Improvement of energy-efficiency in off-chip caches by selective prefetching The line size/performance trade-offs in off-chip second-level caches in light of energy-efficiency are revisited. Based on a mix of applications representing server and mobile computer system usage, we show that while the large line sizes (128 bytes) typically used maximize performance, they result in a high power dissipation owing to the limited exploitation of spatial locality. In contrast, small blocks (32 bytes) are found to cut the energy-delay by more than a factor of 2 with only a moderate performance loss of less than 25%. As a remedy, prefetching, if applied selectively, is shown to avoid the performance losses of small blocks, yet keeping power consumption low.

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

energy-efficiency
energy-delay
performance evaluation


A Beacon-Based Collision-Free Channel Access Scheme for IEEE 802.11 WLANs In IEEE 802.11 based WLAN standard, distributed coordination function is the fundamental medium access control (MAC) technique. It employs a CSMA/CA with random binary exponential backoff algorithm and provides contention-based distributed channel access for stations to share the wireless medium. However, performance of this mechanism drops dramatically due to random structure of the backoff process, high collision probability and frame errors. That is why development of an efficient MAC protocol, providing both high throughput for data traffic and quality of service (QoS) support for real-time applications, has become a major focus in WLAN research. In this paper, we propose an adaptive beacon-based collision-free MAC adaptation. The proposed scheme makes use of beacon frames sent periodically by access point, lets stations enter the collision-free state and reduces the number of idle slots regardless of the number of stations and their traffic load (saturated or unsaturated) on the medium. Simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme dramatically enhances the overall throughput and supports QoS by reducing the delay, delay variation and dropping probability of frames.

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

collision-free mac
csma/catdma hybrid approach
beacon frame


A fuzzy-based Power-aware management for mobile ad hoc networks In recent years, people have become more dependent on wireless network services to obtain the latest information at any time anywhere. Wireless networks must effectively allow several types of mobile devices send data to one another. The Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is one important type of non-infrastructure mobile network that consists of many mobile hosts, usually cellular phones. The power consumption rate and bandwidth of each mobile host device becomes an important issue and needs to be addressed. For increasing the reliability of the manager in Hierarchical Cellular Based Management (HCBM), this paper proposed a Power-aware protocol to select a stable manager from mobile hosts by fuzzy based inference systems based on the factors of speed, battery power, and location. Further, our protocol can trigger a mobile agent to distribute the managerial workload.

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

distribution computing
routing protocols
data communication


When the ball stops, the fun stops too: The impact of social inclusion on video game enjoyment Playing video game socially can foster feelings of sociability and belonging. Socially ostracized individuals might benefit most from social gameplay. Ostracized players felt moderate enjoyment, both when playing solo or with others. Socially included players felt the lowest enjoyment especially when playing alone. Data offer insight into how social scenarios anchor entertainment expectations.

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

video games
ostracism
need to belong
co-playing


A 3D City Info for mobile users For many applications, a three-dimensional representation improves the usability of data. Soon 3D rendering and broadband wireless communications will be embedded into various wireless handheld devices. We have built a web-based 3D city info connected to a data base and customized the system for mobile users. We also conducted field trials and usability studies on the added value of 3D graphics on navigation and wayfinding in cities. Our results show that search and visualization of location-based information of a city becomes more intuitive with life-like 3D.

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


Consistency management in object-oriented databases The paper presents concepts and ideas underlying an approach for consistency management in object-oriented (OO) databases. In this approach constraints are considered as first class citizens and stored in a meta-database called constraints catalog. When an object is created constraints of this object are retrieved from the constraints catalog and relationships between these constraints and the object are established. The structure of constraints has several features that enhance consistency management in OO database management systems which do not exist in conventional approaches in a satisfactory way. This includes: monitoring object consistency at different levels of update granularity, integrity independence, and efficiency of constraints maintenance; controlling inconsistent objects; enabling and disabling constraints, globally to all objects or locally to individual objects; and declaring constraints on individual objects. All these features are provided by means of basic notations of OO data models. Copyright (C) 2001 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O

object-oriented databases
constraint management
constraint maintenance
database integrity
integrity constraints


Fitting of mixtures with unspecified number of components using cross validation distance estimate Estimation of the number of mixture components (k) is an unsolved problem. Available methods for estimation of k include bootstrapping the likelihood ratio test statistic and optimizing a variety of validity functionals. We investigate the minimization of distance between fitted mixture model and the true density as a method for estimating k. The distances considered are KullbackLeibler (KL) and L2. We estimate these distances using cross validation. A reliable estimate of k is obtained by voting of B estimates of k corresponding to B cross validation estimates of distance. This estimation method with KL distance is very similar to Monte Carlo cross validated likelihood method discussed by Smyth (Statist. Computing 10(1) (2000) 63). With focus on univariate normal mixtures, we present simulation studies that compare the cross validated distance method with Akaika's Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterion/Minimum description criterion (BIC/MDL), and Information Complexity (ICOMP). We also apply the cross validation estimate of distance approach along with AIC, BIC/MDL and ICOMP approach, to data from an osteoporosis drug trial in order to find groups that differentially respond to treatment. In our closing remarks, we highlight the general applicability of our method to choose between any set of estimators of a particular parameter of interest, assuming the presence of an approximately unbiased estimator.

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 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

normal mixtures
cross validation minimum distance


Avoidance colourings for small nonclassical Ramsey numbers The irredundant Ramsey number s - s(m, n) [upper domination Ramsey number u - u(m, n), respectively] is the smallest natural number s [u, respectively] such that in any red-blue edge colouring (R, B) of the complete graph of order s [u, respectively], it holds that IR(B) >= m or IR(R) >= n [Gamma (B) >= m or Gamma(R) >= n, respectively], where Gamma and IR denote respectively the upper domination number and the irredundance number of a graph. Furthermore, the mixed irredundant Ramsey number t = t(m, n) [mixed domination Ramsey number v = v(m, n), respectively] is the smallest natural number t [v, respectively] such that in any red-blue edge colouring (R, B) of the complete graph of order t [v, respectively], it holds that IR(B) >= m or beta(R) >= n [Gamma(B) >= m or beta(R) >= n, respectively], where beta denotes the independent domination number of a graph. These four classes of non-classical Ramsey numbers have previously been studied in the literature. In this paper we introduce a new Ramsey number w = w(m, n), called the irredundant-domination Ramsey number, which is the smallest natural number w such that in any red-blue edge colouring (R, B) of the complete graph of order w, it holds that IR(B) >= m or Gamma(R) >= n. A computer search is employed to determine complete sets of avoidance colourings of small order for these five classes of nonclassical Ramsey numbers. In the process the fifteen previously unknown Ramsey numbers t(4, 4) = 14, t(6, 3) = 17, u(4, 4) = 13, v(4, 3) = 8, v(4, 4) = 14, v(5, 3) = 13, v(6, 3) = 17, w(3, 3) = 6, w(3, 4) = w(4, 3) = 8, w(4, 4) = 13, w(3, 5) = w(5, 3) = 12 and w(3, 6) = w(6, 3) = 15 are established.

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

mixed ramsey number
nonclassical ramsey number
extremal colouring


Some comments on Egghe's derivation of the impact factor distribution In a recent paper, Egghe [Egghe, L. (in press). Mathematical derivation of the impact factor distribution. Journal of Informetrics] presents a mathematical analysis of the rank-order distribution of journal impact factors. The analysis is based on the central limit theorem. We criticize the empirical relevance of Egghe's analysis. More specifically, we argue that Egghe's analysis relies on an unrealistic assumption and we show that the analysis is not in agreement with empirical data.

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

impact factor
distribution
central limit theorem


A taxonomy of hybrid metaheuristics Hybrid metaheuristics have received considerable interest these recent years in the field of combinatorial optimization. A wide variety of hybrid approaches have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, a taxonomy of hybrid metaheuristics is presented in an attempt to provide a common terminology and classification mechanisms. The taxonomy, while presented in terms of metaheuristics, is also applicable to most types of heuristics and exact optimization algorithms. As an illustration of the usefulness of the taxonomy an annoted bibliography is given which classifies a large number of hybrid approaches according to the taxonomy.

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

taxonomy
combinatorial optimization
metaheuristics


Policy-based Awareness Management (PAM): Case study of a wireless communication system at a hospital The present paper evaluates the use of software agents to identify relevance of information, called awareness. This evaluation is based on existing policies and scenarios in the context of wireless communication of a hospital in Norway. The study is to address the lack of literature for experimental studies on a method to employ software agents for awareness identification. Research in computer supported cooperative work indicates the significant contributions of software agents to assist individuals. There are bodies of work that show awareness provides the means for software agents in which effective cooperation can take place. In addition, the role of the methods to identify awareness is emphasized in the literature of both computer supported cooperative work and software agents. This paper explains a step-wise process, called Policy-based Awareness Management, which allows agents to use policies as a source to identify awareness and thus change their behaviors accordingly. The contribution of this method is based on the concepts proposed by the logic of general awareness. The present study applies Directory Enabled Networks-next generation as the policy structure for the method. The paper evaluates the process via its application to identify the relevance of information in wireless communication scenarios in a hospital. The present study conducts observations, interviews and discussions on the wireless communication system of the hospital to identify the different scenarios happening in the system. The paper presents a set of simulations on these scenarios and concludes that the method is effective and cost-efficient.

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

computer supported cooperative work
awareness
policy


promotion of creative activity in children with severe autism through visuals in an interactive multisensory environment Autism is a developmental disorder which presents disability in communication and socialisation and a lack of imagination. To promote creativity, exploration and enjoyment in low functioning autistic children that have no verbal communication, we propose MEDIATE, an interactive environment that generates real time visual, aural and vibrotactile stimuli. This paper focuses on the design of interaction with visuals within MEDIATE. The design is guided by the objectives of giving children a sense of agency and enhance non repetitive actions. Other guidelines of this design include natural interaction, use of non invasive technology and non representational visuals. This visual interaction (together with sound and vibrotacile) allows the children to enjoy MEDIATE and be creative within this environment.

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

chi
real time generated stimuli
environments
particles
interaction-driven design


Massively parallel kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of charge carrier transport in organic semiconductors A parallel, lattice based Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation is developed that runs on a GPGPU board and includes Coulomb like particleparticle interactions. The performance of this computationally expensive problem is improved by modifying the interaction potential due to nearby particle moves, instead of fully recalculating it. This modification is achieved by adding dipole correction terms that represent the particle move. Exact evaluation of these terms is guaranteed by representing all interactions as 32-bit floating numbers, where only the integers between ?222 ? 2 22 and 222 are used. We validate our method by modeling the charge transport in disordered organic semiconductors, including Coulomb interactions between charges. Performance is mainly governed by the particle density in the simulation volume, and improves for increasing densities. Our method allows calculations on large volumes including particleparticle interactions, which is important in the field of organic semiconductors.

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

kinetic monte carlo
organic semiconductors
charge transport
gpgpu


A novel haptics-based interface and sculpting system for physics-based geometric design Conventional geometric design techniques based on B-splines and NURBS often require tedious control-point manipulation and/or painstaking constraint specification via unnatural mouse-based computer interfaces. In this paper, we propose a novel and natural haptic interface and present a physics-based geometric modeling approach that facilitates interactive sculpting of spline-based virtual material. Using the PHANToM haptic device, modelers can feel the physically realistic presence of virtual spline objects and interactively deform virtual materials with force feedback throughout the design process. We develop various haptic sculpting tools to expedite the deformation of B-spline surfaces with haptic feedback and constraints. The most significant contribution of this paper is that point, normal, and curvature constraints can be specified interactively and modified naturally using forces. To achieve the real-time sculpting performance, we devise a novel dual representation for B-spline surfaces in both physical and mathematical space: the physics-based mass-spring model is mathematically constrained by the B-spline surface throughout the sculpting session. We envision that the integration of haptics with traditional computer-aided design makes it possible to realize all the potential offered by both haptic sculpting and physics-based modeling in CAD/CAM, virtual prototyping, humancomputer interface, and medical training and simulation.

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

physics-based modeling
dynamics
interaction techniques


Power management in high-level synthesis In this paper,(1) ne present a power-management methodology targeted toward high-level synthesis of data-dominated behavioral descriptions. It Is founded on the observation that variable assignment can significantly affect power-management opportunities in the synthesized architecture, i.e., variable assignment determines whether or not spurious operations get executed by functional units in the architecture. We introduce perfectly power managed architectures, whose functional units do not execute any spurious operations. We present a variable assignment technique which, when used in high-level synthesis, produces architectures which are perfectly power-managed, Unlike many previously proposed power-management techniques, our method does not add latches or any other circuitry in front of functional units or registers and is, therefore, free of the attendant performance penalty, Experimental results indicate savings of up to 52.5% (average 23.0%) in power consumption over already power-optimized architectures. The area overheads due to our technique are also low and averaged 2.5% for our examples.

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

digital system design
high-level synthesis
register sharing


Image postprocessing by Non-local Kuans filter Blocking artifacts exist in images and video sequences compressed to low bit rates using block-based discrete cosine transform (DCT) compression standards. In order to reduce blocking artifacts, two image postprocessing techniques, DNLK filter and OCDNLK filter, are presented in this paper. A more accurate DCT domain Kuans filter based on Non-local parameter estimation was proposed from the linear minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) criterion. We analyze the required two assumptions for the filter theoretically. Then the DCT domain Kuans filter for low frequency coefficients and Non-local mean filter for high frequency AC coefficients constitute the proposed Non-local Kuans (NLK) filter. After that, we propose the Dual Non-local Kuans (DNLK) filter by applying the proposed filter in dual layer. The DNLK filter is extended to form the Overcomplete Dual Non-local Kuans (OCDNLK) filter by applying to the overcomplete DCT coefficients. Experimental results on coded images using test quantization tables and JPEG coded images show the effectiveness of the two methods.

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

blocking artifacts
low bit rates
postprocessing
mmse
two assumptions
dnlk filter
ocdnlk filter


MRI Pulse Sequence Design With First-Order Gradient Moment Nulling in Arbitrary Directions by Solving a Polynomial Program We suggest a polynomial program for the calculation of optimized gradient waveforms for magnetic resonance tomography pulse sequences. Such non-linear mathematical programs can describe gradient system capabilities, meet k-space trajectory specifications, and capture sequence timing conditions. Moreover they allow the incorporation of gradient moment nulling constraints in one or several arbitrary spatial directions, which can reduce flow motion artifacts in the images. We report first experiences in solving such automatic pulse sequence design programs with the interior point solver Ipopt.

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

double spin echo sequence
nonlinear optimization
timing constraint


Backstepping design for global robust stabilisation of switched nonlinear systems in lower triangular form This article deals with the global robust stabilisation for a class of switched nonlinear systems under arbitrary switchings. The system under consideration is in lower triangular form and contains uncertainty. Both common Lyapunov function and state feedback controller are simultaneously constructed by backstepping such that the closed-loop system is globally robustly asymptotically stable under arbitrary switchings. Lastly, the design method proposed is extended to the uncertain switched nonlinear systems in nested lower triangular form to solve the global robust stabilisation problem under arbitrary switchings. Two examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

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

common lyapunov function
global robust stabilisation
backstepping


Forward Adaptation of Novel Semilogarithmic Quantizer and Lossless Coder for Speech Signals Compression In this paper new semilogarithmic quantizer for Laplacian distribution is presented. It is simpler than classic A-law semilogarithmic quantizer since it has unit gain around zero. Also, it gives for 2 97 dB higher signal-to-quantization noise-ratio (SQNR) for referent variance in relation to A-law, and therefore it is more suitable for adaptation Forward adaptation of this quantizer is done on frame-by-frame basis. In this way G 712 standard is satisfied with 7 bits/sample. which is not possible with classic A-law. Inside each frame subframes are formed and lossless encoder is applied on subframes. In that way, double adaptation is done. adaptation on variance within frames and adaptation on amplitude within subframes. Joined design of quantizer and lossless encoder is done, which gives better performances. As a result, standard G 712 is satisfied with only 6.43 bits/sample. Experimental results, obtained by applying this model on speech signal, are presented. It is shown that experimental and theoretical results are matched very well (difference is less than 1 5%) Models presented in this paper can be applied for speech signal and any other signal with Laplacian distribution.

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

semilogarithmic quantizer
lossless coder


distributed computation of the mode This paper studies the problem of computing the most frequent element (the mode) by means of a distributed algorithm where the elements are located at the nodes of a network. Let k denote the number of distinct elements and further let m i be the number of occurrences of the element e i in the ordered list of occurrences m 1 m 2 ? ... ? m k . We give a deterministic distributed algorithm with time complexity O(D+k) where D denotes the diameter of the graph, which is essentially tight. As our main contribution, a Monte Carlo algorithm is presented which computes the mode in O(D + F 2 /m 1 2 *log k) time with high probability, where the frequency moment F t is defined as F t = sum i=1 k m i t . This algorithm is substantially faster than the deterministic algorithm for various relevant frequency distributions. Moreover, we provide a lower bound of Omega(D+F 5 /(m 1 5 B)), where B is the maximum message size, that captures the effect of the frequency distribution on the time complexity to compute the mode.

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


Acute Administration of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Induces Profound Hyperthermia, BloodBrain Barrier Disruption, Brain Edema Formation, and Cell Injury The psychostimulant 3,4-,ethylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) is known to induce hyperthermia and alterations in neurochemical metabolism in the CNS. However, the detailed cellular or molecular mechanisms behind MDMA-induced neurotoxicity are still not well known. Since MDMA induces profound hyperthermia that could lead to intense cellular stress and cause disruption of the bloodbrain barrier (BBB), this investigation examined the effects of acute MDMA on BBB dysfunction, brain edema, and cell injury in rats and mice. When MDMA (40 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered to rats or mice, these animals exhibited profound behavioral disturbances (hyperactivity and hyperlocomotion) and hyperthermia (>40 to 41C) at 4 h. At this time, the leakage of Evans blue dye was evident, particularly in the cerebellum, hippocampus, cortex, thalamus, and hypothalamus. This effect was most pronounced in mice compared to rats. Marked increase in brain water along with Na+, K+, and Cl content was also seen in the aforementioned brain regions. Presence of distorted neuronal and glial cells in brain regions associated with leakage of Evans blue is quite common in MDMA-treated animals. Increased albumin immunoreactivity, indicating breakdown of the BBB, and upregulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), suggesting activation of astrocytes, were seen in most brain regions showing edematous changes. Upregulation of heat-shock protein (HSP72) immunoreactivity in the nuclei and cell cytoplasm of the neurons located in the edematous brain regions are quite common. Taken together, these observations are the first to show that MDMA has the capacity to disrupt BBB permeability to proteins and to induce the formation of edema, probably by inducing hyperthermia and cellular stress, as evident with HSP overexpression leading to cell injury.

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

ecstasy
brain edema
evans blue
hyperthermia

4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (mdma)
blood brain barrier (bbb)
heat-shock protein (hsp)
glial fibrillary acidic protein (gfap)
serum albumin
neuronal injury
brain damage


lightweight selective availability in instant messaging Selective availability in instant messaging systems can improve connectiveness while at the same time keeping disruption low. In this paper we report on a four-week experience sampling study of selective availability in instant messaging to inform the design of lightweight mechanisms with little user effort.

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

computer-supported cooperative work
computer-mediated communication


Reuse, repurposing and learning design - Lessons from the DART project Digital Anthropological Resources for Teaching (DART) is a major project examining ways in which the use of online learning activities and repositories can enhance the teaching of anthropology and, by extension, other disciplines. This paper reports on one strand of DART activity, the development of customisable learning activities that can be repurposed for use in multiple contexts. Three examples of these activities are described and, based on their use and reuse, some key lessons for the learning technology community are identified. In particular, it is argued that repurposing is a route to successful reuse, and that engaging the teacher in a participative design process is an essential part of the repurposing process. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

authoring tools and methods
media in education
post-secondary education
simulations
teaching/learning strategies


On middleware for emerging health services Healthcare concerns have become diverse, ranging from acute and chronic conditions to lifestyle, wellbeing and the prevention of illness. Increasingly, individuals are taking responsibility for monitoring their own conditions. Healthcare technologies are increasingly used not only for administration, but also in specialist treatments and many forms of monitoring, including when a person is mobile. As well as formal interactions with professional carers and results from specialist procedures, care may involve ad hoc interactions with an individuals community. Together, these yield a wealth of data relevant in different contexts. Unfortunately, many existing healthcare systems are inflexible, single-purpose, and self-contained, so that we cannot fully realise their potential. We believe that a framework for flexible interoperability of healthcare-relevant components is crucial, in a time of increasing need from an ageing population.

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 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 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

e-health
assisted living
management
policy enforcement
dynamic reconfiguration
event-based systems
pervasive computing
security
privacy
internet of things
sbus


The SROV program for data analysis and regression model identification A new stepwise regression program (SROV) for the construction of optimal (stable and of highest possible accuracy) regression models comprised of linear combination of independent variables and their non-linear functions is described. The program uses for regression QR decomposition based on Gram-Schmidth orthogonalization, which is highly resilient to numerical error propagation. Variables are selected to enter the regression model according to their level of correlation with the dependent variable and they are removed from further consideration when their residual information gets below the noise level. The use of this program is demonstrated in two examples. In both examples the program identifies an optimal and stable regression model and several sub-optimal models. The existence of sub-optimal models provides additional insight regarding the relationships that exist between the explanatory variables, between the explanatory variables and the dependent variable and information on model related uncertainties caused by sample size and experimental error. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

colinearity
non-influential variable
precision


Intelligent internet searching agent based on hybrid simulated annealing The World-Wide Web (WWW) based Internet services have become a major channel for information delivery. For the same reason, information overload also has become a serious problem to the users of such services. It has been estimated that the amount of information stored on the Internet doubled every 18 months. The speed of increase of homepages can be even faster, some people estimated that it doubled every 6 months. Therefore, a scalable approach to support Internet searching is critical to the success of Internet services and other current or future National Information Infrastructure (NII) applications. In this paper, we discuss a modified version of simulated annealing algorithm to develop an intelligent personal spider (agent), which is based on automatic textual analysis of the Internet documents and hybrid simulated annealing.

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

information retrieval
intelligent agent
world-wide web


a new look at pattern matching in abstract data types In this paper we present a construction smoothly integrating pattern matching with abstract data types. We review some previous proposals [19, 23, 20, 6, 1] and their drawbacks, and show how our proposal can solve them. In particular we pay attention to equational reasoning about programs containing this new facility. We also give its formal syntax and semantics, as well as some guidelines in order to compile the construction efficiently.

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

pattern match
program
abstract data type
formalism
semantic
guideline


Mining class-bridge rules based on rough sets A class-bridge rule is the rule whose antecedent and consequent belong to different conceptual classes. This kind of rules stands for the correlation between conceptual classes. The study on class-bridge rules can benefit many domains such as criminal detection, chemical synthesis, biological grafting, etc. Class-bridge rules are different from other association rules as follows: (1) class-bridge rules can be generated from infrequent itemsets; (2) measurements of class-bridge rules include the distance between conceptual classes and the relation between the antecedents/consequents and their affiliated conceptual classes. This paper proposes an algorithm based on rough sets to mine and evaluate class-bridge rules. The experiment demonstrates its effectiveness.

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


Mining permission patterns for contrasting clean and malicious android applications A pattern mining algorithm is proposed to identify contrast permission patterns. We collected a new dataset with 1227 clean Android applications. We considered both required and used permission. Biclustering method has been employed to provide visualization. The permission patterns show big contrasts between clean apps and malware.

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

android permission
data mining
contrast mining
permission pattern


Fractal analysis and fuzzy c-means clustering for quantification of fibrotic microscopy images The advances in improved fluorescent probes and better cameras in collaboration with the advent of computers in imaging and image analysis, assist the task of diagnosis in microscopy imaging. Based on such technologies, we introduce a computer-assisted image characterization tool based on fractal analysis and fuzzy clustering for the quantification of degree of the Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in microscopy images. The implementation of this algorithmic strategy proved very promising concerning the issue of the automated assessment of microscopy images of lung fibrotic regions against conventional classification methods that require training such as neural networks. Fractal dimension is an important image feature that can be associated with pathological fibrotic structures as is shown by our experimental 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

image analysis
fuzzy clustering
fractal dimension


attention guided mpeg compression for computer animations In this paper we present a framework that aims at delivering high-quality and low-bandwidth 3D animation at real-time rates. In this framework we combine a real-time rendering, MPEG--4 video compression and a model of visual attention. We use the attention model to control quality/bit-rate of MPEG compression across a single frame. OpenGL is used to generate animation sequences in real-time.

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

mpeg
attention
framework
use
3d
video compression
model
paper
animation
control
compression

streaming
quality
visual attention
computation
real-time rendering
bandwidth
real-time
sequence
virtual environment


A forwarding pointer-based cache scheme for reducing location management cost in PCS networks This paper proposes a forwarding pointer-based cache scheme (PB-Cache scheme) that can reduce the signaling cost for location management in PCS networks. In the existing cache scheme, the use of cache information can effectively reduce the signaling traffic for locating frequently called mobile users. However, when the cache information is obsolete, it results in much more signaling traffic than that of the IS-41. Inorder to solve this problem, we propose a new location cache scheme called the PB-Cache scheme, which exploits a user's movement locality as well as call locality. Even if the cached information is not up-to-date, the called user can be found by tracing forwarding pointers starting from that VLR pointed in the cache instead of querying the HLR. Thus, the PB-Cache scheme can effectively reduce the frequent access to the HLR and the signaling traffic for location management. Moreover, it distributes the signaling and database access load on the HLR to the VLR's. Analytical results indicate that the PB-Cache scheme significantly outperforms the other schemes when a user's call-to-mobility ratio is high or the signaling traffic to the HLR is heavy.

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

forwarding pointer
location registration
call delivery
personal communications service (pcs)


Solvability of periodic boundary value problems for n(th)-order ordinary differential equations In this paper, we prove existence results for periodic boundary value problems concerning the nth-order differential equation x((n)) (t) = f (t, x(t), x'(t),..., x((n-1)) (t)) t is an element of [0, 1]. Our method is based upon the coincidence degree theory of Mawhin. The results obtained are new. Examples are given to illustrate the main results. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

periodic boundary value problem
n(th)-order differential equation
fredholm operator


security model for a multi-agent marketplace A multi-agent marketplace, MAGNET (Multi AGent Negotiation Testbed), is a promising solution to conduct online combinatorial auctions. The trust model of MAGNET is somewhat different from other on-line auction systems: the mediated marketplace is a partially-trusted third party. In this paper, we identify the security vulnerabilities of MAGNET and present a solution that overcomes these weaknesses. Our solution makes use of three different existing technologies with other standard cryptographic techniques: publish/subscribe systems that provide simple and more general messaging, time-release cryptography to provide guaranteed nondisclosure of the bids, and anonymous communication to hide the identity of the bidders until the end of the auction. By doing so, we successfully minimize the trust on the market as well as increase the security of the whole system. The protocol that we have developed can be adapted for use by other agent-based auction systems, which use a third party to mediate transactions.

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


Relational reinforcement learning with guided demonstrations Model-based reinforcement learning is a powerful paradigm for learning tasks in robotics. However, in-depth exploration is usually required and the actions have to be known in advance. Thus, we propose a novel algorithm that integrates the option of requesting teacher demonstrations to learn new domains with fewer action executions and no previous knowledge. Demonstrations allow new actions to be learned and they greatly reduce the amount of exploration required, but they are only requested when they are expected to yield a significant improvement because the teacher's time is considered to be more valuable than the robot's time. Moreover, selecting the appropriate action to demonstrate is not an easy task, and thus some guidance is provided to the teacher. The rule-based model is analyzed to determine the parts of the state that may be incomplete, and to provide the teacher with a set of possible problems for which a demonstration is needed. Rule analysis is also used to find better alternative models and to complete subgoals before requesting help, thereby minimizing the number of requested demonstrations. These improvements were demonstrated in a set of experiments, which included domains from the international planning competition and a robotic task. Adding teacher demonstrations and rule analysis reduced the amount of exploration required by up to 60% in some domains, and improved the success ratio by 35% in other domains.

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

active learning
learning guidance
planning excuse
robot learning
teacher demonstration
teacher guidance


Dynamic programming on the word RAM Dynamic programming is one of the fundamental techniques for solving optimization problems. In this paper we propose a general framework which can be used to decrease the time and space complexity of these algorithms with a logarithmic factor. The framework is based on word encoding, i.e. by representing subsolutions as bits in an integer. In this way word parallelism can be used in the evaluation of the dynamic programming recursion. Using this encoding the subset-sum problem can be solved in O(nb/log b) time and O(b/log b) space, where n is the number of integers given and b is the target sum. The knapsack problem can be solved in O(nm/log m) time and O(m/log m) space, where n is the number of items and m = max{b, z} is the maximum of the capacity b and the optimal solution value z. The problem of finding a path of a given length b in a directed acyclic graph G = (V, E) can be solved in O(\E\ b/log b) time and O(\V\ b/log b) space. Several other examples are given showing the generality of the achieved technique. Extensive computational experiments are provided to demonstrate that the achieved results are not only of theoretical interest but actually lead to algorithms which are up to two orders of magnitude faster than their predecessors. This is a surprising observation as the increase in speed is larger than the word size of the processor.

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

dynamic programming
knapsack problem
word ram


Contextualizing cybersex experience: Heterosexually identified men and womens desire for and experiences with cybersex with three types of partners People engage in cybersex with primary partners, known non-partners, and strangers. The most anonymous cybersex context, with a stranger, was least common and frequent. People who desired more frequent cybersex in one context also did so in the others. Men desired more frequent cybersex with all types of partners than women. Men engaged in more frequent cybersex with strangers but not with known partners.

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

online sexual activity
anonymity
gender differences
internet
relationships


Incremental learning of dynamic fuzzy neural networks for accurate system modeling In this paper we propose a novel incremental learning approach based on a hybrid fuzzy neural net framework. A key feature of the approach is the adaptation of the fuzzy neural network (FNN) modeling to every new data. The typical algorithm of FNN is inefficient when used in an accurate online time series because they must be retrained from scratch every time the training set is modified. In order to reduce the expense of FNN learning for a dynamic system, a general methodology leading to quick algorithms for FNN modeling is developed. The FNN-LM algorithm for a static FNN and incremental learning algorithm (ILA) for dynamic fuzzy neural network (DFNN) are also presented to enforce the model to approximate every new sample. The ILA approach has the advantages of avoiding increasing the ranks of matrixes and avoiding solving the inverse matrix when samples increase gradually. When it is used to predict an accurate online time series, the DFNN model can efficiently update a trained static FNN with a very fast speed according to the sample added to the training set. Numerical experiments validate our theoretical results. Excellent performances of the proposed approach in modeling accuracy and learning convergence are exhibited. (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 O O O O O O O O O O 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 O O O O O 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

incremental learning algorithm (ila)
fnn-lm algorithm
dynamic fuzzy neural network (dfnn)
dynamic system modeling


Sign language recognition based on HMM/ANN/DP In this paper, a system designed for helping the deaf to communicate with others is presented. Some useful new ideas are proposed in design and implementation. An algorithm based on geometrical analysis for the purpose of extracting invariant feature to signer position is presented. Rn ANN-DP combined approach is employed for segmenting subwords automatically from the data stream of sign signals. To tackle the epenthesis movement problem, a DP-based method has been used to obtain the context-dependent models. Some techniques for system implementation are also given, including fast matching, frame prediction and search algorithms. The implemented system is able to recognize continuous large vocabulary Chinese Sign Language. Experiments show that proposed techniques in this paper are efficient on either recognition speed or recognition performance.

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

hand gesture recognition
artificial neural network
dynamic programming
multimodal user interface
virtual reality


Process and data flow control in KLOE The core of the KLOE distributed event building system is a switched network. The online processes are distributed over a large set of processors in this network. All processes have to change coherently their state of activity as a consequence of local or remote commands. A fast and reliable message system based on the SNMP protocol has been developed. A command server has been implemented as a non privileged daemon able to respond to "set" and "get" queries on private SNMP variables. This process is able to convert remote set operations into local commands and to map automatically an SNMP subtree on a user-defined set of process variables. Process activity can be continuously monitored by remotely accessing their variables by means of the command server. Only the command server is involved in these operations, without disturbing the process flow. Subevents coming from subdetectors are sent to different nodes of a computing farm for the last stage of event building. Based on features of the SNMP protocol and of the KLOE message system, the Data Flow Control System (DFC) is able to rapidly redirect network traffic, keeping in account the dynamics of the whole DAQ system in order to assure coherent subevent addressing in an asynchronous "push" architecture, without introducing dead time. The KLOE DFC is currently working in the KLOE DAQ system. Its main characteristics and performance are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Selecting Representative Benchmark Inputs for Exploring Microprocessor Design Spaces The design process of a microprocessor requires representative workloads to steer the search process toward an optimum design point for the target application domain. However, considering a broad set of workloads to cover the large space of potential workloads is infeasible given how time-consuming design space exploration typically is. Hence, it is crucial to select a small yet representative set of workloads, which leads to a shorter design cycle while yielding a (near) optimal design. Prior work has mostly looked into selecting representative benchmarks; however, limited attention was given to the selection of benchmark inputs and how this affects workload representativeness during design space exploration. Using a set of 1,000 inputs for a number of embedded benchmarks and a design space with around 1,700 design points, we find that selecting a single or three random input(s) per benchmark potentially (in a worst-case scenario) leads to a suboptimal design that is 56% and 33% off, on average, relative to the optimal design in our design space in terms of Energy-Delay Product (EDP). We then propose and evaluate a number of methods for selecting representative inputs and show that we can find the optimum design point with as few as three inputs.

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

processor design space exploration
workload selection
input selection


Learning Hidden Markov Models Using Nonnegative Matrix Factorization The Baum-Welch algorithm together with its derivatives and variations has been the main technique for learning hidden Markov models (HMMs) from observational data. We present an HMM learning algorithm based on the nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) of higher order Markovian statistics that is structurally different from the Baum-Welch and its associated approaches. The described algorithm supports estimation of the number of recurrent states of an HMM and iterates the NMF algorithm to improve the learned HMM parameters. Numerical examples are provided as well.

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

hidden markov models (hmms)
machine learning
nonnegative matrix factorization (nmf)


Location Models from the Perspective of Context-Aware Applications and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Location models are crucial for providing location-dependent data to context-aware applications. In this paper, we present two approaches for modeling location information taken from an infrastructure-based and an ad hoc network-based application scenario. From these approaches we derive requirements for a general location modeling language for ubiquitous computing.

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 B I


Low power CMOS electronic central pattern generator design for a biomimetic underwater robot This paper presents a feasibility study of a central pattern generator-based analog controller for an autonomous robot. The operation of a neuronal circuit formed of electronic neurons based on HindmarshRose neuron dynamics and first order chemical synapses is modeled. The controller is based on a standard 0.25 ? m CMOS process with 2V supply voltage. In order to achieve low power consumption, CMOS subthreshold circuit techniques are used. The controller generates an excellent replica of the walking motor program and allows switching between walking in different directions in response to different command inputs. The simulated power consumption is 4.8mW and die size including I/O I / O pads is 2.2mm by 2.2mm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed design can generate adaptive walking motor programs to control the legs of autonomous robots.

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

subthreshold operation
electronic neuron circuit
electronic synapse circuit
neuronal oscillator circuit


Exact Computation of the Topology and Geometric Invariants of the Voronoi Diagram of Spheres in 3D In this paper, we are addressing the exact computation of the Delaunay graph (or quasi-triangulation) and the Voronoi diagram of spheres using Wu's algorithm. Our main contributions are first a methodology for automated derivation of invariants of the Delaunay empty circumsphere predicate for spheres and the Voronoi vertex of four spheres, then the application of this methodology to get all geometrical invariants that intervene in this problem and the exact computation of the Delaunay graph and the Voronoi diagram of spheres. To the best of our knowledge, there does not exist a comprehensive treatment of the exact computation with geometrical invariants of the Delaunay graph and the Voronoi diagram of spheres. Starting from the system of equations defining the zero-dimensional algebraic set of the problem, we are applying Wu's algorithm to transform the initial system into an equivalent Wu characteristic (triangular) set. In the corresponding system of algebraic equations, in each polynomial (except the first one), the variable with higher order from the preceding polynomial has been eliminated (by pseudo-remainder computations) and the last polynomial we obtain is a polynomial of a single variable. By regrouping all the formal coefficients for each monomial in each polynomial, we get polynomials that are invariants for the given problem. We rewrite the original system by replacing the invariant polynomials by new formal coefficients. We repeat the process until all the algebraic relationships (syzygies) between the invariants have been found by applying Wu's algorithm on the invariants. Finally, we present an incremental algorithm for the construction of Voronoi diagrams and Delaunay graphs of spheres in 3D and its application to Geodesy.

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

delaunay graph of spheres
wu's method
characteristic set


Chatter detection based on probability distribution of wavelet modulus maxima This paper presents a statistical chatter detection method. The methodology is based on the study of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) scheme and statistical analysis of wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM). Wavelet transform modulus maxima is used to describe any point where wavelet transform of a signal is locally maximal at corresponding time location. Meanwhile, due to the noisy machining environment, a wavelet-based de-noising method including a hybrid thresholding function and a level-dependent universal threshold rule is proposed. A non-dimensional chatter index varying between 0 and 1 is designed based on the statistical analysis of the WTMM. The main advantages of the proposed chatter index include that: (a) its variation range is independent of process parameters and machining systems, and (b) its threshold value is much less susceptible to cutting condition changes since its value is in relative term. As a result, the chatter index could be used for different machining processes without the time-consuming recalibration process.

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

chatter detection
wavelet transform
probability distribution
wavelet modulus maxima
chatter index


So fast so good: An analysis of answer quality and answer speed in community Question-answering sites The authors investigate the interplay between answer quality and answer speed across question types in community question-answering sites (CQAs). The research questions addressed are the following: (a) How do answer quality and answer speed vary across question types? (b) How do the relationships between answer quality and answer speed vary across question types? (c) How do the best quality answers and the fastest answers differ in terms of answer quality and answer speed across question types? (d) How do trends in answer quality vary over time across question types? From the posting of 3,000 questions in six CQAs, 5,356 answers were harvested and analyzed. There was a significant difference in answer quality and answer speed across question types, and there were generally no significant relationships between answer quality and answer speed. The best quality answers had better overall answer quality than the fastest answers but generally took longer to arrive. In addition, although the trend in answer quality had been mostly random across all question types, the quality of answers appeared to improve gradually when given time. By highlighting the subtle nuances in answer quality and answer speed across question types, this study is an attempt to explore a territory of CQA research that has hitherto been relatively uncharted.

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


Improving performance aligning business analytics with process orientation How to align business analytics with process orientation initiatives and how management can influence a synergistic accomplishment of these two elements in order to streamline organizational performance is a foremost managerial issue. By means of a quantitative research effort, a study was designed to investigate the relationships among these constructs. Empirical data were collected in 2011 from a survey of 368 large and mid-sized industrial and service companies headquartered in Brazil. A quantitative analysis was performed, and both the reliability and validity of the scales were evaluated prior to using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrate that the direct effects among BPO, analytical indicators and performance can be taken as statistically significant. The findings also demonstrate that BPO and analytical indicators can be taken as predictors of performance. The paper discusses these results and their managerial implications, as well as some research paths for future studies on the topic.

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

analytical indicators
performance
structural equation modeling


QMachine: commodity supercomputing in web browsers Ongoing advancements in cloud computing provide novel opportunities in scientific computing, especially for distributed workflows. Modern web browsers can now be used as high-performance workstations for querying, processing, and visualizing genomics Big Data from sources like The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) without local software installation or configuration. The design of QMachine (QM) was driven by the opportunity to use this pervasive computing model in the context of the Web of Linked Data in Biomedicine.

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

crowdsourcing
distributed computing
javascript
mapreduce
paas
sequence analysis
web service


From Wilderness to Megalopolis A Comparative Analysis of County Level Sex Ratios in the United States From 1790 to 1910 Using a Historical GIS Using a historical Geographic Information System (GIS) and statistical measures, this research examines the sex ratios of the United States between 1790 and 1910 to determine whether men truly outnumbered women on the American Frontier. We used United States Census data combined with historical digital county maps to calculate male-to-female sex ratios by county and settlement density class. We analyzed these ratios using descriptive statistics, the Games-Howell analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and comparisons of historical GIS maps. We found that gender ratios on the American Frontier were extremely high throughout the study period and were significantly different from those in more densely populated areas. In addition, sex ratios declined as population density increased in each decade of this study. However, frontier areas still had fairly high gender ratios in 1910, thus showing ongoing significant demographic differences between those sparsely settled counties and more urbanized regions.

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

united states
frontier
sex ratios
historical gis


A linear time algorithm for consecutive permutation pattern matching We give a simple linear time algorithm for permutation consecutive pattern matching. Our algorithm is based on the KnuthMorrisPratt algorithm. This is the first algorithmic study of consecutive permutation patterns.

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

permutation pattern matching
pattern matching
knuthmorrispratt algorithm


revisiting the k-means algorithm for fast trajectory segmentation Many problems in Computer Science require a trajectory segmentation, in part due to the notably huge spectrum of devices that capture sequentially-generated information (e.g., motion sensors, video cameras, RFID tags, eye trackers, etc.) Segmentation leads to simplify the structure of the data, so that original objects can be divided into smaller, more compact structures. Seen this way, segmentation can be approached as a compression technique, i.e., organizing trajectories into segments whose members are similar in some way. This can be solved as a clustering problem. Unfortunately, to date we have not found a suitable method that can tap in a really simple way the temporal constraint implicitly embedded in the data. Moreover, near-optimal solutions such as kernel methods or hidden Markov models can be prohibitive if processing power is a restriction (e.g., on mobile devices).

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


Deterministic parallel processing In order to address the problems faced in the wireless communications domain, picoChip has devised the picoArray(TM). The picoArray is a tiled-processor architecture, containing several hundred heterogeneous processors, connected through a novel, compile-time scheduled interconnect. This architecture does not suffer from many of the problems faced by conventional general purpose parallel processors and provides an alternative to creating an ASIC. The PC102 is the second generation device from picoChip containing 308 processors. The devices are designed to be connected together using a seamless extension of the internal interconnect structure. This enables multi-chip solutions to be easily realised for applications which require additional processing. This paper highlights some of the difficulties encountered when building parallel systems and goes on to show how the features of the picoArray allow deterministic processing to be achieved, how the tool chain allows programming to be performed effectively in a combination of high level assembly language and C, and how systems built around the picoArray are debugged in real-time. By handling a wide variety of types of processing within the picoArray a single design flow can be used to produce complex communications systems. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through the use of the picoArray to build a 802.16 base-station for commercial deployment.

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


A NOTE ON AN ARBITRATED QUANTUM SIGNATURE SCHEME Zeng and Keitel proposed an arbitrated quantum signature scheme in 2002. Recently, Curty and Lutkenhaus pointed out that the protocol is not operationally specified. In a reply, Zeng gave more details of the scheme. The author also claimed that the scheme is suitable for unknown messages. In this letter, we remark that the invented scenario in the original scheme is artificial. This is because its security entirely depends on the presence of a trustworthy arbitrator. Moreover, the claim that the original scheme is suitable for unknown messages is not sound.

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

quantum digital signature
blind signature


game bot identification based on manifold learning In recent years, online gaming has become one of the most popular Internet activities, but cheating activity, such as the use of game bots, has increased as a consequence. Generally, the gaming community disapproves of the use of game bots, as bot users obtain unreasonable rewards without corresponding efforts. However, bots are hard to detect because they are designed to simulate human game playing behavior and they follow game rules exactly. Existing detection approaches either disrupt players' gaming experiences, or they assume game bots are run as standalone clients or assigned a specific goal, such as aim bots in FPS games. In this paper, we propose a manifold learning approach for detecting game bots. It is a general technique that can be applied to any game in which avatars' movement is controlled by the players directly. Through real-life data traces, we show that the trajectories of human players and those of game bots are very different. In addition, although game bots may endeavor to simulate players' decisions, certain human behavior patterns are difficult to mimic because they are AI-hard. Taking Quake 2 as a case study, we evaluate our scheme's performance based on real-life traces. The results show that the scheme can achieve a detection accuracy of 98\% or higher on a trace of 700 seconds.

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

k nn
svm
isomap
classification
online games
trajectory


Nstar: an interactive tool for local web search Defining Web query languages has received much attention in the last few years. A typical system consists of a wrapper which maps a data source to a common data model and on which semantic integration is provided. However, constructing wrappers is time-consuming and can cater for tens, but not thousands of data sources. New methods should thus be investigated and then developed. In this paper, we present a novel model to retrieve information from the WWW. It is designed for ad hoc users and employs sample-based mining to extract the desirable data. Our method is more flexible than the wrapper approach.

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

web mining
search engine
internet searching


Benefits of amplification in an inertial stepping motor Inertial stepping motors (ISMs) are widely used in high precision applications, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and/or micro manipulation. The resolution they are able to reach makes them especially suitable when long stroke and high resolution are needed simultaneously. However, the limited speed of this technology is its main drawback. To overcome this drawback, the present paper proposes to use an amplified actuator in an ISM instead of a classical direct actuator. The impact of this choice is studied here, from speed and electrical current points of view. This study determined in an analytical way the influence of the actuator stroke on the step size of an ISM via an optimised control signal. The results are then confronted to a lumped model to identify potential limitations. Finally, a test bench is built using three different piezoelectric actuators to obtain experimental feedback about the benefits of actuator amplification in ISMs. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


emotion recognition using brain activity Our project focused on recognizing emotion from human brain activity, measured by EEG signals. We have proposed a system to analyze EEG signals and classify them into 5 classes on two emotional dimensions, valence and arousal. This system was designed using prior knowledge from other research, and is meant to assess the quality of emotion recognition using EEG signals in practice. In order to perform this assessment, we have gathered a dataset with EEG signals. This was done by measuring EEG signals from people that were emotionally stimulated by pictures. This method enabled us to teach our system the relationship between the characteristics of the brain activity and the emotion. We found that the EEG signals contained enough information to separate five different classes on both the valence and arousal dimension. However, using a 3-fold cross validation method for training and testing, we reached classification rates of 32\% for recognizing the valence dimension from EEG signals and 37\% for the arousal dimension. Much better classification rates were achieved when using only the extreme values on both dimensions, the rates were 71\% and 81\%.

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


jit compilation policy for modern machines Dynamic or Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation is crucial to achieve acceptable performance for applications (written in managed languages, such as Java and C#) distributed as intermediate language binary codes for a virtual machine (VM) architecture. Since it occurs at runtime, JIT compilation needs to carefully tune its compilation policy to make effective decisions regarding 'if' and 'when' to compile different program regions to achieve the best overall program performance. Past research has extensively tuned JIT compilation policies, but mainly for VMs with a single compiler thread and for execution on single-processor machines. This work is driven by the need to explore the most effective JIT compilation strategies in their modern operational environment, where (a) processors have evolved from single to multi/many cores, and (b) VMs provide support for multiple concurrent compiler threads. Our results confirm that changing 'if' and 'when' methods are compiled have significant performance impacts. We construct several novel configurations in the HotSpot JVM to facilitate this study. The new configurations are necessitated by modern Java benchmarks that impede traditional static whole-program discovery, analysis and annotation, and are required for simulating future many-core hardware that is not yet widely available. We study the effects on performance of increasing compiler aggressiveness for VMs with multiple compiler threads running on existing single/multi-core and future many-core machines. Our results indicate that although more aggressive JIT compilation policies show no benefits on single-core machines, these can often improve program performance for multi/many-core machines. However, accurately prioritizing JIT method compilations is crucial to realize such benefits.

O O 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 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

multicore
dynamic compilation
virtual machines


Global superconvergence of simplified hybrid combinations for elliptic equations with singularities, I. Basic theorem To solve the elliptic boundary value problems with singularities, the simplified hybrid combinations of the Ritz-Galerkin and finite element methods (RGM-FEM) are explored to lead to the global superconvergence rates on the entire solution domain, based on an a posteriori interpolation techniques of Lin and Yan [12] that only cost a little more computation. Let the solution domain S = S-1 boolean OR S-2 boolean OR Gamma(0) and S-1 boolean AND S-2 = 0. Suppose that S-1 can be partitioned into quasiuniform rectangles: S-1 = Sigma(ij) square(ij), a singular point occurs at partial derivative S-2, and the singular functions are chosen in S-2. Then for bilinear elements, it is proven that the simplified hybrid combinations of RGM-FEM can provide the global superconvergence rate O(h(2)) for solution gradients over the entire subdomains S-1 and S-2, where h is the maximal boundary length of square(ij). The global superconvergence O(h(2)) is better, compared to O(h(2-delta)), 0 < delta << 1 given in [4, 9]. Note that numerical stability of the simplified hybrid combinations of RGM-FEM is also optimal [6]. This paper presents the important results for the general case of Poisson-problems on a polygonal domain S estimates for the Sobolev norm \\ . \\(1), given in a much more general sense than known before, cf. [1-4, 14-18].

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

elliptic equation
singularity problem
combined method


A Performance and Energy Comparison of Convolution on GPUs, FPGAs, and Multicore Processors Recent architectural trends have focused on increased parallelism via multicore processors and increased heterogeneity via accelerator devices (e.g., graphics-processing units, field-programmable gate arrays). Although these architectures have significant performance and energy potential, application designers face many device-specific challenges when choosing an appropriate accelerator or when customizing an algorithm for an accelerator. To help address this problem, in this article we thoroughly evaluate convolution, one of the most common operations in digital-signal processing, on multicores, graphics-processing units, and field-programmable gate arrays. Whereas many previous application studies evaluate a specific usage of an application, this article assists designers with design space exploration for numerous use cases by analyzing effects of different input sizes, different algorithms, and different devices, while also determining Pareto-optimal trade-offs between performance and energy.

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


Presynaptic inhibition of primary afferents by depolarization: observations supporting nontraditional mechanisms Primary afferent neurotransmission is the fundamental first step in the central processing of sensory stimuli and is controlled by pre- and postsynaptic inhibitory mechanisms. Presynaptic inhibition (PSI) is probably the more powerful form of inhibitory control in all primary afferent fibers. A major mechanism producing afferent PSI is via a channel-mediated depolarization of their intraspinal terminals, which can be recorded extracellularly as a dorsal root potential (DRP). Based on measures of DRP latency it has been inferred that this primary afferent depolarization (PAD) of low-threshold afferents is mediated by minimally trisynaptic pathways with pharmacologically identified GABAergic interneurons forming last-order axo-axonic synapses onto afferent terminals. There is still no squeaky clean evidence of this organization. This paper describes recent and historical work that supports the existence of PAD occurring by more direct pathways and with a complex pharmacology that questions the proprietary role of GABA and GABAA receptors in this process. Cholinergic transmission in particular may contribute significantly to PAD, including via direct release from primary afferents.

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


drm as a layered system The current landscape for digital rights management(DRM) consists of various ad hoc technologies and platforms that largely focus on copy protection. The fragmented nature of the DRM industry in 2004 is somewhat reminiscent of the telecommunications industry in the late 1980's. At that time various networking technologies were available, and what was needed was a technology that could integrate existing networks and provide various services to users. The OSI layered framework and the TCP/IP communications protocol suite provided a solution to this situation. The OSI model divides the process of digital data communications into layers. Likewise, in this paper we divide the process of DRM into layers in which various services are offered to the users of digital content at each layer. Three blocks of layers have been identified. The upper layers deal with the end-to-end functions of the application, the middle layers deal with rights expression and interpretation, and the lower layers ensure rights enforcement. This paper describes how responsibilities might be distributed among the various layers, and considers where in these layers it would be appropriate to define protocols and standards.

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


MIMO channel modeling and the principle of maximum entropy We devise theoretical grounds for constructing channel models for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems based on information-theoretic tools. The paper provides a general method to derive a channel model which is consistent with one's state of knowledge. The framework we give here has already been fruitfully explored with success in the context of Bayesian spectrum analysis and parameter estimation. For each channel model, we conduct an asymptotic analysis (in the number of antennas) of the achievable transmission rate using tools from random matrix theory. A central limit theorem is provided on the asymptotic behavior of the mutual information and validated in the finite case by simulations. The results are useful both in terms of designing a system based on criteria such as quality of service and in optimizing transmissions in multiuser networks.

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

antenna arrays
bayesian probability theory
multiple-input multiple-output (mimo)
random matrices


Dual oscillator model of the respiratory neuronal network generating quantal slowing of respiratory rhythm We developed a dual oscillator model to facilitate the understanding of dynamic interactions between the parafacial respiratory group (pFRG) and the preBtzinger complex (preBtC) neurons in the respiratory rhythm generation. Both neuronal groups were modeled as groups of81 interconnected pacemaker neurons; the bursting cell model described by Butera and others [model 1 in Butera et al. (J Neurophysiol 81:382397, 1999a)] were used to model the pacemaker neurons. We assumed (1) both pFRG and preBtC networks are rhythm generators, (2) preBtC receives excitatory inputs from pFRG, and pFRG receives inhibitory inputs from preBtC, and (3) persistent Na+ current conductance and synaptic current conductances are randomly distributed within each population. Our model could reproduce 1:1 coupling of bursting rhythms between pFRG and preBtC with the characteristic biphasic firing pattern of pFRG neurons, i.e., firings during pre-inspiratory and post-inspiratory phases. Compatible with experimental results, the model predicted the changes in firing pattern of pFRG neurons from biphasic expiratory to monophasic inspiratory, synchronous with preBtC neurons. Quantal slowing, a phenomena of prolonged respiratory period that jumps non-deterministically to integer multiples of the control period, was observed when the excitability of preBtC network decreased while strengths of synaptic connections between the two groups remained unchanged, suggesting that, in contrast to the earlier suggestions (Mellen et al., Neuron 37:821826, 2003; Wittmeier et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(46):1800018005, 2008), quantal slowing could occur without suppressed or stochastic excitatory synaptic transmission. With a reduced excitability of preBtC network, the breakdown of synchronous bursting of preBtC neurons was predicted by simulation. We suggest that quantal slowing could result from a breakdown of synchronized bursting within the preBtC.

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

respiratory rhythm generation
quantal slowing

rhythm coupling
neuronal networks
numerical simulation


An Analysis of Availability for Series Markov Repairable System With Neglected or Delayed Failures A new system is defined based on a series Markov repairable system. In this new system, if a repair time of the system failure is too short (less than a given critical value) to cause the system to fail, then the repair interval may be omitted from the downtime record, i.e., the failure effect could be neglected. Otherwise, if a repair time is longer than the given critical value, then the system remains operating from the beginning of this repair until this repair time exceeding the critical value, i.e., the failure effect could be delayed. In Ion-Channel modeling, we call this situation the time interval omission problem. Incorporating this situation, the availability indices are presented as a measure of reliability. Some numerical examples are shown to illustrate the results obtained in the paper.

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

effect neglected or delayed
series system


An information-theoretic approach to combining object models This paper introduces a new method for combining different object models. By determining a configuration of the models, which maximizes their mutual information, the proposed method creates a unified hypothesis from multiple object models on the fly without prior training. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, experiments are conducted in which human faces are detected and localized in images by combining different face models.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 Survey on OFDM-Based Elastic Core Optical Networking Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a modulation technology that has been widely adopted in many new and emerging broadband wireless and wireline communication systems. Due to its capability to transmit a high-speed data stream using multiple spectral-overlapped lower-speed subcarriers, OFDM technology offers superior advantages of high spectrum efficiency, robustness against inter-carrier and inter-symbol interference, adaptability to server channel conditions, etc. In recent years, there have been intensive studies on optical OFDM (O-OFDM) transmission technologies, and it is considered a promising technology for future ultra-high-speed optical transmission. Based on O-OFDM technology, a novel elastic optical network architecture with immense flexibility and scalability in spectrum allocation and data rate accommodation could be built to support diverse services and the rapid growth of Internet traffic in the future. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on OFDM-based elastic optical network technologies, including basic principles of OFDM, O-OFDM technologies, the architectures of OFDM-based elastic core optical networks, and related key enabling technologies. The main advantages and issues of OFDM-based elastic core optical networks that are under research are also 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 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

optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (o-ofdm)

bandwidth-variable wavelength cross-connect (bv-wxc)


Grasp and delivery for moving objects on broken lines This paper studies the following variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem that we call the Grasp and Delivery for Moving Objects (GDMO) problem, motivated by robot navigation: The input to the problem consists of n products, each of which moves on a predefined path with a fixed constant speed, and a robot arm of capacity one. In each round, the robot arm grasps one product and then delivers it to the depot. The goal of the problem is to find a collection of tours such that the robot arm grasps and delivers as many products as possible. In this paper we prove the following results: (i) If the products move on broken lines with at least one bend, then the GDMO is MAXSNP-hard, and (ii) it can be approximated with ratio 2. However, (iii) if we impose the "straight line without bend" restriction on the motion of every product, then the GDMO becomes tractable.

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