geometric surrogate-based optimisation for permutation-based problems In continuous optimisation, surrogate models (SMs) are used when tackling real-world problems whose candidate solutions are expensive to evaluate. In previous work, we showed that a type of SMs - radial basis function networks (RBFNs) - can be rigorously generalised to encompass combinatorial spaces based in principle on any arbitrarily complex underlying solution representation by extending their natural geometric interpretation from continuous to general metric spaces. This direct approach to representations does not require a vector encoding of solutions, and allows us to use SMs with the most natural representation for the problem at hand. In this work, we apply this framework to combinatorial problems using the permutation representation and report experimental results on the quadratic assignment problem.

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

radial-basis functions
surrogate model optimization


Computational approach to ensure the stability of the favorable ATP binding site in E. coli Hfq Bacterial Hfq is a highly conserved thermostable protein of about 10kDa. The Hfq protein was discovered in 1968 as an E. coli host factor that was essential for replication of the bacteriophage Q?. It is now clear that Hfq has many important physiological roles. In E. coli, Hfq mutants show a multiple stress response related phenotypes. Hfq is now known to regulate the translation of two major stress transcription factors RpoS and RpoE in Enterobacteria and mediates its plieotrophic effects through several mechanisms. It interacts with regulatory sRNA and facilitates their antisense interaction with their targets. It also acts independently to modulate mRNA decay and in addition acts as a repressor of mRNA translation. Recent paper from Arluison et al. [9] provided the first evidence indicating that Hfq is an ATP-binding protein. They determined a plausible ATP-binding site in Hfq and tested Hfq's ATP-binding affinity and stoichiometry. Experimental data suggest that the ATP-binding by the HfqRNA complex results in its significant destabilization of the protein and the result also proves important role of Tyr25 that flanks the cleft and stabilizes the adenine portion of ATP, possibly via aromatic stacking. In our study, the ATP molecule was docked into the predicted binding cleft using GOLD docking software. The binding nature of ATP and its effect on HfqRNA complex was studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Importance of Tyr25 residue was monitored and revealed using mutational study on the modeled systems. Our data and the corresponding results point to one of Hfq functional structural consequences due to ATP binding and Tyr25Ala mutation.

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

atp
mutation
aromatic stacking
destabilization

host factor protein-hfq
oligoribonucleotide
rna
post-transcriptional regulation
molecular dynamics simulation


The SDL pattern approach a reuse-driven SDL design methodology ? There are several SDL methodologies that offer full system life-cycle support. Only few of them consider software reuse, not to mention high-level reuse of architecture and design. However, software reuse is a proven software engineering paradigm leading to high quality and reduced development effort. Experience made it apparent that beyond the more traditional reuse of code especially high-level reuse of architecture and design (as in the case of design patterns or frameworks) has the potential of achieving more systematic and widespread reuse. This paper presents the SDL pattern approach, a design methodology for distributed systems which integrates SDL-based system development with the pattern paradigm. It supports reuse of design knowledge modeled as SDL patterns and concentrates on the design phase of SDL-based system development. In order to get full life-cycle support, the pattern-based design process can be integrated within existing SDL methodologies.

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

sdl
design methodology
software reuse
patterns
distributed systems


Database repairing using updates Repairing a database means bringing the database in accordance with a given set of integrity constraints by applying some minimal change. If a database can be repaired in more than one way, then the consistent answer to a query is defined as the intersection of the query answers on all repaired versions of the database. Earlier approaches have confined the repair work to deletions and insertions of entire tuples. We propose a theoretical framework that also covers updates as a repair primitive. Update-based repairing is interesting in that it allows rectifying an error within a tuple without deleting the tuple, thereby preserving consistent values in the tuple. Another novel idea is the construct of nucleus: a single database that yields consistent answers to a class of queries, without the need for query rewriting. We show the construction of nuclei for full dependencies and conjunctive queries. Consistent query answering and constructing nuclei is generally intractable under update-based repairing. Nevertheless, we also show some tractable cases of practical interest.

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

consistent query answering
database repairing


Simulation of face/hairstyle swapping in photographs with skin texture synthesis The modern trend of diversification and personalization has encouraged people to boldly express their differentiation and uniqueness in many aspects, and one of the noticeable evidences is the wide variety of hairstyles that we could observe today. Given the needs for hairstyle customization, approaches or systems, ranging from 2D to 3D, or from automatic to manual, have been proposed or developed to digitally facilitate the choice of hairstyles. However, nearly all existing approaches suffer from providing realistic hairstyle synthesis results. By assuming the inputs to be 2D photos, the vividness of a hairstyle re-synthesis result relies heavily on the removal of the original hairstyle, because the co-existence of the original hairstyle and the newly re-synthesized hairstyle may lead to serious artifact on human perception. We resolve this issue by extending the active shape model to more precisely extract the entire facial contour, which can then be used to trim away the hair from the input photo. After hair removal, the facial skin of the revealed forehead needs to be recovered. Since the skin texture is non-stationary and there is little information left, the traditional texture synthesis and image inpainting approaches do not fit to solve this problem. Our proposed method yields a more desired facial skin patch by first interpolating a base skin patch, and followed by a non-stationary texture synthesis. In this paper, we also would like to reduce the user assistance during such a process as much as possible. We have devised a new and friendly facial contour and hairstyle adjusting mechanism that make it extremely easy to manipulate and fit a desired hairstyle onto a face. In addition, our system is also equipped with the functionality of extracting the hairstyle from a given photo, which makes our work more complete. Moreover, by extracting the face from the input photo, our system allows users to exchange faces as well. In the end of this paper, our re-synthesized results are shown, comparisons are made, and user studies are conducted as well to further demonstrate the usefulness of our system.

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

active shape model
skin texture synthesis


Ubiquitous provision of context-aware web services Providing context-aware Web services refers to an adaptive process of delivering contextually matched Web services to meet service requesters needs at the moment. This article presents an ontology-based context model that enables formal description and acquisition of contextual information pertaining to both service requesters and services. The context model is supported by context query and phased acquisition techniques. Re also report two context-aware Web services built on top of our context model to demonstrate how the model can be used to facilitate Web services discovery and Web content adaptation. Implementation details of the context elicitation system and the evaluation results of context-aware services provision are also reported.

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

context-aware
owl-s
portable devices
service oriented architecture


Extracting Representative Information to Enhance Flexible Data Queries Extracting representative information is of great interest in data queries and web applications nowadays, where approximate match between attribute values/records is an important issue in the extraction process. This paper proposes an approach to extracting representative tuples from data classes under an extended possibility-based data model, and to introducing a measure (namely, relation compactness) based upon information entropy to reflect the degree that a relation is compact in light of information redundancy. Theoretical analysis and data experiments show that the approach has desirable properties that: 1) the set of representative tuples has high degrees of compactness (less redundancy) and coverage (rich content); 2) it provides a way to obtain data query outcomes of different sizes in a flexible manner according to user preference; and 3) the approach is also meaningful and applicable to web search applications.

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 O O O O O O 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

flexible data queries
relation compactness
web search


points-to analysis using bdds This paper reports on a new approach to solving a subset-based points-to analysis for Java using Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs). In the model checking community, BDDs have been shown very effective for representing large sets and solving very large verification problems. Our work shows that BDDs can also be very effective for developing a points-to analysis that is simple to implement and that scales well, in both space and time, to large programs.The paper first introduces BDDs and operations on BDDs using some simple points-to examples. Then, a complete subset-based points-to algorithm is presented, expressed completely using BDDs and BDD operations. This algorithm is then refined by finding appropriate variable orderings and by making the algorithm propagate sets incrementally, in order to arrive at a very efficient algorithm. Experimental results are given to justify the choice of variable ordering, to demonstrate the improvement due to incrementalization, and to compare the performance of the BDD-based solver to an efficient hand-coded graph-based solver. Finally, based on the results of the BDD-based solver, a variety of BDD-based queries are presented, including the points-to query.

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

order
examples
analysis
performance
paper
binary decision diagrams
model checking
space
verification
queries
demonstrate
algorithm
query

point
communities
efficiency
points-to analysis
timing
incremental
program
variability
experimentation
operability
graph
effect
completeness


Fuzzy Q-Learning Admission Control for WCDMA/WLAN Heterogeneous Networks with Multimedia Traffic In this paper, admission control by a fuzzy Q-learning technique is proposed for WCDMA/WLAN heterogeneous networks with multimedia traffic. The fuzzy Q-learning admission control (FQAC) system is composed of a neural-fuzzy inference system (NFIS) admissibility estimator, an NFIS dwelling estimator, and a decision maker. The NFIS admissibility estimator takes essential system measures into account to judge how each reachable subnetwork can support the admission request's required QoS and then output admissibility costs. The NFIS dwelling estimator considers the Doppler shift and the power strength of the requested user to assess his/her dwell time duration in each reachable subnetwork and then output dwelling costs. Also, in order to minimize the expected maximal cost of the user's admission request, a minimax theorem is applied in the decision maker to determine the most suitable subnetwork for the user request or to reject. Simulation results show that FQAC can always maintain the system QoS requirement up to a traffic intensity of 1.1 because it can appropriately admit or reject the users' admission requests. Also, the FQAC can achieve lower blocking probabilities than conventional JSAC proposed in [20] and can significantly reduce the handoff rate by 15-20 percent.

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


A numerical study of three-dimensional liquid sloshing in tanks A numerical model NEWTANK (Numerical Wave TANK) has been developed to study three-dimensional (3-D) non-linear liquid sloshing with broken free surfaces. The numerical model solves the spatially averaged NavierStokes equations, which are constructed on a non-inertial reference frame having arbitrary six degree-of-freedom (DOF) of motions, for two-phase flows. The large-eddy-simulation (LES) approach is adopted to model the turbulence effect by using the Smagorinsky sub-grid scale (SGS) closure model. The two-step projection method is employed in the numerical solutions, aided by the Bi-CGSTAB technique to solve the pressure Poisson equation for the filtered pressure field. The second-order accurate volume-of-fluid (VOF) method is used to track the distorted and broken free surface. Laboratory experiments are conducted for both 2-D and 3-D non-linear liquid sloshing in a rectangular tank. A linear analytical solution of 3-D liquid sloshing under the coupled surge and sway excitation is also developed in this study. The numerical model is first validated against the available analytical solution and experimental data for 2-D liquid sloshing of both inviscid and viscous fluids. The validation is further extended to 3-D liquid sloshing. The numerical results match with the analytical solution when the excitation amplitude is small. When the excitation amplitude is large where sloshing becomes highly non-linear, large discrepancies are developed between the numerical results and the analytical solutions, the former of which, however, agree well with the experimental data. Finally, as a demonstration, a violent liquid sloshing with broken free surfaces under six DOF excitations is simulated and discussed.

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

liquid sloshing
navierstokes equations
vof method
broken free surface
analytical solution

three-dimensional numerical model
non-inertial reference frame


Spike-based VLSI modeling of the ILD system in the echolocating bat The azimuthal localization of objects by echolocating bats is based on the difference of echo intensity received at the two ears, known as the interaural level difference (ILD). Mimicking the neural circuitry in the bat associated with the computation of ILD, we have constructed a spike-based VLSI model that can produce responses similar to those seen in the lateral superior olive (LSO) and some parts of the inferior colliculus (IC). We further explore some of the interesting computational consequences of the dynamics of both synapses and cellular mechanisms.

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 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

echolocation
spike-based
hardware model
masking


Having expectations of information systems benefits that match received benefits: does it really matter? A study was conducted to examine the effect of implementing a new system on its users, specifically, the relationship between pre-implementation expectations and their perceived benefits based on post-implementation experience. Disconfirmation theory was used as the theoretical basis; this predicts that unrealistically high expectations will result in lower levels of perceived benefit than those associated with realistic expectations (i.e. where expectations match experience). Support was found for this prediction, refuting the predictions of dissonance theory. In addition to examining expectations of system use generally, six expectation categories were examined to identify the critical categories where managers should keep expectations from becoming unrealistically high. Significant relationships were found for three expectation categories: system usefulness, ease of use, and information quality. The results indicate that creating and maintaining realistic expectations of future system benefits really does matter.

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

information systems success
end-user satisfaction
user expectations


Online updating belief rule based system for pipeline leak detection under expert intervention A belief rule base inference methodology using the evidential reasoning approach (RIMER) has been developed recently, where a new belief rule base (BRB) is proposed to extend traditional IF-THEN rules and can capture more complicated causal relationships using different types of information with uncertainties, but these models are trained off-line and it is very expensive to train and re-train them. As such, recursive algorithms have been developed to update the BRB systems online and their calculation speed is very high, which is very important, particularly for the systems that have a high level of real-time requirement. The optimization models and recursive algorithms have been used for pipeline leak detection. However, because the proposed algorithms are both locally optimal and there may exist some noise in the real engineering systems, the trained or updated BRB may violate some certain running patterns that the pipeline leak should follow. These patterns can be determined by human experts according to some basic physical principles and the historical information. Therefore, this paper describes under expert intervention, how the recursive algorithm update the BRB system so that the updated BRB cannot only be used for pipeline leak detection but also satisfy the given patterns. Pipeline operations under different conditions are modeled by a BRB using expert knowledge, which is then updated and fine tuned using the proposed recursive algorithm and pipeline operating data, and validated by testing data. All training and testing data are collected from a real pipeline. The study demonstrates that under expert intervention, the BRB expert system is flexible, can be automatically tuned to represent complicated expert systems, and may be applied widely in engineering. It is also demonstrated that compared with other methods such as fuzzy neural networks (FNNs), the RIMER has a special characteristic of allowing direct intervention of human experts in deciding the internal structure and the parameters of a BRB expert system.

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

belief rule base
expert system
evidential reasoning
recursive algorithm
leak detection


Negative concord with polyadic quantifiers In this paper we develop a syntax-semantics of negative concord in Romanian within a constraint-based lexicalist framework. We show that n-words in Romanian are best treated as negative quantifiers which may combine by resumption to form polyadic negative quantifiers. Optionality of resumption explains the existence of simple sentential negation readings alongside double negation readings. We solve the well-known problem of defining general semantic composition rules for translations of natural language expressions in a logical language with polyadic quantifiers by integrating our higher-order logical object language in Lexical Resource Semantics (LRS), whose constraint-based composition mechanisms directly support a systematic syntax-semantics for negative concord with polyadic quantification in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

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

negative concord
romanian
polyadic quantifiers
lexical resource semantics


Psychological reactance to online recommendation services ? Adoption of online recommendation services can improve the quality of decision making or it can pose threats to free choice. When people perceive that their freedom is reduced or threatened by others, they are likely to experience a psychological reactance where they attempt to restore the freedom. We performed an experimental study to determine whether users expectation of personalization increased their intention to use recommendation services, because their perception of expected threat to freedom caused by the recommendations reduced their intention to participate. An analysis based on subjects responses after using a hypothetical shopping website confirmed the two-sided nature of personalized recommendations, suggesting that the approach and avoidance strategies in persuasive communications can be effectively applied to personalized recommendation services on the web. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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

threat to freedom
psychological reactance
recommendation
personalization


Enhanced ab initio protein folding simulations in PoissonBoltzmann molecular dynamics with self-guiding forces We have investigated the sampling efficiency in molecular dynamics with the PB implicit solvent when self-guiding forces are added. Compared with a high-temperature dynamics simulation, the use of self-guiding forces in room-temperature dynamics is found to be rather efficient as measured by potential energy fluctuation, gyration radius fluctuation, backbone RMSD fluctuation, number of unique clusters, and distribution of low RMSD structures over simulation time. Based on the enhanced sampling method, we have performed ab initio folding simulations of two small proteins, ???1 and villin headpiece. The preliminary data for the folding simulations is presented. It is found that ???1 folding proceeds by initiation of the turn and the helix. The hydrophobic collapse seems to be lagging behind or at most concurrent with the formation of the helix. The hairpin stability is weaker than the helix in our simulations. Its role in the early folding events seems to be less important than the more stable helix. In contrast, villin headpiece folding proceeds first by hydrophobic collapse. The formation of helices is later than the collapse phase, different from the ???1 folding.

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

poissonboltzmann
molecular dynamics
protein folding
villin headpiece


An implicit Galerkin finite element RungeKutta algorithm for shock-structure investigations This paper introduces an implicit high-order Galerkin finite element RungeKutta algorithm for efficient computational investigations of shock structures. The algorithm induces no spatial-discretization artificial diffusion, relies on cubic and higher-degree elements for an accurate resolution of the steep shock gradients, uses an implicit time integration for swift convergence to steady states, and employs original Neumann-type outlet boundary conditions in the form of generalized RankineHugoniot conditions on normal stress and balance of heat flux and deviatoric-stress work per unit time. The formulation automatically calculates the spatial extent of the shock and employs the single non-dimensional (0,1) computational domain for the determination of any shock structure. Since it is implicit, the algorithm rapidly generates steady shock structures, in at most 150 time steps for any upstream Mach number considered in this study. The finite element discretization is shown to be asymptotically convergent under progressive grid refinements, in respect of both the H0 H 0 and H1 H 1 error norms, with an H0 H 0 accuracy order as high as 6 and reduction of the discretization error to the round-off-error threshold of 110?9 with just 420 computational cells and 5th-degree elements. For upstream Mach numbers in the range 1.05?M?10.0, the computational results satisfy the RankineHugoniot conditions and reflect independently published NavierStokes results.

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

normal shocks
shock-wave structures
computational stability
finite elements
implicit rungekutta


A contemporary view of organizational safety: variability and interactions of organizational processes Studies of qualitative assessment of organizational processes (e.g., safety audits and performance indicators) and their incorporation into risk models have been based on a normative view that decomposes organizations into separate processes that are likely to fail and lead to accidents. This paper discusses a control theoretic framework of organizational safety that views accidents as a result of performance variability of human behaviors and organizational processes whose complex interactions and coincidences lead to adverse events. Safety-related tasks managed by organizational processes are examined from the perspective of complexity and coupling. This allows safety analysts to look deeper into the complex interactions of organizational processes and how these may remain hidden or migrate toward unsafe boundaries. A taxonomy of variability of organizational processes is proposed and challenges in managing adaptability are discussed. The proposed framework can be used for studying interactions between organizational processes, changes of priorities over time, delays in effects, reinforcing influences, and long-term changes of processes. These dynamic organizational interactions are visualized with the use of system dynamics. The framework can provide a new basis for modeling organizational factors in risk analysis, analyzing accidents and designing safety reporting systems.

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

organizational safety
variability
complexity and coupling
system dynamics


Robust image-based visual servoing using invariant visual information Image-based visual servoing from spherical projection. Decoupled control using invariant features. A near-linear behavior is obtained thanks to the proposed features. The sensitivity to image noise is taken into account.

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


a distributed numerical/simulative algorithm for the analysis of large continuous time markov chains A distributed algorithm is introduced for the analysis of large continuous time Markov chains (CTMCs) by combining in some sense numerical solution techniques and simulation. CTMCs are described as a set of processes communicating via message passing. The state of a process is described by a probability distribution over a set of reachable states rather than by a single state. Simulation is used to determine event times and messages types to be exchanged, whereas transitions are realized by vector matrix products as in iterative numerical analysis techniques. In this way, the state space explosion of numerical analysis is avoided, but it is still possible to determine more detailed results than with simulation. Parallelization of the algorithm is realized applying a conservative synchronization scheme, which exploits the possibility of precomputing event times as already proposed for parallel simulation of CTMCs. In contrast to a pure simulation approach, the amount of computation is increased, whereas the amount of communication keeps constant. Hence it is possible to achieve even on a workstation cluster a significant speedup.

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

communication speedup simulation synchronization event analysis computation probability space parallel message types process algorithm distributed scheme cluster

distributed algorithms
parallel simulation
timing
combinational
product
vectorization
transit
exploit
message-passing
continuation
iter


Properties of prediction sorting One of the major sources of unwanted variation in an industrial process is the raw material quality. However, if the raw materials are sorted into more homogeneous groups before production, each group can be treated differently. In this way the raw materials can be better utilized and the stability of the end product may be improved. Prediction sorting is a methodology for doing this. The procedure is founded on the fuzzy c-means algorithm where the distance in the objective function is based on the predicted end product quality. Usually empirical models such as linear regression are used for predicting the end product quality. By using simulations and bootstrapping, this paper investigates how the uncertainties connected with empirical models affect the optimization of the splitting and the corresponding process variables. The results indicate that the practical consequences of uncertainties in regression coefficients are small. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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

raw material variability
robustness
fuzzy clustering


Interstitial fluid glucose time-lag correction for real-time continuous glucose monitoring Time lag between subcutaneous interstitial fluid and plasma glucose decreases the accuracy of real-time continuous glucose monitors. However, inverse filters can be designed to correct time lag and attenuate noise enabling the bloodglucose profile to be reconstructed in real time from continuous measurements of the interstitial-fluid glucose. We designed and tested a Wiener filter using a set of 20 sensor-glucose tracings (?30h each) with a 1-min sample interval. Delays of 102min (meanSD) were introduced into each signal with additive Gaussian white noise (SNR=40dB). Performance of the filter was compared to conventional causal and non-causal seventh-order finite-impulse response (FIR) filters. Time lags introduced an error of 5.32.7%. The error increased in the presence of noise (to 5.72.6%) and attempts to remove the noise with conventional low-pass filtering increased the error still further (to 7.03.5%). In contrast, the Wiener filter decreased the error attributed to time delay by ?50% in the presence of noise (from 5.7% to 2.601.26%) and by ?75% in the absence of noise (5.3% to 1.31%). Introducing time-lag correction without increasing sensitivity to noise can increase CGM accuracy.

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

continuous glucose monitoring
wiener filter
interstitial fluid


Fast data access and energy-efficient protocol for wireless data broadcast In wireless mobile computing environments, broadcasting is an effective and scalable technique to disseminate information to a massive number of clients, wherein the energy usage and responsiveness are considered major concerns. Existing air indexing schemes for data broadcast have focused on energy efficiency (reducing tuning time) only. On the other hand, existing broadcast scheduling schemes have aimed at reducing access latency through nonflat data broadcast to improve responsiveness only. Not much work has addressed the energy efficiency and responsiveness issues concurrently. In this paper, we propose a fast data access scheme concurrently supporting energy saving protocol that constructs the broadcast channels according to the access frequency of each type of message in order to improve energy efficiency in mobile devices (MDs). The pinwheel scheduling algorithm (PSA) presented in this paper is used to organize all types of messages in the broadcast channel in the most symmetrical distribution in order to reduce both the tuning and access time. The performance of the proposed mechanism is analyzed, and the improvement over existing methods is demonstrated numerically. The results show that the proposed mechanism is capable of improving both the tuning and access time due to the presence of skewness in the access distribution among the disseminated messages. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

mobile computing
energy saving
access time
tuning time


ONOFF retinal ganglion cells temporally encode OFF/ON sequence While the functions of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells have been intensively investigated, that of ONOFF cells has not. In the present study, the temporal properties of spike trains emitted from ON-OFF cells in response to randomly flickering or multiphase ramp stimuli were examined in the Japanese quail. The results indicate that the firing of ON-spikes was influenced by the recent firing of OFF-spikes, and vice versa. As a result of this interaction, OFF/ON sequence of light intensity change was encoded with a spike pair with an interval of 20ms, indicating that temporal coding is utilized in the vertebrate visual system as early as the retina. Thus, the present results suggest that retinal neuronal circuits may detect specific sequential features of stimuli.

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

onoff retinal ganglion cells
temporal coding
retina
quail

spike train
stimulus sequence
optic nerve


Noise reduction for magnetic resonance images via adaptive multiscale products thresholding Edge-preserving denoising is of great interest in medical image processing. This paper presents a wavelet-based multiscale products thresholding scheme for noise suppression of magnetic resonance images. A Canny edge detector-like dyadic wavelet transform is employed. This results in the significant features in images evolving with high magnitude across wavelet scales, while noise decays rapidly. To exploit the wavelet interscale dependencies we multiply the adjacent wavelet subbands to enhance edge structures while weakening noise. In the multiscale products, edges can be effectively distinguished from noise. Thereafter, an adaptive threshold is calculated and imposed on the products, instead of on the wavelet coefficients, to identify important features. Experiments show that the proposed scheme better suppresses noise and preserves edges than other wavelet-thresholding denoising methods.

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

denoising
multiscale products
thresholding
wavelet transform


Integration of semi-fuzzy SVDD and CC-Rule method for supplier selection A model based on semi-fuzzy support vector domain description (semi-fuzzy SVDD) is put forward to address multi-classification problem involved in supplier selection. By preprocessing using semi-fuzzy kernel clustering algorithm, original samples are divided into two subsets: deterministic samples and fuzzy samples. Only the fuzzy samples, rather than all original ones, require expert judgment to decide their categories and are selected as training samples to accomplish SVDD specification. Therefore, the samples preprocessing method can not only decrease experts working strength, but also achieve less computational consumption and better performance of the classifier. Nevertheless, in order to accomplish practical decision making, another condition has to be met: good explanations to the decision. A rule extraction method based on cooperative coevolution algorithm (CCEA), is introduced to achieve the target. To validate the proposed methodology, samples from real world were employed for experiments, with results compared with conventional multi-classification support vector machine approaches and other artificial intelligence techniques. Moreover, in terms of rule extraction, experiments on key parameters, different methods including decompositional and pedagogical ones etc. were also conducted.

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

supplier selection
support vector domain description
cooperative coevolution algorithm


A distributed disk layer for mass storage at DESY For the mass storage system at DESY, a disk layer is under development. Decoupling the client request queue and access to the mass storage system by means of migration, staging and prefetching it shall provide full utilization of robot and drive resources. By managing distributed disk resources in the heterogeneous computing environment of DESY, optimized data access shall be given. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

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

client-server architecture
network file system


On the learning machine for three dimensional mapping In this paper, we investigate the neural network with three-dimensional parameters for applications like 3D image processing, interpretation of 3D transformations, and 3D object motion. A 3D vector represents a point in the 3D space, and an object might be represented with a set of these points. Thus, it is desirable to have a 3D vector-valued neural network, which deals with three signals as one cluster. In such a neural network, 3D signals are flowing through a network and are the unit of learning. This article also deals with a related 3D back-propagation (3D-BP) learning algorithm, which is an extension of conventional back-propagation algorithm in the single dimension. 3D-BP has an inherent ability to learn and generalize the 3D motion. The computational experiments presented in this paper evaluate the performance of considered learning machine in generalization of 3D transformations and 3D pattern recognition.

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

3d back-propagation algorithm
3d real-valued vector
orthogonal matrix
3d face


A unified approach to the analysis of Horton-Strahler parameters of binary tree structures The Horton-Strahler number naturally arose from problems in various fields, e.g., geology, molecular biology and computer science. Consequently, detailed investigations of related parameters for different classes of binary tree structures are of interest. This paper shows one possibility of how to perform a mathematical analysis for parameters related to the Horton-Strahler number in a unified way such that only a single analysis is needed to obtain results for many different classes of trees. The method is explained by the examples of the expected Horton-Strahler number and the related rth moments, the average number of critical nodes, and the expected distance between critical nodes. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals. Inc.

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

average-case analysis
combinatorial structures
horton-strahler numbers
analytic combinatorics


Visitors of two types of museums: A segmentation study Market segmentation comprises a wide range of measurement tools that are useful for the sake of supporting marketing and promotional policies also in the sector of cultural economics. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on segmenting cultural visitors by using the Bagged Clustering method, as an alternative and effective strategy to conduct cluster analysis when binary variables are used. The technique is a combination of hierarchical and partitioning methods and presents several advantages with respect to more standard techniques, such as k-means and LVQ. For this purpose, two ad hoc surveys were conducted between June and September 2011 in the two principal museums of the two provinces of the Trentino-South Tyrol region (Bolzano and Trento), Northern Italy: the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano (TZI), hosting the permanent exhibition of the Iceman tzi, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). The segmentation analysis was conducted separately for the two kinds of museums in order to find similarities and differences in behaviour patterns and characteristics of visitors. The analysis identified three and two cluster segments respectively for the MART and TZI visitors, where two TZI clusters presented similar characteristics to two out of three MART groups. Conclusions highlight marketing and managerial implications for a better direction of the museums.

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


Grid Resource Availability Prediction-Based Scheduling and Task Replication The frequent and volatile unavailability of volunteer-based Grid computing resources challenges Grid schedulers to make effective job placements. The manner in which host resources become unavailable will have different effects on different jobs, depending on their runtime and their ability to be checkpointed or replicated. A multi-state availability model can help improve scheduling performance by capturing the various ways a resource may be available or unavailable to the Grid. This paper uses a multi-state model and analyzes a machine availability trace in terms of that model. Several prediction techniques then forecast resource transitions into the model's states. We analyze the accuracy of our predictors, which outperform existing approaches. We also propose and study several classes of schedulers that utilize the predictions, and a method for combining scheduling factors. We characterize the inherent tradeoff between job makespan and the number of evictions due to failure, and demonstrate how our schedulers can navigate this tradeoff under various scenarios. Lastly, we propose job replication techniques, which our schedulers utilize to replicate those jobs that are most likely to fail. Our replication strategies outperform others, as measured by improved makespan and fewer redundant operations. In particular, we define a new metric for replication efficiency, and demonstrate that our multi-state availability predictor can provide information that allows our schedulers to be more efficient than others that blindly replicate all jobs or some static percentage of jobs.

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

prediction availability scheduling replication


On the number of optimal identifying codes in a twin-free graph Let G G be a simple, undirected graph with vertex set V V . For v?V v ? V and r?1 r ? 1 , we denote by BG,r(v) B G , r ( v ) the ball of radius r r and centre v v . A set C?V C ? V is said to be an r r -identifying code in G G if the sets BG,r(v)?C B G , r ( v ) ? C , v?V v ? V , are all nonempty and distinct. A graph G G which admits an r r -identifying code is called r r -twin-free or r r -identifiable , and in this case the smallest size of an r r -identifying code in G G is denoted by ? r I D ( G ) . We study the number of different optimal r r -identifying codes C C , i.e., such that | C | = ? r I D ( G ) , that a graph G G can admit, and try to construct graphs having many such codes.

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

graph theory
twin-free graphs
identifiable graphs


On the impact of triangle shapes for boundary layer problems using high-order finite element discretization The impact of triangle shapes, including angle sizes and aspect ratios, on accuracy and stiffness is investigated for simulations of highly anisotropic problems. The results indicate that for high-order discretizations, large angles do not have an adverse impact on solution accuracy. However, a correct aspect ratio is critical for accuracy for both linear and high-order discretizations. Large angles are also found to be not problematic for the conditioning of the linear systems arising from the discretizations. Further, when choosing preconditioning strategies, coupling strengths among elements rather than element angle sizes should be taken into account. With an appropriate preconditioner, solutions on meshes with and without large angles can be achieved within a comparable time.

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

triangle shape
large angle
high-order finite element
ilu-factorization


Tree-walking automata cannot be determinized Tree-walking automata are a natural sequential model for recognizing languages of finite trees. Such automata walk around the tree and may decide in the end to accept it. It is shown that deterministic tree-walking automata are weaker than nondeterministic tree-walking automata. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

tree-walking automata
deterministic tree-walking automata


ADAPTABLE MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF THE GAIA METHODOLOGY Changes and adaptations are always necessary after the deployment of a multi-agent system (MAS), as well as of any other type of software systems. Some of these changes may be simply perfective and have local impact only. However, adaptive changes to meet new situations in the operational environment of the MAS may impact globally on the overall design. More specifically, those changes usually affect the organizational structure of the MAS. In this paper we analyze the issue of design change/adaptation in a MAS organization, and the specific problem of how to properly model/design a MAS so as to make it ready for adaptation. Special attention is paid to the Gaia methodology, whose suitability in dealing with adaptable MAS organizations is also discussed with the help of an illustrative application example.

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

agent-oriented methodologies
adaptive/adaptable organizations
design for changes


On the multicriteria allocation problem We consider multicriteria allocation problems with linear sum objectives. Despite the fact that the single objective allocation problem is easily solvable, we show that already in the bicriteria case the problem becomes intractable, is NP-hard and has a non-connected efficient set in general. Using the equivalence to appropriately defined multiple criteria multiple-choice knapsack problems, an algorithm is suggested that uses partial dominance conditions to save computational time. Different types of enumeration schemes are discussed, for example, with respect to the number of necessary filtering operations and with regard to possible parallelizations of the procedure.

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

multicriteria optimization
combinatorial optimization
location-allocation problem


Optimization and correction of the tool path of the five-axis milling machine - Part 2: Rotations and setup We present two new algorithms (which supplement Algorithms 1, 2 and 3 presented in part 1) to optimize the tool path of the five-axis numerically controlled milling machine. Algorithm 4 optimizes a set of feasible rotations. Algorithm 5 presents a least-square optimization with regard to a setup of the machine (c) 2006 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


teaching about the risks of electronic voting technology In these interesting times computer scientists are increasingly called upon to help concerned citizens understand the risks involved in the current generation of electronic voting machines. These risks and the concurrent escalation of legal challenges to the election system in the United States have shaken the confidence of many Americans that a fair and accurate election is even possible. As computer science educators we have an opportunity to add breadth and depth to our curriculum by using these issues to show how existing concepts can be applied to new problems, and how new problems extend our field. In this paper we identify some of the main problems with e-voting machines and vote-counting technology and suggest ways that discussions of the risks and the attendant societal and ethical issues might be incorporated into the computer science curriculum.

O O O O O B I O O 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


Effectiveness of bibliographic searches performed by paediatric residents and interns assisted by librarians. A randomised controlled trial Background:? Considerable barriers still prevent paediatricians from successfully using information retrieval technology.

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

evidence based library and information practice


A genetic programming model for bankruptcy prediction: Empirical evidence from Iran Prediction of corporate bankruptcy is a phenomenon of increasing interest to investors/creditors, borrowing firms, and governments alike. Timely identification of firms impending failure is indeed desirable. By this time, several methods have been used for predicting bankruptcy but some of them suffer from underlying shortcomings. In recent years, Genetic Programming (GP) has reached great attention in academic and empirical fields for efficient solving high complex problems. GP is a technique for programming computers by means of natural selection. It is a variant of the genetic algorithm, which is based on the concept of adaptive survival in natural organisms. In this study, we investigated application of GP for bankruptcy prediction modeling. GP was applied to classify 144 bankrupt and non-bankrupt Iranian firms listed in Tehran stock exchange (TSE). Then a multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) was used to benchmarking GP model. Genetic model achieved 94% and 90% accuracy rates in training and holdout samples, respectively; while MDA model achieved only 77% and 73% accuracy rates in training and holdout samples, respectively. McNemar test showed that GP approach outperforms MDA to the problem of corporate bankruptcy prediction.

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

bankruptcy prediction
genetic programming
multiple discriminant analysis


A queueing model for general group screening policies and dynamic item arrivals Classification of items as good or bad can often be achieved more economically by examining the items in groups rather than individually. If the result of a group test is good, all items within it can be classified as good, whereas one or more items are bad in the opposite case. Whether it is necessary to identify the bad items or not, and if so, how, is described by the screening policy. In the course of time, a spectrum of group screening models has been studied, each including some policy. However, the majority ignores that items may arrive at random time epochs at the testing center in real life situations. This dynamic aspect leads to two decision variables: the minimum and maximum group size. In this paper, we analyze a discrete-time batch-service queueing model with a general dependency between the service time of a batch and the number of items within it. We deduce several important quantities, by which the decision variables can be optimized. In addition, we highlight that every possible screening policy can, in principle, be studied, by defining the dependency between the service time of a batch and the number of items within it appropriately.

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

queueing
group screening policies
dynamic item arrivals


efficient character-level taint tracking for java Over 80\% of web services are vulnerable to attack, and much of the danger arises from command injection vulnerabilities. We present an efficient character-level taint tracking system for Java web applications and argue that it can be used to defend against command injection vulnerabilities. Our approach involves modification only to Java library classes and the implementation of the Java servlets framework, so it requires only a one-time modification to the server without any subsequent modifications to a web application's bytecode or access to the web application's source code. This makes it easy to deploy our technique and easy to secure legacy web software. Our preliminary experiments with the JForum web application suggest that character-level taint tracking adds 0-15\% runtime overhead.

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


How Accurate Can Block Matches Be in Stereo Vision? This article explores the subpixel accuracy attainable for the disparity computed from a rectified stereo pair of images with small baseline. In this framework we consider translations as the local deformation model between patches in the images. A mathematical study first shows how discrete block-matching can be performed with arbitrary precision under Shannon-Whittaker conditions. This study leads to the specification of a block-matching algorithm which is able to refine disparities with subpixel accuracy. Moreover, a formula for the variance of the disparity error caused by the noise is introduced and proved. Several simulated and real experiments show a decent agreement between this theoretical error variance and the observed root mean squared error in stereo pairs with good signal-to-noise ratio and low baseline. A practical consequence is that under realistic sampling and noise conditions in optical imaging, the disparity map in stereo-rectified images can be computed for the majority of pixels (but only for those pixels with meaningful matches) with a 1/20 pixel precision.

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


The Cognitive Internet of Things: A Unified Perspective In this article, we present a unified perspective on the cognitive internet of things (CIoT). It is noted that within the CIoT design we observe the convergence of energy harvesting, cognitive spectrum access and mobile cloud computing technologies. We unify these distinct technologies into a CIoT architecture which provides a flexible, dynamic, scalable and robust network design road-map for large scale IoT deployment. Since the prime objective of the CIoT network is to ensure connectivity between things, we identify key metrics which characterize the network design space. We revisit the definition of cognition in the context of IoT networks and argue that both the energy efficiency and the spectrum efficiency are key design constraints. To this end, we define a new performance metric called the overall link success probability which encapsulates these constraints. The overall link success probability is characterized by both the self-sustainablitiy of the link through energy harvesting and the availability of spectrum for transmissions. With the help of a reference scenario, we demonstrate that well-known tools from stochastic geometry can be employed to investigate both the node and the network level performance. In particular, the reference scenario considers a large scale deployment of a CIoT network empowered by solar energy harvesting deployed along with the centralized CIoT device coordinators. It is assumed that CIoT network is underlaid with a cellular network, i.e., CIoT nodes share spectrum with mobile users subject to a certain co-existence constraint. Considering the dynamics of both energy harvesting and spectrum sharing, the overall link success probability is then quantified. It is shown that both the self-sustainability of the link, and the availability of transmission opportunites, are coupled through a common parameter, i.e., the node level transmit power. Furthermore, provided the co-existence constraint is satisfied, the link level success in the presence of both the inter-network and intra-network interference is an increasing function of the transmit power. We demonstrate that the overall link level success probability can be maximized by employing a certain optimal transmit power. Characterization of such an optimal operational point is presented. Finally, we highlight some of the future directions which can benefit from the analytical framework developed in this paper.

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

internet-of-things
cognitive radios
stochastic cloud cover
shared spectrum
underlay


Lower bounds for modular counting by circuits with modular gates We prove that constant depth circuits, with one layer of MODm gates at the inputs, followed by a fixed number of layers of MODp gates, where p is prime, require exponential size to compute the MODq function, if q is a prime that divides neither p nor m.

O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 physical implementation of logical transformations: Generalized L-machines Any account of computation in a physical system, whether an artificial computing device or a natural system considered from a computational point of view, invokes some notion of the relationship between the abstract-logical and concrete-physical aspects of computation. In a recent paper, James Ladyman explored this relationship using a "hybrid physical-logical entity" - the L-machine - and the general account of computation that it supports [J. Ladyman, What does it mean to say that a physical system implements a computation?, Theoretical Computer Science 410 (2009) 376-383]. The underlying L-machine of Ladyman's analysis is, however, classical and highly idealized, and cannot capture essential aspects of computation in important classes of physical systems (e.g. emerging nanocomputing devices) where logical states do not have faithful physical representations and where noise and quantum effects prevail. In this work we generalize the L-machine to allow for generally unfaithful and noisy implementations of classical logical transformations in quantum mechanical systems. We provide a formal definition and physical-information-theoretic characterization of generalized quantum L-machines (QLMs), identify important classes of QLMs, and introduce new efficacy measures that quantify the faithfulness and fidelity with which logical transformations are implemented by these machines. Two fundamental issues emphasized by Ladyman - realism about computation and the connection between logical and physical irreversibility - are reconsidered within the more comprehensive account of computation that follows from our generalization of the L-machine. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

implementation
realism about computation

l-machine
landauer's principle
physical information theory
physics of computation
representation


Tangibles for learning: a representational analysis of physical manipulation Manipulativesphysical learning materials such as cubes or tilesare prevalent in educational settings across cultures and have generated substantial research into how actions with physical objects may support childrens learning. The ability to integrate digital technology into physical objectsso-called digital manipulativeshas generated excitement over the potential to create new educational materials. However, without a clear understanding of how actions with physical materials lead to learning, it is difficult to evaluate or inform designs in this area. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of effective tangible technologies for childrens learning by summarising key debates about the representational advantages of manipulatives under two key headings: offloading cognitionwhere manipulatives may help children by freeing up valuable cognitive resources during problem solving, and conceptual metaphorswhere perceptual information or actions with objects have a structural correspondence with more symbolic concepts. The review also indicates possible limitations of physical objectsmost importantly that their symbolic significance is only granted by the context in which they are used. These arguments are then discussed in light of tangible designs drawing upon the authors current research into tangibles and young childrens understanding of number.

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

physical manipulatives
mathematics learning
educational technology
virtual manipulatives


Identifying Spurious Interactions and Predicting Missing Interactions in the Protein-Protein Interaction Networks via a Generative Network Model With the rapid development of high-throughput experiment techniques for protein-protein interaction (PPI) detection, a large amount of PPI network data are becoming available. However, the data produced by these techniques have high levels of spurious and missing interactions. This study assigns a new reliably indication for each protein pairs via the new generative network model (RIGNM) where the scale-free property of the PPI network is considered to reliably identify both spurious and missing interactions in the observed high-throughput PPI network. The experimental results show that the RIGNM is more effective and interpretable than the compared methods, which demonstrate that this approach has the potential to better describe the PPI networks and drive new discoveries.

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 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

protein-protein interaction network
ppi data denoising


Similarities between powersets of terms Generalisation of the foundational basis for many-valued logic programming builds upon generalised terms in the form of powersets of terms. A categorical approach involving set and term functors as monads allows for a study of monad compositions that provide variable substitutions and compositions thereof. In this paper, substitutions and unifiers appear as constructs in Kleisli categories related to particular composed powerset term monads. Specifically, we show that a frequently used similarity-based approach to fuzzy unification is compatible with the categorical approach, and can be adequately extended in this setting; also some examples are included in order to illuminate the definitions. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

similarities
fuzzy unification
generalised terms


Feedback vertex sets on restricted bipartite graphs A feedback vertex set (FVS) in a graph is a subset of vertices whose complement induces a forest. Finding a minimum FVS is N P-complete on bipartite graphs, but tractable on convex bipartite graphs and on chordal bipartite graphs. A bipartite graph is called tree convex, if a tree is defined on one part of the vertices, such that for every vertex in the other part, its neighborhood induces a subtree. When the tree is a path, a triad or a star, the bipartite graph is called convex bipartite, triad convex bipartite or star convex bipartite, respectively. We show that: (I) FVS is tractable on triad convex bipartite graphs; (2) FVS is N P-complete on star convex bipartite graphs and on tree convex bipartite graphs where the maximum degree of vertices on the tree is at most three. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

feedback vertex set
tree convex bipartite


The extended Delaunany tessellation The extended Delaunay tessellation (EDT) is presented in this paper as the unique partition of a node set into polyhedral regions defined by nodes lying on the nearby Voronoi spheres. Until recently, all the FEM mesh generators were limited to the generation of tetrahedral or hexahedral elements (or triangular and quadrangular in 2D problems). The reason for this limitation was the lack of any acceptable shape function to be used in other kind of geometrical elements. Nowadays, there are several acceptable shape functions for a very large class of polyhedra. These new shape functions, together with the EDT, gives an optimal combination and a powerful tool to solve a large variety of physical problems by numerical methods. The domain partition into polyhedra presented here does not introduce any new node nor change any node position. This makes this Process suitable for Lagrangian problems and meshless methods in which only the connectivity information is used and there is no need for any expensive smoothing 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

mesh generation
delaunayl/voronoi tessellations


interlaced euler scheme for stiff systems of stochastic differential equations In deterministic as well as stochastic models, stiff systems, i.e., systems with vastly different time scales where the fast scales are stable, are very common. It is well known that the implicit Euler method is well suited for stiff deterministic equations (modeled by ODEs) while the explicit Euler is not. In particular, once the fast transients are over, the implicit Euler allows for the choice of time steps comparable to the slowest time scales of the system. In stochastic systems (modeled by SDEs) the picture is more complex. While the implicit Euler has better stability properties over the explicit Euler, it underestimates the stationary variance. In general, one may not expect any method to work successfully by taking time steps of the order of the slowest time scale. We explore the idea of interlacing large implicit Euler steps with a sequence of small explicit Euler steps. In particular, we present our study of a linear test system of SDEs and demonstrate that such interlacing could effectively deal with stiffness. We also discuss the uniform convergence of mean and variance.

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

stochastic differential equations
implicit euler method
uniform convergence
stiffness


Inverse problem for wave propagation in a perturbed layered half-space This paper is concerned with the inverse medium scattering problem in a perturbed, layered, half-space, which is a problem related to the seismologial investigation of inclusions inside the earth's crust. A wave penetrable object is located in a layer where the refraction index is different from the other part of the half-space. Wave propagation in such a layered half-space is different from that in a homogeneous half-space. In a layered half-space, a scattered wave consists of a free wave and a guided wave. In many cases, only the free-wave far-field or only the guided-wave far-field can be measured. We establish mathematical formulas for relations between the object, the incident wave and the scattered wave. In the ideal condition where exact data are given, we prove the uniqueness of the inverse problem. A numerical example is presented for the reconstruction of a penetrable object from simulated noise data. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


an explorative analysis of user evaluation studies in information visualisation This paper presents an analysis of user studies from a review of papers describing new visualisation applications and uses these to highlight various issues related to the evaluation of visualisations. We first consider some of the reasons why the process of evaluating visualisations is so difficult. We then dissect the problem by discussing the importance of recognising the nature of experimental design, datasets and participants as well as the statistical analysis of results. We propose explorative evaluation as a method of discovering new things about visualisation techniques, which may give us a better understanding of the mechanisms of visualisations. Finally we give some practical guidance on how to do evaluation correctly.

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

explorative evaluation
evaluation
information visualisation


An investigation the factors affecting MIS student burnout in technical-vocational college Management information system (MIS) students are one of the most important information system (IS) employee sources. However, the determinants of student's burnout for MIS major students have received little attentions, despite their importance as indicator in predicting professional burnout and their working intention after their graduation and becoming IS professionals. This study explores the antecedents of student burnout for MIS major at technical-vocational college. Self-efficacy, social support, and sex-role were considered as antecedents to MIS student burnout. A questionnaire method by self-administered technique was used in this study. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the hypotheses. Statistical results displayed that MIS students with social support, self-efficacy and femininity have predictive power over student burnout. MIS students with social support and masculinity also have predictive power over self-efficacy.

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

technical-vocational education
self-efficacy
sex-role


BEM calculation of the complex thermal impedance of microelectronic devices This paper presents a numerical method for modelling the dynamic thermal behaviour of microelectronic structures in the frequency domain. A boundary element method (BEM) based on a Green's function solution is proposed for solving the 3D heat equation in phasor notation. The method is capable of calculating the AC temperature and heat flux distributions and complex thermal impedance for packages composed of an arbitrary number of bar-shaped components. Various types of boundary conditions, including thermal contact resistance and convective cooling, can be taken into account. A simple benchmark case is investigated and a good convergence towards the analytical solution is obtained. Simulation results for a thin plate under convective cooling are compared with a theoretical model and an excellent agreement is observed. In a second example a more complicated three-layer structure is investigated. The BEM is used to analyse the thermal behaviour if delamination of the package occurs, and a physical explanation for the results is given.

O O O O O B 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 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

thermal impedance
boundary element method
phasor notation

microelectronics
green's function
nyquist plot
heat transfer


Directional texture transfer for video Texture transfer is a method that copies the texture of a reference image to a target image. This technique has an advantage in that various styles can be expressed according to the reference image, in a single framework. However, in this technique, it is not easy to control the effect of each style. In addition, when this technique is extended to processing video images, maintaining temporal coherence is very difficult. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that transfers the texture of a reference image to a target video while retaining the directionality of the target video. The algorithm maintains the temporal coherency of the transferred texture, and controls the style of the texture transfer.

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

example-based rendering
video processing


Wind parameters extraction from aircraft trajectories High altitude wind parameters can be extracted from recorded aircraft positions. This method gives the best results when aircraft are stabilized (no turn, no climb, no descend) This method can extract wind dynamics, e.g. how wind parameters change over time. Our method performs well thanks to a mix of automatic wind extraction and direct manipulation technique.

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

least squares approximation
air traffic control
data exploration
visual analytics


A three-dimensional model of the human transglutaminase 1: insights into the understanding of lamellar ichthyosis The stratum corneum, the outer layer of the epidermis, serves as a protective barrier to isolate the skin from the external environment. Keratinocyte transglutaminase 1 (TGase 1) catalyzes amide crosslinking between glutamine and lysine residues on precursor proteins forming the impermeable layers of the epidermal cell envelopes (CE), the highly insoluble membranous structures of the stratum corneum. Patients with the autosomal recessive skin disorder lamellar ichthyosis (LI) appear to have deficient cross-linking of the cell envelope due to mutations identified in TGase 1, linking this enzyme to LI. In the absence of a crystal structure, molecular modeling was used to generate the structure of TGase 1. We have mapped the known mutations of TGase 1 from our survey obtained from a search of PubMed and successfully predicted the impact of these mutations on LI. Furthermore, we have identified Ca(2+) binding sites and propose that Ca(2+) induces a cis to trans isomerization in residues near the active site as part of the enzyme transamidation activation. Docking experiments suggest that substrate binding subsequently induces the reverse cis to trans isomerization, which may be a significant part of the catalytic process. These results give an interpretation at the molecular level of previously reported mutations and lead to further insights into the structural model of TGase 1, providing a new basis for understanding LI.

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

keratinocyte transglutaminase 1
lamellar ichthyosis
mutations
isomerization
molecular modeling


Understanding continuance usage of mobile sites Purpose - The purpose of this research is to draw on both perspectives of technological perceptions and flow experience to examine continuance usage of mobile sites. Design/methodology/approach - Based on the valid responses collected from a. survey questionnaire, structural equation modeling technology was employed to examine the research model. Findings - The results indicated that both perspectives of technological perceptions and flow experience have effects on satisfaction, which in turn affects continuance usage. Technological perceptions include system quality and information quality, whereas flow experience includes perceived enjoyment and attention focus. Among them, perceived enjoyment has the largest effect on satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - This research is conducted in China, where mobile internet is still in its early stage. Thus, the results need to be generalized to other countries that had developed mobile internet. Originality/value - Previous research has focused on the effects of instrumental beliefs such as perceived usefulness on mobile user continuance. However, user behavior may be also affected by intrinsic motivations such as flow. This research tries to fill the gap.

O O O O B I O O 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 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

information quality
system quality
mobile sites


Interconnection analysis for standard cell layouts We present an accurate model and procedures for predicting the common physical design characteristics of standard cell layouts (i.e., the interconnection length and the chip area). The predicted results are obtained from analysis of the net list only, that is, no prior knowledge of the functionality of the design is used, Random and optimized placements, global routing, and detailed routing are each abstracted by procedural models that capture the important features of these processes, and closed-form expressions that define these procedural models are presented. We have verified both the global characteristics (total interconnection length and layout area) and the detailed characteristics (wire length and feedthrough distributions) of the model, On the designs in our test suite, the estimates are very close to the actual layouts.

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

global route modeling
interconnection length estimation
layout area estimation
placement modeling
standard cell layout


MISEP - Linear and nonlinear ICA based on mutual information Linear Independent Components Analysis (ICA) has become an important signal processing and data analysis technique, the typical application being blind source separation in a wide range of signals, such as biomedical, acoustical and astrophysical ones. Nonlinear ICA is less developed, but has the potential to become at least as powerful. This paper presents MISEP, an ICA technique for linear and nonlinear mixtures, which is based on the minimization of the mutual information of the estimated components. MISEP is a generalization of the popular INFOMAX technique, which is extended in two ways: (1) to deal with nonlinear mixtures, and (2) to be able to adapt to the actual statistical distributions of the sources, by dynamically estimating the nonlinearities to be used at the outputs. The resulting MISEP method optimizes a network with a specialized architecture, with a single objective function: the output entropy. The paper also briefly discusses the issue of nonlinear source separation. Examples of linear and nonlinear source separation performed by MISEP are presented.

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

ica
blind source separation
mutual information


Beyond state-of-the-art topology as normative ground for decison-making systems Reviews experiments in design and urbanism, intervening in the development of transdisciplinary systems theory for decision-making organizations. Presents beyond state-of-the-art phenomena, of a morphological and topological type (out of architecture), and advocates harnessing such creativity power to problem solving in informatics.

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


Fuzzy-hybrid modelling of an Ackerman steered electric vehicle Physical system modelling with known parameters together with 2-D or high order look-up tables (obtained from experimental data), have been the preferred method for simulating electric vehicles. The non-linear phenomena which are present at the vehicle tyre patch and ground interface have resulted in it quantitative understanding of this phenomena. However, nowadays, there is it requirement for a deeper understanding of the vehicle sub-models which previously used look-up tables. In this paper the hybrid modelling methodology used for electric vehicle systems offers a two-stage advantage: firstly, the vehicle model retains a comprehensive analytical formulation and secondly, the 'fuzzy' element offers, in addition to the quantitative results, a qualitative understanding of specific vehicle sub-models. In the literature several hybrid topologies are reported, sequential, auxiliary, and embedded. In this paper, the hybrid model topology selected is auxiliary and within the same hybrid model, the first paradigm used is the vehicle dynamics together With the actuator/gearbox system. The second paradigm is the non-linear fuzzy tyre model for each wheel. In particular, conventional physical system dynamic modelling has been combined with the fuzzy logic type-II or type-III methodology. The resulting hybrid-fuzzy tyre models were estimated for a-priori number of rules from experimental data. The physical system modelling required the available vehicle parameters such as the overall mass, wheel radius and chassis dimensions. The suggested synergetic fusion of the two methods, (hybrid-fuzzy), allowed the vehicle planar trajectories to be obtained prior to the hardware development of the entire vehicle. The strength of this methodology is that it requires localised system experimental data rather than global system data. The disadvantage in obtaining global experimental data is the requirement for comprehensive testing of it vehicle prototype which is both time consuming process and requires extensive resources. In this paper the authors have proposed the use of existing experimental rigs which are available from the leading automotive manufacturers. Hence, for the 'hybrid' modelling, localised data sets were used. In particular, wheel-tyre experimental data were obtained from the University Tyre Rig experimental facilities. Tyre forces acting on the tyre patch are mainly responsible for the overall electric vehicle motion. In addition, tyre measurement rigs are a well known method for obtaining localised data thus allowing the effective simulation of more detailed mathematical models. These include, firstly, physical system modelling (conventional vehicle dynamics), secondly, fuzzy type II or III modelling (for the tyre characteristics), and thirdly, electric drive modelling within the context of electric vehicles. The proposed hybrid model synthesis has resulted in simulation results which are similar to piece-wise 'look-up' table solutions. In addition, the strength of the 'hybrid' synthesis is that the analyst has a set of rules which clearly show the reasoning behind the complex development of the vehicle tyre forces. This is due to the inherent transparency of the type II and type III methodologies. Finally, the authors discussed the reasons for selecting a type-III framework. The paper concludes with a plethora of simulation results. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

hybrid model synthesis-
type-ii and type-iii fuzzy systems
parameter estimation
electric drives


On the assessment and evaluation of voice hoarseness This article presents a non-invasive speech processing method for the assessment and evaluation of voice hoarseness. A technique based on time-scale analysis of the voice signal is used to decompose the signal into a suitable number of high-frequency details and extract the high-frequency bands of the signal. A discriminating measure, which measures the roll-off in power in the high-frequency bands of the signal, with respect to the decomposition index, is developed. The measure reflects the presence and degree of severity of hoarseness in the analyzed voice signals. The discriminating measure is supported by frequency-domain and time-series analyses of the high-frequency bands of normal and hoarse voice signals to provide a visual aid to the clinician or therapist. A database of sustained long vowels of normal and hoarse voices is created and used to assess the presence and degree of severity of hoarseness. The results obtained by the proposed method are compared to results obtained by perturbation analysis.

O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 pathology
speech analysis
time-scale and time-series analysis