and analyzed. In the originating data base, an ordered set of 2-D slices could represent computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance images (MRI), or cryosection cross-sections of a 3-D object, for example. With this digital formulation, matrix interpolating polynomial machinery renders a progressively-improving image as slices are received. A piecewise matrix polynomial reconstruction is also considered for reducing computational needs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

progressive transmission of images
matrix polynomial reconstruction

piecewise matrix polynomials interpolation


Electrical behavior of the Diamond layout style for MOSFETs in X-rays ionizing radiation environments This paper aims to describe some innovative layout styles, which are capable to boost the electrical performance and, in the same time, the Total Ionizing Dose (TID) tolerance of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET), without burdening the current planar Complementary MOS (CMOS) Integrated Circuits (ICs) manufacturing processes. To illustrate the potential use of these new alternative devices in analog and digital CMOS ICs applications, this work focuses on the Diamond layout style for MOSFET that presents hexagonal gate geometry. The new effects associated to this innovative transistor structure and its modeling are presented and discussed in detail. Some experimental results are illustrated to evidence its use mainly in space and medical CMOS ICs applications.

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

diamond (hexagonal gate geometry)
lce
pamdle
depambbre
x-rays radiation
total ionizing dose (tid)


Solving the aerial fleet refueling problem using group theoretic tabu search The aerial fleet refueling problem (AFRP) is concerned with the efficient and effective use of a heterogeneous set of tanker (refueling) aircraft, located at diverse geographical locations, in the required operations associated with the deployment of a diverse fleet of military aircraft to a foreign theater of activity. Typically, the "receiving" aircraft must traverse great distances over large bodies of water and/or over other inhospitable environs where no ground based refueling resources exist. Lacking the ability to complete their flights without refueling, each receiving aircraft must be serviced one or more times during their deployment flights by means of in-flight refueling provided by one of the available tanker aircraft. The receiving aircraft, aggregated into receiver groups (RGs) that fly together, have stipulated departure and destination bases and each RG's arrival time is bounded by a stated desired earliest and latest time. The excellence of a suggested solution to this very challenging decision making problem is measured relative to a rigorously defined hierarchical multicriteria objective function. This paper describes how the AFRP for the Air Mobility Command (AMC), Scott Air Force Base, IL, is efficiently solved using group theoretic tabu search (GTTS). GTTS uses the symmetric group on n letters (S.) and applies it to this problem using the Java(TM) language. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

aerial refueling
military logistics
group theory
group theoretic tabu search


Rough relation algebras revisited Rough relation algebras arise from Pawlak's information systems by considering as object ordered pairs on a fixed set X. Thus, the subsets to be approximated are binary relations over X, and hence, we have at our disposal not only the set theoretic operations, but also the relational operators;,(boolean OR), and the identity relation 1'. In the present paper, which is a continuation of [6], we further investigate the structure of abstract rough relation algebras.

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


An index and retrieval framework integrating perceptive features and semantics for multimedia databases Typically, in multimedia databases, there exist two kinds of clues for query: perceptive features and semantic classes. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for multimedia databases index and retrieval integrating the perceptive features and semantic classes to improve the speed and the precision of the content-based multimedia retrieval (CBMR). We develop a semantics supervised clustering based index approach (briefly as SSCI): the entire data set is divided hierarchically into many clusters until the objects within a cluster are not only close in the perceptive feature space but also within the same semantic class, and then an index term is built for each cluster. Especially, the perceptive feature vectors in a cluster are organized adjacently in disk. So the SSCI-based nearest-neighbor (NN) search can be divided into two phases: first, the indexes of all clusters are scanned sequentially to get the candidate clusters with the smallest distances from the query example; second, the original feature vectors within the candidate clusters are visited to get search results. Furthermore, if the results are not satisfied, the SSCI supports an effective relevance feedback (RF) search: users mark the positive and negative samples regarded a cluster as unit instead of a single object; then the Bayesian classifiers on perceptive features and that on semantics are used respectively to adjust retrieval similarity distance. Our experiments show that SSCI-based searching was faster than VA+-based searching; the quality of the search result based on SSCI was better than that of the sequential search in terms of semantics; and a few cycles of the RF by the proposed approach can improve the retrieval precision significantly.

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


Algebraic study to generalized Bosbach states on residuated lattices Generalized Bosbach states of type I and II, which are also called type I and II states, are useful for the development of algebraic theory of probabilistic models for fuzzy logics. In this paper, a pure algebraic study to the generalization of Bosbach states on residuated lattices is made. By rewriting the equations of Bosbach states, an alternative definition of type II states is given, and five types of generalized Bosbach states of type III, IV, V, VI and VII (or simply, type III, IV, V, VI and VII states) are introduced. The relationships among these generalized Bosbach states and properties of them are investigated by some examples and results. Particularly, type IV states are a new type of generalized Bosbach states which are different from type I, II and III states; type V (resp. VI) states can be equivalently defined by both type I (resp. II) states and type IV states; type I, II and III states are equivalent when the codomain is an MV-algebra as well as type V and type VI states.

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

generalized bosbach state of type iii (resp. iv


A sliding window solution for the on-line implementation of the LevenbergMarquardt algorithm The LevenbergMarquardt algorithm is considered as the most effective one for training artificial neural networks but its computational complexity and the difficulty to compute the trust region have made it very difficult to develop a true iterative version to use in on-line training. The algorithm is frequently used for off-line training in batch versions although some attempts have been made to implement iterative versions. To overcome the difficulties in implementing the iterative version, a batch-sliding window with Early Stopping, which uses a hybrid Direct/Specialized evaluation procedure, is proposed and tested with a real system.

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

artificial neural networks
levenbergmarquardt algorithm

direct training and specialized training


The DeltaCrit System (DCS): a computer program for standardized bedside detection of critical oxygen delivery using the Deltatrac II (TM) metabolic monitor Under resting conditions oxygen consumption (VO2) of the tissues equals their O-2 demand. However, when oxygen delivery (DO2) decreases below "a critical" value, the consecutive decline of VO2 reflects a critical restriction of DO? resulting in the onset of tissue hypoxia. Reliable bedside detection of a significant VO2 decline requires continuous measurement of in- and exspiratory O-2 concentrations with a metabolic monitor as well as a standardized online analysis of the data obtained. However, for this purpose no standardized procedure was available yet. Therefore, the DeltaCrit-System (DCS) has been developed enabling online detection of a significant VO2 decline indicating critical restriction of DO2. After a reference period with stable VO2 values the DCS tests whether a subsequently measured VO2 value is significantly lower than the mean baseline VO2. A significant VO2 decrease should indicate the onset of O-2 supply dependency of VO2 due to a critical restriction of DO2. The DCS has been validated with nine different, artificially generated data sets and has been tested in one animal experiment. DCS has proven consistency and may therefore be considered a new tool allowing clinicians to recognize restrictions in DO2 at an early time, and to start early therapeutic interventions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Turbo equalization for wireless cellular systems This paper investigates the turbo equalization techniques for wireless cellular systems. Simulation results over three CSM channel models are presented.

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


Verifying sequential consistency on shared-memory multiprocessors by model checking The memory model of a shared-memory"multiprocessor is a contract between the designer and the programmer of the multiprocessor. A memory model is typically implemented by means of a cache-coherence protocol. The design of this protocol is one of the most complex aspects of multiprocessor design and is consequently quite error-prone. However, it is imperative to ensure that the cache-coherence protocol satisfies the shared-memory model. This paper presents a novel technique based on model checking to tackle this difficult problem for the important and well-known shared-memory model of sequential consistency. Surprisingly, verifying sequential consistency is undecidable in general, even for finite-state cache-coherence protocols. The key insight of this paper is that, in practice, cache-coherence protocols satisfy the properties of causality and data independence. Causality is the property that values of read events flow from values of write events. Data independence is the property that all traces can be generated by renaming data values from traces where the written values are pairwise distinct. We show that, if a causal and data independent system also has the property that the logical order of write events to each location is identical to their temporal order, then sequential consistency is decidable. We present a novel model checking algorithm to verify sequential consistency on such systems for a finite number of processors and memory locations and an arbitrary number of data values.

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

specifying and verifying and reasoning about programs


Knowledge-based recommender technologies for marketing and sales Recommender applications support decision-making processes by helping online customers to identify products more effectively. Recommendation problems have a long history as a successful application area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the interest in recommender applications has dramatically increased due to the demand for personalization technologies by large and successful e-Commerce environments. Knowledge-based recommender applications are especially useful for improving the accessibility of complex products such as financial services or computers. Such products demand a more profound knowledge from customers than simple products such as CDs or movies. In this paper we focus on a discussion of AI technologies needed for the development of knowledge-based recommender applications. In this context, we report experiences from commercial projects and present the results of a study which investigated key factors influencing the acceptance of knowledge-based recommender technologies by end-users.

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

user acceptance of recommender technologies


A Behavioral Analysis for Planning MIS Implementation Planning for a successful MIS implementation requires understanding the effects of the introduction of a new system or; the work lives of potential adopters. The effects can be assessed by the MIS practitioner/change agent if the agent will first obtain a thorough and specific understanding of the task activities performed by potential adopters, the interactions they engage in as they perform their tasks, and their preferences for, or feelings about, those activities and interactions. An interview based approach to gathering this data is described, and a short description of an implementation in which the approach was used is provided.

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

implementation
potential adopters
task activities
interactions


Praxeology - a cybernetic application To make decisions has long been considered an art more than a science. Today the area has been formalized under the name of praxeology and includes the use of computers as decision aids. In this paper some basic decision models are analysed together with some psychological phenomena often connected to them. Managerial problems and needs are examined and related to available computer decision support. The military command, control, communication, and intelligence structure is presented and compared to the corresponding civilian framework. The conclusion was that computer support in decision making note is firmly established among middle level decision markers. Top level managers, on the other hand, were found to derive no major benefit from such systems Here good intuition, good guesses and a certain feeling for the task were the most important tools.

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

decision making
decision support
praxeology


Option-based risk management: A field study of sequential information technology investment decisions This field study research evaluates the viability of applying an option-based risk management (OBRiM) framework, and its accompanying theoretical perspective and methodology, to real-world sequential information technology (IT) investment problems. These problems involve alternative investment structures that bear different risk profiles for the firm, and also may improve the payoffs of the associated projects and the organization's performance. We sought to surface the costs, benefits, and risks associated with a complex sequential investment setting that has the key features that OBRiM treats. We combine traditional, purchased real options that subsequently create strategic flexibility for the decision maker, with implicit or embedded real options that are available with no specific investment required provided the decision maker recognizes them. This combination helps the decision maker to both (1) explicitly surface all of his or her strategic choices and (2) accurately value those choices, including ones that require prior enabling investments. The latter permits senior managers to adjust a project's investment trajectory in the face of revealed risk. This normally is important when there are uncertain organizational, technological, competitive, and market conditions. The context of our research is a data mart consolidation project, which was conducted by a major airline firm in association with a data warehousing systems vendor. Field study inquiry and data collection were essential elements in the retrospective analysis of the efficacy of OBRiM as a means to control risk in a large-scale project. We learned that OBRiM's main benefits are (1) the ability to generate meaningftil option-bearing investment structures, (2) simplification of the complexities of real options for the business context, (3) accuracy in analyzing the risks of IT investments, and (4) support for more proactive planning. These issues, which we show are more effectively addressed by OBRiM than the other methods, have become crucial as more corporate finance-style approaches are applied to IT investment and IT services problems. Our evaluative study shows that OBRiM has the potential to add value for managers looking to structure risky IT investments, although some aspects still require refinements.

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 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 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 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 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

it investment
it services
options
risk management

data marts
data warehouses
investment valuation
services science


A rule conflict resolution method based on Vague set In view of the limitation of low conflict detection efficiency and low resolution accuracy faced by traditional ECA (event-condition-action) rule reasoning, the new concepts, subject and object, are introduced to depict the trigger and effective object of the rule respectively, and also the post condition is introduced to express the state constraint after the rule action is executed. SOECAP, a kind of extended ECA rule model, is put forward. Based on the SOECAP model, the formal descriptions of rule conflict problem are defined in two different ways; meanwhile, the conflict resolution set is created dynamically, and the preference values from the conflict resolution set to conflict rules are measured through Vague set Theory, finally the rule confliction problem is resolved by taking the preference values as judgment standard. The comparative evaluation with other typical methods showed that the conflict detection and resolution based on Vague set had higher success rate and accuracy with stable and reliable features.

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

rule conflict
conflict resolution
vague set

post-condition constraint preference
extended eca model


human-information interaction The technical communicator's job has changed from creating a document to creating information appropriate for a communication situation with multiple user groups and highly dynamic information needs. Many of the communication failure issues we consistently see have a root cause not based on how people interact with computers, but with a failure to understand how information is communicated to a person and how they interact with and interpret that information. It is a failure of effective Human-information interaction (HII), which emphasizes communicating information---interacting with, interpreting, and using information---not writing documents, not designing web sites, not generating content. Producing modern web-based information requires a solid understanding of HII to increase the success of creating information which communicates effectively to all readers. The information design and creation must be based on a clear understanding of a person's goals and information needs and how that person interacts with information. Developing information which fits a person's need requires understanding how a person thinks and what factors drives their decision processes. These elements form for the base of an understanding of HII.

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

human-information interaction
human-computer interaction


Multistyle classification of speech under stress using feature subset selection based on genetic algorithms The determination of an emotional state through speech increases the amount of information associated with a speaker. It is therefore important to be able to detect and identify a speakers emotional state or state of stress. Various techniques are used in the literature to classify emotional/stressed states on the basis of speech, often using different speech feature vectors at the same time. This study proposes a new feature vector that will allow better classification of emotional/stressed states. The components of the feature vector are obtained from a feature subset selection procedure based on genetic algorithms. A good discrimination between neutral, angry, loud and Lombard states for the simulated domain of the Speech Under Simulated and Actual Stress (SUSAS) database and between neutral and stressed states for the actual domain of the SUSAS database is obtained.

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

stress classification
nonlinear features
hidden markov models


Participation in videoconferenced meetings: user disposition and meeting context Although videoconferencing systems are increasingly becoming important in the support of geographically dispersed groups, there are few studies that identify the types of tasks that are most effectively performed within videoconferenced meetings. This study investigates the relationship between (a) technology quality and communication activity during videoconferenced meetings, and (b) the intention of participants to support subsequent meetings. The data consists of a sample (n=295) of participants in a group videoconferencing system trial conducted by twenty government departments and incorporated bodies. Meeting sessions involved real work activities chosen by each of the participating groups. The results show that perceptions about the quality of technology and the communication activity conducted during the session are significantly related to the intentions of participants to support the use of the technology. Contrary to what might have been presumed, the findings also sbow that a significant majority of the participating groups chose communication activities least suited to the processing capabilities of the videoconferencing media.

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

videoconferenced meetings
technology quality

telecommunications
information richness
media richness
communication task
task and media fit


timing, energy, and thermal performance of three-dimensional integrated circuits We examine the performance of custom circuits in an emerging technology known as three-dimensional integration. By combining multiple device layers with a high-density inter-layer interconnect, 3D integration of a given circuit is expected to provide better timing and energy performance relative to a single-wafer implementation of the same circuit. In this paper, we show that by using our performance-driven design tool for 3D ICs, the interconnect energy dissipation of standard-cell circuits can be reduced by 24\% to 42\% using two to five device layers respectively. Similarly, the interconnect energy-delay product can be reduced by 30\% to 50\%.At the same time, thermal performance in 3D ICs is expected to be a critical issue. By incorporating thermal management and analysis into our placement tool, we may investigate the thermal scalability of 3D integration. We find that the thermal performance actually can be improved with the use of a modest number of additional device layers. Also, we show that the absolute die temperature can be controlled through the use of extra silicon.

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

timing
design tool
use
scalability
analysis
performance
temperature
tool
paper
product
device
energy
custom
implementation
placement
interconnect
3d
thermal management
circuits

delay
3-d ic
integrated circuit
combinational
standard cell
thermal optimization
3-d integration
layer
relation
critic
emerging technologies
integrability


Fusion of high spatial resolution WorldView-2 imagery and LiDAR pseudo-waveform for object-based image analysis High spatial resolution (HSR) imagery and high density LiDAR data provide complementary horizontal and vertical information. Therefore, many studies have focused on fusing the two for mapping geographic features. It has been demonstrated that the synergetic use of LiDAR and HSR imagery greatly improves classification accuracy. This is especially true with waveform LiDAR data since they provide more detailed vertical profiles of geographic objects than discrete-return LiDAR data. Fusion of discrete-return LiDAR and HSR imagery mostly takes place at the object level due to the superiority of object-based image analysis (OBIA) for classifying HSR imagery. However, the fusion of the waveform LiDAR and HSR imagery at the object level has not been adequately studied. To fuse LiDAR waveform and image objects, the waveform for the objects derived from image segmentation are needed. However, the footprints of existing waveform are usually of fixed size and fixed shape, while those of building are of different size and shape. In order to obtain waveforms with footprints that match those of image objects, we proposed synthesizing object-based pseudo-waveforms using discrete-returns LiDAR data by utilizing count or intensity based histogram over the footprints of the objects. The pseudo-waveforms were then fused with the object-level spectral histograms from HSR WorldView-2 imagery to classify the image objects using a KullbackLeibler divergence-based curve matching approach. The fused dataset achieved an overall classification accuracy of 97.58%, a kappa coefficient of 0.97, and producers accuracies and users accuracies all larger than 90%. The use of the fused dataset improved the overall accuracy by 7.61% over the use of HSR imagery alone, and McNemars test indicated that such improvement was statistically significant (p<0.001). This study demonstrates the great potential of pseudo-waveform in improving object-based image analysis. This is especially true since currently the majority of commercial LiDAR data are of discrete return while waveform data are still not widely available.

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

land cover
high resolution
multispectral


State agnostic planning graphs: deterministic, non-deterministic, and probabilistic planning Planning graphs have been shown to be a rich source of heuristic information for many kinds of planners. In many cases, planners must compute a planning graph for each element of a set of states, and the naive technique enumerates the graphs individually. This is equivalent to solving a multiple-source shortest path problem by iterating a single-source algorithm over each source. We introduce a data-structure, the state agnostic planning graph, that directly solves the multiple-source problem for the relaxation introduced by planning graphs. The technique can also be characterized as exploiting the overlap present in sets of planning graphs. For the purpose of exposition, we first present the technique in deterministic (classical) planning to capture a set of planning graphs used in forward chaining search. A more prominent application of this technique is in conformant and conditional planning (i.e., search in belief state space), where each search node utilizes a set of planning graphs; an optimization to exploit state overlap between belief states collapses the set of sets of planning graphs to a single set. We describe another extension in conformant probabilistic planning that reuses planning graph samples of probabilistic action outcomes across search nodes to otherwise curb the inherent prediction cost associated with handling probabilistic actions. Finally, we show how to extract a state agnostic relaxed plan that implicitly solves the relaxed planning problem in each of the planning graphs represented by the state agnostic planning graph and reduces each heuristic evaluation to counting the relevant actions in the state agnostic relaxed plan. Our experimental evaluation (using many existing International Planning Competition problems from classical and non-deterministic conformant tracks) quantifies each of these performance boosts, and demonstrates that heuristic belief state space progression planning using our technique is competitive with the state of the art. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


General framework for distributed knowledge management in mechatronic systems This paper is concerned with the application of knowledge management on the mechatronic system. First, data, information and knowledge terms have been explained according to their disparities and similarities. Then, knowledge management has been described in general. The Internet-based CNC machining center has been considered and its knowledge management model has been prepared. The model prepared has been analyzed for machining performance of the manufacturing system.

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 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

information technology
internet-based manufacture
remote control


Discovering overlapping communities in social networks: A novel game-theoretic approach Identifying communities in social networks has been receiving the increasing attentions recently. However, the overlapping concept has received little attentions in the literature, although it is observed in almost all social networks. In this study, we propose a framework based on the game theory and the structural equivalence concept to address the detection of overlapping communities in social networks. Specifically, we consider the underlying graph as a hypothetical social networking website and regard each vertex of this graph as an agent performing in this multiagent environment. Since each agent may belong to several communities simultaneously, we are able to find overlapping community structure of social networks. The rigorous proof of the existence of Nash equilibrium in this game is provided which shows that the method always reaches to the final solution. Experimental results on the benchmark and real world graphs show superiority of our approach over the other state-of-the-art methods.

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

game theory
multiagent environment
overlapping communities
social networks
structural equivalence


Embedding finite automata within regular expressions Regular expressions and their extensions have become a major component of industry regular expression Oriented specification languages Such as IEEE PSL [IEEE Standard for Property Specification Finite automata Language (PSL). IEEE Std 1850(TM)-2005]. The model checking procedure of regular Model checking expression based formulas, involves Constructing an automaton which runs in parallel with Linear translation the model. On-the-fly In this paper we re-examine the automata construction. We propose an algorithm that Embedding allows an intermediate representation mixing both regular expressions and automata. This representation can be thought of as plugging an automaton inside a regular expression, to PSL replace an existing sub-expression. In order to be verified, the intermediate representation is then translated into another automaton, resulting in a set of automata running in parallel. A key feature of this algorithm is that the plug-in automaton is independent of the regular expression from which it originated, and thus can be used in several different properties. We demonstrate the usefulness of our method by providing a set of applications. We show how the use of our method allows modularity and flexibility of the automata construction, and can increase expressiveness when SERES are mixed with CTL. We give two applications for which it significantly reduces the size of the automata built for formulas, thus reducing the overall run time of the model checking procedure. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

regular expression
finite automata
model checking
linear translation
embedding
psl


Exposing multi-relational networks to single-relational network analysis algorithms Many, if not most network analysis algorithms have been designed specifically for single-relational networks; that is, networks in which all edges are of the same type. For example, edges may either represent friendship, kinship, or collaboration, but not all of them together. In contrast, a multi-relational network is a network with a heterogeneous set of edge labels which can represent relationships of various types in a single data structure. While multi-relational networks are more expressive in terms of the variety of relationships they can capture, there is a need for a general framework for transferring the many single-relational network analysis algorithms to the multi-relational domain. It is not sufficient to execute a single-relational network analysis algorithm on a multi-relational network by simply ignoring edge labels. This article presents an algebra for mapping multi-relational networks to single-relational networks, thereby exposing them to single-relational network analysis algorithms.

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 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 B I O


The (?,S ? , S ) policy for uncertain multi-product newsboy problem We derive an optimal (?,S ? , S ) policy for uncertain multi-product newsboy problem based on uncertainty theory. We propose a methodology for deriving the optimal (?,S ? , S ) policy. An example is given to illustrate how to use the (?,S ? , S ) policy under uncertain situation.

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

(?
s) ( ?
s ) policy (?
s ) (?
s ) ( ?
s )
uncertain variable
uncertain programming


Nonparametric Mixtures of Gaussian Processes With Power-Law Behavior Gaussian processes (GPs) constitute one of the most important Bayesian machine learning approaches, based on a particularly effective method for placing a prior distribution over the space of regression functions. Several researchers have considered postulating mixtures of GPs as a means of dealing with nonstationary covariance functions, discontinuities, multimodality, and overlapping output signals. In existing works, mixtures of GPs are based on the introduction of a gating function defined over the space of model input variables. This way, each postulated mixture component GP is effectively restricted in a limited subset of the input space. In this paper, we follow a different approach. We consider a fully generative nonparametric Bayesian model with power-law behavior, generating GPs over the whole input space of the learned task. We provide an efficient algorithm for model inference, based on the variational Bayesian framework, and prove its efficacy using benchmark and real-world datasets.

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

gaussian process
mixture model
pitman-yor process


Early modeling and validation of timed system requirements using Timed Use Case Maps There is a general consensus on the importance of good requirements engineering for achieving high-quality software. Functional requirements capture the intended behavior of the system in terms of services, tasks, or functions the system is required to perform, while non-functional requirements capture required properties of the system, such as timing, performance, and security. These non-functional requirements play a crucial role during system development life cycle serving as selection criteria for choosing among myriads of design decisions. The ability to model and validate the system non-functional properties at the requirements level supports the detection of design errors during the early stages of a software development life cycle and helps reduce the cost of later redesign activities. The widespread interest in time modeling and analysis techniques at the requirements phase provides the major motivation for this research. This paper presents a novel and fully automated approach to describe and validate high-level timed requirements using the Timed Use Case Maps language. We extend the, ITU-T standard User Requirements Notation, Use Case Maps metamodel with time requirements. The resulting extensions are implemented within the jUCMNav tool and formalized using Abstract State Machines allowing for automated simulation and analysis. We illustrate the applicability of our approach using a business process model (conference review process model) and a real-time system model (IP multicast routing case study).

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

non-functional
timed use case maps (tucm)
user requirements notation (urn)
abstract state machines (asm)


Combined fuzzy-based power control with window-based transmission rate management in multimedia CDMA cellular systems Power control and transmission rate management play vital roles in multimedia CDMA cellular systems. To support multimedia services in CDMA cellular systems, different quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as minimum transmission rate or bit energy to interference spectral density ratio, should be set for different services. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme which combines fuzzy-based power control with window-based transmission rate management for use in multimedia CDMA cellular systems. We use window-based measurements to adjust transmission power by using fuzzy logic control (FLC) so that each service can maintain its signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). Simulation results show that the new proposed method outperforms the original SPC (selective power control) and LRPC (Lagrangian relaxation technique and power control) methods in various measurements, such as outage probability, average transmission rate, probability of unsuccessful transmission, and probability of changes in transmission rates.

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


Nonlinear boundary equation approach for inequality 2-D elastodynamics Boundary nonlinearities which can be modelled by means of inequalities and complementarity conditions, and which include static and dynamic unilateral contact problems are considered. A nonlinear equation approach is proposed for the numerical solution of the arising variational inequality problems. The advantage of this approach is that is permits the use of standard nonlinear equation solvers instead of more specialized ones, with an obvious enhancement in flexibility and generality of the resulting software. Numerical examples of waves interacting with unilateral cracks illustrate the theory.

O O O O 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

dynamics
boundary elements
nonlinear analysis
complementarity problems


enabling social interactions through real-time sketch-based communication We present UbiSketch, a tool for ubiquitous real-time sketch-based communication. We describe the UbiSketch system, which enables people to create doodles, drawings, and notes with digital pens and paper and publish them quickly and easily via their mobile phones to social communication channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, and email. The natural paper-based social interaction enabled by UbiSketch has the potential to enrich current mobile communication practices.

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

mobile phone
sketching
interactive paper
digital pen
social networks


Score normalization in multimodal biometric systems Multimodal biometric systems consolidate the evidence presented by multiple biometric sources and typically provide better recognition performance compared to systems based on a single biometric modality. Although information fusion in a multimodal system can be performed at various levels, integration at the matching score level is the most common approach due to the ease in accessing and combining the scores generated by different matchers. Since the matching scores output by the various modalities are heterogeneous, score normalization is needed to transform these scores into a common domain, prior to combining them. In this paper, we have studied the performance of different normalization techniques and fusion rules in the context of a multimodal biometric system based on the face, fingerprint and hand-geometry traits of a user. Experiments conducted on a database of 100 users indicate that the application of min-max, z-score, and tanh normalization schemes followed by a simple sum of scores fusion method results in better recognition performance compared to other methods. However, experiments also reveal that the min-max and z-score normalization techniques are sensitive to outliers in the data, highlighting the need for a robust and efficient normalization procedure like the tanh normalization. It was also observed that multimodal systems utilizing user-specific weights perform better compared to systems that assign the same set of weights to the multiple biometric traits of all users. (c) 2005 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

score normalization
face
fingerprint
tanh

biometrics
multibiometrics
hand-geometry
min-max
z-score
sigmoid
parzen
user-specific weights


Fuzzy Gamma-hypernear-rings The concept of Gamma-hypernear-rings, which is a generalization of Gamma-near-rings and hypernear-rings, is introduced. Some related properties of Gamma-hypernear-rings are described. In particular, three Isomorphism Theorems of Gamma-hypernear-rings are established. By using this new idea, we consider the fuzzy hyperideals of Gamma-hypernear-rings. Finally, the fundamental relations between Gamma-hypernear-rings and Gamma-near-rings are discussed. (C) 2010 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

fuzzy set
gamma-hypernear-ring
isomorphism theorem
gamma-near-ring
hyperideal


5-HT1A receptor pharmacophores to screen for off-target activity of alpha(1)-adrenoceptor antagonists The alpha(1)-adrenoceptors (alpha(1)-ARs), in particular the alpha(1A)-AR subtype, are current therapeutic targets of choice for the treatment of urogenital conditions, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Due to the similarity between the transmembrane domains of the alpha(1)-AR sub-types, and the serotonin receptor subtype 1A (5-HT1A-R), currently used alpha(1)-AR subtype-selective drugs to treat BPH display considerable off-target affinity for the 5-HT1A-R, leading to side effects. We describe the construction and validation of pharmacophores for 5-HT1A-R agonists and antagonists. Through the structural diversity of the training sets used in their development, these pharmacophores define the properties of a compound needed to bind to 5-HT1A receptors. Using these and previously published pharmacophores in virtual screening and profiling, we have identified unique chemical compounds (hits) that fit the requirements to bind to our target, the alpha(1A)-AR, selectively over the off-target, the 5-HT1A-R. Selected hits have been obtained and their affinities for alpha(1A)-AR, alpha(1B)-AR and 5-HT1A-R determined in radioligand binding assays, using membrane preparations which contain human receptors expressed individually. Three of the tested hits demonstrate statistically significant selectivity for alpha(1A)-AR over 5-HT1A-R. All seven tested hits bind to alpha(1A)-AR, with two compounds displaying K-i values below 1 mu M, and a further two K-i values of around 10 mu M. The insights and knowledge gained through the development of the new 5-HT1A-R pharmacophores will greatly aid in the design and synthesis of derivatives of our lead compound, and allow the generation of more efficacious and selective ligands.

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

pharmacophore
5-ht1a receptor
alpha(1)-adrenergic receptors
drug selectivity
gpcr


A simple but effective improvement to the plumb-line algorithm In this paper, we propose an improved plumb-line algorithm, the Partial-Scan Plumb-Line (PSPL) algorithm, to solve the point-in-region problem. In the PSPL algorithm, every edge of the region (or polygon) is represented as two half segments, and all half segments of the region are sorted according to their dominating points. This is a standard representation for regions in spatial databases, providing efficient support for many plane-sweep algorithms. To support PSPL additionally a "coverage number" is associated with each half segment. In this way, the algorithm can employ a binary search to quickly find the half segment whose dominating point is closest to the given point, and then access only the neighbouring half segments to evaluate the query, leading to dramatic performance improvements, especially for large regions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

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

plumb-line algorithm
point-in-region
databases


Separation model design of manufacturing systems using the distributed agent-oriented Petri net Manufacturing systems are hardly modelled and analysed in detail due to the complex and interactive behaviours of the production, movement, maintenance and dispatch on the shopfloor. In this paper, an agent-based modelling methodology is proposed to model the manufacturing systems using the separation model design approach. The agent models are constructed using the distributed agent-oriented Petri net (DAOPN). The DAOPN is a high-level Petri net (PN) and is designed based upon the coloured time Petri net (CTPN). The new designed DAOPN is especially desired to model the manufacturing systems in the separation and decomposition manners to reduce the modelling efforts and increase the modelling extensibility. The proposed DAOPN components include the immediate, pitch-type, catch-type, status-source and status-duplication places; immediate, timed, decision and database-accessing transitions; and directed, inhibitor and interrupt arcs. In addition to the separation characteristics, the DAOPN can also model manufacturing systems with flexible routes of products, flexible automation of equipment, product model mixes, and huge production information intercommunication. Especially, the separation design is advantageous to the manufacturing model reconstruction and maintenance. Finally, the DAOPN is defined in this paper, and several typical applications including the production, movement, equipment failure and preventive maintenance are all discussed and evaluated.

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

distributed agent-oriented petri net
distributed modelling
manufacturing system modelling


Profile context management in ubiquitous computing By utilising various types of contextual data acquired from users' devices, enhanced context-aware services and applications can be developed and deployed. But current context management systems are based on a server-client approach, which hinders their widespread adoption in an ad-hoc environment. In addition, performance issues introduced because of context dependency in a ubiquitous environment still need to be addressed. This paper presents the idea of profile context to address the problem of context dependency, and also proposes an open framework for context acquisition, management and distribution in a ubiquitous environment. Bringing together context information and context updates from various sources, support for context-aware decisions can be implemented efficiently in a mobile environment by addressing the issues related to context dependency using profile context.

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

context management
ubiquitous computing
profile context


Test data compression for scan-based BIST aiming at 100x compression rate We developed test data compression scheme for scan-based BIST, aiming to compress test stimuli and responses by more than 100 times. As scan-BIST architecture, we adopt BIST-Aided Scan Test (BAST), and combines four techniques: the invert-and-shift operation, run-length compression, scan address partitioning, and LFSR pre-shifting. Our scheme achieved a 100x compression rate in environments where Xs do not occur without reducing the fault coverage of the original ATPG vectors. Furthermore, we enhanced the masking logic to reduce data for X-masking so that test data is still compressed to 1/100 in a practical environment where Xs occur. We applied our scheme to five real VLSI chips, and the technique compressed the test data by 100x for scan-based BIST.

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

test response compaction
bist-aided scan test
x-value


Latent Users in an Online User-Generated Content Community Online communities depend on the persistent contributions of heterogeneous users with diverse motivations and ways of participating. As these online communities exist over time, it is possible that users change the way in which they contribute to the site. Through interviews with 31 long-term members of a user-generated content community who have decreased their participation on the site, we examined the meaning that these users gave to their contribution and how their new participation patterns related to their initial motivations. We complement the reader-to-leader framework (Preece and Shneiderman: AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1332, 2009) by propounding the concept of latent user to understand decreasing content contribution and user life-cycles in online communities. We showed that even though latent users decrease their content contribution, their participation becomes more selective and remained consistent with initial motivations to participate.

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

content contribution in online communities


Fourier

Transform-Based

Scalable

Image

Quality

Measure

We

present

a

new

image

quality

assessment

algorithm

based

on

the

phase

and

magnitude

of

the

discrete

Fourier

transform.

The

basic

idea

is

to

compare

the

phase

and

magnitude

of

the

reference

and

distorted

images

to

compute

the

quality

score.

However,

it

is

well

known

that

the

human

visual

system's

sensitivity

to

different

frequency

components

is

not

the

same.

We

accommodate

this

fact

via

a

simple

yet

effective

strategy

of

non-uniform

binning

of

the

frequency

components.

This

process

also

leads

to

reduced

space

representation

of

the

image

thereby

enabling

the

reduced-reference

(RR)

prospects

of

the

proposed

scheme.

We

employ

linear

regression

to

integrate

the

effects

of

the

changes

in

phase

and

magnitude.

In

this

way,

the

required

weights

are

determined

via

proper

training

and

hence

more

convincing

and

effective.

Last,

using

the

fact

that

phase

usually

conveys

more

information

than

magnitude,

we

use

only

the

phase

for

RR

quality

assessment.

This

provides

the

crucial

advantage

of

further

reduction

in

the

required

amount

of

reference

image

information.

The

proposed

method

is,

therefore,

further

scalable

for

RR

scenarios.

We

report

extensive

experimental

results

using

a

total

of

nine

publicly

available

databases:

seven

image

(with

a

total

of

distorted

images

with

diverse

distortions)

and

two

video

databases

(totally

distorted

videos).

These

show

that

the

proposed

method

is

overall

better

than

several

of

the

existing

full-reference

algorithms

and

two

RR

algorithms.

Additionally,

there

is

a

graceful

degradation

in

prediction

performance

as

the

amount

of

reference

image

information

is

reduced

thereby

confirming

its

scalability

prospects.

To

enable

comparisons

and

future

study,

a

MATLAB

implementation

of

the

proposed

algorithm

is

available

at

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

fourier phase and magnitude
image quality assessment (iqa)
non-uniform frequency bins


Throughput maximization for two station tandem systems: a proof of the Andradttir-Ayhan conjecture We study a tandem queueing network with two stations, M heterogeneous flexible servers, and a finite intermediate buffer. The objective is to dynamically assign the servers to the stations in order to maximize the throughput of the system. The form of the optimal policy for M = 4. We prove their conjecture in this paper, showing that the optimal policy is defined by monotone thresholds and the ratios of the service rates among the servers. For M > 1, we also prove that the optimal policy always uses the entire intermediate buffer.

O 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

tandem queueing networks
markov decision processes
throughput optimality


Design Preserving Garment Transfer We present a fully automatic method for design-preserving transfer of garments between characters with different body shapes. For real-life garments, such transfer is performed through a knowledge intensive and time consuming process, known as pattern grading. Our first contribution is to reformulate the criteria used in professional pattern-grading as a set of geometric requirements, respectively expressing shape or design preservation, proportionality, and fit. We then propose a fully automatic garment transfer algorithm which satisfies all of these criteria while ensuring the physical plausibility of the result. Specifically, we formulate garment transfer as a constrained optimization problem and solve it efficiently through iterative quadratic minimization. As demonstrated by our results, our method is able to automatically generate design-preserving versions of existing garments for target characters whose proportions and body shape significantly differ from those of the source. The method correctly handles the transfer of multiple layers of garment. Lastly, when source 2D patterns are available, we output graded patterns suitable for manufacturing the transferred garments. Our fully automatic design-preserving transfer method leads to significant time savings for both computer artists and fashion designers.

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

garment modeling
geometry processing
transfer methods
resizing


Rainfall prediction model using soft computing technique Rainfall prediction in this paper is a spatial interpolation problem that makes use of the daily rainfall information to predict volume of rainfall at unknown locations within area covered by existing observations. This paper proposed the use of self-organising map (SOM), backpropagation neural networks (BPNN) and fuzzy rule systems to perform rainfall spatial interpolation based on local method. The SOM is first used to separate the whole data space into some local surface automatically without any knowledge from the analyst. In each sub-surface, the complexity of the whole data space is reduced to something more homogeneous. After classification, BPNNs are then use to learn the generalization characteristics from the data within each cluster. Fuzzy rules for each cluster are then extracted. The fuzzy rule base is then used tor rainfall prediction. This method is used to compare with an established method, which uses radial basis function networks and orographic effect. Results show that this method could provide similar results from the established method. However, this method has the advantage of allowing analyst to understand and interact with the model using fuzzy rules.

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

backpropagation neural networks
spatial interpolation

self-organising map
fuzzy system
geographic information system


A General Framework for Sound and Complete Floyd-Hoare Logics This article presents an abstraction of Hoare logic to traced symmetric monoidal categories, a very general framework for the theory of systems. Our abstraction is based on a traced monoidal functor from an arbitrary traced monoidal category into the category of preorders and monotone relations. We give several examples of how our theory generalizes usual Hoare logics (partial correctness of while programs, partial correctness of pointer programs), and provide some case studies on how it can be used to develop new Hoare logics (runtime analysis of while programs and stream circuits).

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


visualization of intricate flow structures for vortex breakdown analysis Vortex breakdowns and flow recirculation are essential phenomena in aeronautics where they appear as a limiting factor in the design of modern aircrafts. Because of the inherent intricacy of these features, standard flow visualization techniques typically yield cluttered depictions. The paper addresses the challenges raised by the visual exploration and validation of two CFD simulations involving vortex breakdown. To permit accurate and insightful visualization we propose a new approach that unfolds the geometry of the breakdown region by letting a plane travel through the structure along a curve. We track the continuous evolution of the associated projected vector field using the theoretical framework of parametric topology. To improve the understanding of the spatial relationship between the resulting curves and lines we use direct volume rendering and multi-dimensional transfer functions for the display of flow-derived scalar quantities. This enriches the visualization and provides an intuitive context for the extracted topological information. Our results offer clear, synthetic depictions that permit new insight into the structural properties of vortex breakdowns.

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

parametric topology
flow visualization
volume rendering


Efficiently learning the preferences of people This paper presents a framework for optimizing the preference learning process. In many real-world applications in which preference learning is involved the available training data is scarce and obtaining labeled training data is expensive. Fortunately in many of the preference learning situations data is available from multiple subjects. We use the multi-task formalism to enhance the individual training data by making use of the preference information learned from other subjects. Furthermore, since obtaining labels is expensive, we optimally choose which data to ask a subject for labelling to obtain the most of information about her/his preferences. This paradigmcalled active learninghas hardly been studied in a multi-task formalism. We propose an alternative for the standard criteria in active learning which actively chooses queries by making use of the available preference data from other subjects. The advantage of this alternative is the reduced computation costs and reduced time subjects are involved. We validate empirically our approach on three real-world data sets involving the preferences of people.

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

learning preferences
experimental design
multi-task learning
hierarchical modeling


An iterated dynasearch algorithm for the single-machine total weighted tardiness scheduling problem This paper introduces a new neighborhood search technique, called dynasearch, that uses dynamic programming to search an exponential size neighborhood in polynomial time. While traditional local search algorithms make a single move at each iteration, dynasearch allows a series of moves to be performed. The aim is for the lookahead capabilities of dynasearch to prevent the search from being attracted to poor local optima. We evaluate dynasearch by applying it to the problem of scheduling jobs on a single machine to minimize the total weighted tardiness of the jobs. Dynasearch is more effective than traditional first-improve or best-improve descent in our computational tests. Furthermore, this superiority is much greater for starting solutions close to previous local minima. Computational results also show that an iterated dynasearch algorithm in which descents are performed a few random moves away from previous local minima is superior to other known local search procedures for the total weighted tardiness scheduling 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 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 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

production scheduling
sequencing
analysis of algorithms


Metric horseshoes in discrete-time RTD-based cellular neural networks ? In this paper, the dynamics of discrete-time resonant tunneling diode (RTD)-based cellular neural networks is studied. By virtue of metric horseshoe theory, it can be shown that the map derived from the discretization of RTD-based cellular neural networks has horseshoe in terms of symbolic dynamics of ?3 ? 3 , which means the map is semi-conjugate to 3-shift dynamics.

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


Algebraic Characterizations of Complexity-Theoretic Classes of Real Functions Recursive analysis is the most classical approach to model and discuss computations over the real numbers. Recently, it has been shown that computability classes of functions in the sense of recursive analysis can be defined (or characterized) in an algebraic machine independent way, without resorting to Turing machines. In particular nice connections between the class of computable functions (and some of its sub- and sup-classes) over the reals and algebraically defined (sub- and sup-) classes of R-recursive functions a la Moore 96 have been obtained. However, until now, this has been done only at the computability level, and not at the complexity level. In this paper we provide a framework that allows us to dive into the complexity level of real functions. In particular we provide the first algebraic characterization of polynomial-time computable functions over the reals. This framework opens the field of implicit complexity of analog functions, and also provides a new reading of some of the existing characterizations at the computability level.

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

recursive analysis
algebraic characterization

polynomial time
real computation
oracle turing machines


A hybrid neuro-fuzzy analytical approach to mode choice of global logistics management This paper presents a hybrid neuro-fuzzy methodology to identify appropriate global logistics (GL) operational modes used for global supply chain management. The proposed methodological framework includes three main developmental phases: (1) establishment of a GL strategic hierarchy, (2) formulation of GL-mode identification rules, and (3) development of a GL-mode choice model. By integrating advanced multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques including fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (Fuzzy-AHP), Fuzzy-MCDM, and the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), six types of global logistics and operational modes coupled with corresponding fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision-making rules are specified in the second phase. Using the specified fuzzy decision-making rules as the input database, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is then developed in the third phase to identify proper GL modes for the implementation of global supply chain management. A numerical study with a questionnaire survey database aimed at the information technology (IT) industries of Taiwan is conducted to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method.

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

global logistics
global supply chain management

multi-criteria decision making
fuzzy inference
neural networks


Clinical Features of Nicotine Dependence Compared with Those of Alcohol, Methamphetamine, and Inhalant Dependence A new clinical evaluation form was developed to compare the clinical features of nicotine dependence with those associated with other abused drugs. A new scoring system for clinical evaluation was developed. The form consisted of five scoring items

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

nicotine
alcohol
methamphetamine
scoring items


Artificial neural network predictors for mechanical properties of cold rolling products Controlling product mechanical properties is an important stage in steel production lines. Conventionally, direct tensile tests are employed for this purpose; but their disadvantage is their high cost. The main objective of this paper is to develop an intelligent indirect method based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for monitoring product mechanical properties without the need for expensive laboratory tests. The inputs into the proposed intelligent system include a wide variety of parameters from all production stages which it uses to predict such properties as Yield Strength (YS), Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), and Elongation (EL) as output. Moreover sensitivity analysis is performed based on using ANNs trained by data from three different grades because changing domains of input parameters is wider in these sets of data. Results show that the reduction in skin pass, the thickness after tandem and the ratio of Nitrogen to Aluminum are the effective parameters for all three mechanical properties among other inputs. Also, the thickness reduction in tandem affects the YS and EL values significantly, but UTS is not sensitive to this parameter noticeably. The variation of Vanadium content changes UTS value considerably.

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

artificial neural network
steel
cold rolling

computer simulations
mechanical property
estimation


constructing olap cubes based on queries An On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) user often follows a train of thought, posing a sequence of related queries against the data warehouse. Although their details are not known in advance, the general form of those queries is apparent beforehand. Thus, the user can outline the relevant portion of the data posing generalised queries against a cube representing the data warehouse.Since existing OLAP design methods are not suitable for non-professionals, we present a technique that automates cube design given the data warehouse, functional dependency information, and sample OLAP queries expressed in the general form. The method constructs complete but minimal cubes with low risks related to sparsity and incorrect aggregations. After the user has given queries, the system will suggest a cube design. The user can accept it or improve it by giving more queries. The method is also suitable for improving existing cubes using respective real MDX queries.

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A comparative study of collaboration-based reputation models for social recommender systems Today, people increasingly leverage their online social networks to discover meaningful and relevant information, products and services. Thus, the ability to identify reputable online contacts with whom to interact has become ever more important. In this work we describe a generic approach to modeling user and item reputation in social recommender systems. In particular, we show how the various interactions between producers and consumers of content can be used to create so-called collaboration graphs, from which the reputation of users and items can be derived. We analyze the performance of our reputation models in the context of the HeyStaks social search platform, which is designed to complement mainstream search engines by recommending relevant pages to users based on the past experiences of search communities. By incorporating reputation into the existing HeyStaks recommendation framework, we demonstrate that the relevance of HeyStaks recommendations can be significantly improved based on data recorded during a live-user trial of the system.

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

reputation
social recommender systems
collaboration graphs