Analysis of adiabatic shear bands in elasto-thermo-viscoplastic materials by modified smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (MSPH) method We use the modified smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (MSPH) method to analyze shear strain localization in elasto-thermo-viscoplastic materials that exhibit strain- and strain-rate hardening and thermal softening. A homogeneous solution of simple shearing deformations of the body is perturbed and the resulting initial-boundary-value problem analyzed by the MSPH method. It is found that the deformation localizes into a narrow region of intense plastic deformation. In materials exhibiting enhanced thermal softening, an elastic unloading shear wave emanates from this region and propagates outwards. The time when the deformation localizes decreases exponentially with an increase in the thermal softening coefficient. Results have been computed without adding an artificial viscosity and compared with those obtained by the finite element method.

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


Defect evolution in a product line environment ? One mechanism used for monitoring the development of the Space Shuttle flight control software, in order to minimize any risks to the missions, is the independent verification and validation (IV&V) process. Using data provided by both the Shuttle software developer and the IV&V contractor, in this paper we describe the overall IV&V process as used on the Space Shuttle program and provide an analysis of the use of metrics to document and control this process over multiple releases of this software. Our findings reaffirm the value of IV&V, show the impact of IV&V on multiple releases of a large complex software system, and indicate that some of the traditional measures of defect detection and repair are not applicable in a multiple-release environment such as this one.

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

software independent verification and validation


Latent root regression analysis: an alternative method to PLS Several applications are based on the assessment of a linear model linking a variable y to predictors x(1),x(2)..... x(p). It often occurs that the predictors are collinear which results in a high instability of the model obtained by means of multiple linear regression. Several alternative methods have been proposed in order to tackle this problem. Among these methods Ridge Regression (RR), Principal Component Regression (PCR) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) are the most popular. We discuss another alternative method to Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) called Latent Root Regression (LRR). This method basically shares certain common characteristics with PLS as it derives latent variables to be used as predictors. Like PLS, the dependent variable plays a central role in determining the latent variables. We introduce new properties of latent root regression which give new insight into the determination of a prediction model. The mean squared error for the latent root estimator is explicitly given. Thus, a model may be deter-mined by combining latent root estimators in such a way that the associated mean squared error is minimized. The method is illustrated using two real data sets. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multiple linear regression
latent root regression
partial least squares


Fabrication and characterisation of suspended narrow silicon nanowire channels for low-power nano-electro-mechanical (NEM) switch applications Suspended narrow conduction channel silicon nanowires fabricated and characterised. Double suspension fabrication employing tailored amorphous silicon sacrificial layer. Low threshold voltage electrical switching with current on/off ratio of 105. In-plane electromechanical pull-in consistent with finite element analysis. Solid technological basis for CMOS compatible low power NEMS switches.

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

nems
nanowire
double suspension
low power
cmos compatible


Extraction of tumor region in color images using wavelets In this paper, a wavelet-based method is proposed to extract the tumor region from a color medical image. In the past, the diagnosis of tumors usually relied upon the tissue section stained by methylene blue. However, traditional approaches have relied primarily on manual processes and erroneous assessment may arise from subjective judgement and eye measurement. Instead of the previous method, we propose an improved radial search technique to increase the accuracy of the extraction of the tumor border. Experimental results show that the proposed method is fast and can extract the tumor region successfully. Moreover, the results of this research will be helpful in the development of a computer-aided image analysis system that will automate visual feature extraction for tumor evaluation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

color image processing
wavelet transform
border extraction


modeling people's place naming preferences in location sharing Most location sharing applications display people's locations on a map. However, people use a rich variety of terms to refer to their locations, such as "home," "Starbucks," or "the bus stop near my house." Our long-term goal is to create a system that can automatically generate appropriate place names based on real-time context and user preferences. As a first step, we analyze data from a two-week study involving 26 participants in two different cities, focusing on how people refer to places in location sharing. We derive a taxonomy of different place naming methods, and show that factors such as a person's perceived familiarity with a place and the entropy of that place (i.e. the variety of people who visit it) strongly influence the way people refer to it when interacting with others. We also present a machine learning model for predicting how people name places. Using our data, this model is able to predict the place naming method people choose with an average accuracy higher than 85\%.

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

location representation
location-based service


multi-niche crowding in the development of parallel genetic simulated annealing In this paper, a new hybrid of genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA), referred to as GSA, is presented. In this algorithm, SA is incorporated into GA to escape from the local optima. Then, the idea of hierarchical parallel GA is borrowed to parallelize GSA for the optimization of multimodal functions. In addition, multi-niche crowding is used to maintain the diversity in the population of parallel GSA. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated against a standard set of multimodal benchmark functions. Multi-niche crowding PGSA and normal PGSA show some remarkable improvement in comparison with the conventional parallel GA and the breeder genetic algorithm.

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


A PTAS for the minimization of polynomials of fixed degree over the simplex We consider the problem of computing the minimum value pm taken by a polynomial p(x) of degree d over the standard simplex Delta. This is an NP-hard problem already for degree d = 2. For any integer k >= 1, by minimizing p(x) over the set of rational points in Delta with denominator k, one obtains a hierarchy of upper bounds p(Delta)(k) converging to p(min) as k --> infinity. These upper approximations are intimately linked to a hierarchy of lower bounds for p(min) constructed via polya's theorem about representations of positive forms on the simplex. Revisiting the proof of Polya's theorem allows us to give estimates on the quality of these upper and lower approximations for p(min). Moreover, we show that the bounds p(Delta)(k) yield a polynomial time approximation scheme for the minimization of polynomials of fixed degree d on the simplex, extending an earlier result of Bomze and De Klerk for degree d = 2. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

semidefinite programming
global optimization
positive polynomial
sum of squares of polynomials
approximation algorithm


Pet formalisms versus industry-proven survivors: Issues on formal methods education Formal methods are gaining steady industrial acceptance as a promising approach to developing high-quality software. Although educators find it increasingly important to include formal methods in their software engineering curriculum, they face a dilemma: there are too large numbers and diverse flavors of formal methods to cover in a limited time, and little empirical data exists on relative strengths and weaknesses among them. How can we best develop a curriculum on formal methods given several practical constraints? In this paper we describe our approaches, share experiences, and evaluate results. Our goal is to stimulate further discussion among software engineering education communities on how formal methods can be most effectively introduced to current and next generation software engineers.

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

software engineering education
formal methods


High-Dimension Multilabel Problems: Convex or Nonconvex Relaxation? This paper is concerned with the relaxation of nonconvex functionals used in image processing. We review most of the recently introduced relaxation methods, and we propose a new convex one based on a probabilistic approach, which has the advantages of being intuitive, flexible, and involving an algorithm without inner loops. We investigate in detail the connections between the solutions of the relaxed functionals with minimizers of the original one. Such connection is demonstrated only for a nonconvex relaxation which turns out to be quite robust to initialization. As a case of study, we illustrate our theoretical analysis with numerical experiments, namely, for the optical flow problem.

O 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

convex relaxation
segmentation
disparity and optical flow


An algebraic theory of dynamic network routing We develop a non-classic algebraic theory for the purpose of investigating the convergence properties of dynamic routing protocols. The algebraic theory can be regarded as a generalization of shortest-path routing, where the new concept of free cycle generalizes that of a positive-length cycle. A primary result then states that routing protocols always converge, though not necessarily onto optimal paths, in networks where all cycles are free. Monotonicity and isotonicity are two algebraic properties that strengthen convergence results. Monotonicity implies protocol convergence in every network, and isotonicity assures convergence onto optimal paths. A great many applications arise as particular instances of the algebraic theory. In intra-domain routing, we show that routing protocols can be made to converge to shortest and widest paths, for example, but that the composite metric of Internet Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) does not lead to optimal paths. The more interesting applications, however, relate to inter-domain routing and its Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), where the algebraic framework provides a mathematical template for the specification, design, and verification of routing policies. We formulate existing guidelines for inter-domain routing in algebraic terms, propose new guidelines contemplating backup relationships between domains, and derive a sufficient condition for signaling correctness of internal-BGP.

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

algebra
inter-domain routing
intra-domain routing


Topic signature language models for ad hoc retrieval Semantic smoothing, which incorporates synonym and sense information into the language models, is effective and potentially significant to improve retrieval performance. Previously implemented semantic smoothing models such as the translation model have shown good experimental results. However, these models are unable to incorporate contextual information. To overcome this limitation, we propose a novel context-sensitive semantic smoothing method that decomposes a document into a set of weighted context-sensitive topic signatures and then maps those topic signatures into query terms. The language model with such a context-sensitive semantic smoothing is referred to as the topic signature language model. In detail, we implement two types of topic signatures, depending on whether ontology exists in the application domain. One is the ontology-based concept and the other is the multiword phrase. The mapping probabilities from each topic signature to individual terms are estimated through the EM algorithm. Document models based on topic signature mapping are then derived. The new smoothing method is evaluated on the TREC 2004/2005 Genomics Track with ontology-based concepts, as well as the TREC Ad Hoc Track (Disks 1, 2, and 3) with multiword phrases. Both experiments show significant improvements over the two-stage language model, as well as the language model with context-insensitive semantic smoothing.

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

language model
semantic smoothing
topic signature
concept
multiword phrase


Lexicon expansion for latent variable grammars ? We proposed a lexicon expansion approach to improve latent variable grammars. The lexicon expansion is based on transductive graph propagation technique. We constructed word-level k-NN similarity graph over labeled and unlabeled data. We used an unnormalized propagation algorithm to infer emission probabilities. Lexicon expansion with self-training can further improve latent variable grammars.

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

latent variable grammar
syntax parsing
graph-based label propagation


A branch-and-cut algorithm for solving the Non-Preemptive Capacitated Swapping Problem This paper models and solves a capacitated version of the Non-Preemptive Swapping Problem . This problem is defined on a complete digraph G=(V,A) G = ( V , A ) , at every vertex of which there may be one unit of supply of an item, one unit of demand, or both. The objective is to determine a minimum cost capacitated vehicle route for transporting the items in such a way that all demands are satisfied. The vehicle can carry more than one item at a time. Three mathematical programming formulations of the problem are provided. Several classes of valid inequalities are derived and incorporated within a branch-and-cut algorithm, and extensive computational experiments are performed on instances adapted from TSPLIB.

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

swapping problem
capacitated
mathematical programming

robot arm travel
non-preemptive
branch-and-cut


Multigrid methods for space fractional partial differential equations ? We propose some multigrid methods for solving the algebraic systems resulting from finite element approximations of space fractional partial differential equations (SFPDEs). It is shown that our multigrid methods are optimal, which means the convergence rates of the methods are independent of the mesh size and mesh level. Moreover, our theoretical analysis and convergence results do not require regularity assumptions of the model problems. Numerical results are given to support our theoretical findings.

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

fractional differential equations
optimal convergence


Physical activity monitoring based on accelerometry: validation and comparison with video observation The objective of this feasibility study is to evaluate the use of the 'Physilog' device, an ambulatory physical-activity recorder based on acceleration measurement, for the monitoring of daily physical activities. Accelerations measured at the level of the chest and the thigh are recorded by Physilog over a period of 1 h in five normal subjects. A specially designed studio-like room allowing the performance of most usual activities of everyday life is used. A video film synchronised with the Physilog is obtained for each subject to check the accuracy of the data derived from Physilog. Based on the analysis of the average and the deviation of the acceleration signal, an algorithm is developed to classify the activities in four categories, i.e. lying, sitting, standing and locomotion. Compared with the video observations, the results from the algorithm show an overall misclassification of 10.7%, which is mainly due to confusion between dynamic activities and the standing posture. In contrast, the misclassification between postures is negligible. It is concluded that Physilog can be used in the clinical setting for the reliable measurement and long-term recording of most usual physical activities.

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


A 360-degree performance appraisal model dealing with heterogeneous information and dependent criteria A 360-degree performance appraisal process is used as a tool that provides an evaluation about employees performance. It is based on the opinion of different groups of reviewers who socialize with evaluated employees. Multiple criteria are considered in performance appraisal that may have different nature and usually present uncertainty. Therefore, it seems necessary and appropriate to provide a heterogeneous framework adapted to the nature of such criteria. In this context, criteria can be assessed by reviewers, according to their background and degree of knowledge about evaluated employees. Furthermore, Human Resources Department demands the modeling and managing of the interaction among the evaluated criteria, as well as reviewers relevances to ensure an effective aggregation process of the information, providing interpretable, understandable and correct assessments. In this paper, we present an integrated model for 360-degree performance appraisal that can manage heterogeneous information and computes a final linguistic evaluation for each employee, applying an effective aggregation that considers the interaction among criteria and reviewers relevance by means of weights. We also present a real case study to show the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed model.

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 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

heterogeneous information
aggregation process

computing with words
evaluation process
integral evaluation
choquet integral


Geometrically accurate topology-correction of cortical surfaces using nonseparating loops In this paper, we focus on the retrospective topology correction of surfaces. We propose a technique to accurately correct the spherical topology of cortical surfaces. Specifically, we construct a mapping from the original surface onto the sphere to detect topological defects as minimal nonhomeomorphic regions. The topology of each defect is then corrected by opening and sealing the surface along a set of nonseparating loops that are selected in a Bayesian framework. The proposed method is a wholly self-contained topology correction algorithm, which determines geometrically accurate, topologically correct solutions based on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) intensity profile and the expected local curvature. Applied to real data, our method provides topological corrections similar to those made by a trained operator.

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

homotopy
human cerebral cortex
nonseparating loop
reeb graph
segmentation


A unifying framework for several cutting plane methods for semidefinite programming Cutting plane methods provide the means to solve large scale semidefinite programs ( SDP) cheaply and quickly. They can also conceivably be employed for the purposes of re-optimization after branching or the addition of cutting planes. We give a survey of various cutting plane approaches for SDP in this paper. These cutting plane approaches arise from various perspectives, and include techniques based on interior point cutting plane approaches, non-differentiable optimization, and finally an approach which mimics the simplex method for linear programming ( LP). We present an accessible introduction to various cutting plane approaches that have appeared in the literature. We place these methods in a unifying framework which illustrates how each approach arises as a natural enhancement of a primordial LP cutting plane scheme based on a semi-infinite formulation of the SDP.

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

non-differentiable optimization
interior point cutting plane methods
active set approaches


an algorithm for the appraisal of assurance indicators for complex business processes In order to provide certified security services we must provide indicators that can measure the level of assurance that a complex business process can offer. Unfortunately the formulation of security indicators is not amenable to efficient algorithms able to evaluate the level of assurance of complex process from its components.In this paper we show an algorithm based on FD-Graphs (a variant of directed hypergraphs) that can be used to compute in polynomial time (i) the overall assurance indicator of a complex business process from its components for arbitrary monotone composition functions, (ii) the subpart of the business process that is responsible for such assurance indicator (i.e. the best security alternative).

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

assurance indicator
hypergraphs
business process

quality of protection
security metrics
security indicator


Motion Imitation with a Handheld Camera In this paper, we present a novel method to extract motion of a dynamic object from a video that is captured by a handheld camera, and apply it to a 3D character. Unlike the motion capture techniques, neither special sensors/trackers nor a controllable environment is required. Our system significantly automates motion imitation which is traditionally conducted by professional animators via manual keyframing. Given the input video sequence, we track the dynamic reference object to obtain trajectories of both 2D and 3D tracking points. With them as constraints, we then transfer the motion to the target 3D character by solving an optimization problem to maintain the motion gradients. We also provide a user-friendly editing environment for users to fine tune the motion details. As casual videos can be used, our system, therefore, greatly increases the supply source of motion data. Examples of imitating various types of animal motion are 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 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

motion gradient
mesh deformation
depth recovery
motion tracking


structure-based query-specific document summarization Summarization of text documents is increasingly important with the amount of data available on the Internet. The large majority of current approaches view documents as linear sequences of words and create query-independent summaries. However, ignoring the structure of the document degrades the quality of summaries. Furthermore, the popularity of web search engines requires query-specific summaries. We present a method to create query-specific summaries by adding structure to documents by extracting associations between their fragments.

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

query-specific summarization
steiner tree problem
keyword search
user survey


Subject-specific non-linear biomechanical model of needle insertion into brain The previous models for predicting the forces acting on a needle during insertion into very soft organs (such as, e.g. brain) relied on oversimplifying assumptions of linear elasticity and specific experimentally derived functions for determining needle-tissue interactions. In this contribution, we propose a more general approach in which the needle forces are determined directly from the equations of continuum mechanics using fully non-linear finite element procedures that account for large deformations (geometric non-linearity) and non-linear stress-strain relationship (material non-linearity) of soft tissues. We applied these procedures to model needle insertion into a swine brain using the constitutive properties determined from the experiments on tissue samples obtained from the same brain (i.e. the subject-specific constitutive properties were used). We focused on the insertion phase preceding puncture of the brain meninges and obtained a very accurate prediction of the needle force. This demonstrates the utility of non-linear finite element procedures in patient-specific modelling of needle insertion into soft organs such as, e.g. brain.

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


Image Dehazing Based on Haziness Analysis We present two haze removal algorithms for single image based on haziness analysis. One algorithm regards haze as the veil layer, and the other takes haze as the transmission. The former uses the illumination component image obtained by retinex algorithm and the depth information of the original image to remove the veil layer. The latter employs guided filter to obtain the refined haze transmission and separates it from the original image. The main advantages of the proposed methods are that no user interaction is needed and the computing speed is relatively fast. A comparative study and quantitative evaluation with some main existing algorithms demonstrate that similar even better quality results can be obtained by the proposed methods. On the top of haze removal, several applications of the haze transmission including image refocusing, haze simulation, relighting and 2-dimensional (2D) to 3-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic conversion are also implemented.

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

image dehazing
haziness analysis
veil layer
haze transmission


A portfolio selection model with borrowing constraint based on possibility theory Compared with the conventional probabilistic meanvariance methodology, fuzzy number can better describe an uncertain environment with vagueness and ambiguity. In this paper, the portfolio selection model with borrowing constraint is proposed by means of possibilistic mean, possibilistic variance, and possibilistic covariance under the assumption that the returns of assets are fuzzy numbers. And a quadratic programming model with inequality constraints is presented when the returns of assets are trapezoid fuzzy numbers. Furthermore, Lemke algorithm is utilized to solve the model. Finally, a numerical example of the portfolio selection problem is given to illustrate our proposed effective means and variances. The results of the numerical example also show that the investor can make different decisions according to different requirements for the values of expected returns. And the efficient portfolio frontier of the model with borrowing constraints can be easily obtained.

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

portfolio selection
fuzzy number
possibilistic mean
possibilistic variance
lemke algorithm


Global optimization of feature weights and the number of neighbors that combine in a case-based reasoning system Case-based reasoning (CBR) often shows significant promise for improving the effectiveness of complex and unstructured decision-making. Consequently, it has been applied to various problem-solving areas including manufacturing, finance and marketing. However, the design of appropriate case indexing and retrieval mechanisms to improve the performance of CBR is still a challenging issue. Most previous studies on improving the effectiveness of CBR have focused on the similarity function aspect or optimization of case features and their weights. However, according to some of the prior research, finding the optimal k parameter for the k-nearest neighbor is also crucial for improving the performance of the CBR system. Nonetheless, there have been few attempts to optimize the number of neighbors, especially using artificial intelligence techniques. In this study, we introduce a genetic algorithm to optimize the number of neighbors that combine, as well as the weight of each feature. The new model is applied to the real-world case of a major telecommunication company in Korea in order to build a prediction model for customer profitability level. Experimental results show that our genetic-algorithm-optimized CBR approach outperforms other artificial intelligence techniques for this multi-class classification problem.

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

genetic algorithm
number of neighbors that combine


Impact of LKD5109 low-k to cap/liner interfaces in single damascene process and performance The importance of interface quality in the single damascene integration process of LKD5109 porous low-k films is investigated. A strong correlation is observed between chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) performance and LKD/cap layer interfacial fracture energies. The use of FF02 as cap layer material (an on-purpose developed spin-on organic hard-mask) on LKD leads to superior interfacial adhesion and metal continuity yield as compared to the use of chemical vapour deposition SiC:H cap films. The adhesion quality of LKD/liner films appears less critical than LKD/cap layer adhesion as far as CMP performance is concerned. Electrical line-to-line performance is not always directly correlated with adhesion but rather, more generally speaking, with interface quality (i.e., presence of defects/dangling bonds or moisture). The introduction of surface pre-treatments to enhance interfacial adhesion leads to degradation in both leakage current and breakdown field behaviour because of damage induced at the interface.

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

lkd5109
ff02
cmp
interfacial adhesion
leakage current
breakdown field


Modeling non-Darcy flows in realistic pore-scale proppant geometries The ability to evaluate the effective permeability of proppant packs is useful in predicting the efficiency of hydraulic fracture installations. In this paper we propose a computational approach combining microimaging data from X-ray computed microtomography, the simulations of flow at pore-scale, and an upscaling process which identifies the effective model parameters at the core-scale. With this computational approach applied to proppant pack we confirm the reduction in the fracture conductivity and subsequent reduction in the productivity of a hydraulically fractured reservoir due to the high flow rates and to the migration of fine particles resulting in pore throat bridging.

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


Are the Mediterranean Top Predators Exposed to Toxicological Risk Due to Endocrine Disrupters? Man-made endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) range across all continents and oceans; some geographic areas are potentially more threatened than others

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

mediterranean sea
swordfish
marine mammals
biomarkers
vitellogenin
zona radiata proteins
skin biopsy
bpmo


analysis and verification of an automatic document feeder Modern copying machines are versatile and complex systems in which embedded software plays an essential role. The progress towards faster and more stable machines that can satisfy ever growing customers' needs, places strict requirements on the efficiency and quality of such software. In order to meet these requirements, the software should be well-designed and free of errors. Using modern formal verification techniques, software designs can be checked for errors and deadlocks so that their quality can be assessed and improved at an early stage of the development process. In this paper, we analyze the embedded software of an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). ADFs are important components of copier machines. The ADF studied here is a prototype developed by Oc-Technologies B.V., a company that develops professional printing systems. We construct a model of the ADF in ?crl, a process algebra-based specification language, and express the system's requirements in the modal ?-calculus. Next, we use the ?crl and Cadp tool sets to check whether the system meets its requirements. This analysis reveals important errors in the ADF and we propose solutions to these problems. Also, we show that some requirements that engineers assumed to be valid, are too strict. We present slightly weaker versions of these requirements and show that these do hold. In this sense, in addition to finding errors in the ADF, our analysis also led to a better understanding of the behaviour the system.

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


A GRASP-based approach to the generalized minimum spanning tree problem Given a multipartite graph G the generalized minimum spanning tree problem is to find a tree of minimal cost that includes a vertex from each part. This paper proposes several versions of the GRASP metaheuristic for the problem. The GRASP approach is based on constructive heuristics as well as on additional improvement mechanisms such as path-relinking and iterated local search. Several computational experiments are performed over a set of existing instances. A cut generation algorithm is proposed that is able to find lower bounds, based on a formulation for Steiner's problem in directed graphs. The computational results show that the best versions of the GRASP approach use improvement mechanisms. The solutions found are better than most of the known solutions in the literature and require significantly less computer time. Furthermore, a set of rules is defined for pre-processing the instances, based on the Bottleneck distance concept. Using those rules, it was possible to reduce the size of the instances to an average of 14% of the number of edges in relation to the original graphs. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

grasp
generalized minimum spanning tree
constructive heuristics


eParticipation research: Moving characterization forward (20062011) Research on the use of information technology to support democratic decision-making (eParticipation) is experiencing ongoing growth, stimulated by an increasing attention from both practitioner and research communities. This study provides the first longitudinal analysis of the development of the eParticipation field based on a shared framework, capturing the directions that the research field of eParticipation is taking in recent developments. Drawing on a literature search covering the period from April 2006 to March 2011, this study identifies, analyzes, and classifies 122 research articles within the categories of eParticipation actors, activities, contextual factors, effects, evaluation, and methods. Findings show that the field has a high level of dynamism, as foci on eParticipation activities, contextual factors, and effects have shifted in time, sometimes in counterintuitive directions. The study also suggests new analytical categories of research. Drawing on the analysis, inputs for a research agenda are suggested. These include the need to move beyond a technological perspective, encouraging the ongoing shift of research focus from government to citizens and other stakeholders, and the need to make eParticipation research methods more participatory in nature.

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

edemocracy
egovernment
literature review


Using the absolute difference of term occurrence probabilities in binary text categorization In this study, the differences among widely used weighting schemes are studied by means of ordering terms according to their discriminative abilities using a recently developed framework which expresses term weights in terms of the ratio and absolute difference of term occurrence probabilities. Having observed that the ordering of terms is dependent on the weighting scheme under concern, it is emphasized that this can be explained by the way different schemes use term occurrence differences in generating term weights. Then, it is proposed that the relevance frequency which is shown to provide the best scores on several datasets can be improved by taking into account the way absolute difference values are used in other widely used schemes. Experimental results on two different datasets have shown that improved F(1) scores can be achieved.

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 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

term occurrence probability
term weighting
mutual information
chi-square
odds ratio


Biosimulation and Visualization Hemodynamics plays an important role in cardiovascular disorders, and the authors are applying numerical and experimental studies of cerebrovascular blood flow to the creation and rupture of cerebral aneurysms. In particular, this study aims to investigate the effects of cerebrovascular geometry on hemodynamics, such as flow pattern, wall shear stress distribution, and pressure. This report consists mainly of two parts

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

computational hemodynamics
cerebral aneurysm
piv
ct images


Ising model spin S=1 on directed Barabasi-Albert networks On directed Barabasi-Albert networks with two and seven neighbours selected by each added site, the Ising model with spin S = 1/2 was seen not to show a spontaneous magnetisation. Instead, the decay time for flipping of the magnetisation followed an Arrhenius law for Metropolis and Glauber algorithms, but for Wolff cluster flipping the magnetisation decayed exponentially with time. On these networks the Ising model spin S = 1 is now studied through Monte Carlo simulations. However, in this model, the order-disorder phase transition is well defined in this system. We have obtained a first-order phase transition for values of connectivity m = 2 and m = 7 of the directed Baxabasi-Albert network.

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

monte carlo simulation
networks, desorden


COOL:

A

code

for

dynamic

Monte

Carlo

simulation

of

molecular

dynamics

COOL

is

a

program

to

simulate

evaporative

and

sympathetic

cooling

for

a

mixture

of

two

gases

co-trapped

in

a

harmonic

potential.

The

collisions

involved

are

assumed

to

be

exclusively

elastic,

and

losses

are

due

to

evaporation

from

the

trap.

Each

particle

is

followed

individually

in

its

trajectory,

consequently

properties

such

as

spatial

densities

or

energy

distributions

can

be

readily

evaluated.

The

code

can

be

used

sequentially,

by

employing

one

output

as

input

for

another

run.

The

code

can

be

easily

generalised

to

describe

more

complicated

processes,

such

as

the

inclusion

of

inelastic

collisions,

or

the

possible

presence

of

more

than

two

species

in

the

trap.

Program

title:

COOL

Catalogue

identifier:

Program

summary

Program

obtainable

from:

CPC

Program

Library,

Queen's

University,

Belfast,

N.

Ireland

Licensing

provisions:

Standard

CPC

licence,

No.

of

lines

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

No.

of

bytes

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

Distribution

format:

tar.gz

Programming

language:

C++

Computer:

Desktop

Operating

system:

Linux

RAM:

Mbytes

Classification:

Nature

of

problem:

Simulation

of

the

sympathetic

process

occurring

for

two

molecular

gases

co-trapped

in

a

deep

optical

trap.

Solution

method:

The

Direct

Simulation

Monte

Carlo

method

exploits

the

decoupling,

over

a

short

time

period,

of

the

inter-particle

interaction

from

the

trapping

potential.

The

particle

dynamics

is

thus

exclusively

driven

by

the

external

optical

field.

The

rare

interparticle

collisions

are

considered

with

an

acceptance/rejection

mechanism,

that

is

by

comparing

a

random

number

to

the

collisional

probability

defined

in

terms

of

the

inter-particle

cross

section

and

centre-of-mass

energy.

All

particles

in

the

trap

are

individually

simulated

so

that

at

each

time

step

a

number

of

useful

quantities,

such

as

the

spatial

densities

or

the

energy

distributions,

can

be

readily

evaluated.

Restrictions:

The

in-trap

motion

of

the

particles

is

treated

classically.

Running

time:

The

running

time

is

relatively

short,

hours.

However

it

is

convenient

to

replicate

each

simulation

several

times

with

different

initialisations

of

the

random

sequence.

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


A C-code for the double folding interaction potential of two spherical nuclei We present a C-code designed to obtain the nucleus-nucleus potential by using the double folding model (DFM) and in particular to find the Coulomb barrier. The program calculates the nucleus-nucleus potential as a function of the distance between the centers of mass of colliding nuclei. The most important output parameters are the Coulomb barrier energy and the radius. Since many researchers use a Woods-Saxon profile for the nuclear term of the potential we provide an option in our code for fitting the DFM potential by such a profile.

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

nuclear fusion
density dependent nn forces
m3y-interaction


Authentication theory and hypothesis testing By interpreting message authentication as a hypothesis testing problem, this paper provides a generalized treatment of information-theoretic lower bounds on an opponent's probability of cheating in one-way message authentication. We consider the authentication of an arbitrary sequence of messages, using the same secret key shared between sender and receiver The adversary tries to deceive the receiver by forging one of the messages in the sequence. The classical two types of cheating are considered, impersonation and substitution attacks, and lower bounds on the cheating probability for any authentication system are derived for three types of goals the adversary might wish to achieve. These goals are 1) that the fraudulent message should be accepted by the receiver; or; in addition, 2) that the adversary wishes to know or 3) wants to even choose the value of the plaintext message obtained by the legitimate receiver after decoding with the secret key.

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

cryptography
impersonation attack
substitution attack
unconditional security


EXAMINING TECHNOLOGY ENACTMENT IN THE FIXED INCOME MARKET While the use of electronic trading systems (ETS) in fixed income (FI) market is becoming more common in the last few years, only a small number of empirical studies have been conducted to examine their adoption and impact in the market. In this study, we use the technology enactment framework (TEF) to identify various institutional and organizational factors that influence ETS adoption. Based on a comprehensive survey and face-to-face interviews with senior managers, sales representatives, and traders from major Canadian financial institutions, we find that the FI market is characterized by a high level of embedded relationships and that the ETS users do not entirely trust their ETS. This study also presents, among others, important findings regarding the impact of ETS on the users' job performance and their perception about the asymmetric nature of benefits provided by ETS in the FI market.

O B I O O B I I 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 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

technology enactment
fixed income market
electronic trading systems


Quantum measurements and entropic bounds on information transmission While a positive operator valued measure gives the probabilities in a quantum measurement, an instrument gives both the probabilities and the a posteriori states. By interpreting the instrument as a quantum channel and by using the monotonicity theorem for relative entropies many bounds on the classical information extracted in a quantum measurement are obtained in a unified manner. In particular, it is shown that such bounds can all be stated as inequalities between mutual entropies. This approach based on channels gives rise to a unified picture of known and new bounds on the classical information (the bounds by Holevo, by Shumacher, Westmoreland and Wootters, by Hall, by Scutaru, a new upper bound and a new lower one). Some examples clarify the mutual relationships among the various bounds.

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

quantum information
entropy
mutual entropy
holevo bound


Talk versus Work: Characteristics of Developer Collaboration on the Jazz Platform IBM's Jazz initiative offers a state-of-the-art collaborative development environment (CDE) facilitating developer interactions around interdependent units of work. In this paper, we analyze development data across two versions of a major IBM product developed on the Jazz platform, covering in total 19 months of development activity, including 17,000+ work items and 61,000+ comments made by more than 190 developers in 35 locations. By examining the relation between developer talk and work, we find evidence that developers maintain a reasonably high level of connectivity with peer developers with whom they share work dependencies, but the span of a developer's communication goes much beyond the known dependencies of his/her work items. Using multiple linear regression models, we find that the number of defects owned by a developer is impacted by the number of other developers (s) he is connected through talk, his/her interpersonal influence in the network of work dependencies, the number of work items (s) he comments on, and the number work items (s) he owns. These effects are maintained even after controlling for workload, role, work dependency, and connection related factors. We discuss the implications of our results for collaborative software development and project governance.

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

experimentation
software teams
social network analysis


Content-based histopathology image retrieval using a kernel-based semantic annotation framework Large amounts of histology images are captured and archived in pathology departments due to the ever expanding use of digital microscopy. The ability to manage and access these collections of digital images is regarded as a key component of next generation medical imaging systems. This paper addresses the problem of retrieving histopathology images from a large collection using an example image as query. The proposed approach automatically annotates the images in the collection, as well as the query images, with high-level semantic concepts. This semantic representation delivers an improved retrieval performance providing more meaningful results. We model the problem of automatic image annotation using kernel methods, resulting in a unified framework that includes: (1) multiple features for image representation, (2) a feature integration and selection mechanism (3) and an automatic semantic image annotation strategy. An extensive experimental evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed framework to build meaningful image representations for learning and useful semantic annotations for image retrieval.

O B 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 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 B I

histology
histopathology
image retrieval

auto-annotation
biomedical images
kernels
kernel alignment


TuBeck: a novel peer-to-peer streaming system with Loopback-MDC for scalable H.264/AVC videos With the rapidly development of broadband networks, more and more users nowadays tend to acquire their desired videos from media-on-demand servers. How to efficiently provide multimedia contents for a large number of heterogeneous users on the Internet has become a noticeable issue. In our previous work, we proposed the Loopback-MDC scheme on CDN-P2P network to address such a scalability issue. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a novel peer-to-peer streaming system with the Loopback-MDC on actual networks, named TuBeck. The TuBeck consists of preprocessor, server, peer, and player modules with the support of network infrastructure library. In TuBeck, multimedia sources are preprocessed to multiple descriptions. Each description is divided as a sequence of H.264/AVC chunks by modified JM encoder for real-time streaming. The network infrastructure library provides the nodes (server and peers) with the fundamental functionalities of network connections and communications. Message exchange and streaming control among nodes follow the pre-defined LM protocol. The server, peer, and player modules are functionally multithreaded in order to enhance the system performance. The experimental results show that the Loopback-MDC is practical for realizing a P2P streaming system in terms of the server loading, CPU/Memory usage, and efficiency of failure recovery with respect to various arrival rates, failure rates, and viewing qualities.

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

peer-to-peer
multiple description coding
loopback-mdc
h.264


A convergent 2D finite-difference scheme for the DiracPoisson system and the simulation of graphene We present a convergent finite-difference scheme of second order in both space and time for the 2D electromagnetic Dirac equation. We apply this method in the self-consistent DiracPoisson system to the simulation of graphene. The model is justified for low energies, where the particles have wave vectors sufficiently close to the Dirac points. In particular, we demonstrate that our method can be used to calculate solutions of the DiracPoisson system where potentials act as beam splitters or Veselago lenses.

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

dirac equation
diracpoisson system
graphene

finite differences
beam splitter
veselago lens


Moments of the support weight distribution of linear codes In this work, we give the expectation and the covariance formulas for the support weight distributions of linear codes.

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

generalized weights
ranks of random matrices
moments of the support weights


Existence of equilibrium solution for a non-cooperative game with fuzzy goals and parameters In this paper we introduce a concept of equilibrium for a non-cooperative game with fuzzy goals involving fuzzy parameters. This equilibrium is based on Zimmermann's approach for solving linear multiobjective problems with fuzzy goals and the concept of N-S equilibrium introduced by Zhukovskii for a non-cooperative game with payoffs involving unknown parameters in the case of complete ignorance of their behavior. We also provide a theorem of existence of this equilibrium based on the Fan inequality. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy set
non-cooperative game
nash equilibrium
weak pareto optimality


3D imaging of evaporating fuel droplets by stereoscopic PIV A gun-type burner is a widely used oil burner for industrial and domestic applications. The oil is pressure-atomized and mixed with air generating a recirculating, swirling flow. Because of the surrounding flame, fuel droplets evaporate, being difficult to obtain information on droplets' dynamics. Several laser techniques have been applied to this burner for spray diagnosis. PDA provides information about droplet size and velocity but can say little about the instantaneous spatial structures in the flow. Planar laser techniques as PIV can describe the 2D instantaneous spatial structures, but cannot provide information about the 3D structures in the flow. Then Stereoscopic PIV was applied. This technique allows us to measure the full 3D velocity vector map in a whole fluid plane. This paper has a double purpose. Firstly, to visualize the 3D structures which are present in the burner; secondly, to show that Stereoscopic PIV is an applicable technique for the diagnosis of an evaporating spray.

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

3d piv
spray combustion
droplet dynamics


Electric vehicles in multi-vehicle households Vehicle usage in two-vehicle households (2VHH) in the Puget Sound region was analyzed. With in-household flexibility, acceptance of EV with modest range can be very high. The fraction of travel electrified can be larger than the fraction of electric vehicles. Statistical analysis shows that in-household usage patterns are very weakly correlated. Short range EVs in 2VHH are far more cost effective than long-range all-purpose EVs.

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

electric vehicle
hybrid electric vehicles
plug-in hybrid
electric range


mobile and ubiquitous malware Mobile malware is an increasing threat to the world of handheld devices, which can prove to be costlier than PC viruses in the future. The current method used to combat mobile malware is virus signature matching which is based on the slow process of reverse engineering. This paper studies the growth, spread and generic behaviors of mobile and ubiquitous malware in mobile phones. We extend the works of Bose et al. and Schmidt et al. with an additional feature to reduce the effectiveness of mobile malware propagation. The objective of our work is to investigate the trends and generic behavioral patterns of mobile malware and suggest a generic proof-of-concept model which combines the works of Bose et al. and Schmidt et al. with a new feature to slowdown the spread of known and unknown mobile malware which may share similar behavioral patterns.

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

mobile virus
mobile worm
mobile phone
smartphone
cellphone
mobile security
pda


An efficient tabu search approach for the two-machine preemptive open shop scheduling problem This article considers the problem of scheduling two-machine preemptive open shops to minimize total tardiness. The problem is known to be NP-hard. An optimal timing algorithm is presented to determine the completion time of each job in a given job completion sequence. Then a tabu search (TS) approach is adopted together with the optimal timing algorithm to generate job completion sequences and final schedules. An efficient heuristic is developed to obtain an initial solution for the TS approach. Diversification and intensification strategies are suggested. Finally, computational experiments are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach. The results show that the proposed TS approach finds extremely high-quality solutions within a reasonable amount of time. Shop scheduling problems, such as flow, job and open shop problems, are widely used in the modeling of industrial production processes and are receiving an increasing amount of attention from researchers. In an open shop scheduling problem, the order of processing the operations of a job on different machines is immaterial. Examples of open shop scheduling include teacher-class assignment, examination scheduling, and testing/repair operation scheduling. The purpose of this paper is to examine the two-machine total tardiness open shop scheduling problem with the assumption that the processing of an operation can be arbitrarily preempted. An approximate solution method based on tabu search is proposed. Computational results show that the proposed solution method performs well in terms of both solution quality and computation time.

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

scheduling
open shop
tabu search
tardiness


Sharpened graph ensemble for semi-supervised learning The generalization ability of a machine learning algorithm varies on the specified values to the model parameters and the degree of noise in the learning dataset. If the dataset has an enough amount of labeled data points, the optimal value for the model parameter can be found via validation by using a subset of the given dataset. However, for semi-supervised learning one of the most recent learning algorithms, this is not as available as in conventional supervised learning. In semi-supervised learning, it is assumed that the dataset is given with only a few labeled data points. Therefore, holding out some of labeled data points for validation is not easy. The lack of labeled data points, furthermore, makes it difficult to estimate the degree of noise in the dataset. To circumvent the addressed difficulties, we propose to employ ensemble learning and graph sharpening. The former replaces the model parameter selection procedure to an ensemble network of the committee members trained with various values of model parameter. The latter, on the other hand, improves the performance of algorithms by removing unhelpful information caused by noise. The experimental results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method for many real-world problems with no concern for the technical difficulties, by selecting the best parameter values and mitigating the influence of noise.

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 B I 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

machine learning
graph sharpening
ensemble learning
parameter selection

data mining
semi-supervised learning
noise reduction


Synergistic effect of different levels of genomic data for cancer clinical outcome prediction There have been many attempts in cancer clinical-type classification by using a dataset from a number of molecular layers of biological system. Despite these efforts, however, it still remains difficult to elucidate the cancer phenotypes because the cancer genome is neither simple nor independent but rather complicated and dysregulated by multiple molecular mechanisms. Recently, heterogeneous types of data, generated from all molecular levels of omic dimensions from genome to phenome, for instance, copy number variants at the genome level, DNA methylation at the epigenome level, and gene expression and microRNA at the transcriptome level, have become available. In this paper, we propose an integrated framework that uses multi-level genomic data for prediction of clinical outcomes in brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme, GBM) and ovarian cancer (serous cystadenocarcinoma, OV). From empirical comparison results on individual genomic data, we provide some preliminary insights about which level of data is more informative to a given clinical-type classification problem and justify these perceptions with the corresponding biological implications for each type of cancer. For GBM, all clinical outcomes had a better the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic when integrating multi-layers of genomic data, 0.876 for survival to 0.832 for recurrence. Moreover, the better AUCs were achieved from the integration approach for all clinical outcomes in OV as well, ranging from 0.787 to 0.893. We found that the opportunity for success in prediction of clinical outcomes in cancer was increased when the prediction was based on the integration of multi-layers of genomic data. This study is expecting to improve comprehension of the molecular pathogenesis and underlying biology of both cancer types.

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

clinical outcome prediction
glioblastoma multiforme
serous cystadenocarcinoma

multi-layers of genomic data
data integration


Functionally Pooled models for the global identification of stochastic systems under different pseudo-static operating conditions Stochastic dynamical systems. Different operating conditions. Global model identification.

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

arx autoregressive with exogenous excitation


Edge-based Segmentation Using Robust Evolutionary Algorithm Applied to Medical Images Although medical image segmentation is a hard task in image processing, it is possible to reduce its complexity by considering it as an optimization problem. This paper presents a robust evolutionary algorithm based on a cost minimization function to segment and to extract image edges. Since, the goal is to outperform a high edge detection quasi independent from the input problem characteristics, an adaptive detector is considered. As a first step, the main evolutionary algorithm parameters are highlighted based on an adaptive parameterization to overcome convergence problem. In a second stage, the reached optimal setting is applied on medical images to exhibit the quality of the proposed algorithm.

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

cost minimization function
evolutionary algorithm

edge-based genetic segmentation
medical imaging


On the necessity of non-conforming algorithms for small displacement contact problems and conforming discretizations by BEM It has long been established that conforming algorithm approaches in BEM are reliable and robust for solving contact problems behaving under the hypothesis of small displacements and in the presence of initially conforming meshes. Non-conforming algorithm approaches have traditionally been associated with the presence of non-conforming meshes or with initially conforming meshes but in the presence of large displacements that alter the conformity of the meshes. In this paper, studying the Iosipescu test used to determine shear properties in composite materials, it has been shown that even in the presence of initial conforming meshes under the hypothesis of small displacements, the use of conforming algorithms leads to non-acceptable results, with incompatibilities in the displacement solution and with peaks in the distribution of the contact stresses. Several options to define the direction in which to establish the contact conditions were tested, all of them presenting problems. By contrast, the use of a non-conforming algorithm based on a weak application of the contact conditions previously developed by the authors reduces the incompatibilities and produces a smooth distribution of the contact stresses.

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

contact problem
non-conforming discretizations
weak approach


Use of Annexin V Antibody to Identify Apoptotic Cells during Pregnancy In a previous study, we demonstrated that apoptosis increased according to gestational age, accounting partly for the presence of free fetal DNA in maternal plasma and serum. Using simultaneous TUNEL assay and FISH analysis, we identified the fetal origin of part of the apoptotic cell population, but very few TUNEL-positive cells showed hybridization signals since they were in a late apoptosis stage and nuclei were destroyed. In the present study, the apoptotic cell population was identified immunocytochemically using Annexin V, a marker of cells in an early stage of apoptosis. The mean apoptosis rate in mononuclear cells isolated from the peripheral blood of 20 pregnant women in the 16th to 19th week of pregnancy with Annexin V was 6.8 0.5% (range

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

maternal peripheral blood
noninvasive prenatal diagnosis


Sharp bounds for Zagreb indices of maximal outerplanar graphs For a (molecular) graph, the first Zagreb index M (1) is equal to the sum of squares of the vertex degrees, and the second Zagreb index M (2) is equal to the sum of products of degrees of pairs of adjacent vertices. In this paper, we investigate the first and the second Zagreb indices of maximal outerplanar graph. We determine sharp upper and lower bounds for M (1)-, M (2)-values among the n-vertex maximal outerplanar graphs. As well we determine sharp upper and lower bounds of Zagreb indices for n-vertex outerplanar graphs (resp. maximal outerplanar graphs) with perfect matchings.

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


Forecasting and trading the EUR/USD exchange rate with Gene Expression and Psi Sigma Neural Networks The motivation for this paper is to investigate the use of two promising classes of artificial intelligence models, the Psi Sigma Neural Network (PSI) and the Gene Expression algorithm (GEP), when applied to the task of forecasting and trading the EUR/USD exchange rate. This is done by benchmarking their results with a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), a genetic programming algorithm (GP), an autoregressive moving average model (ARMA) plus a nave strategy. We also examine if the introduction of a time-varying leverage strategy can improve the trading performance of our models.

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

genetic expression
psi sigma networks
recurrent networks
multi-layer perceptron networks
quantitative trading strategies


middleware enabled data sharing on cloud storage services With the emergence of public cloud storage platforms like Amazon, Microsoft and Google etc, individual applications and some enterprise storage are being increasingly deployed on Clouds. However, dynamic data sharing in public clouds face problems of low performance and lack of SLA guarantees. We propose a middleware called mCloud between the Cloud storage and clients to provide data sharing services with better performance and SLA satisfaction. Technologies including virtualization, chunking, and caching, are integrated into mCloud. Experiential results based on Amazon Web Services (AWS) have shown that mCloud is able to improve shared IO performance in term of aggregate IO throughput and help provide better SLAs for cloud storage.

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


Attacking Anonymous Web Browsing at Local Area Networks Through Browsing Dynamics The majority of current anonymous systems focus on improving anonymity at the network and website level in order to defend against traffic analysis attacks. However, the vulnerability of the connections between end users and the anonymous network do not attract any attention yet. For the first time, we reveal an end user browsing dynamics based attack on anonymous browsing systems at the LAN where the victim locates. This new attack method is fundamentally different from existing attack methodologies. In general, web surfers browse the web following certain patterns, such as requesting a web page, viewing it and requesting another page. The browsing pattern of a victim can be clearly observed by a local adversary when the victim is viewing the web without protection. Unfortunately, browsing dynamics releases rich information for attacking even though the web page content is encrypted. In order to show how a local eavesdropper can decipher which pages have been viewed with the knowledge of user browsing dynamics and the public information of a given website, we established a specific hidden Markov model to represent browsing dynamics for the website. By using this model, we can then identify the optimal of the accessed pages using the Viterbi algorithm. In order to confirm the effectiveness of the revealed attack method, we have conducted extensive experiments on a real data set. The results demonstrated that the attack accuracy can be more than 80%. A few possible counter-attack strategies are discussed at the end of the paper.

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


An evaluation of ANN methods for estimating the lengths of hydraulic jumps in U-shaped channel Modelling of hydraulic characteristics of jump using theoretical and empirical models has always been a difficult task. The length of jump may be defined as the distance measured from the toe of the jump to the location of the surface rise. Due to high turbulence this length cannot be determined easily by theory. However, it has been investigated experimentally so as to design the stilling basins with hydraulic jumps. In this work, the control of a hydraulic jump by broad-crested sills in a U-shaped channel is recalled theoretically and experimentally examined. The study begins with a multiple regression (MR) analysis. Then, and in order to model the relative lengths of hydraulic jumps, we have implemented and evaluated two different artificial neural networks (ANN): multilayer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN). The results demonstrate the predictive strength of GRNN and its potential to predict hydraulic problems with an adaptive spread value. However, the MLPNN model remains best classified by these indexes of performance.

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

artificial neural network
lengths of hydraulic jump
u-channel


Dynamic power control in a fading downlink channel subject to an energy constraint A central controller chooses a state-dependent transmission rate for each user in a fading, downlink channel by varying transmission power over time. For each user, the state of the channel evolves over time according to an exogenous continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC), which affects the quality of transmission. The traffic for each user, arriving at the central controller, is modeled as a finite-buffer Markovian queue with adjustable service rates. That is, for each user data packets arrive to the central controller according to a Poisson process and packet size is exponentially distributed; an arriving packet is dropped if the associated buffer is full, which results in degradation of quality of service. The controller forwards (downlink) the arriving packets to the corresponding user according to an optimally chosen transmission rate from a fixed set A (i) of available values for each user i, depending on the backlog in the system and the channel state of all users. The objective is to maximize quality of service subject to an upper bound on the long-run average power consumption. We show that the optimal transmission rate for each user is solely a function of his own packet queue length and channel state; the dependence among users is captured through a penalty rate. Further, we explicitly characterize the optimal transmission rate for each user.

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

cellular wireless networks
satellite downlink channels
fading channel
dynamic control of queueing systems
dynamic programming


The impact of privacy concern on user adoption of location-based services Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of privacy concern on user adoption of location-based services (LBS). Design/methodology/approach - Based on the data collected from a survey, structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model. Findings - The results indicate that among four dimensions of privacy concern, collection and secondary use are the main factors affecting perceived risk, whereas errors are the main factor affecting trust. Trust affects perceived risk, and both factors determine usage intention. Practical implications - Mobile service providers need to alleviate users' privacy concern and perceived risk in order to encourage their adoption and usage of LBS. Originality/value - Extant research has mainly examined LBS user behavior from the perspectives of technology acceptance model, task technology fit and unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology. The results provided in this paper indicate that privacy concern also has a significant effect on user adoption of LBS. This advances our understanding of LBS user behavior.

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

consumer risk
consumer behaviour
mobile communication systems


Mason: morphological simplification The traditional rounding and filleting morphological filters are biased. Hence, as r grows, the rounding Rr(S) of S shrinks and the filleting Fr(S) grows. A shape S is r-regular when Rr(S)=Fr(S)=S. The combinations Fr(Rr(S)) and Rr(Fr(S)) produce nearly r-regular shapes, but retain a bias: Fr(Rr(S)) is usually smaller than S and Rr(Fr(S)) is larger. To overcome this bias, we propose a new filter, called Mason. The r-mortar Mr(S) of S is Fr(S)Rr(S), and the stability of a point P with respect to S is the smallest value of r for which P belongs to Mr(S). Stability provides important information about the shapes imbedding that cannot be obtained through traditional topological or differential analysis tools. Fr(Rr(S)) and Rr(Fr(S)) only affect space in Mr(S). For each maximally connected component of Mr(S), Mason performs either Fr(Rr(S)) or Rr(Fr(S)), choosing the combination that alters the smallest portion of that component. Hence, Mason acts symmetrically on the shape and on its complement. Its output is guaranteed to have a smaller symmetric difference with the original shape than that of either combination Fr(Rr(S)) or Rr(Fr(S)). Many previously proposed shape simplification algorithms were focused on reducing the combinatorial storage or processing costs of a shape at the expense of the smoothness and regularity or altered the shape in regular portions that did not exhibit any high frequency complexity. Mason is the first shape simplification operator that is independent of the particular representation and offers the advantage of preserving portions of the boundary of S that are regular at the desired scale.

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


leveraging online gaming for teaching student leadership and teamwork Within the college classroom, many skills are difficult to simulate effectively. Online gaming may provide a rich environment for students to learn effective leadership and teamwork. This paper discusses the organizational difficulties of setting up such a simulation, as well as providing a preliminary conceptual framework for instructors to consider when implementing an online game simulation in their classes. The paper concludes with suggestions for encouraging students to apply the concepts they learned in the online world to their actual teams.

O B I 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 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


a wheelchair which can automatically move alongside a caregiver This video presents our ongoing work developing a robotic wheelchair that can move automatically alongside a caregiver. Recently, several robotic/intelligent wheelchairs possessing autonomous functions for reaching a goal and/or user-friendly interfaces have been proposed. Although ideally wheelchair users may wish to go out alone, they are often accompanied by caregivers. Therefore, it is important to consider how to reduce the caregivers' load and support their activities and facilitate communication between the wheelchair user and caregiver. Moreover, a sociologist pointed out that when a wheelchair user is accompanied by a companion, the latter is inevitably seen as a caregiver [1]. In other words, the equality of the relationship is publicly undermined when the wheelchair is pushed by a companion. Hence, we propose a robotic wheelchair which can move alongside a caregiver or companion, and facilitate easy communication between them and the wheelchair user. However, it is not always desirable for a caregiver to be alongside a wheelchair. For instance, a caregiver may step in front of the wheelchair to open a door, and pedestrians may be encumbered by the wheelchair and companion if they move along side-by-side in a narrow corridor. To cope with these problems, our robotic wheelchair can move alongside a caregiver collaboratively depending on the circumstances. A laser range sensor is employed to track the caregiver and observe the environment around the wheelchair [2]. When obstacles are detected in the wheelchair's path of motion, it adjusts its position accordingly. In the video we demonstrate these functions of our robotic wheelchair. We are now conducting experiments to confirm the effectiveness of our wheelchair at an elderly care center in Japan.

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Learning flexible sensori-motor mappings in a complex network Given the complex structure of the brain, how can synaptic plasticity explain the learning and forgetting of associations when these are continuously changing? We address this question by studying different reinforcement learning rules in a multilayer network in order to reproduce monkey behavior in a visuomotor association task. Our model can only reproduce the learning performance of the monkey if the synaptic modifications depend on the pre- and postsynaptic activity, and if the intrinsic level of stochasticity is low. This favored learning rule is based on reward modulated Hebbian synaptic plasticity and shows the interesting feature that the learning performance does not substantially degrade when adding layers to the network, even for a complex problem.

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Interference Coordination Oriented User Association Scheme in Cellular Relay Networks Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) will be the typical network structure for future mobile networks. Relay nodes (RNs), as one type of low power nodes in the HCNs, can be deployed to increase cell coverage and improve cell-edge user throughput. Since RNs may be densely deployed in hot traffic zones, the co-channel interference (CCI) is more serious and complex than that in the conventional homogeneous networks. In this paper, we propose an interference coordination oriented user association scheme in cellular relay networks for CCI coordination. Firstly, we define a relay interference matrix (RIM), which is used to decrease the interference-related information feedback overhead. Then we define a function named as interference duration density (IDD), which indicates the interference probability from a RN to a user equipment in both the time and frequency domains. Specifically, based on RIM and IDD, the proposed user association scheme can reduce the probability of the CCI from interfering RNs by adjusting the number of users associated with such interfering RNs. By doing so, the CCI among RNs can be mitigated and the system performance is improved. The proposed scheme can be applied to both the frequency reuse of RNs and the frequency sharing of RNs in one cell. In the simulation, we verify the effectiveness of the defined RIM. Then we evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of relay link user throughput, spectrum efficiency and user fairness.

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relay networks
interference matrix
user association


Inventory systems for deteriorating items with shortages and a linear trend in demand-taking account of time value This paper derives an inventory model for deteriorating items with the demand of linear trend and shortages during the finite planning horizon considering the time value of money. A simple solution algorithm using a line search is presented to determine the optimal interval which has positive inventories. Numerical examples are given to explain the solution algorithm. Sensitivity analysis is performed to study the effect of changes in the system parameters. The traditional inventory model considers the ideal case in which depletion of inventory is caused by a constant demand rate. However, in real-life situations there is inventory loss due to deterioration. In a realistic product life cycle, demand is increasing with time and eventually reaching zero. Most of the classical inventory models did not take into account the effects of inflation and time value of money. But in the past, the economic situation of most of the countries has changed to such an extent due to large scale inflation and consequent sharp decline in the purchasing power of money. So, it has not been possible to ignore the effects of inflation and time value of money any further. The purpose of this article is to present a solution procedure for the inventory problem of deteriorating items with shortages and a linear trend in demand taking account of time value.

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linear trend in demand
deterioration
shortages


Framework, strategy and evaluation of health care processes with RFID The working environment in health care organizations is characterized by its demand for highly dynamic process and labor management in which (a) medical personnel are generally associated with several disparate types of tasks, (b) service location and service personnel change frequently, (c) highly uncertain environment where emergency issues could arise at any time, and (d) the stakes are high since invaluable human lives are involved. There is an urgent need from both researchers and health care organizations to develop reasonable management strategies for maintaining a good balance between efficient management and superior medical service quality. We discuss the potential for real-time health care coordination and effective medical process and labor management enabled by RFID item-level tracking/tracing identification technology. We explore the uniqueness of instance-level process mining and its application in health care environment. We then propose an adaptive learning framework that supports real-time health care coordination and analyze its benefits compared to traditional routine process and labor management. We find that while RFID-enabled real-time medical process and labor management provides marginal improvement for premium medical service providers, it generates appreciable improvement both in terms of efficiency and service quality for public health care institutions where availability of necessary resources such as medical staff and equipment are highly constrained.

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