Structure-activity relationships (SAR) of contraceptive progestogens studied with four different methods using calculated physicochemical parameters Structure-activity relationships (SAR) of the contraceptive progestogens for (1) oral contraceptive activity (OCA), (H) androgenic effect, and (III) binding affinity for sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were studied using four different methods: principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), neural networks (NN), and electronic indices method (EIM) employing descriptors calculated by the semi-empirical Austin Model 1 (AM1) method. An additional set of molecules was used to check the reliability of the results obtained for OCA by PCA. Using PCA, three different sets of descriptors were found to correlate with the three different biological activities, I-III, indicating that the interaction between the receptor and the progestogen must depend on the type of biological activity. The descriptors selected by PCA were also employed for SAR analysis of the contraceptive progestogens using two other methods, HCA and NN. Both HCA and NN correctly classified high activity molecules as different from low activity ones. Thus, those descriptors selected by PCA work well in the other two methods of classification. Using the sign of rho, a difference of electron densities of selected molecular orbitals in a specified region in a molecule, it was possible to discriminate high activity molecules from low activity molecules in the three different types of activities studied, I-III, with one exception. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

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

sar
contraceptive progestogens
calculated physicochemical parameters
am1
electronic indices method


Head mounted display This chapter describes head mounted displays (HMDs) from the viewpoint of the human factors. Because it has two separate display systems, HMDs are especially effective in displaying stereoscopic images. To develop better stereoscopic three-dimensional display technologies, it is important to investigate visual functions such as accommodation and convergence. From the results of the experiments, it is now possible to establish the proper settings for HMD devices to reduce the visual load. An example of the industrial application of an HMD is illustrated.

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

head mounted displays
accommodation
convergence
stereoscopic images


ucd method selection with usability planner The diversity of User Centred Design (UCD) methods and the difficulties for estimating their cost-effectiveness make planning usability activities in systems development a hard task. Usability Planner is a tool to support the selection of UCD methods to be applied in a particular project or organization, and to estimate the relative cost benefits of applying usability methods at different stages.

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

business benefits
business case for usability
project risks
usability support tool


On pressure boundary conditions for thermoconvective problems Solving numerically hydrodynamical problems of incompressible fluids raises the question of handling first order derivatives (those of pressure) in a closed container and determining its boundary conditions. A way to avoid the first point is to derive a Poisson equation for pressure, although the problem of taking the right boundary conditions still remains. To remove this problem another formulation of the problem has been used consisting of projecting the master equations into the space of divergence-free velocity fields, so pressure is eliminated from the equations. This technique raises the order of the differential equations and additional boundary conditions may be required. High-order derivatives are sometimes troublesome, specially in cylindrical coordinates due to the singularity at the origin, so for these problems a low order formulation is,,cry convenient. We research several pressure boundary conditions for the primitive variables formulation of thermoconvective problems. In particular we study the Marangoni instability of an infinite fluid layer and we show that the numerical results with a Chebyshev collocation method are highly correspondent to the exact ones. These ideas have been applied to linear stability analysis of the Benard-Marangoni (BM) problem in cylindrical geometry and the results obtained have been very accurate. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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

boundary conditions
cylindrical geometry
collocation method

marangoni convection
benard-marangoni convection


a verified sliding window protocol with variable flow control We present a verified sliding window protocol which uses modulo- N sequence numbers to achieve reliable flow-controlled data transfer between a source and a destination. Communication channels are assumed to lose, duplicate and reorder messages in transit. The destination's data needs are represented by a receive window whose size can vary with time. The destination entity uses acknowledgement messages to inform the source entity of the current receive window size and the sequence number of the data word next expected. The source entity responds by sending segments of data words that lie within the allowed window. Each data segment is accompanied by an identifying sequence number and the size of the data segment. The destination entity also uses selective acknowledgement and selective reject messages to inform the source entity of the reception or lack of reception, respectively, of out-of-sequence data segments. Thus, this protocol is a proper extension of the Arpanet's TCP. We have obtained the minimum value of N that ensures correct data transfer and flow control, in terms of the minimum message transmission time, the maximum message lifetime, and the maximum receive window size. The protocol imposes no constraints on the retransmissions of messages or on the data segment sizes; thus, any retransmission policy that optimizes the protocol's performance can be used.

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

communication
lifetime
value
policy
sliding window
transit
message
size
performance
flow control
data
sequence

select variability reliability segmentation flow extensibility timing windows constraint


Improving the selection of feature points for tracking The problem considered in this paper is how to select the feature points (in practice, small image patches are used) in an image from an image sequence, such that they can be tracked adequately further through the sequence. Usually, the tracking is performed by some sort of local search method looking for a similar patch in the next image in the sequence. Therefore, it would be useful if we could estimate the size of the convergence region for each image patch. There is a smaller chance of error when calculating the displacement for an image patch with a large convergence region than for an image patch with a small convergence region. Consequently, the size of the convergence region can be used as a proper goodness measure for a feature point. For the standard Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) tracking method, we propose a simple and fast way to approximate the convergence region for an image patch. In the experimental part, we test our hypothesis on a large set of real data.

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

feature (interest) point selection
motion estimation
visual tracking
optical flow
robustness


When groups decide to use asynchronous online discussions: collaborative learning and social presence under a voluntary participation structure The purpose of this study is to explore how groups decide to use asynchronous online discussion forums in a non-mandatory setting, and, after the group decision is made, how group members use online discussion forums to complete a collaborative learning project requiring complex data gathering and research processes. While a large body of research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) has documented successful intervention strategies to promote and sustain online discussion forums, little of the research has examined the use of online discussion forums in voluntarily contexts, wherein the decision to use online discussion forums is a personal decision and participation is not a graded component. This study approaches the research questions using a naturalistic case study of one graduate-level blended learning course with 55 students. Employing both student interviews and content analysis methods, this study revealed that the factors affecting the group decision to use online discussion forums are (1) successful or unsuccessful experiences during the first trial, (2) perceived affordances of CMC tools, and (3) the interplay between the nature of collaborative tasks and perceived efficiency. The content analysis of online postings in two voluntary groups revealed that when groups decided to use online discussion forums, participation levels were almost equal among individual group members, and discussion threads were sustained until the final completion of the collaborative project.

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

collaborative learning
content analysis
social presence

computer-supported collaborative learning (cscl)


An Energy-Aware Cross-Layer Cooperative MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks An adaptive cross-layer cooperative MAC protocol called EAP-CMAC was proposed. EAP-CMAC integrates the PNC characteristics into cooperative communication. A new relay selection algorithm was suggested for improving the network lifetime.

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 B I O O O O O O O B

cooperative mac
lifetime
relay selection


Modeling non-Gaussian time-varying vector autoregressive processes by particle filtering We present a novel and general methodology for modeling time-varying vector autoregressive processes which are widely used in many areas such as modeling of chemical processes, mobile communication channels and biomedical signals. In the literature, most work utilize multivariate Gaussian models for the mentioned applications, mainly due to the lack of efficient analytical tools for modeling with non-Gaussian distributions. In this paper, we propose a particle filtering approach which can model non-Gaussian autoregressive processes having cross-correlations among them. Moreover, time-varying parameters of the process can be modeled as the most general case by using this sequential Bayesian estimation method. Simulation results justify the performance of the proposed technique, which potentially can model also Gaussian processes as a sub-case.

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

vector autoregressive processes
particle filtering

sequential monte carlo
cross-correlated processes


Stability for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems via Hamiltonian functional method This paper investigates the stability of a class of nonlinear time-delay systems via Hamiltonian functional method, and proposes a number of new results on generalized Hamiltonian realization (GHR) and stability analysis for this class of systems. Firstly, the concept of GHR of general nonlinear time-delay systems is proposed, and several new GHR methods are given. Then, based on the new GHR methods obtained, the stability of time-delay systems is investigated, and several delay-dependent sufficient conditions in term of matrix inequalities are derived, for the stability analysis by constructing suitable Lyapunov-Krasovskii (L-K) functionals. Finally, an illustrative example shows that the results obtained in this paper have less conservatism, and work very well in the stability analysis of some nonlinear time-delay Hamiltonian systems.

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

stability
hamiltonian functional method
generalized hamiltonian realization


OpenCAPWAP: An open source CAPWAP implementation for the management and configuration of WiFi hot-spots The Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol is under definition within the IETF to enable an Access Controller (AC) to manage a collection of Wireless Termination Points (WTPs). CAPWAP aims at simplifying the deployment and control of large scale, possibly heterogeneous, wireless networks. We present the first open source implementation of the CAPWAP protocol along with early experimental results aiming at the assessment of its reliability and performances. The paper ends describing applications of the CAPWAP protocol to management and QoS scenarios and discussing benefits and technical issues concerning its use.

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

dtls
network management
qos support
performance evaluation


Weighted A-shape: a descriptor of the shape of a point set In this article, we present an extension of the concept A-shape to weighted points, where each point's weight is the radius of a disc centered at this point. We also show that the resultant concept, which we name weighted A-shape, is a graph extracted from the regular triangulation. This new concept unifies the two descriptors named alpha -shape and space-filling hull. This unification is defined by the fact that the families of the last two descriptors are contained in the weighted A-shape family, this allows A-shape to escape the limits of these two descriptors. (C) 2001 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by 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 B I O O O O O O O O O

computational geometry
external shape
voronoi diagram


Complex functional networks Functional networks are a recently introduced extension of neural networks, which deal with general functional models instead of sigmoidal-like ones. In this paper, we propose complex functional networks, whose inputs, outputs, neural functions and arguments are all complex-valued. The general learning algorithm for this kind of complex functional networks is derived. And the performance of the proposed complex functional networks is demonstrated with application in the identification of complex-valued communication channels. (C) 2001 IMACS. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

communication channel
real time recurrent learning


Minimizing Probing Cost and Achieving Identifiability in Probe-Based Network Link Monitoring Continuously monitoring link performance is important to network diagnosis. In this paper, we address the problem of minimizing the probing cost and achieving identifiability in probe-based network link monitoring. Given a set of links to monitor, our objective is to select the minimum number of probing paths that can uniquely determine all identifiable links and cover all unidentifiable links. We propose an algorithm based on a linear system model to find out all irreducible sets of probing paths that can uniquely determine an identifiable link, and we extend the bipartite model to reflect the relationship between a set of probing paths and an identifiable link. Since our optimization problem is NP-hard, we propose a heuristic-based algorithm to greedily select probing paths. Our method eliminates two types of redundant probing paths, i.e., those that can be replaced by others and those without any contribution to achieving identifiability. Simulations based on real network topologies show that our approach can achieve identifiability with very low probing cost. Compared with prior work, our method is more general and has better performance.

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

internet
network monitoring
end-to-end probe


One-time signature scheme from syndrome decoding over generic error-correcting codes We describe a one-time signature scheme based on the hardness of the syndrome decoding problem, and prove it secure in the random oracle model. Our proposal can be instantiated on general linear error correcting codes, rather than restricted families like alternant codes for which a decoding trapdoor is known to exist.

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


Disunification in ACI1 theories Disunification is the problem of deciding satisfiability of a system of equations and disequations with respect to a given equational theory. In this paper we study the disunification problem in the context of ACI1 equational theories. This problem is of great importance, for instance, for the development of constraint solvers over sets. Its solution opens new possibilities for developing automatic tools for static analysis and software verification. In this work we provide a characterization of the interpretation structures suitable to model the axioms in ACI1 theories. The satisfiability problem is solved using known techniques for the equality constraints and novel methodologies to transform disequation constraints to manageable solved forms. We propose four solved forms, each offering an increasingly more precise description of the set of solutions. For each solved form we provide the corresponding rewriting algorithm and we study the time complexity of the transformation. Remarkably, two of the solved forms can be computed and tested in polynomial time. All these solved forms are adequate to be used in the context of a Constraint Logic Programming system - e.g., they do not introduce universal quantifications, as instead happens in some of the existing solved forms for disunification problems.

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

equational theories
disunification
complexity
sets


Probing possible egress channels for multiple ligands in human CYP3A4: A molecular modeling study Human cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4 extensively contributes to metabolize 50% of the marketed drugs. Recently, a CYP3A4 structure with two molecules of ketoconazole (2KT) was identified. However, channels for egresses of these inhibitors are unexplored. Thus, we applied molecular dynamics simulations followed by channel analyses. Two simulations of empty and 2KT-bound CYP3A4 results revealed the multiple ligand-induced conformational changes in channel forming regions, which appear to be important for the regulation of channels. In addition, we observed that the channel-3 entrance is closed due to the large structural deviation of the key residues from Phe-cluster. F215 and F220 are known as entrance blockers of channel-2 in metyrapone-bound CYP3A4. Currently, F220 blocks the channel-3 along with F213 and F241. Therefore, it suggested that channel-1 and 2 could potentially serve as egress routes for 2KT. It is also supported by the results from MOLAxis analyses, in which the frequency of channel occurrence and bottleneck radius during simulation favor channel-1 and 2. Several bottleneck residues of these channels may have critical roles in 2KT egresses, especially S119. Our modeling study for multiple ligand-channeling of CYP3A4 could be very helpful to gain new insights into channel selectivity of CYP3A4.

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

cytochrome p450 3a4
molecular dynamics simulation


Soft decode-and-forward cooperative communication with distributed space-time coding In existing soft decode-and-forward (SDF) cooperative communication systems, the source node is idling in the second time phase while the relay transmits the soft information. In fact, the source can transmit the hard information that cooperates with the relay's soft information using distributed space-time block codes (DSTBC). In this paper, we theoretically derive the detection performance in the second time phase by either using or not using the DSTBC based on the assumption that the soft information can be approximated by Gaussian distribution. This result also enables the optimal power allocation between the source and the relay in the second time phase. Finally, we show via simulation that the advantage of using DSTBC in the second time phase leads to the overall performance improvement of the coded cooperative system.

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

distributed space-time codes
soft decode-and-forward (sdf)
turbo decoding


Design, implementation, and evaluation of the audio/video distribution transport protocol (AVDTP) for high quality audio support over Bluetooth In recent years. we have seen wide adoption of wireless local area networks frequently used as extensions to the Internet to enable ubiquitous information access anywhere, anytime. Networks such as IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth are extensively being deployed in the local area and personal area networking environments, respectively. For seamless connectivity to the Internet, these networks are expected to transport different types of traffic often involving various media (audio, video, images). Our goal is to enable the effective transfer of high quality audio in Bluetooth Personal Area Networks (PANs). Most of the functionalities required for audio/video streaming over Bluetooth are specified by the Bluetooth AudioNideo Distribution Transport Protocol (AVDTP) specification standard. We have designed and implemented AVDTP for high-quality audio support over Bluetooth networks. We also present and discuss a performance evaluation of our AVDTP implementation. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


An enhanced information server for seamless vertical handover in IEEE 802.21 MIH networks ? Seamless vertical handover is a key requirement in heterogeneous wireless networks where different networks are integrated. In this paper, we introduce an enhanced information server (EIS) to accelerate vertical handover procedures in IEEE 802.21 media independent handover (MIH) networks. Based on the EIS, we propose an improved vertical handover procedure in which wireless channel conditions are estimated by exploiting spatial and temporal locality at the EIS, and therefore time consuming channel scanning procedures can be skipped. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can reduce the vertical handover latency under diverse environments.

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

vertical handover
temporal locality
enhanced information server


Surgical Management of Very Large Musculoskeletal Sarcomas The management of almost all sarcomas in the musculoskeletal system includes surgery, although chemotherapy and radiotherapy also may play an important role in the treatment. The surgical treatment comprises complete resection of the tumor with a margin of normal tissue. This can be accomplished by local resection and then reconstruction of the resultant deficit, or amputation. Resection of the tumor without amputation, that is, limb-salvage surgery, can be accomplished in 80% of cases and is generally preferred by the patient. The very large, neglected, or aggressive tumor, however, can make resection with a wide margin impossible or very difficult. Many large tumors will require amputation in order to be sure that the entire tumor is removed, as the priority is saving the patient's life, with limb preservation secondary. Even an amputation may be very difficult when the pelvic or shoulder girdle is involved. Sometimes the surgeon may agree to do a marginal resection when the patient or family absolutely refuses amputation, but they must be made to understand that this may compromise survival. In cases where there is circumferential skin involvement or projected loss, some unusual techniques, such as amputation-replantation can be done, especially in the upper limb, where in spite of gross shortening, function can be much better than any prosthesis. Even if there are metastases present, sometimes amputation or even local resection is offered as palliation if the patient's life is made miserable by a large fungating tumor. Local resection of a huge tumor can be a formidable challenge to the surgeon, and the margin may consist of a few millimeters of compressed muscle. Good skin cover may be a major problem, and free tissue transfer may be necessary if local flaps are not possible. In all cases, one must ask if the resection-reconstruction with all its complications and risk to the patient of recurrence is really better than an amputation.

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

large sarcomas
surgery of sarcomas
limb-salvage surgery


understanding the value of software engineering technologies When AI search methods are applied to software process models, then appropriate technologies can be discovered for a software project. We show that those recommendations are greatly affected by the business context of its use. For example, the automatic defect reduction tools explored by the ASE community are only relevant to a subset of software projects, and only according to certain value criteria. Therefore, when arguing for the value of a particular technology, that argument should include a description of the value function of the target user community.

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

artificial intelligence
software economics


QoS-aware game-theoretic rate & power control for CDMA wireless communication networks This paper shows how to tailor a game-theoretic approach to the issue of distributed resource allocation in a CDMA multiple-access wireless network with different quality of service constraints. According to the nature of the terminals (either fixed/vehicular or mobile/battery-powered, in one respect, and either primary or secondary in another), each user pursues a different goal in the network. Game theory is used as an expedient tool to ensure optimum coexistence of users with highly conflicting interests. In the proposed game, after an initial centralized stage of admission control, each user is allowed to jointly set its transmit power and data rate according to a utility-maximizing criterion, where the utility is defined as the ratio of the throughput to the transmit power. The noncooperative Nash solution of the game is investigated and closed-form expressions for this equilibrium are derived and compared with numerical results for a decentralized resource control algorithm.

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

resource allocation
game theory
quality of service

cross-layer design
distributed algorithms


A PBL experience in the teaching of computer graphics Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational strategy to improve student's learning capability that, in recent years, has had a progressive acceptance in undergraduate studies. This methodology is based on solving a problem or project in a student working group. In this way, PBL focuses on learning the necessary tools to correctly find a solution to given problems. Since the learning initiative is transferred to the student, the PBL method promotes students own abilities. This allows a better assessment of the true workload that carries out the student in the subject. It follows that the methodology conforms to the guidelines of the Bologna document, which quantifies the student workload in a subject by means of the European credit transfer system (ECTS). PBL is currently applied in undergraduate studies needing strong practical training such as medicine, nursing or law sciences. Although this is also the case in engineering studies, amazingly, few experiences have been reported. In this paper we propose to use PBL in the educational organization of the Computer Graphics subjects in the Computer Science degree. Our PBL project focuses in the development of a C++ graphical environment based on the OpenGL libraries for visualization and handling of different graphical objects. The starting point is a basic skeleton that already includes lighting functions, perspective projection with mouse interaction to change the point of view and three predefined objects. Students have to complete this skeleton by adding their own functions to solve the project. A total number of 10 projects have been proposed and successfully solved. The exercises range from human face rendering to articulated objects, such as robot arms or puppets. In the present paper we extensively report the statement and educational objectives for two of the projects: solar system visualization and a chess game. We report our earlier educational experience based on the standard classroom theoretical, problem and practice sessions and the reasons that motivated searching for other learning methods. We have mainly chosen PBL because it improves the student learning initiative. We have applied the PBL educational model since the beginning of the second semester. The student's feedback increases in his interest for the subject. We present a comparative study of the teachers' and students' workload between PBL and the classic teaching approach, which suggests that the workload increase in PBL is not as high as it seems.

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

project-based learning
computer graphics education
open gl
rendering techniques
computer animation techniques


Video Aesthetic Quality Assessment by Temporal Integration of Photo-and Motion-Based Features This paper presents a new method for accessing the aesthetic quality of videos. It consists of two processes: aesthetic features construction and temporal integration. First, our method combines both photo-based and motion-based visual clues to extract the aesthetic features for each frame in a video. We introduce new motion-based features built from optical flow and salient region extraction, and show their effectiveness to enhance the estimation of aesthetic values. Then, a temporal-order-aware framework that integrates the frame-based features is presented to further improve the evaluation accuracy by taking the time-varying properties into consideration. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach can accomplish remarkable improvement for aesthetic quality assessment of videos.

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 B I I O O

computational aesthetics
image quality assessment
video quality assessment
visual aesthetics.


Power Consumption Optimization for a Hexapod Walking Robot Power consumption is one of the main operational restrictions on autonomous walking robots. In this paper, an energy efficiency analysis is performed for a hexapod walking robot to reduce these energy costs. To meet the power-saving demands of legged robots, the torque distribution algorithm required to minimize the system's energy costs was established with an energy-consumption model formulated. In contrast to the force distribution method, where the objective function is related to the tip-point force components, the torque distribution scheme is based on minimization of the mechanical energy cost and heat loss power. The simulation results show that this scheme could reduce the system energy costs with use of the appropriate walking velocities and duty factors for the robot. The paper also discusses the effects of the gait patterns and the mechanical structure on the system energy costs. For this purpose, the prescribed periodic walking gait of the robot is described in terms of several parameters, including the duty factor, the stride length, the body height, and the foot trajectory lateral offset. The numerical results indicate some analogies between the characteristics of the simulated walking robot and those of animals in nature. The optimized parameters derived here are intended for robot platform development applications.

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

torque distribution
energy cost
heat loss

hexapod robot
foot force distribution
optimal gait parameters


Dynamic load balancing in computational mechanics In many important computational mechanics applications, the computation adapts dynamically during the simulation. Examples include adaptive mesh refinement, particle simulations and transient dynamics calculations. When running these kinds of simulations on a parallel computer, the work must be assigned to processors in a dynamic fashion to keep the computational load balanced. A number of approaches have been proposed for this dynamic load balancing problem. This paper reviews the major classes of algorithms and discusses their relative merits on problems from computational mechanics. Shortcomings in the state-of-the-art are identified and suggestions are made for future research directions.

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

dynamic load balancing
parallel computer
adaptive mesh refinement


Moving in the right direction: Developments in the online availability of full-text Congressional committee hearing transcripts A 2003 study revealed a shortage of full-text Congressional committee hearing transcripts for the 105th and 106th Congresses from both GPO Access and Congressional committee Web sites. By using hearings in the LexisNexis Congressional database as the control group, the current study analyzes the availability of full-text hearing transcripts for the 107th and 108th Congresses, and finds that there has been considerable improvement in the number and extent of full-text hearing transcripts offered by GPO Access and Congressional committee Web sites for hearings from the two most recent Congresses. There is, however, one notable exception: Senate hearing transcripts continue to be inadequately represented by both GPO Access and the Senate committees' own Web sites. Possible causes and implications of the findings are explored.

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

government information
congressional hearings
online hearings
electronic dissemination


Assistive speech technology for persons with speech impairments This paper describes a computer-based speech training system being developed for persons with speech-impairments, especially for profoundly deaf children. This system, called computer integrated speech training aid (CISTA) provides objective data and on-line diagnostic information visually, facilitates record keeping for teachers and increases student motivation. CISTA has been commercially available in Japan since 1988, mainly used in deaf schools and hospitals. CISTA has been used for some years to evaluate its efficiency and applicability in the schools for the deaf and speech clinics in rehabilitation centers in Japan and the USA. The results of two experiments have shown its effectiveness.

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

speech training with deaf persons
speech-impairment
visual feedback
articulation
dynamic palatograph


Visualization of road geometries based on CADD design standards This research introduces a software solution to enable roadway designers to visualize their roads with minimum manual work. Roads appear as lines and arcs in roadway design software. Their visualization with colors can help achieve better natural understanding of road geometries. However, road visualization is such a time-consuming process that it has not been conducted on the regular basis in the practice of roadway design. The software solution described in this article can automatically visualize roadway designs, based on Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) design standards.

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


A regular scalable fault tolerant interconnection network for distributed processing Bounded degree networks like deBruijn graphs or wrapped butterfly networks are very important from VLSI implementation point of view as well as for applications where the computing nodes in the interconnection networks can have only a fixed number of I/O ports. One basic drawback of these networks is that they cannot provide a desired level of fault tolerance because of the bounded degree of the nodes. On the other hand, networks like hypercube (where degree of a node grows with the size of a network) can provide the desired fault tolerance but the design of a node becomes problematic for large networks. In their attempt to combine the best of the both worlds, authors in [IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems 4(9) (1993) 962] proposed hyper-deBruijn (HD) networks that have many additional features of logarithmic diameter, partitionability, embedding, etc. But, HD networks are not regular, are not optimally fault tolerant and the optimal routing is relatively complex. Our purpose in the present paper is to extend the concepts used in the above-mentioned reference to propose a new family of scalable network graphs that retain all the good features of HD networks and at the same time are regular and maximally fault tolerant; the optimal point to point routing algorithm is significantly simpler than that of the HD networks. We have developed some new interesting results on wrapped butterfly networks in the process.

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


Load balancing for video streaming services in hierarchical wireless networks Wireless networks have focused on voice call services or wireless Internet access services. These days, the application service domain of wireless networks is rapidly expanding, and a wide variety of new services is emerging. Video streaming service is one of the most promising examples, evidenced by 3GPP's MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem). In this paper, we consider the provision of video streaming services in hierarchical wireless networks with multiple layers of cells. We particularly focus on optimal load balancing among the cells, aiming at the minimization of frame drop ratio for given video streaming sessions. From this objective function, we derive the optimal load balancing condition. Load balancing is essentially the issue of which users are assigned to which cell, i.e., the user assignment problem. In our user assignment algorithm, we compute thresholds to divide users into groups according to the user characteristics, and map the user groups to proper cells. The optimal load balancing condition can be reached by adaptively adjusting the threshold at run time. This process does not require prior knowledge about the system status, such as the system capacity or user traffic requests, which warrants the practicality of the proposed scheme. Via simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves optimal load balancing in various realistic environments. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

optimal load balancing
hierarchical wireless networks
video streaming services


Duality of optimization problems with generalized fuzzy relation equation and inequality constraints ? A generalization of fuzzy relation equations and inequalities is introduced. An explicit method for solving optimization problems, the feasible set of which is described by a system of generalized fuzzy relation equations and inequalities, is considered. The objective function of the problems is equal to the maximum of continuous increasing functions of one variable. A duality concept for such problems is proposed. The problems are considered in a finitely dimensional space.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 relational equations and inequalities


Toward increasing FPGA lifetime Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have been aggressively moving to lower gate length technologies. Such a scaling of technology has an adverse impact on the reliability of the underlying circuits in such architectures. Various different physical phenomena have been recently explored and demonstrated to impact the reliability of circuits in the form of both transient error susceptibility and permanent failures. In this work, we analyze the impact of two different types of hard errors, namely, Time-Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) and Electromigration ( EM) on FPGAs. We also study the performance degradation of FPGAs over time caused by Hot-Carrier Effects (HCE) and Negative Bias Temperature Instability ( NBTI). Each study is performed on the components of FPGAs most affected by the respective phenomena, from both the performance and reliability perspective. Different solutions are demonstrated to counter each failure and degradation phenomena to increase the operating lifetime of the FPGAs.

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

time-dependent dielectric breakdown
hot-carrier effects
negative bias temperature instability.


Obesity and cancer pathogenesis Overweight and obesity have reached pandemic levels on a worldwide basis and are associated with increased risk and worse prognosis for many but not all malignancies. Pathophysiologic processes that affect this association are reviewed, with a focus on the relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus and cancer, lessons learned from the use of murine models to study the association, the impact of obesity on pancreatic cancer, the effects of dietary fats and cholesterol on cancer promotion, and the mechanisms by which the intestinal microbiome affects obesity and cancer.

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

diabetes
murine models
pancreatic cancer
dietary fats
cholesterol
intestinal microbiome


On the identification of piston slap events in internal combustion engines using tribodynamic analysis Six methods are used to identify piston slap events in internal combustion engines. The number of slap events increases as the engine speed increases. Quasi-static/transient force methods can predict slap position at lower engine speed. The transient minimum film thickness method is more successful at higher engine speed. The piston-impact angular duration method predicts slap events through all tests.

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


On the Behaviour of the Solutions of Difference Equation Systems In this paper, we investigate the behaviour of the solutions of difference equations systems x(n+1) = y(n-5)/+/- 1 + y(n-1)x(n-3)y(n-5), y(n+1) = x(n-5)/+/- 1 + x(n-1)y(n-3)x(n-5), where the initial values are arbitrary real numbers such that the denominator is always nonzero.

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

system of difference equation
explicit solutions
periodicity


Optimisation of the number of IGBT devices in a seriesparallel string High-power semiconductor switches can be realised by connecting existing devices in series and parallel. The number of devices in series depends on the operating voltage of an application and the individual device voltage rating. For a given application, the use of higher voltage rated IGBTs leads to a fewer number of devices and vice versa. The total power loss of the series string equals to the sum of individual IGBT power losses and total loss increases with the increase in operating frequency. The level of increase in power loss depends on the device characteristics. For high current operation, the minimum number of devices depends on the current rating of individual device. In this paper, series IGBT string of six 1.2kV, four 1.7kV, two 3.3kV and a single 6.5kV IGBTs are simulated for a 4.5kV/100A application and power losses are analysed for different frequencies and duty cycles. This power loss analysis is extended for commercial IGBTs to compare the simulation results. The number of devices for minimum power loss depends on operating frequencies and power savings are significant both at low and high frequencies. In addition to the power losses, the other important issues in optimising the number of IGBTs are described in this paper. When IGBT modules are connected in parallel the principle of derating is applied to obtained reliable operation. This is explained with some examples.

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


Insertion of a random task in a schedule: a real-time approach We consider a set of tasks defined by their duration and their due-date. They are performed by a single resource and scheduled in order to minimize the sum of the delays. This schedule is given. An unexpected task appears in the system. Its duration, as well as its due date that cannot be violated, are known at the instant of the appearance. The aim is to insert this task in the schedule while increasing as little as possible the criterion of the existing schedule that is the sum of the delays. We then consider the case when the unexpected task is made of two subtasks separated by a fixed period. In both cases the main difficulty is to insert the unexpected task in real time, which implies that the proposed method should manage to make most of the computation off-line.

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


benchmarking sep-cma-es on the bbob-2009 function testbed A partly time and space linear CMA-ES is benchmarked on the BBOB-2009 noiseless function testbed. This algorithm with a multistart strategy with increasing population size solves 17 functions out of 24 in 20-D.

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

covariance matrix adaptation
evolutionary computation
evolution strategy
black-box optimization


Reinforcement learning with via-point representation In this paper, we propose a new learning framework for motor control. This framework consists of two components: reinforcement learning and via-point representation. In the field of motor control, conventional reinforcement learning has been used to acquire control sequences such as cart-pole or stand-up robot control. Recently, researchers have become interested in hierarchical architecture, such as multiple levels, and multiple temporal and spatial scales. Our new framework contains two levels of hierarchical architecture. The higher level is implemented using via-point representation, which corresponds to macro-actions or multiple time scales. The lower level is implemented using a trajectory generator that produces primitive actions. Our framework can modify the ongoing movement by means of temporally localized via-points and trajectory generation. Successful results are obtained in computer simulation of the cart-pole swing up task.

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

hierarchical reinforcement learning
via-point
cart-pole
robotics


On Higher-Order Sensitivity Analysis in Nonsmooth Vector Optimization We propose the notion of higher-order radial-contingent derivative of a set-valued map, develop some calculus rules and use them directly to obtain optimality conditions for several particular optimization problems. Then we employ this derivative together with contingent-type derivatives to analyze sensitivity for nonsmooth vector optimization. Properties of higher-order contingent-type derivatives of the perturbation and weak perturbation maps of a parameterized optimization problem are obtained.

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


robust sketched symbol fragmentation using templates Analysis of sketched digital ink is often aided by the division of stroke points into perceptually-salient fragments based on geometric features. Fragmentation has many applications in intelligent interfaces for digital ink capture and manipulation, as well as higher-level symbolic and structural analyses. It is our intuitive belief that the most robust fragmentations closely match a user's natural perception of the ink, thus leading to more effective recognition and useful user feedback. We present two optimal fragmentation algorithms that fragment common geometries into a basis set of line segments and elliptical arcs. The first algorithm uses an explicit template in which the order and types of bases are specified. The other only requires the number of fragments of each basis type. For the set of symbols under test, both algorithms achieved 100\% fragmentation accuracy rate for symbols with line bases, 99\% accuracy for symbols with elliptical bases, and 90\% accuracy for symbols with mixed line and elliptical bases.

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

order
stroke
applications
analysis
digital ink
user
robust
fragmentation
accuracy
test
recognition
types
perception
manipulation
algorithm
template

point
hci
curve segmentation
fitting
shape templates
intelligent interface
sketch-based user interface
perceptual grouping
user feedback
structure
optimality
matching
segmentation
feature
effect


Using genetic algorithms to reorganize superpeer structure in peer to peer networks In this article, we describe a genetic algorithm for optimizing the superpeer structure of semantic peer to peer networks. Peer to peer, also called P2P, networks enable us to search for content or information in a distributed fashion across a large number of peers while providing a level of fault tolerance by preventing disconnecting peers from disrupting the network. We seek to maximize the number of queries answered while minimizing the time in which they are answered. It will be shown that the genetic algorithm (GA) dramatically improves network performance and consistently finds networks better than those found by random search and hill climbing. A comparison will also be made to networks found through exhaustive search, showing that the GA will, for smaller networks, converge on a globally optimal solution.

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


Parallel algorithms for Markov chain Monte Carlo methods in latent spatial Gaussian models Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) implementations of Bayesian inference for latent spatial Gaussian models are very computationally intensive, and restrictions on storage and computation time are limiting their application to large problems. Here we propose various parallel MCMC algorithms for such models. The algorithms' performance is discussed with respect to a simulation study, which demonstrates the increase in speed with which the algorithms explore the posterior distribution as a function of the number of processors. We also discuss how feasible problem size is increased by use of these algorithms.

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

bayesian inference
markov chain monte carlo
parallel algorithms

latent models
linear algebra
spatial modelling


Fast computation of Jacobi-Fourier moments for invariant image recognition Fast recursive method for the computation of Jacobi-Fourier moments is proposed. The proposed method not only reduces time complexity but also improves numerical stability of moments. Better image reconstruction is achieved with lower reconstruction error. Proposed method is useful for many image processing, pattern recognition and computer vision applications.

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


robot expressionism through cartooning We present a new technique for human-robot interaction called robot expressionism through cartooning. We suggest that robots utilise cartoon-art techniques such as simplified and exaggerated facial expressions, stylised text, and icons for intuitive social interaction with humans. We discuss practical mixed reality solutions that allow robots to augment themselves or their surroundings with cartoon art content. Our effort is part of what we call robot expressionism, a conceptual approach to the design and analysis of robotic interfaces that focuses on providing intuitive insight into robotic states as well as the artistic quality of interaction. Our paper discusses a variety of ways that allow robots to use cartoon art and details a test bed design, implementation, and exploratory evaluation. We describe our test bed, Jeeves, which uses a Roomba, an iRobot vacuum cleaner robot, and a mixed-reality system as a platform for rapid prototyping of cartoon-art interfaces. Finally, we present a set of interaction content scenarios which use the Jeeves prototype: trash Roomba, the recycle police, and clean tracks, as well as initial exploratory evaluation of our approach.

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

human-robot interaction
sociable robotics


An efficient network intrusion detection Exploit code based on system vulnerability is often used by attacker. Such exploit program often sends attack packets in the first few packets. A Lightweight Network intrusion Detection system (LNID) is proposed for detecting such attacks on Telnet traffic. It characterizes normal traffic behavior and computes the anomaly score of a packet based on the deviation from the normal behavior. Instead of processing all traffic packets, an efficient filtering scheme proposed in the study can reduce system workload and only 0.3% of the original traffic volume is examined for anomaly. According to the performance comparisons with other network-based IDS, LNID is the most efficient on detection rate and workload reduction, (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

anomaly score
intrusion detection
exploit code


efficient placement and routing techniques for master slice lsi This paper deals with placement and routing techniques for master slice LSIs. The basic idea of both techniques is to make wiring density on the chip more uniform. Algorithms and some experimental results are described.

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


On the sizing of fractional slot PM machines oriented towards the improvement of their torque production capability Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach to improve the torque production capability of fractional slot permanent magnet machines. Design/methodology/approach - Following an analytical formulation of the electromagnetic torque, two optimization criteria are selected: the maximization of the average torque and the minimization of the torque ripple. For the sake of a simple analysis, the proposed approach assumes that the effects of the machine circumferential and radial parameters, on the torque production capability, are almost decoupled, so that their sizing optimization could be carried out separately. Findings - The torque production capability of the optimized machine has been confirmed by finite element analysis, which confirms the appropriateness of the proposed sizing approach. Practical implications - The obtained results should be validated by experiments carried out on a prototype. Originality/value - The proposed approach has been carried out thanks to the introduction of the torque average value and ripple amplitude iso-2D curves for circumferential parameters and iso-3D surfaces for radial ones.

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

surface mount technology
electromagnetism
electric machines


Improving GP generalization: a variance-based layered learning approach This paper introduces a new method that improves the generalization ability of genetic programming (GP) for symbolic regression problems, named variance-based layered learning GP. In this approach, several datasets, called primitive training sets, are derived from the original training data. They are generated from less complex to more complex, for a suitable complexity measure. The last primitive dataset is still less complex than the original training set. The approach decomposes the evolution process into several hierarchical layers. The first layer of the evolution starts using the least complex (smoothest) primitive training set. In the next layers, more complex primitive sets are given to the GP engine. Finally, the original training data is given to the algorithm. We use the variance of the output values of a function as a measure of the functional complexity. This measure is utilized in order to generate smoother training data, and controlling the functional complexity of the solutions to reduce the overfitting. The experiments, conducted on four real-world and three artificial symbolic regression problems, demonstrate that the approach enhances the generalization ability of the GP, and reduces the complexity of the obtained solutions.

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

genetic programming
generalization
layered learning
overfitting
variance


MEDIATING ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP QUALITY IN ONLINE SERVICES This paper is the first to examine the mediating role of relationship quality in the online context. By investigating this major tenet of customer relationship management theory in this nascent service setting, this paper clarifies the interaction between service quality and relationship quality, as they impact on customer loyalty. The findings reveal some fundamental differences in the way that strong relationships and loyalty develop in the online setting vis-a-vis the offline setting. The findings of this empirical research support the existence of a partial mediating relationship. While effective service delivery was found to enhance the quality of customer-firm relationships, and consequently, the customer's perceived loyalty to their main financial institution; there was also evidence of a concurrent link between service quality and loyalty. This finding suggests that a strong relationship does not make customers immune to poor future services, and that firms operating in the online environment should maintain high service standards if they are to enjoy continued loyalty from their customers.

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

online services
customer relationship management
relationship quality
service quality
loyalty


Reliability assessment of concrete bridges subject to corrosion-induced cracks during life cycle using artificial neural networks Corrosion of RC bridge decks eventually leads to delamination, severe cracking and spalling of the concrete cover. This is a prevalent deterioration mechanism and demands for the most costly repair interventions during the service life of bridges worldwide. On the other hand, decisions for repairs are usually made whenever the extent of a limit crack width, reported in routine visual inspections, exceeds an acceptable threshold level. In this paper, while random fields are applied to account for spatial variation of governing parameters of the corrosion process, an analytical model is used to simulate the corrosion induced crack width. However when dealing with random fields, the Monte Carlo simulation is apparently an inefficient and time consuming method, hence the utility of neural networks as a surrogate in simulation is investigated and found very promising. The proposed method can be regarded as an invaluable tool in decision making concerning maintenance of bridges.

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


Approximate analytical solutions of the nonlinear reaction-diffusion-convection problems In this paper, the series pattern solutions of the nonlinear reaction-diffusion-convection initial value problems are obtained by using the homotopy analysis method (HAM). A complete description of this method is derived and the convergence of this method is shown. Finally, two test examples are given. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


MPEG-21 bitstream syntax descriptions for scalable video codecs In order to obtain a useful multichannel publication environment, a content producer has to respect the different terminal and network characteristics of the multimedia devices of its target audience. Embedded scalable video bitstreams, together with a complementary content adaptation framework, give the possibility to respond to heterogeneous usage environments. In this paper, temporally scalable H.264/MPEG-4 AVC encoded bitstreams and bitstreams encoded by relying on the fully-embedded MC-EZBC wavelet-based codec are used. The MPEG-21 Bitstream Syntax Description Language (BSDL) specification is used to generate high-level XML descriptions of the structure of a bitstream. As such, the adaptation of a scalable video stream can be realized in the XML domain, rather than on the bitstream itself. Different transformation technologies are compared to each other as well. Finally, a practical setup of a video streaming use case is discussed by relying on the MPEG-21 BSDL framework.

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

h.264/mpeg-4 avc
mpeg-21 bsdl
scalable video coding
universal multimedia access


soft faults and the importance of stresses in memory testing Memory testing in general, and DRAM testing in particular, has become greatly dependent on the modification of stresses (timing, temperature and voltages) in a way that is difficult to justify using the current understanding of memory faults. This paper introduces a new class of fault models (soft faults) based on a special classification of memory faults, that shows why it is fundamentally necessary to apply stresses. The paper calculates the relative probability of soft faults for a specific failure mechanism and compares this probability in DRAMs with that in SRAMs. In addition, the concept of soft faults is validated using defect injection and electrical simulation of a Spice DRAM model.

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

defect simulation
stress application
fault modeling


learning conditional random fields with latent sparse features for acronym expansion finding The ever increasing usage of acronyms in many kinds of documents, including web pages, is becoming an obstacle for average readers. This paper studies the task of finding expansions in documents for a given set of acronyms. We cast the expansion finding problem as a sequence labeling task and adapt Conditional Random Fields (CRF) to solve it. While adapting CRFs, we enhance the performance from two aspects. First, we introduce nonlinear hidden layers to learn better representations of the input data. Second, we design simple and effective features. We create a hand labeled evaluation data based on Wikipedia.org and web crawling. We evaluate the effectiveness of several algorithms in solving the expansion finding problem. The experimental results demonstrate that the new method achieves performs better than Support Vector Machine and standard Conditional Random Fields.

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


An efficient gene selection algorithm based on mutual information Gene selection, a significant preprocessing of the discriminant analysis of microarray data, is to select the most informative genes from the whole gene set. In this paper, an efficient mutual information-based gene selection algorithm (MIGS) is proposed, in which genes are sequentially forward selected according to an approximate measure of the mutual information between the class and the selected genes. In order to improve the efficiency of the MIGS, an effective pruning strategy is introduced in the selection procedure as well as the employment of Parzen window density estimation technique. Extensive experiments are conducted on three public gene expression datasets and the experimental results confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithm. Though the computational cost of MIGS-Pruning increases with the number of selected genes, it still has good performance applied in the microarray problems.

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

microarray data
gene expression
gene selection
mutual information
parzen window density estimation


Integrating structural geological data into the inverse modelling framework of iTOUGH2 The validity of subsurface flow simulations strongly depends on the accuracy of relevant rock property values and their distribution in space. In realistic simulations, this spatial distribution is based on two geological considerations: (1) the subsurface structural setting, and (2) smaller-scale heterogeneity within a hydrostratigraphic unit. Both aspects are subject to uncertainty, whereas techniques to address heterogeneity are well established, no general method exists to evaluate the influence of structural uncertainties. We present a method to include structural geological data (e.g. observations of geological contacts and faults) directly into an inversion framework, with the aim of enabling the inversion routine to adapt a full 3-D geological model with a set of geological parameters. In order to achieve this aim, we use a set of Python modules to combine several pre-existing codes into one workflow, to facilitate the consideration of a structural model in the typical model evaluation steps of sensitivity analysis, parameter estimation, and uncertainty propagation analysis. In a synthetic study, we then test the application of these three steps to analyse CO2 injection into an anticlinal structure with the potential of leakage through a fault zone. We consider several parts of the structural setting as uncertain, most importantly the position of the fault zone. We then evaluate (1) how sensitive CO2 arriving in several observation wells would be with respect to the geological parameters, (2) if it would be possible to determine the leak location from observations in shallow wells, and (3) how parametric uncertainty affects the expected CO2 leakage amount. In all these cases, our main focus is to consider the influence of the primary geological data on model outputs. We demonstrate that the integration of structural data into the iTOUGH2 framework enables the inversion routines to adapt the geological model, i.e. to re-generate the entire structural model based on changes in several sensitive geological parameters. Our workflow is a step towards a combined analysis of uncertainties not only in local heterogeneities but in the structural setting as well, for a more complete integration of geological knowledge into conceptual and numerical 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 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 B I B I O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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

uncertainty
sensitivity analysis
parameter estimation

implicit geological modelling
multiphase flow simulation
monte carlo


Trustworthiness in electronic commerce: the role of privacy, security, and site attributes While the growth of business-to-consumer electronic commerce seems phenomenal in recent years, several studies suggest that a large number of individuals using the Internet have serious privacy concerns, and that winning public trust is the primary hurdle to continued growth in e-commerce. This research investigated the relative importance, when purchasing goods and services over the Web, of four common trust indices (i.e. (1) third party privacy seals, (2) privacy statements, (3) third party security seals, and (4) security features). The results indicate consumers valued security features significantly more than the three other trust indices. We also investigated the relationship between these trust indices and the consumer's perceptions of a marketer's trustworthiness. The findings indicate that consumers' ratings of trustworthiness of Web merchants did not parallel experts' evaluation of sites' use of the trust indices. This study also examined the extent to which consumers are willing to provide private information to electronic and land merchants. The results revealed that when making the decision to provide private information, consumers rely on their perceptions of trustworthiness irrespective of whether the merchant is electronic only or land and electronic. Finally, we investigated the relative importance of three types of Web attributes: security, privacy and pleasure features (convenience, ease of use, cosmetics). Privacy and security features were of lesser importance than pleasure features when considering consumers' intention to purchase. A discussion of the implications of these results and an agenda for future research are provided.

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

electronic commerce
security
privacy
trust


New sports management software: A needs analysis by a panel of Spanish experts This study sought to investigate the requirements of technology management tools for Spanish sport managers, in order to improve the quality of management in sports organisations and facilities. We hypothesised that current sport management computer software programmes do not adequately satisfy the manager's needs. This hypothesis was tested with an analysis by a panel of Spanish experts in the field of sports management. The results of this study indicated that these professionals are in need of a new computer software programme specifically tailored for their use. In this paper, we provide important information regarding the critical elements that need to be included within such a product.

O O O B 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 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 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

quality management
human resources
material resources
sport facilities


Filtering false alarms of buffer overflow analysis using SMT solvers Buffer overflow detection using static analysis can provide a powerful tool for software programmers to find difficult bugs in C programs. Sound static analysis based on abstract interpretation, however, often suffers from false alarm problem. Although more precise abstraction can reduce the number of the false alarms in general, the cost to perform such analysis is often too high to be practical for large software. On the other hand, less precise abstraction is likely to be scalable in exchange for the increased false alarms. In order to attain both precision and scalability, we present a method that first applies less precise abstraction to find buffer overflow alarms fast, and selectively applies a more precise analysis only to the limited areas of code around the potential false alarms. In an attempt to develop the precise analysis of alarm filtering for large C programs, we perform a symbolic execution over the potential alarms found in the previous analysis, which is based on the abstract interpretation. Taking advantage of a state-of-art SMT solver, our precise analysis efficiently filters out a substantial number of false alarms. Our experiment with the test cases from three open source programs shows that our filtering method can reduce about 68% of false alarms on average.

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


empirical study of surrogate models for black box optimizations obtained using symbolic regression via genetic programming A black box model is a numerical simulation that is used in optimization. It is computationally expensive, so it is convenient to replace it with surrogate models obtained by simulating only a few points and then approximating the original black box. Here, a recent approach, using Symbolic Regression via Genetic Programming, is compared experimentally to neural network based surrogate models, using test functions and electromagnetic models. The accuracy of the model obtained by Symbolic Regression is proved to be good, and the interpretability of the function obtained is useful in reducing the optimization's search space.

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

symbolic regression
genetic programming
surrogate models


The design and application value of the Chinese Social Science Citation Index From the application point of view, this article introduces the framework of the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI). It expounds the idea of designing the CSSCI system, and its major functions and features in particular. The data organization as well as data encoding methods of the CSSCI system is well explained. Moreover, this article elaborates on how the citation index data can be used in analyzing discipline features, exploring research hotspots and developing trends, identifying important academic works and constructing academic network. Such efforts are supposed to help the readers better understand the application value of citation index system. It also provides the academic circle with a new understanding of citation index 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 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 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 B I I O O O O O O O O O O O B I I


Asynchronous gaze-independent event-related potential-based braincomputer interface In this study a gaze independent event related potential (ERP)-based brain computer interface (BCI) for communication purpose was combined with an asynchronous classifier endowed with dynamical stopping feature. The aim was to evaluate if and how the performance of such asynchronous system could be negatively affected in terms of communication efficiency and robustness to false positives during the intentional no-control state. The proposed system was validated with the participation of 9 healthy subjects. A comparison was performed between asynchronous and synchronous classification technique outputs while users were controlling the same gaze independent BCI interface. The performance of both classification techniques were assessed both off-line and on-line by means of the efficiency metric introduced by Bianchi et al. (2007). This latter metric allows to set a different misclassification cost for wrong classifications and abstentions. Robustness was evaluated as the rate of false positives occurring during voluntary no-control states. The asynchronous classifier did not exhibited significantly higher accuracy or lower error rate with respect to the synchronous classifier (accuracy: 74.66% versus 87.96%, error rate: 7.11% versus 12.04% respectively). However, the on-line and off-line analysis revealed that the communication efficiency was significantly improved (p<.05) with the asynchronous classification modality as compared with the synchronous. Furthermore, the asynchronous classifier proved to be robust to false positives during intentional no-control state which occur during the ongoing visual stimulation (less than 1 false positive every 6min). As such, the proposed ERP-BCI system which combines an asynchronous classifier with a gaze independent interface is a promising solution to be further explored in order to increase the general usability of ERP-based BCI systems designed for severely disabled people with an impairment of the voluntary control of eye movements. In fact, the asynchronous classifier can improve communication efficiency automatically adapting the number of stimulus repetitions to the current user's state and suspending the control if he/she does not intend to select an item.

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

asynchronous classifier
braincomputer interface


On the optimal, fair and channel-aware cognitive radio network reconfiguration ? In this work, we focus on the Joint Channel Assignment and Routing (JCAR) problem in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) and especially on the optimal reconfiguration of secondary networks under the presence of primary users. Secondary CRN users need to adapt their transmission channels promptly, while effectively limit additional or escalating system modifications triggered by the intertweaved primary user activity. Our approach takes into consideration the underlying spectrum switching dynamics and concurrently aims at a fair resource allocation among the active network flows. We take an optimization perspective and formulate the JCAR and network reconfiguration problems as mixed integer linear programs, addressing fairness concerns as well. We propose a heuristic approach which is based on a sequential reduced search space methodology, in order to obtain efficiently solutions of otherwise tough and demanding reconfiguration problems. The operation, effectiveness and performance of the proposed mechanisms are evaluated through analysis and simulations under various working conditions. The obtained numerical results indicate the benefits of the proposed schemes in terms of overhead performance and their scaling properties with respect to more realistic and thus demanding topologies.

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

network reconfiguration
cognitive radio networks
fairness

joint channel assignment and routing problem


Letting them loose! A different approach to a biochemistry post-exam training session This feature looks at changing the format of a well-established information skills session for first-year biochemistry students at UCL, to improve its design, delivery and the overall learning experience for the students. After reviewing current literature, active learning methods were explored and an idea of a research-based quiz based on famous scientists was devised. After a brief introduction to the library resources available, the students were let loose to research their particular scientist and answer a series of questions. Feedback was gained and evaluated and concluded that the session was well received by students. The feature also raises the discussion of generic verses subject-based information skills training.

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 B I O

education and training
literacy: information
literature searching
teaching


COALGEBRAIC CHARACTERIZATIONS OF CONTEXT-FREE LANGUAGES In this article, we provide three coalgebraic characterizations of the class of context-free languages, each based on the idea of adding coalgebraic structure to an existing algebraic structure by specifying output-derivative pairs. Final coalgebra semantics then gives an interpretation function into the final coalgebra of all languages with the usual output and derivative operations. The first characterization is based on systems, where each derivative is given as a finite language over the set of nonterminals; the second characterization on systems where derivatives are given as elements of a term-algebra; and the third characterization is based on adding coalgebraic structure to a class of closed ( unique) fixed point expressions. We prove equivalences between these characterizations, discuss the generalization from languages to formal power series, as well as the relationship to the generalized powerset construction.

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


Widening the dynamic range of pictures using a minimum spanning tree algorithm A novel method for widening the dynamic range of pictures, without requiring additional frame times or additional storage area in the pixel, is proposed. The sensor used enables local control over the integration time such that a suitable exposure could be defined for each area, and a new method based on the Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm is then incorporated for restoring the additional information representing the specific integration times. These restored integration times are used for reconstructing a wide dynamic range picture.

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

minimum-spanning tree
robot vision
image processing


Competing with dominant global standards in a catching-up context. The case of mobile standards in China The process of diffusion of standards and competition between standards is susceptible to initial conditions and is path dependent. In this paper, the authors are interested in investigating to which extent economic actions and public policy initiatives can modify the outcome of a path-dependent process of competition between standards. They also aim to identify the factors that affect the success of such initiatives. To this end they analyse competition between mobile standards in China across two generations (2G and 3G), with the help of essential notions of economics of standards. Different policy initiatives have been taken to stimulate the domestic innovation and to relieve the burden of foreign IPRs, culminating with the introduction of a 3G domestic standard, TD-SCDMA, to compete with the established global standards. Despite the size of the Chinese market and the strong hold of the government on the telecommunications industry, it is found that the available market data indicate that these path-breaking initiatives have not been successful from a commercial point of view. From the case study, the authors analyse the reasons for the unsatisfactory market results and outline the main lessons to be drawn. They also investigate to which extent the Chinese initiatives have contributed to other objectives related to catching-up. It is suggested that they have provided opportunities of learning to innovate and develop valuable capabilities. Building on the lessons drawn from this case, the authors discuss three standard policy and strategy options for catching-up countries: simple participation in global consortiums on agreed global standards, indigenous architectural innovation, and indigenous modular innovation.

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

china telecommunications mobile standards competition 3g

path dependence
increasing returns
catching-up


disk scheduling in system v A variety of disk scheduling algorithms, including some newly defined ones, are compared both in simulation and in tests on a real machine running UNIX * System V. In the real system tests, first-come first-served (FCFS), shortest seek time first (SSTF), and the standard System V algorithm (SVS) are all seen to yield relatively poor mean waiting time performance when compared to the VSCAN(0.2) algorithm and modifications thereof suggested by Coffman. Nevertheless, each is seen to excel along a particular performance dimension. The adequacy of open, Poisson arrival simulation models in predicting disk scheduling performance is questioned, and an alternative arrival model is suggested which offers improved predictions in the System V environment.

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

mean yield model simulation algorithm performance

standardization
disk scheduler
timing
systems
environments
predict