A note to due-window assignment and single machine scheduling with deteriorating jobs and a rate-modifying activity This note considers a single machine scheduling and due-window assignment problem, in which the processing time of a job is a linear function of its starting time and the job-independent deterioration rates are identical for all jobs. We allow an option for performing a rate-modifying activity for changing the normal processing times of the jobs following this activity. The objective is to schedule the jobs, the due-window and the rate-modifying activity so as to minimize the sum of earliness, tardiness and due-window starting time and due-window size costs. We introduce a polynomial solution for the problem.

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

scheduling
deteriorating jobs
single machine


User-centric secure integration of personal RFID tags and sensor networks A personal network (PN) should enable the collaboration of user's devices and services in a flexible, self-organizing, and friendly manner. For such purpose, the PN must securely accommodate heterogeneous technologies with uneven computational and communication resources. In particular, personal radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can enable seamless recognition of user's context, provide user authentication, and enable novel services enhancing the quality and quantity of data handled by the PN. However, the highly constrained features of common RFID tags and their passive role in the network highlights the need of an adequate secure communication model with personal tags, which enables their participation as a member of the PN. In this paper, we present our concept of PN, with special emphasis on the role of RFID and sensor networks, and define a secure architecture for PNs including methods for the secure access to context-aware technologies from both local PN members and the Internet of Things. The PN architecture is designed to support differentiated security mechanisms to maximize the level of security for each type of personal device. Furthermore, we analyze which security solutions available in the literature can be adapted for our architecture, as well as the challenges and security mechanisms still necessary in the secure integration of personal tags. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

personal networks
rfid security
body sensor network


An MPI prototype for compiled communication on Ethernet switched clusters Compiled communication has recently been proposed to improve communication performance for clusters of workstations. The idea of compiled communication is to apply more aggressive optimizations to communications whose information is known at compile time. Existing MPI libraries do not support compiled communication. In this paper, we present an MPI prototype, CC-MPI, that supports compiled communication on Ethernet switched clusters. The unique feature of CC-MPI is that it allows the user to manage network resources such as multicast groups directly and to optimize communications based on the availability of the communication information. CC-MPI optimizes one-to-all, one-to-many, all-to-all, and many-to-many collective communication routines using the compiled communication technique. We describe the techniques used in CC-MPI and report its performance.The results show that communication performance of Ethernet switched clusters can be significantly improved through compiled communication. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc.

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

mpi
clusters of workstations
compiled communication
collective communication


A high speed method of SMTS In order to improve the computational speed of the method of surface modeling based on the theorem of surfaces (SMTS), a modified GaussSeidel (GS) method (MGS) was introduced and a MGS of SMTS (SMTS-MGS) has been developed. Numerical tests show that SMTS-MGS is more than twice as fast as SMTS-GS and much faster than the classical iterative methods provided by MATLAB 7.0. The computing time of SMTS-MGS is proportional to the first power of the total number of grid cells in the computational domain, whereas the classical SMTS computing time is proportional to the third power of the total number of grid cells. A real-world example of constructing a series of DEMs of Dongzhi tableland was employed to comparatively analyze the simulation accuracies of the two versions of SMTS including SMTS-MGS and the classical SMTS, and the well parameterized classical interpolation methods including the inverse distance weighted technique (IDW), kriging, thin plate spline (TPS), regularized TPS, TPS with tension, and ANUDEM Version 4.6.3, at spatial resolutions of 5, 12, 20, and 25m. The real-world example demonstrates that SMTS-MGS with the same accuracy as SMTS is approximately as accurate as the third-order TPS and much better than other classical interpolation methods at almost all spatial resolutions, except for ANUDEM at a spatial resolution of 5m. On average, SMTS-MGS provides the best results with a minimum of computing 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


Clusters, confusion and unfoldings We study independence of events in the unfoldings of Petri nets, in particular indirect influences between concurrent events: Confusion in the sense of Smith [11] and weak interference. The role of structural (conflict) clusters is investigated, and a new unfolding semantics based on clusters motivated and introduced.

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


debugging support for security properties of software architectures Determining whether a software architecture meets its security requirements is an early step in assuring the security of the products developed from the architecture. In this paper, we propose a tool-based technique using an authorization scheme to analyze the security of software architectures. Such technique will serve as debugging support for software architectures to identify the portion in the software architecture that fails to meet the required level. Security is analyzed in terms of its aggregate attributes: availability, confidentiality, and integrity. In this paper, we address confidentiality and show that integrity is measured in a complementary manner to confidentiality. A scenario based approach is taken to analyze security in a software architecture. Our work is implemented in the OSATE environment and analyzes software architectures modeled using AADL (Architecture Analysis and Design Language).

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


Towards the classification of scalar nonpolynomial evolution equations: Quasilinearity We prove that, for m >= 7, scalar evolution equations of the form u(t) = F(x, t, u,..., u(m)) which admit a nontrivial conserved density of order m + 1 are linear in u(m). The existence of such conserved densities is a necessary condition for integrability in the sense of admitting a formal symmetry, hence, integrable scalar evolution equations of order m >= 7, admitting nontrivial conserved densities are quasilinear. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

evolution equations
integrability
classification
formal symmetry


Adaptive LASSO for general transformation models with right censored data In this paper, we consider variable selection for general transformation models with right censored data and propose a unified procedure for both variable selection and estimation. We conduct the proposed procedure by maximizing penalized log-marginal likelihood function with Adaptive LASSO penalty (ALASSO) on regression coefficients. Two main advantages of this procedure are as follows: (i) the penalties can be assigned to regression coefficients adaptively by data according to the importance of corresponding covariates; (ii) it is free of baseline survival function and censoring distribution. Under some regular conditions, we show that the penalized estimates with ALASSO are root n-consistent and enjoy oracle properties. Some simulation examples and Primary Biliary Cirrhosis Data application illustrate that our proposed procedure works very well for moderate sample size. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

general transformation models
alasso
lasso
oracle

penalized log-marginal likelihood
scad
consistency


The sum of all human knowledge: A systematic review of scholarly research on the content of Wikipedia Wikipedia may be the best-developed attempt thus far to gather all human knowledge in one place. Its accomplishments in this regard have made it a point of inquiry for researchers from different fields of knowledge. A decade of research has thrown light on many aspects of the Wikipedia community, its processes, and its content. However, due to the variety of fields inquiring about Wikipedia and the limited synthesis of the extensive research, there is little consensus on many aspects of Wikipedia's content as an encyclopedic collection of human knowledge. This study addresses the issue by systematically reviewing 110 peer-reviewed publications on Wikipedia content, summarizing the current findings, and highlighting the major research trends. Two major streams of research are identified: the quality of Wikipedia content (including comprehensiveness, currency, readability, and reliability) and the size of Wikipedia. Moreover, we present the key research trends in terms of the domains of inquiry, research design, data source, and data gathering methods. This review synthesizes scholarly understanding of Wikipedia content and paves the way for future studies.

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


Optimal passive-damping design using a decentralized velocity-feedback H-infinity approach In this work, a new strategy to design passive energy dissipation systems for vibration control of large structures is presented. The method is based on the equivalence between passive damping systems and fully decentralized static velocity-feedback controllers. This equivalence allows to take advantage of recent developments in static output-feedback control design to formulate the passive-damping design as a single optimization problem with Linear Matrix Inequality constraints. To illustrate the application of the proposed methodology, a passive damping system is designed for the seismic protection of a five-story building with excellent 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

decentralized control
structural vibration control
static output-feedback
optimal passive damping


Mathematical model of a biosensor with multilayer charged membrane A mathematical model of an enzyme biosensor with a multilayer charged membrane is developed. The model is reduced to a one-dimensional transmission problem for the system of second-order partial differential equations. It includes the drift-diffusion equations for reaction components and products in the membrane as well as the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential. The numerical solution algorithm is developed and applied to model performances of an enzyme biosensor for the measurement of glucose concentration in human blood. The numerical study shows that adding a charged layer to the conventional enzyme membrane significantly changes the biosensor output and can result in both increase and decrease of sensor sensitivity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


a canonical model for interactive unawareness Heifetz, Meier and Schipper (2006) introduced a generalized state-space model that allows for non-trivial unawareness among several individuals and strong properties of knowledge. We show that this generalized state-space model arises naturally if states consist of maximally consistent sets of formulas in an appropriate logical formulation.

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

bounded perception
interactive epistemology
lack of conception
modal logic
awareness


Seriation in the Presence of Errors: A Factor 16 Approximation Algorithm for l (a)-Fitting Robinson Structures to Distances The classical seriation problem consists in finding a permutation of the rows and the columns of the distance (or, more generally, dissimilarity) matrix d on a finite set X so that small values should be concentrated around the main diagonal as close as possible, whereas large values should fall as far from it as possible. This goal is best achieved by considering the Robinson property: a distance d (R) on X is Robinsonian if its matrix can be symmetrically permuted so that its elements do not decrease when moving away from the main diagonal along any row or column. If the distance d fails to satisfy the Robinson property, then we are lead to the problem of finding a reordering of d which is as close as possible to a Robinsonian distance. In this paper, we present a factor 16 approximation algorithm for the following NP-hard fitting problem: given a finite set X and a dissimilarity d on X, we wish to find a Robinsonian dissimilarity d (R) on X minimizing the l (a)-error aEuro-d-d (R) aEuro-(a)=max (x,yaX) {vertical bar d(x,y)-d (R) (x,y)vertical bar} between d and d (R) .

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

robinsonian dissimilarity
approximation algorithm
fitting problem


distributed fault detection of wireless sensor networks Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have become a new information collection and monitoring solution for a variety of applications. Faults occurring to sensor nodes are common due to the sensor device itself and the harsh environment where the sensor nodes are deployed. In order to ensure the network quality of service it is necessary for the WSN to be able to detect the faults and take actions to avoid further degradation of the service. The goal of this paper is to locate the faulty sensors in the wireless sensor networks. We propose and evaluate a localized fault detection algorithm to identify the faulty sensors. The implementation complexity of the algorithm is low and the probability of correct diagnosis is very high even in the existence of large fault sets. Simulation results show the algorithm can clearly identify the faulty sensors with high accuracy.

O O O O B I I 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 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


E-government and citizen's engagement with local affairs through e-websites: The case of Spanish municipalities ? As a mixture of new technologies, processes and services oriented to the citizen, e-government has become one of the most important keywords for the public sector reform with proponents claiming that it guarantees transparency, accountability and better communication between local and national administrations and their public. Few if any studies have investigated the factors that might contribute to the establishment of trusting relationship between city councils and citizens. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of three types of information communication technologies (ICTs) towards the use of e-government and the development of civic engagement. We conduct an empirical investigation of 179 Spanish official town websites (web sites in the municipalities). The research findings suggest that implementing ICT not only involves a step towards an increase in the use of e-government services by people, but also provides numerous opportunities for their civic engagement. The main conclusion of this study is that although ICT can leverage the adoption of e-government, it cannot create alone engagement with traditional activities of the local government. What is missing from this relationship is a mediating variable (adoption of e-government by government officers), which in turn can greatly help to better understand how ICT impacts relationships between governments and their citizens.

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


Extending Amdahls law and Gustafsons law by evaluating interconnections on multi-core processors Multicore chips are emerging as the mainstream solution for high performance computing. Generally, communication overheads cause large performance degradation in multi-core collaboration. Interconnects in large scale are needed to deal with these overheads. Amdahls and Gustafsons law have been applied to multi-core chips but inter-core communication has not been taken into account. In this paper, we introduce interconnection into Amdahls and Gustafsons law so that these laws work more precisely in the multi-core era. We further propose an area cost model and analyse our speedup models under area constraints. We find optimized parameters according to our speedup model. These parameters provide useful feedbacks to architects at an initial phase of their designs. We also present a case study to show the necessity of incorporating interconnection into Amdahls and Gustafsons law.

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

amdahls law
gustafsons law
interconnection
model


Optimal Selective Feedback Policies for Opportunistic Beamforming This paper studies the structure of downlink sum-rate maximizing selective decentralized feedback policies for opportunistic beamforming under finite feedback constraints on the average number of mobile users feeding back. First, it is shown that any sum-rate maximizing selective decentralized feedback policy must be a threshold feedback policy. This result holds for all fading channel models with continuous distribution functions. Second, the resulting optimum threshold selection problem is analyzed in detail. This is a nonconvex optimization problem over finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces. By utilizing the theory of majorization, an underlying Schur-concave structure in the sum-rate function is identified, and the sufficient conditions for the optimality of homogenous threshold feedback policies are obtained. Applications of these results are illustrated for well-known fading channel models such as Rayleigh, Nakagami, and Rician fading channels. Rather surprisingly, it is shown that using the same threshold value at all mobile users is not always a rate-wise optimal feedback strategy, even for a network in which mobile users experience statistically the same channel conditions. For the Rayleigh fading channel model, on the other hand, homogenous threshold feedback policies are proven to be rate-wise optimal if multiple orthonormal data carrying beams are used to communicate with multiple mobile users simultaneously.

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

opportunistic beamforming (obf)
sum-rate
vector broadcast channels


Compressing hexahedral volume meshes Unstructured hexahedral volume meshes are of particular interest for visualization and simulation applications. They allow regular tiling of the three-dimensional space and show good numerical behaviour in finite element computations. Beside such appealing properties, volume meshes take up huge amounts of space when stored in a raw format. In this paper, we present a technique for encoding the connectivity and geometry of unstructured hexahedral volume meshes. For connectivity compression, we generalize the concept of coding with degrees from the surface to the volume case. In contrast to the connectivity of surface meshes, which can be coded as a sequence of vertex degrees, the connectivity of volume meshes is coded as a sequence of edge degrees. This naturally exploits the regularity of typical hexahedral meshes. We achieve compression rates of around 1.5 bits per hexahedron (bph) that go down to 0.18 bph for regular meshes. On our test meshes the average connectivity compression ratio is 1:162.7. For geometry compression, we perform simple parallelogram prediction on uniformly quantized vertices within the side of a hexahedron. Tests show an average geometry compression ratio of 1:3.7 at a quantization level of 16 bits.

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

mesh compression
degree coding
volume data


Learning information extraction rules for semi-structured and free text A wealth of on-line text information can be made available to automatic processing by information extraction (IE) systems. Each IE application needs a separate set of rules tuned to the domain and writing style. WHISK helps to overcome this knowledge-engineering bottleneck by learning text extraction rules automatically. WHISK is designed to handle text styles ranging from highly structured to free text, including text that is neither rigidly formatted nor composed of grammatical sentences. Such semi-structured text has largely been beyond the scope of previous systems. When used in conjunction with a syntactic analyzer and semantic tagging, WHISK can also handle extraction from free text such as news stories.

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

natural language processing
rule learning


Finite element method for epitaxial growth with attachment-detachment kinetics An adaptive finite element method is developed for a class of free or moving boundary problems modeling island dynamics in epitaxial growth. Such problems consist of an adatom (adsorbed atom) diffusion equation on terraces of different height; boundary conditions on terrace boundaries including the kinetic asymmetry in the adatom attachment and detachment, and the normal velocity law for the motion of such boundaries determined by a two-sided flux, together with the one-dimensional "surface" diffusion. The problem is solved using two independent meshes: a two-dimensional mesh for the adatom diffusion and a one-dimensional mesh for the boundary evolution. The diffusion equation is discretized by the first-order implicit scheme in time and the linear finite element method in space. A technique of extension is used to avoid the complexity in the spatial discretization near boundaries. All the elements are marked. and the marking is updated in each time step, to trace the terrace height. The evolution of the terrace boundaries includes both the mean curvature flow and the surface diffusion. Its governing equation is solved by a semi-implicit front-tracking method using parametric finite elements. Simple adaptive techniques are employed in solving the adatom diffusion as well as the boundary motion problem. Numerical tests on pure geometrical motion, mass balance, and the stability of a growing circular island demonstrate that the method is stable, efficient, and accurate enough to simulate the growing of epitaxial islands over a sufficiently long time period. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

epitaxial growth
island dynamics
adatom diffusion
surface diffusion
mean curvature flow
finite elements

free or moving boundary problem
attachment-detachment kinetics
adaptivity
front tracking


Tunability of the FBG group delay through acousto-optic modulation A new method for fine control of the group delay of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is presented. It is based on an acoustic wave applied to the fiber. The standing acoustic wave imposes a periodic chirp to the uniform FBG. Tunability is obtained through adjustment of the intensity and/or frequency of the acoustic wave. A fast switching time of ?17?s was achieved. The experimental results were verified by theoretical simulation showing a good agreement between them. It can be used for different applications such as tunable narrow dispersion compensator for independent coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) channels or optical delay lines.

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

acousto-optic (ao) modulation
fiber bragg grating (fbg)
dispersion compensation (dc)


Subdivision surfaces integrated in a CAD system ? Perfect integration of subdivision surfaces in a CAD system. Interoperability of subdivision surfaces with other representations. B-rep representation of a subdivision solid and of hybrid NURBS/subdivision objects. Local correction of critical curvature and parameterization behavior.

B I 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 B I O O O O O O

computer-aided design
b-rep representation


On listing, sampling, and counting the chordal graphs with edge constraints We discuss the problems to list, sample, and count the chordal graphs with edge constraints. The objects we look at are chordal graphs sandwiched by a given pair of graphs where we assume that at least one of the input graphs is chordal. The setting is a natural generalization of chordal completions and deletions. For the listing problem, we give an efficient algorithm running in polynomial time per output with polynomial space. As for the sampling problem, we give two clues that indicate that a random sampling is not easy. The first clue is that we show #P-completeness results for counting problems. The second clue is that we give an instance for which a natural Markov chain suffers from an exponential mixing time. These results provide a unified viewpoint from algorithms' theory to problems arising from various areas such as statistics, data mining, and numerical computation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

graph sandwich
chordal completion/deletion
enumeration
#p-completeness
markov chain monte carlo


An initial seed selection algorithm for k-means clustering of georeferenced data to improve replicability of cluster assignments for mapping application K-means is one of the most widely used clustering algorithms in various disciplines, especially for large datasets. However the method is known to be highly sensitive to initial seed selection of cluster centers. K-means++ has been proposed to overcome this problem and has been shown to have better accuracy and computational efficiency than k-means. In many clustering problems though such as when classifying georeferenced data for mapping applications standardization of clustering methodology, specifically, the ability to arrive at the same cluster assignment for every run of the method i.e. replicability of the methodology, may be of greater significance than any perceived measure of accuracy, especially when the solution is known to be non-unique, as in the case of k-means clustering. Here we propose a simple initial seed selection algorithm for k-means clustering along one attribute that draws initial cluster boundaries along the deepest valleys or greatest gaps in dataset. Thus, it incorporates a measure to maximize distance between consecutive cluster centers which augments the conventional k-means optimization for minimum distance between cluster center and cluster members. Unlike existing initialization methods, no additional parameters or degrees of freedom are introduced to the clustering algorithm. This improves the replicability of cluster assignments by as much as 100% over k-means and k-means++, virtually reducing the variance over different runs to zero, without introducing any additional parameters to the clustering process. Further, the proposed method is more computationally efficient than k-means++ and in some cases, more accurate.

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

classification
grouping of data
natural breaks
jenks natural breaks
natural breaks arcgis
jenks arcgis


Merlin: Specification Inference for Explicit Information Flow Problems The last several years have seen a proliferation of static and run-time analysis tools for finding security violations that are caused by explicit information flow in programs. Much of this interest has been caused by the increase in the number of vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection. In fact, these explicit information flow vulnerabilities commonly found in Web applications now outnumber vulnerabilities such as buffer overruns common in type-unsafe languages such as C and C++. Tools checking for these vulnerabilities require a specification to operate. In most cases the task of providing such a specification is delegated to the user. Moreover, the efficacy of these tools is only as good as the specification. Unfortunately, writing a comprehensive specification presents a major challenge: parts of the specification are easy to miss, leading to missed vulnerabilities; similarly, incorrect specifications may lead to false positives. This paper proposes MERLIN, a new approach for automatically inferring explicit information flow specifications from program code. Such specifications greatly reduce manual labor, and enhance the quality of results, while using tools that check for security violations caused by explicit information flow. Beginning with a data propagation graph, which represents interprocedural flow of information in the program, MERLIN aims to automatically infer an information flow specification. MERLIN models information flow paths in the propagation graph using probabilistic constraints. A naive modeling requires an exponential number of constraints, one per path in the propagation graph. For scalability, we approximate these path constraints using constraints on chosen triples of nodes, resulting in a cubic number of constraints. We characterize this approximation as a probabilistic abstraction, using the theory of probabilistic refinement developed by McIver and Morgan. We solve the resulting system of probabilistic constraints using factor graphs, which are a well-known structure for performing probabilistic inference. We experimentally validate the MERLIN approach by applying it to 10 large business-critical Web applications that have been analyzed with CAT. NET, a state-of-the-art static analysis tool for. NET. We find a total of 167 new confirmed specifications, which result in a total of 322 additional vulnerabilities across the 10 benchmarks. More accurate specifications also reduce the false positive rate: in our experiments, MERLIN-inferred specifications result in 13 false positives being removed; this constitutes a 15% reduction in the CAT. NET false positive rate on these 10 programs. The final false positive rate for CAT. NET after applying MERLIN in our experiments drops to under 1%.

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

languages
security
specification inference


Partial spatial protection for provisioning differentiated reliability in FSTR-based Metro Ethernet networks Fast Spanning Tree Reconnection (FSTR) is a newly proposed restoration method by us to handle link failures in Metro Ethernet networks. Compared with other methods existing in the literature, FSTR has the advantages of lower signaling overhead, faster recovery and lesser rerouted traffic. However, FSTR lacks its own mechanism to support differentiated reliability (DiR), which is required by voice and data services, as well as a variety of emerging multimedia applications such as video conferencing and online gaming. In DiR, a traffic request is guaranteed a minimum reliability/protection degree in the event of a link failure, according to clients' requirements. Unnecessary redundant/backup network resources are thus eliminated in DiR and, as a result, the blocking probability of traffic requests decreases, compared to that in full protection where 100% reliability is guaranteed for all traffic requests. In this work, we propose to use partial spatial protection (PSP) mechanism at the spanning tree layer to provision DiR in FSTR-based Metro Ethernet networks. The basic idea of PSP to provide DiR is that a traffic request is protected using backup bandwidth against failure of only a subset of the links on its route, according to the specified reliability requirement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on the problem of PSP at the spanning tree level, a layer unique to Ethernet where traffic requests are required to be mapped onto different trees and the protection mechanisms usually involve tree restoration/reconstruction. We formulate the optimal PSP problem in FSTR-based Metro Ethernet networks as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. We develop a heuristic algorithm to reduce the computational complexity in implementing PSP. The heuristic algorithm is designed based on a known 1/2approximation approach to the Knapsack problem. We describe the recovery operations of PSP in the event of a link failure. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed PSP solution can significantly reduce the blocking probability of traffic requests in an FSTR-based Metro Ethernet network, compared to full protection. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

metro ethernet network
protection
differentiated reliability
fast spanning tree reconnection


Dynamic strategy for teaching structural analysis Improving students' understanding of structural analysis within a limited time represents a challenge for both students and lecturers. As a result, emphasis is usually placed on either the analytical or conceptual aspect of the subject. This paper argues that, within the same time frame, the simultaneous development of both aspects could lead to a better understanding of the subject. The development and implementation of a computer program suitable for this purpose is described, and its application to the compatibility method is illustrated. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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

structural analysis
compatibility method


Input files with ORNL - Mathematical phantoms of the human body for MCNP-4B Protection against ionizing radiation requires information on the absorbed doses in organs of the human body. Implantation of many dosimeters in the human body is undesirable (or impossible), so the doses in organs are not measurable and some kind of dose calculation has to be applied. Calculation of doses in organs requests: (a) an exact description of the geometry of organs, (b) the chemical constitution of tissues, and (c) appropriate computer programs. The first two items, (a) and (b), make a so-called "phantom". In another words, the "phantom of a human body" is a mathematical representation of the human body including all other relevant information. All organs are represented with geometrical bodies (like cylinders, ellipsoids, tori, cones etc.), which are described with suitable mathematical equations. A corresponding chemical constitution for various types of organ tissues is also defined. MCNP-4B ((M) under bar onte (C) under bar arlo (N) under bar-(P) under bar article) is often used as transport code. Users of this software prepare an "input file" providing all necessary information for program execution. This information includes: (a) source definition-type of ionizing radiation, energy spectrum, and geometry of the source; (b) target definition-material constitution, geometry, location in respect to the source etc. (c) characterization of absorbing media between the source and target; (d) output tally, etc. This paper presents input files with "human phantoms" for the MCNP-4B code. The input files with "phantoms" were prepared based on publications issued by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Seven input files relating to different age groups (newborn, 1, 5, 10, 15 years, as well as, male and female adults) are presented here. A test example and comparison with other data found in literature are also given.

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

mcnp-4b code
input filed
mathematical phantom
age dependent


Statistical characterization of P2P-TV services and users P2P-TV systems will certainly contribute to innovate the broadcast TV concept by allowing ubiquitous access to a practically unlimited number of channels, representing an important step forward in the direction of the Anything/Anyone/Anywhere/Anytime communication paradigm of future Internet applications. Since its deployment, P2P-TV has already attracted millions of users and it is expected to grow exponentially in the near future, both in terms of the number and diversity of their clients. Analyzing the behavior of P2P-TV systems and users and characterizing the generated traffic are fundamental steps to understand and evaluate the potential impacts of these applications on the underlying transport network. In this paper, a set of intensive measurements was conducted in a residential Internet access environment in order to obtain a good insight over the mechanisms that govern data transfer on some of the most important P2P-TV applications (TVants, SOPCast and TVU Player) and understand the most important advances they have suffered in the latest years. Among other relevant findings, the analysis showed that peer location does not seem to be exploited by any of the studied applications and P2P-TV is already a worldwide phenomenon: using the three selected applications during 12 days of experiments, peers from 177 different countries all over the world were contacted, including countries where the interest for English-spoken channels was not so likely.

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

tvants
sopcast
tvu player
statistical characterization


UNIVERSAL QUANTUM COMPUTING IN LINEAR NEAREST NEIGHBOR ARCHITECTURES We introduce a scheme for realizing universal quantum computing in a linear nearest neighbor architecture with fixed couplings. We first show how to realize a controlled-NOT gate operation between two adjacent qubits without having to isolate the two qubits from qubits adjacent to them. The gate operation is implemented by applying two consecutive pulses of equal duration, but varying amplitudes, on the target qubit. Since only a single control parameter is required in implementing our scheme, it is very efficient. We next show how our scheme can be used to realize single qubit rotations and two-qubit controlled-unitary operations. As most proposals for solid state implementations of a quantum computer use a one-dimensional line of qubits, the schemes presented here will be extremely useful.

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

quantum computation
quantum architectures
linear nearest neighbour
controlled-unitary
toffoli gate


A new security access scheme for WLANs and its performance simulation analysis The IEEE 802.11 standard is becoming the most popular and efficient network topology deployed today. Providing and ensuring the security of wireless network is an essential part to its continuous growth. Goals such as confidentiality and trust imply that every data transmitted by each user stays known only to the communication parties. Authorization of users is also a very important aspect of network integrity. There exist mechanisms defined by the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocol that enable such functionality; however, recent attacks on such systems showed that these mechanisms can be defined. In this paper, we propose a new scheme to authenticate and authorize 802.11 wireless nodes within a network. This new layer of security relies on a neural network decision engine that restricts network access to mobile nodes whose physical location is within a threshold distance from the wireless access point or the controller of the network. This method gives an extra layer of security and allows policies to be enforced which only allow network access from a certain section of the network. We give a detailed description of the work done as well as a performance simulation analysis of this scheme.

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

security of wlans
authentication
proximity
neural networks
performance evaluation


Encoding and decoding of analog signals with a population of neurons In this paper, we discuss how an analog signal can be encoded using biophysically realistic neural networks. Using the activity curve of a single neuron, we argue that the activities can be pooled over a population so that the weighted sum of the activities approximate a given function. Since the activities of neurons are not available as a variable, we propose to generate them in real time by a suitable low-pass filter. Using the proposed scheme, we demonstrate how simple ordinary differential equations can be solved. In effect, the ordinary differential equations are solved by dynamically updating the activities of the neurons. In an actual biological neural network, the activities of the cells are not obtained by a low-pass filter. They are integrated in the network by a suitable synaptic input. A new optimization algorithm for finding a set of optimal synaptic weights has been proposed and successfully implemented using a software package GENESIS. The difference between biological neural networks and artificial neural networks is discussed in somewhat greater details. The important concepts are illustrated by implementing a memory and by solving a periodic ordinary differential equation, the Van der Pol oscillator. (C) 2004 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

neuroscience
rate coding
limit cycles
oscillations


HUMAN ACTION RECOGNITION USING META-COGNITIVE NEURO-FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEM We propose a sequential Meta-Cognitive learning algorithm for Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (McFIS) to efficiently recognize human actions from video sequence. Optical flow information between two consecutive image planes can represent actions hierarchically from local pixel level to global object level, and hence are used to describe the human action in McFIS classifier. McFIS classifier and its sequential learning algorithm is developed based on the principles of self-regulation observed in human meta-cognition. McFIS decides on what-to-learn, when-to-learn and how-to-learn based on the knowledge stored in the classifier and the information contained in the new training samples. The sequential learning algorithm of McFIS is controlled and monitored by the meta-cognitive components which uses class-specific, knowledge based criteria along with self-regulatory thresholds to decide on one of the following strategies: (i) Sample deletion (ii) Sample learning and (iii) Sample reserve. Performance of proposed McFIS based human action recognition system is evaluated using benchmark Weizmann and KTH video sequences. The simulation results are compared with well known SVM classifier and also with state-of-the-art action recognition results reported in the literature. The results clearly indicates McFIS action recognition system achieves better performances with minimal computational effort.

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 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

meta-cognition
self-regulatory learning
classification
neuro-fuzzy inference system


A classification spline machine for building a credit scorecard In constructing a scorecard, we partition each characteristic variable into a few attributes and assign weights to those attributes. For the task, a simulated annealing algorithm has been proposed. A drawback of simulated annealing is that the number of cutpoints separating each characteristic variable into attributes is required as an input. We introduce a scoring method, called a classification spline machine (CSM), which determines cutpoints automatically via a stepwise basis selection. In this paper, we compare performances of CSM and simulated annealing on simulated datasets. The results indicate that the CSM can be useful in the construction of scorecards.

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

cutpoint
logistic regression
spline basis


Some compartmentalized secure task assignment models for distributed systems This paper formulates abstract problems of assigning subtasks to agents (processors) in a distributed system with a goal that they can perform its global task efficiently. The paper models the distributed system with a graph that describes the communication capabilities of the constituting agents. This graph is referred to as the "organizational graph." In addition, the desired task-performing activity is modeled with another graph describing the required communications. Then, a few variants of the task assignment problem are formulated with potentially conflicting objectives ( or constraints) of load balancing and communication costs. For some of these variants this paper provides efficient algorithms that solve the assignment problem. Some problems are proven NP-complete, and some others are left open.

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

task assignment
distributed systems
load balancing


A fast codebook design algorithm for ECVQ based on angular constraint and hyperplane decision rule In this paper, we propose two fast codebook generation algorithms for entropy-constrained vector quantization. The first algorithm uses the angular constraint to reduce the search area and to accelerate the search process in the codebook design. It employs the projection angles of the vectors to a reference line. The second algorithm has feature of using a suitable hyperplane to partition the codebook and image data. These algorithms allow significant acceleration in codebook design process. Experimental results are presented on image block data. These results show that our new algorithms perform better than the previously known methods.

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

fast search algorithm
entropy-constrained vector quantization


Information systems integration in mergers and acquisitions: A normative model The role of Information Systems in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) becomes increasingly important as the need for speed of reaction and information is growing. A model for IS integration in M&A is presented; this includes the categories and strategic objectives of external growth as well as consideration of the possible choices for the hardware and software configuration after completion of the M&A. The basic variables of the model are defined and the possible IS integration strategies are classified in a matrix having, as dimensions, the software configuration and the computer architecture. The IS integration model resulting from these basic elements is divided into a descriptive model and a decision support model: the first one shows the relations among the involved variables, while the second provides a practical tool for decision-making. Both these models have been tested with a survey guided by a questionnaire; Factor Analysis was used to analyze the results. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

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

mergers and acquisitions
information systems
is integration strategies


Two level General variable neighborhood search for Attractive traveling salesman problem Attractive traveling salesman problem (AtTSP) consists of finding maximal profit tour starting and ending at a given depot after visiting some of the facilities. Total length of the tour must not exceed the given maximum distance. Each facility achieves profit from the customers, based on the distance between the facility and customers as well as on the attractiveness of that facility. Total profit of a tour is equal to a sum of profits of all visited facilities. In this paper, we develop a new variant of Variable neighborhood search, called 2-level General variable neighborhood search (2-GVNS) for solving AtTSP. At the second level, we use General variable neighborhood search in the local search lor building neighboring solution and checking its feasibility. Our 2-GVNS heuristic outperforms tabu search heuristic, the only one proposed in the literature so far, in terms of precision and running times. In addition, 2-GVNS finds all optimal known solutions obtained by Branch and cut algorithm and offers several new best known solutions.

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

traveling salesman problem
variable neighborhood search

demand attraction
demand allocation
2-level gvns


Optimal (r,?3) ( r , ? 3 ) -locatingdominating codes in the infinite king grid Assume that G=(V,E) G = ( V , E ) is an undirected graph with vertex set V V and edge set E E . The ball Br(v) B r ( v ) denotes the vertices within graphical distance r r from v v . A subset C?V C ? V is called an (r,?l) ( r , ? l ) -locatingdominating code of type B if the sets Ir(F)=?v?F(Br(v)?C) I r ( F ) = ? v ? F ( B r ( v ) ? C ) are distinct for all subsets F?V?C F ? V ? C with at most l l vertices. We give examples of optimal (r,?3) ( r , ? 3 ) -locatingdominating codes of type B B in the infinite king grid for all r?N+ r ? N + and prove optimality. The infinite king grid is the graph with vertex set Z2 Z 2 and edge set {{(x1,y1),(x2,y2)}?|x1?x2|?1,|y1?y2|?1} { { ( x 1 , y 1 ) , ( x 2 , y 2 ) } ? | x 1 ? x 2 | ? 1 , | y 1 ? y 2 | ? 1 } .

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


Sunscapes: Solar envelopes and the analysis of urban DEMs The aim of this paper is twofold: first, it simplifies solar envelope calculations, making them easier to carry out over extensive urban areas; second, the proposed routines refine the definition of solar envelopes so that they reflect more accurately the actual irradiation of the city and make results directly applicable in urban planning. Both targets can be achieved if we use a new technique for urban analysis, based on the processing of urban digital elevation models (DEMs). The second question, in particular, can be addressed by introducing the concept of iso-solar surfaces surfaces that extend the concept of solar envelope through energy considerations. Our early experiments suggest that iso-solar surfaces may be an effective way to quantify urban irradiation and illumination. As an example, results are presented for the Trade Fair site in Milan, Italy, one of the largest real estate developments currently being implemented in Europe.

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

solar envelopes
digital elevation models

solar energy
iso-solar surface
image processing
matlab


Background modeling by subspace learning on spatio-temporal patches This paper presents a novel background model for video surveillanceSpatio-Temporal Patch based Background Modeling (STPBM). We use spatio-temporal patches, called bricks, to characterize both the appearance and motion information. Our method is based on the observation that all the background bricks at a given location under all possible lighting conditions lie in a low dimensional background subspace, while bricks with moving foreground are widely distributed outside. An efficient online subspace learning method is presented to capture the subspace, which is able to model the illumination changes more robustly than traditional pixel-wise or block-wise methods. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is insensitive to drastic illumination changes yet capable of detecting dim foreground objects under low contrast. Moreover, it outperforms the state-of-the-art in various challenging scenes with illumination changes.

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

visual surveillance
spatio-temporal patch


New conditions on synchronization of networks of linearly coupled dynamical systems with non-Lipschitz right-hand sides ? In this paper, we study synchronization of networks of linearly coupled dynamical systems. The node dynamics of the network can be very general, which may not satisfy the QUAD condition. We derive sufficient conditions for synchronization, which can be regarded as extensions of previous results. These results can be employed to networks of coupled systems, of which, in particular, the node dynamics have non-Lipschitz or even discontinuous right-hand sides. We also give several corollaries where the synchronization of some specific non-QUAD systems can be deduced. As an application, we propose a scheme to realize synchronization of coupled switching systems via coupling the signals which drive the switchings. Examples with numerical simulations are also provided to illustrate the theoretical results.

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

linearly coupled systems
non-lipschitz
discontinuous right-hand side


video temporal segmentation using support vector machine A first step required to allow video indexing and retrieval of visual data is to perform a temporal segmentation, that is, to find the location of camera-shot transitions, which can be either abrupt or gradual. We adopt SVM technique to decide whether a shot transition exists or not within a given video sequence. Active learning strategy is used to accelerate training of SVM-classifiers. We also introduce a new feature description of video frame based on Local Binary Pattern (LBP). Cosine Distance is used to qualify the difference between frames in our works. The proposed method is evaluated on the TRECVID-2005 benchmarking platform and the experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the method.

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

temporal video segmentation
video retrieval
shot boundary detection


Modelling of an Homogeneous Equilibrium Mixture Model (HEM) We present here a model for two phase flows which is simpler than the 6-equations models (with two densities, two velocities, two temperatures) but more accurate than the standard mixture models with 4 equations (with two densities, one velocity and one temperature). We are interested in the case when the two-phases have been interacting long enough for the drag force to be small but still not negligible. The so-called Homogeneous Equilibrium Mixture Model (HEM) that we present is dealing with both mixture and relative quantities, allowing in particular to follow both a mixture velocity and a relative velocity. This relative velocity is not tracked by a conservation law but by a closure law (drift relation), whose expression is related to the drag force terms of the two-phase flow. After the derivation of the model, a stability analysis and numerical experiments are presented.

O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 comparative study of software systems from the optimization viewpoint Analysis technology is widely accepted and quite popular these days. Incorporation of the analysis result into a design process is a key factor for the success of an analysis area. A few design software products have been commercialized. Generally, they are trying to make an interface between various design methods and analysis software. Optimization is a typical automatic design method. The software products of optimization are investigated and compared for user convenience and algorithm performance. A few popular products are selected. A graphical user interface (GUI) is compared for capability and efficiency. The performances of the optimization algorithms are tested by mathematical and engineering examples, and the results are discussed.

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

design environment
optimization software


The future of IPTV As more and more content migrates to the Internet, personal video choices are becoming the norm not the exception. The impact of Internet content and IP-based video distribution is still difficult to evaluate. However, there is obviously no turning back as this content pervades the home and the community. Driven in large part by the near-ubiquitous IP-based communication services, the TV experience has been extended over the years to embrace many of the same ancillary services provided by web applications. This new TV promises to deliver a world of content and services to any device, anywhere, anytime. This article addresses the architecture, the value chain and the technical and business challenges of implementing this new connected mobile and social TV experience. To put the architecture into a context, this article also presents a use case of the distributed community Digital Video Recorder (DVR) as an implementation of this vision.

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

iptv
mobile
social
personal
value chain
dvr


Multi-frequency based location search algorithm of small electromagnetic inhomogeneities embedded in two-layered medium In this paper, we consider a problem for finding the locations of electromagnetic inhomogeneities completely embedded in homogeneous two layered medium. For this purpose, we present a filter function operated at several frequencies and design an algorithm for finding the locations of such inhomogeneities. It is based on the fact that, the collected Multi-Static Response (MSR) matrix can be modeled via a rigorous asymptotic expansion formula of the scattering amplitude due to the presence of such inhomogeneities. In order to show the effectiveness, we compare the proposed algorithm with traditional MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm and Kirchhoff migration. Various numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is robust with respect to random noise and yields more accurate location than the MUSIC algorithm and Kirchhoff migration.

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

location search algorithm
small electromagnetic inhomogeneities
two layered medium
numerical results


Thorough robot navigation based on SVM local planning Autonomous robot path planning. SVM based local planning. Global map formation.


analysis for the characteristics of non-uniform sampled fiber grating Based on coupled mode theory, the optic-spectral property of non-uniform sampled fiber grating are theoretically analyzed and numerically simulated using the transfer matrix method. We believe the finding presented here offer useful guideline to the design of the sampled fiber Bragg grating.

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


A period vehicle routing case study The period vehicle routing problem is a multilevel problem assembling two classical problems: the assignment problem and the vehicle routing problem. Collection days have to be assigned to each customer and vehicle routes have to be designed for each day of the period (time horizon) so that the total distribution cost is minimised. The interaction between the temporal and spatial aspects turns the problem into one of the most challenging variations of vehicle routing. In this paper, we present the study of a real period vehicle routing system: the collection of recycling paper containers in the City Council of Almada, Portugal.

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


Identification of pathogen genomic variants through an integrated pipeline Whole-genome sequencing represents a powerful experimental tool for pathogen research. We present methods for the analysis of small eukaryotic genomes, including a streamlined system (called Platypus) for finding single nucleotide and copy number variants as well as recombination events.

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


On solving simple bilevel programs with a nonconvex lower level program In this paper, we consider a simple bilevel program where the lower level program is a nonconvex minimization problem with a convex set constraint and the upper level program has a convex set constraint. By using the value function of the lower level program, we reformulate the bilevel program as a single level optimization problem with a nonsmooth inequality constraint and a convex set constraint. To deal with such a nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization problem, we design a smoothing projected gradient algorithm for a general optimization problem with a nonsmooth inequality constraint and a convex set constraint. We show that, if the sequence of penalty parameters is bounded then any accumulation point is a stationary point of the nonsmooth optimization problem and, if the generated sequence is convergent and the extended Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification holds at the limit then the limit point is a stationary point of the nonsmooth optimization problem. We apply the smoothing projected gradient algorithm to the bilevel program if a calmness condition holds and to an approximate bilevel program otherwise. Preliminary numerical experiments show that the algorithm is efficient for solving the simple bilevel program.

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

bilevel program
value function
smoothing projected gradient algorithm

partial calmness
smoothing function
gradient consistent property
integral entropy function
65k10
90c26


An efficient non-interactive deniable authentication scheme based on trapdoor commitment schemes Deniable authentication scheme is one of useful tools for secure communications. The scheme allows a sender to prove the authenticity of a message to a specified receiver without permitting the receiver to prove that the message was authenticated by the sender. Non-interactive schemes are more attractive than interactive schemes in terms of communication overhead, and thus several non-interactive deniable authentication scheme have been proposed. In this paper, we propose an efficient non-interactive deniable authentication scheme based on trapdoor commitment scheme. We construct an efficient trapdoor commitment scheme which provides very efficient commitment evaluation operation. Then we design an efficient non-interactive deniable authentication scheme by using the trapdoor commitment scheme. We also prove the security of our scheme under firmly formalized security model. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

deniable authentication
trapdoor commitment


Construction and application of an ellipsoidal convex model using a semi-definite programming formulation from measured data As a set theory-based convex model, the ellipsoidal model provides an attractive framework for treating uncertain-but-bounded variations in the structural reliability analysis and design optimization. However, improper modeling of the uncertainties may give rise to misleading non-probabilistic reliability analysis, thus result in either unsafe or over-conservative designs. This paper presents a systematic study on the mathematical formulation for constructing the minimum-volume ellipsoidal convex model using a given set of sample data, and shows its application in existing methods of non-probabilistic reliability analysis and design optimization of structures with bounded uncertainties. In this method, the uncertain parameters are first divided into groups according to their sources. For each individual group of uncertainties, the minimum-volume ellipsoid problem is reformulated into a semi-definite programming (SDP) problem and thus can be efficiently solved to its global optimum. Further, a linear transformation based on the eigenvalue analysis is employed to map the ellipsoidal model into a standard uncertainty space. This uncertainty modeling technique enables a compact and differentiable bound description of the parameter variations. Moreover, it has another useful property, the affine invariance, which is shown to be necessary for meaningful definition of a non-probabilistic reliability index. The effectiveness and efficiency of the present techniques for convex model construction and the corresponding reliability analysis are demonstrated with numerical examples of structural topology optimization problems with bounded variations arising from different sources.

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

bounded uncertainty
non-probabilistic model
reliability-based topology optimization


Entanglement dynamics of two-particle quantum walks This paper explores the entanglement dynamics generated by interacting two-particle quantum walks on degree-regular and degree-irregular graphs. We performed spectral analysis of the time-evolution of both the particle probability distribution and the entanglement between the two particles for various interaction strength. While the particle probability distributions are stable and not sensitive to perturbations in the interaction strength, the entanglement dynamics are found to be much more sensitive to system variations. This property may be utilised to probe small differences in the system parameters.

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


A Generic Electronic Payment Model Supporting Multiple Merchant Transactions This paper presents a generic electronic payment model which is intended for a multi-merchant transaction, in which more than one merchant (the retailer, multiple resellers and content providers) are involved in the distribution of electronic contents. With our payment model, every involved merchant will be notified to verify the license information of a content on the settlement day before the customer actually pays for his purchase. Thus, piracy can be discouraged, intellectual property rights of electronic contents can be protected. Each of the involved merchants can obtain his own deserved share of the customers payment in accordance with their union agreement on this content. As examples to demonstrate the applications of our generic payment model, two well-known payment systems are enhanced herein, based on our payment model.

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

electronic commerce
network security
copyright protection
electronic content distribution


MagmaHeatNS1D: One-dimensional visualization numerical simulator for computing thermal evolution in a contact metamorphic aureole MagmaHeatNS1D is an IDL (Interactive Data Language) program that is aimed at numerically modeling heat transfer from an igneous intrusion to its host rocks and providing important thermal state information for minerals and organic matters in a contact aureole. It can be used to trace temperature time series, computing the peak temperature, and evaluating organic-matter maturation in a contact aureole. The theoretical basis of the program is a complete one-dimensional heat transfer model, and, hence, the program can allow for numerous potential influencing factors on the heat transfer, involving magma crystallization, volatilization and the supercritical state of pore water, dehydration and decarbonation reactions of host rock matrix, instantaneous and finite-time magma intrusion mechanisms, and hydrothermal convection in host rocks. This ensures that the program can be applicable to study different igneous intrusions in various geological conditions. MagmaHeatNS1D features a graphical user interface for controlling program execution, displaying real-time results, outputting final results, and opening secondary windows which serve to input the model parameters. MagmaHeatNS1D can be used in an intuitive framework for educational and research purposes.

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

heat transfer model
igneous intrusion
thermal evolution
maturation

numerical simulation
contact metamorphism


A flexible flowshop problem with total flow time minimization In this study, we consider total flow time problem in a flexible flowshop environment. We develop a branch and bound algorithm to find the optimal schedule. The efficiency of the algorithm is enhanced by upper and lower bounds and a dominance criterion. Computational experience reveals that the algorithm solves moderate sized problems in reasonable solution times.

O B I O O B I I O O O O O O B I I O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 high resolution Poly-Si TFT-LCD employing analog sample and hold driver In this study, we have developed high performance TFT (thin film transistor) and a 7.4-inch high resolution LCD (liquid crystal display) panel of full color WSXGA (1600 x RGB x 1024, 257 ppi, 43% aperture ratio) format using 'sequential lateral solidification (SLS)' laser crystallization process [Y.J. Kim et al., Grain boundary effect oil the characteristics of the high-performance poly-Si TFTs crystallized by SLS Technique, AM-LCD (2005) 249-251]. The gate and data driver circuits were integrated on panel and the integrated drivers comprise a sequential analog sampling data driver and a dual logic gate scanner for redundancy. In addition, we have improved key process for fine image quality. Metal lines used cu/Mox (5000 angstrom/300 angstrom) for uniform data transfer and array on BM (black Matrix) structure for lager aperture ratio was adopted. (C) 2008 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 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


The ReNoC Reconfigurable Network-on-Chip: Architecture, Configuration Algorithms, and Evaluation This article presents a reconfigurable network-on-chip architecture called ReNoC, which is intended for use in general-purpose multiprocessor system-on-chip platforms, and which enables application-specific logical NoC topologies to be configured, thus providing both efficiency and flexibility. The article presents three novel algorithms that synthesize an application-specific NoC topology, map it onto the physical ReNoC architecture, and create deadlock-free, application-specific routing algorithms. We apply our algorithms to a mixture of real and synthetic applications and target three different physical architectures. Compared to a conventional NoC, ReNoC reduces power consumption by up to 58% on average.

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

experimentation performance system-on-chip network-on-chip synthesis mapping


A source of inequalities for circular functions In this work, a basic theorem is established and it is found to be a source of inequalities for circular functions, such as Cusas, Huygens, Wilkers, the SandorBencze, Carlsons, the ShaferFink inequality, and the one in the problem of Oppenheim. Furthermore, these inequalities described above will be extended by this basic theorem.

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

basic inequalities
cusa type inequality
huygens type inequality
wilker type inequality
sandorbencze type inequality
carlson type inequality
shaferfink type inequality
oppenheims problem


Polygonal shape description for recognition of partially occluded objects We introduce a new method for the recognition of partially occluded objects represented only by their contours. Object description, which stems from the inflection point detection, approximates the object by polygon and is affine invariant. The matching algorithm is simple and easy to implement.

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

occluded object recognition
polygonal approximation


SPEECH ENHANCEMENT FOR ROBUST SPEECH RECOGNITION IN MOTORCYCLE ENVIRONMENT In the present work, we investigate the performance of a number of traditional and recent speech enhancement algorithms in the adverse non-stationary conditions, which are distinctive for motorcycles on the move. The performance of these algorithms is ranked in terms of the improvement they contribute to the speech recognition accuracy, when compared to the baseline performance, i.e. without speech enhancement. The experiments on the MoveOn motorcycle speech and noise database indicated that there is no equivalence between the ranking of algorithms based on the human perception of speech quality and the speech recognition performance. The Multi-band spectral subtraction method was observed to lead to the highest speech recognition performance.

B I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 enhancement
robust speech recognition


Supply Chain Operations Reference Model version 5.0: A new tool to improve supply chain efficiency and achieve best practice This paper discusses the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model, its development, and its use. The Model is the product of the Supply-Chain Council (SCC), an independent, not-for-profit, global corporation with membership open to all companies and organizations interested in applying and advancing the state-of-the-art in supply-chain management systems and practices. The SCOR Model is a business process reference model which provides a comprehensive toolset linking business processes to metrics, best practice and technology. The Model, primarily a tool for implementation, is being used successfully (as measured in Return on Investment) in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. It is also being uses as a framework for undergraduate and graduate curriculum around the world. The SCC was organized in 1996 by Pittiglio Rabin Todd McGrath (PRTM) and AMR Research, and initially included 69 voluntary member companies. Currently, the Council has over 750 members worldwide and has established international chapters in Europe, Japan, Korea, Lain America, Australia/New Zealand and Southeast Asia with Additional requests for regional chapters pending. The majority of the SCCs members arc practitioners and represents a broad cross-section of industries, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. Equally important to the Council and the advancement of the SCOR-model are the technology suppliers and implementers, the academicians, and the government organizations that participate in Council activities and the development and maintenance of the Model.

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

supply chain management
supply chain council


A multiparameter implantable microstimulator SOC Various implantable microstimulators have been proposed for clinical applications in recent years. Most of the no-battery implanted devices can be powered by a transcutaneous magnetic coupling, which basically utilizes an external transmitter coil to power and communicate with the implanted device. Small chip area and low power consumption are the keys of the implanted device. Therefore, we propose a C-less (no capacitor) area-saving ASK demodulator in this work to get rid of those large discrete capacitors required for low-frequency ASK demodulation. Additionally, a power regulator supplying a stable VDD_OUT is also built in to resolve the unstable supply voltage problem resulted from the inductive link. Besides, a multiparameter control protocol which has an area advantage over microcontroller-based solutions is also proposed for various pain treatments of muscles and stimulating applications.

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

neural interface
non-return-to-zero (nrz)
system-on-chip
telemetry


Mining the optimal clustering of people's characteristics of health care choices In Asian countries, there has been a multi-choice healthcare environment for many years. In Taiwan, people's multiple health care seeking behavior has resulted in much heavier financial burden of National Health Insurance Program (NHIP) in recent years: investigating the characteristics of people who use multiple health care resources has gained increasing importance for health authorities. In this study, we investigated the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics which underlined people's choice of health care by using a population representative database. A novel methodology which incorporated k-means cluster analysis with v-fold cross-validation into Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) is proposed. This novel methodology can help us to find the optimal attribute clustering of multiple health care utilization. By using this methodology, researchers not only can avoid the ambiguities of identifying clusters resulted from the traditional hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), but also can provide more solid and evidence-based analysis for health policy making. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

health care
multiple correspondence analysis

k-means cluster analysis
v-fold cross-validation


Content-based binary image retrieval using the adaptive hierarchical density histogram This paper proposes a method for binary image retrieval, where the black-and-white image is represented by a novel feature named the adaptive hierarchical density histogram, which exploits the distribution of the image points on a two-dimensional area. This adaptive hierarchical decomposition technique employs the estimation of point density histograms of image regions, which are determined by a pyramidal grid that is recursively updated through the calculation of image geometric centroids. The extracted descriptor combines global and local properties and can be used in variant types of binary image databases. The validity of the introduced method, which demonstrates high accuracy, low computational cost and scalability, is both theoretically and experimentally shown, while comparison with several other prevailing approaches demonstrates its performance.

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

geometrical centroids
patent
density vector


Investigation of electromigration reliability of redistribution lines in wafer-level chip-scale packages Electromigration lifetime of Ti/Al/Ti and Ti/Cu/Cu RDLs were investigated. Three-dimensional electrothermal coupling analysis was employed in analysis. Electromigration reliability was calibrated based on the Blacks equation. Activation energies of Ti/Al/Ti and Ti/Cu/Cu RDLs were calculated. Electromigration-induced RDL failure shows a form of grain boundary diffusion.

O O B I O O 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

wafer-level chip-scale package (wlcsp)
redistribution line (rdl)


Adaptive biorthogonal spline schemes for advectionreaction equations In this paper, based on EulerianLagrangian localized adjoint method (ELLAM), we use biorthogonal spline wavelets to develop numerical schemes for multidimensional advectionreaction equations. The derived schemes produce accurate numerical solutions even if large time steps are used. These schemes are explicit but unconditionally stable. They also have the ability to carry out adaptive compression while preserving the total mass. Numerical experiments including observations on their convergence rates are presented to show the strong potential of these methods.

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


PWR's xenon oscillation control through a fuzzy expert system automatically designed by means of genetic programming This work proposes the use of genetic programming (GP) for automatic design of a fuzzy expert system aimed to provide the control of axial xenon oscillations in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The control methodology is based on three axial offsets of xenon (AOx), iodine (AOi) and neutron flux (AOf), effectively used in former work. Simulations were made using a two-point xenon oscillation model, which employs the non-linear xenon and iodine balance equations and the one group, one-dimensional neutron diffusion equation, with non-linear power reactivity feedback, also proposed in the literature. Results have demonstrated the ability of the GP in finding a good fuzzy strategy, which can effectively control the axial xenon oscillations.

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

axial xenon oscillations control
fuzzy logic


NBgossip: An energy-efficient gossip algorithm for wireless sensor networks Gossip-based algorithms for information dissemination have recently received significant attention for sensor and ad hoc network applications because of their simplicity and robustness. However, a common drawback of many gossip-based protocols is the waste of energy in passing redundant information over the network. Thus gossip algorithms need to be re-engineered in order to become applicable to energy constrained networks. In this paper, we consider a scenario where each node in the network holds a piece of information (message) at the beginning, and the objective is to simultaneously disseminate all information (messages) among all nodes quickly and cheaply. To provide a practical solution to this problem for ad hoc and sensor networks, NBgossip algorithm is proposed, which is based on network coding and neighborhood gossip. In NBgossip, nodes do not simply forward messages they receive, instead, the linear combinations of the messages are sent out. In addition, every node exchanges messages with its neighboring nodes only. Mathematical proof and simulation studies show that the proposed NBgossip terminates in the optimal O(n)-order rounds and outperforms the existing gossip-based approaches in terms of energy consumption incurred in spreading all the information.

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


quality-driven human-centered approach for service provisioning in ambient environment In this paper, we emphasize the importance of taking quality issues into account when designing an ambient intelligence system. In particular, we state that the multiple dimensions of quality such as quality of information, quality of service and quality of experience influence the selection of heterogeneous services in an ambient service provisioning scenario. We also show how these quality dimensions are related/in-contrast to each other and how they contribute to the design of a human-centered service provisioning framework, which aims to capture the current context of humans and spontaneously provide services in their ambient environment.

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

quality
context
ambient environment
service provisioning