Possibilistic logic: a retrospective and prospective view Possibilistic logic is a weighted logic introduced and developed since the mid-1980s, in the setting of artificial intelligence, with a view to develop a simple and rigorous approach to automated reasoning from uncertain or prioritized incomplete information. Standard possibilistic logic expressions are classical logic formulas associated with weights, interpreted in the framework of possibility theory as lower bounds of necessity degrees. Possibilistic logic handles partial inconsistency since an inconsistency level can be computed for each possibilistic logic base. Logical formulas with a weight strictly greater than this level are immune to inconsistency and can be safely used in deductive reasoning. This paper first recalls the basic features of possibilistic logic, including information fusion operations. Then, several extensions that mainly deal with the nature and the handling of the weights attached to formulas, are suggested or surveyed: the leximin-based comparison of proofs, the use of partially ordered scales for the weights, or the management of fuzzily restricted variables. Inference principles that are more powerful than the basic possibilistic inference in case of inconsistency are also briefly considered. The interest of a companion logic, based on the notion of guaranteed possibility functions, and working in a way opposite to the one of usual logic, is also emphasized. Its joint use with standard possibilistic logic is briefly discussed. This position paper stresses the main ideas only and refers to previous published literature for technical details. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

possibility theory
logic
artificial intelligence


Natural and virtual environments for the training of emergency medicine personnel EMERGENZA (emergency in Italian) is a serious game, developed in the context of the RIMSI project and designed to improve the training of emergency medicine operators. To achieve this goal, it adopts natural interaction paradigms in immersive environments. Virtual reality systems have been used recently in combination with natural interface systems for enhancing patients rehabilitation procedures though are proving especially effective in the development of clinical decision support and medical training systems. The use of immersive simulations in medical training is extremely useful to confront emergency operators with scenarios that range from usual (e.g. unconscious person on the ground) to extreme (car accident with several injured people) without exposing the simulation participants in any harm. It is critical to exploit 3D virtual worlds in order to provide as much contextual information as possible to the operators. In fact, each emergency procedure needs to be adapted depending on the environmental threats and the presence of multiple injured people in need of assistance or bystanders. EMERGENZA allows to simulate a first-aid scenario with a configurable virtual environment using interactive 3D graphics. Users can interact through a natural interface for navigation and interaction with the virtual environment. In order to evaluate the prototype, several heuristics have been chosen and tested to measure the overall system usability. Results show that the adoption of natural interaction in immersive virtual environments receives good feedback from users.

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

serious games
natural interfaces
medical operators training


Finding anomalous periodic time series Catalogs of periodic variable stars contain large numbers of periodic light-curves (photometric time series data from the astrophysics domain). Separating anomalous objects from well-known classes is an important step towards the discovery of new classes of astronomical objects. Most anomaly detection methods for time series data assume either a single continuous time series or a set of time series whose periods are aligned. Light-curve data precludes the use of these methods as the periods of any given pair of light-curves may be out of sync. One may use an existing anomaly detection method if, prior to similarity calculation, one performs the costly act of aligning two light-curves, an operation that scales poorly to massive data sets. This paper presents PCAD, an unsupervised anomaly detection method for large sets of unsynchronized periodic time-series data, that outputs a ranked list of both global and local anomalies. It calculates its anomaly score for each light-curve in relation to a set of centroids produced by a modified k-means clustering algorithm. Our method is able to scale to large data sets through the use of sampling. We validate our method on both light-curve data and other time series data sets. We demonstrate its effectiveness at finding known anomalies, and discuss the effect of sample size and number of centroids on our results. We compare our method to naive solutions and existing time series anomaly detection methods for unphased data, and show that PCAD's reported anomalies are comparable to or better than all other methods. Finally, astrophysicists on our team have verified that PCAD finds true anomalies that might be indicative of novel astrophysical phenomena.

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


Empathic Touch by Relational Agents We describe a series of experiments with an agent designed to model human conversational touch-capable of physically touching users in synchrony with speech and other nonverbal communicative behavior-and its use in expressing empathy to users in distress. The agent is composed of an animated human face that is displayed on a monitor affixed to the top of a human mannequin, with touch conveyed by an air bladder that squeezes a user's hand. We demonstrate that when touch is used alone, hand squeeze pressure and number of squeezes are associated with user perceptions of affect arousal conveyed by an agent, while number of squeezes and squeeze duration are associated with affect valence. We also show that, when affect-relevant cues are present in facial display, speech prosody, and touch used simultaneously by the agent, facial display dominates user perceptions of affect valence, and facial display and prosody are associated with affect arousal, while touch had little effect. Finally, we show that when touch is used in the context of an empathic, comforting interaction (but without the manipulation of affect cues in other modalities), it can lead to better perceptions of relationship with the agent, but only for users who are comfortable being touched by other people.

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

animations
evaluation
haptic i/o
natural language
user interfaces


Segmentation of vessel-like patterns using mathematical morphology and curvature evaluation This paper presents an algorithm based on mathematical morphology and curvature evaluation for the detection of vessel-like patterns in a noisy environment. Such patterns are very common in medical images. Vessel detection is interesting for the computation of parameters related to blood flow, Its tree-like geometry makes it a usable feature for registration between images that can be of a different nature. In order to define vessel-like patterns, segmentation will be performed with respect to a precise model. We define a vessel as a bright pattern, piece-wise connected, and locally linear. Mathematical Morphology is very well adapted to this description, however other patterns fit such a morphological description, In order to differentiate vessels from analogous background patterns, a cross-curvature evaluation is performed. They are separated out as they have a specific Gaussian-like profile whose curvature varies smoothly along the vessel. The detection algorithm that derives directly from this modeling is based on four steps: 1) noise reduction; 2) linear pattern with Gaussian-like profile improvement; 3) cross-curvature evaluation; 4) linear filtering. We present its theoretical background and illustrate it on real images of various natures, then evaluate its robustness and its accuracy with respect to noise.

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

edge detection
image analysis
ophthalmology


A massively parallel architecture for distributed genetic algorithms Genetic algorithms are a group of stochastic search algorithms with a broad field of application. Although highly successful in many fields, genetic algorithms in general suffer from long execution times. In this article we describe parallel models for genetic algorithms in general and the massively parallel Diffusion Model in particular, in order to speedup the execution. Implemented in hardware, the Diffusion Model constitutes an efficient, flexible, scalable and mobile machine learning system. This fine-grained system consists of a large number of processing nodes that evolve a large number of small, overlapping subpopulations. Every processing node has an embedded CPU that executes a linear machine code representation at a rate of up to 20,000 generations per second. Besides being efficient, implemented in hardware this model is highly portable and applicable to mobile, on-line applications. The architecture is also scalable so that larger problems can be addressed with a system with more processing nodes. Finally, the use of linear machine code as genetic programming representation and VHDL as hardware description language, makes the system highly flexible and easy to adapt to different applications. Through a series of experiments we determine the settings of the most important parameters of the Diffusion Model. We also demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the architecture on a set of regression problems, a classification application and a time series forecasting application.

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

genetic programming
parallel architecture
diffusion model
classification
time series forecasting
regression


Virtual path layouts optimizing total hop count on ATM tree networks This paper presents some algorithmic results concerning virtual path layouts for the one-to-many communication problem in ATM tree networks. The ATM network model is based on covering the network with a layout of virtual paths, under some constraints on the allowed load, namely, the number of paths that can share an edge. The quality measure used is the hop count, namely, the number of edges traversed between two vertices that need to communicate. Whereas most former results concerned the maximum hop count of the virtual path layout, our interest here is in measuring its total hop count, or alternatively its average hop count. The paper presents a dynamic programming algorithm for planning ATM network layouts with minimal total hop count for one-to-many requirements under load constraints over the class of tree networks.

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

virtual paths
hop count
dynamic programming


Justifying reliability claims for a fault-detecting parallel architecture This paper describes Goal Structuring Notation (GSN), a graphical notation that can be used to structure and present an argument justifying some aspect of system performance. The design of a fault-detecting processor pair is examined to determine the extent to which it is indeed fault-detecting. It is argued that for complex systems, difficulties with assessment arise not so much from a lack of analysis techniques, but from the need to integrate the results from many diverse analyses into a coherent and compelling argument. It is suggested that GSN provides a framework in which such an argument can be made.

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

safety critical systems
system assessment
argumentation
fault tolerance
safety cases


A Poisson-Boltzmann solver on irregular domains with Neumann or Robin boundary conditions on non-graded adaptive grid We introduce a second-order solver for the Poisson-Boltzmann equation in arbitrary geometry in two and three spatial dimensions. The method differs from existing methods solving the Poisson-Boltzmann equation in the two following ways: first, non-graded Quadtree (in two spatial dimensions) and Octree (in three spatial dimensions) grid structures are used; Second, Neumann or Robin boundary conditions are enforced at the irregular domain's boundary. The irregular domain is described implicitly and the grid needs not to conform to the domain's boundary, which makes grid generation straightforward and robust. The linear system is symmetric, positive definite in the case where the grid is uniform, nonsymmetric otherwise. In this case, the resulting matrix is an M-matrix, thus the linear system is invertible. Convergence examples are given in both two and three spatial dimensions and demonstrate that the solution is second-order accurate and that Quadtree/Octree grid structures save a significant amount of computational power at no sacrifice in accuracy. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

finite difference method
level set
poisson-boltzmann solver
neumann boundary condition
robin boundary condition


Enabling broadcast of user-generated live video without servers We are witnessing the unprecedented popularity of User-Generated-Content (UGC) on the Internet. While YouTube hosts pre-recorded video clips, in near future, we expect to see the emergence of User-Generated Live Video, for which any user can create its own temporary live video channel from a webcam or a hand-held wireless device. Hosting a large number of UG live channels on commercial servers can be very expensive. Server-based solutions also involve various economic, copyright and content control issues between users and the companies hosting their content. In this paper, leveraging on the recent success of P2P video streaming, we study the strategies for end users to directly broadcast their own live channels to a large number of audiences without resorting to any server support. The key challenge is that end users are normally bandwidth constrained and can barely send out one complete video stream to the rest of the world. Existing P2P streaming solutions cannot maintain a high level of user Quality-of-Experience (QoE) with such a highly constrained video source. We propose a novel Layered P2P Streaming (LPS) architecture, to address this challenge. LPS introduces playback delay differentiation and constructs virtual servers out of peers to boost end users capability of driving large-scale video streaming. Through detailed packet-level simulations and PlanetLab experiments, we show that LPS enables a source with upload bandwidth slightly higher than the video streaming rate to stream video to tens of thousands of peers with premium quality of experience.

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


Modelling and simulation of purification processes in wastewater treatment plants using the modular toolbox KSIM A short description of the modular toolbox KSIM for dynamic simulation of purification processes in wastewater treatment plants is given. The features and characteristics of KSIM, the information transfer inside the simulation model, the design of the modules and the input of the module parameters are discussed. An example is chosen to demonstrate the use of KSIM for the development of control strategies optimizing the wastewater treatment plant operation of nitrogen removal. Two different control strategies for the operation of an equalizing basin at the influent of the biological purification stage of a wastewater treatment plant are compared and assessed by means of the simulation results.

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

control strategies
dynamic simulation
nitrogen removal
wastewater treatment


Computing global offensive alliances in Cartesian product graphs A global offensive alliance in a graph G G is a set S S of vertices with the property that every vertex not belonging to S S has at least one more neighbor in S S than it has outside of S S . The global offensive alliance number of G G , ?o(G) ? o ( G ) , is the minimum cardinality of a global offensive alliance in G G . A set S S of vertices of a graph G G is a dominating set for G G if every vertex not belonging to S S has at least one neighbor in S S . The domination number of G G , ?(G) ? ( G ) , is the minimum cardinality of a dominating set of G G . In this work we obtain closed formulas for the global offensive alliance number of several families of Cartesian product graphs, we also prove that ? o ( G ? H ) ? ? ( G ) ? o ( H ) 2 for any graphs G G and H H and we show that if G G has an efficient dominating set, then ?o(G?H)??(G)?o(H) ? o ( G ? H ) ? ? ( G ) ? o ( H ) . Moreover, we present a Vizing-like conjecture for the global offensive alliance number and we prove it for several families of graphs.

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

global offensive alliances
domination
cartesian product graphs


enhancing traveling experiences with augmented reality In this poster, we describe an augmented reality (AR) service prototype and the users studies planned for it 2H/09. This service provides additional location based information for travelers in Suomenlinna, a popular tourist attraction by the coast of Helsinki, Finland.

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

tourism
virtual museum
case study
mobile


TESTS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS AGAINST A SIMPLE FAMILY OF LOCAL HIDDEN-VARIABLES MODELS VIA POLARIZATION CORRELATION EXPERIMENTS The quantum prediction for the polarization correlation of a general two-photon state (e.g. non-maximally entangled) is derived taking into account the non-ideal behavior of polarization analyzers and detectors. A simple family of local hidden-variables models is defined and the possible discrimination between that family and quantum mechanics is 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


Error-Correcting Unordered Codes and Hardware Support for Robust Asynchronous Global Communication This paper introduces a new family of errorcorrection unordered (ECU) codes for global communication, called Zero-Sum. They combine the timing-robustness of delayinsensitive (i.e., unordered) codes with the fault-tolerance of error-correcting codes (providing 1-bit error correction or 2-bit detection). Two key features of the codes are that they are systematic, allowing direct extraction of data, and weighted, where the check field is computed as the sum of data index weights. A wide variety of weight assignments is shown to be feasible. Two practical enhancements are also proposed. The Zero-Sum(+) code extends error detection to 3-bit errors, or alternatively handles 2-bit detection and 1-bit correction. The Zero-Sum* code supports heuristic 2-bit correction, while still guaranteeing 2-bit detection, under different strategies of weight assignment. Detailed hardware implementations of the supporting components (encoder, completion detection, error corrector) are given, as well as an outline of the system microarchitecture. In comparison to the best alternative systematic ECU code, the basic Zero-Sum code provided better or comparable coding efficiency, with a 5.74%-18.18% reduction in average number of wire transitions for most field sizes. Several Zero-Sum* codes were also evaluated for their 2-bit error correction coverage; initial results are promising, where the best strategy corrected 52.92%-71.16% of all 2-bit errors for most field sizes, with only a moderate decrease in coding efficiency and increase in wire transitions. Technologymapped pre-layout implementations of the supporting Zero-Sum code hardware were synthesized with the UC Berkeley ABC tool using a 90 nm industrial standard cell library. Results indicate that they have moderate area and delay overheads. In comparison, supporting hardware for the best nonsystematic ECU codes have 3.82-10.44x greater area for larger field sizes.

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

asynchronous design
delay-insensitive
error-correcting codes
fault-tolerance


A quasi-likelihood method for fractal-dimension estimation We propose a simple method of constructing quasi-likelihood functions for dependent data based on conditional-mean-variance relationships, and apply the method to estimating the fractal dimension from box-counting data. Simulation studies were carried out to compare this method with the traditional methods. We also applied this technique to real data from fishing grounds in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. (C) 1999 IMACS/Elsevier Science 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

mean-variance relationship
quasi-likelihood function


A priori experimental design for inverse identification of magnetic material properties of an electromagnetic device using uncertainty analysis Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine a. priori the optimal needle placement so to achieve an as accurate as possible magnetic property identification of an electromagnetic device. Moreover, the effect of the uncertainties in the geometrical parameter values onto the optimal sensor position is studied. Design/methodology/approach - The optimal needle placement is determined using the stochastic Cramer-Rao lower bound method. The results obtained using the stochastic method are compared with a first order sensitivity analysis. The inverse problem is solved starting from real local magnetic induction measurements coupled with a 3D finite element model of an electromagnetic device (EI core inductor). Findings - The optimal experimental design for the identification of the magnetic properties of an electromagnetic device is achieved. The uncertainties in the geometrical model parameters have a high effect on the inverse problem recovered solution. Originality/value - The solution of the inverse problem is more accurate because the measurements are carried out at the optimal positions, in which the effects of the uncertainties in the geometrical model parameters are limited.

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

electromagnetism
magnetic devices
physical properties of materials
optimum design
optimal experiment design
stochastic cramer-rao bound
magnetic material identification


On disjoint matchings in cubic graphs: Maximum 2-edge-colorable and maximum 3-edge-colorable subgraphs We show that any 2-factor of a cubic graph can be extended to a maximum 3-edge-colorable subgraph. We also show that the sum of sizes of maximum 2- and 3-edge-colorable subgraphs of a cubic graph is at least twice of its number of vertices. Finally, for a cubic graph G G , consider the pairs of edge-disjoint matchings whose union consists of as many edges as possible. Let H H be the largest matching among such pairs. Let M M be a maximum matching of G G . We show that 9/8 9 / 8 is a tight upper bound for |M|/|H| | M | / | H | .

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

edge-coloring
maximum 2-edge-colorable subgraph
maximum 3-edge-colorable subgraph


eye movement prediction by kalman filter with integrated linear horizontal oculomotor plant mechanical model The goal of this paper is to predict future horizontal eye movement trajectories within a specified time interval. To achieve this goal a linear horizontal oculomotor plant mechanical model is developed. The model consists of the eye globe and two extraocular muscles: lateral and medial recti. The model accounts for such anatomical properties of the eye as muscle location, elasticity, viscosity, eye-globe rotational inertia, muscle active state tension, length tension and force velocity relationships. The mathematical equations describing the oculomotor plant mechanical model are transformed into a Kalman filter form. Such transformation provides continuous eye movement prediction with a high degree of accuracy. The model was tested with 21 subjects and three multimedia files. Practical application of this model lies with direct eye gaze input and interactive displays systems as a method to compensate for detection, transmission and processing delays.

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

kalman filter
oculomotor plant
eye movement prediction


Testing the performance of teachinglearning based optimization (TLBO) algorithm on combinatorial problems: Flow shop and job shop scheduling cases Teachinglearning based optimization (TLBO) algorithm has been recently proposed in the literature as a novel population oriented meta-heuristic algorithm. It has been tested on some unconstrained and constrained non-linear programming problems, including some design optimization problems with considerable success. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance of TLBO algorithm on combinatorial optimization problems first time in the literature. We also provided a detailed literature review about TLBOs applications. The performance of the TLBO algorithm is tested on some combinatorial optimization problems, namely flow shop (FSSP) and job shop scheduling problems (JSSP). It is a well-known fact that scheduling problems are amongst the most complicated combinatorial optimization problems. Therefore, performance of TLBO algorithm on these problems can give an idea about its possible performance for solving other combinatorial optimization problems. We also provided a comprehensive comparative study along with statistical analyses in order to present effectiveness of TLBO algorithm on solving scheduling problems. Experimental results show that the TLBO algorithm has a considerable potential when compared to the best-known heuristic algorithms for scheduling problems.

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

teachinglearning based optimization
job shop scheduling
combinatorial optimization

flow shop scheduling
makespan
meta-heuristic


Time-dependent reliability of textile-strengthened RC structures under consideration of fuzzy randomness The reliability of civil engineering structures is time-dependent. By means of strengthening it is possible to improve the load-bearing capacity and serviceability of structures and simultaneously to increase structural reliability. In this paper, we focus on the time-dependent reliability assessment of RC structures strengthened by textile-reinforced fine-grade concrete layers. The paper starts with a short introduction concerning textile strengthening of RC structures and the underlying mechanical model. The uncertain material parameters of textile-strengthened structures are then investigated. The uncertain parameters are quantified as fuzzy variables or fuzzy random variables. In order to take account of the latter in the assessment of the time-dependent reliability a new fuzzy probabilistic safety concept is presented. The fuzzy adaptive importance sampling (FAIS) method is introduced. The algorithm is demonstrated with an example. The uncertainty of the input parameters is comprehensively reflected in the uncertainty of the computed fuzzy reliability index. The assessment of the uncertain results is discussed.

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 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

fuzzy adaptive importance sampling (fais)


Brain tumor classification on intraoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasound Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging of tissue perfusion is based on microbubble echo detection. CEUS can visualize tumors based on local perfusion variations. The acquired video data are qualitatively interpreted by subjective visualization in clinical practice. An automated CEUS classifier was developed for intraoperative identification of tumor tissue and especially tumor borders.

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

perfusion imaging
ultrasound contrast imaging
tumor imaging
model function


an authorization scheme for version control systems We present gitolite, an authorization scheme for Version Control Systems (VCSes). We have implemented it for the Git VCS. A VCS enables versioning, distributed collaboration and several other features, and is an important context for authorization and access control. Our main consideration behind the design of gitolite is the balance between expressive power, correctness and usability in realistic settings. We discuss our design of gitolite, and in particular the four user-classes in its delegation model, and the administrative actions a user at each class performs. We discuss also our ongoing work on expressing gitolite precisely in first-order logic, to thereby give it a precise semantics and establish correctness properties. gitolite has been adopted in open-source software development, university and industry settings. We discuss our experience with these deployments, and present some performance results related to access enforcement from a real deployment.

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

git
version control systems
authorization


proposal for a shared resource computing utility This paper presents the current results of an investigation into the design of shared resource computing systems. A general and highly flexible system organization is described which incorporates great potential for fault tolerance. Some of the operating system functions required by such a system are sketched and the question of efficiently exploiting concurrency within a single job is addressed. A user environment is described in which the type of system outlined provides an economically attractive alternative to present approaches. A major goal of the current investigation is to better define shared resource organizations and the environments in which their use can be justified on grounds of efficiency and reliability.

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

fault-tolerant computer system
parallel computational structure
mimd computer system
shared resource computer system


Creating scalable location-based games: lessons from Geocaching Location-based games seek to move computer gaming out from behind the PC and into the real world of cities, streets, parks, and other locations. This real-world physicality makes the experience fun for game players, yet it brings the unique challenge of creating and orchestrating such a game. That is, location-based games are often difficult to create, grow, and maintain over long periods of time. Our research investigates how location-based games can be designed to overcome this challenge of scalability. We studied the well-established location-based game of Geocaching through active participation and an online survey to better understand how it has succeeded in maintaining user involvement and growth over the last decade. Findings show that Geocaching benefits by having players directly create game content, including both lightweight and elaborate creations. Geocaching has also made it simple for players to perform game orchestration by monitoring game content, other players, and even non-players. We then characterize location-based games according to various attributes and suggest how the lessons learned from Geocaching could be applied more generally to the design of other location-based games and in which cases they should not be applied.

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

pervasive games
location-based games
community
global positioning system (gps)


Control of nonlinear, continuous, dynamic systems via finite elements, sensitivity analysis, and optimization A general methodology to design open loop controllers for nonlinear, dynamic, continuous systems is presented and applied to control a single flexible link (SFL). In this application, the partial differential equations that describe the beam system are first analyzed via the finite element method (FEM) and Newmark integration method. Two open loop control inputs to achieve specified system performance criteria are then computed by posing and solving inverse dynamics problems. These analyses use nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithms and analytical gradients that are computed by the direct sensitivity method. The open loop control is verified experimentally. Closed loop controller synthesis for linear time invariant (LTI) and linear time varying systems (LTV) is relatively well understood. To apply this knowledge base to the control of the SFL, the nonlinear finite element plant model is linearized and recast in standard state space form.

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

finite elements
sensitivity analysis
nonlinear programming

flexible beam control
closed-loop control


Rational selection of experimental readout and intervention sites for reducing uncertainties in computational model predictions Understanding the dynamics of biological processes can substantially be supported by computational models in the form of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE). Typically, this model class contains many unknown parameters, which are estimated from inadequate and noisy data. Depending on the ODE structure, predictions based on unmeasured states and associated parameters are highly uncertain, even undetermined. For given data, profile likelihood analysis has been proven to be one of the most practically relevant approaches for analyzing the identifiability of an ODE structure, and thus model predictions. In case of highly uncertain or non-identifiable parameters, rational experimental design based on various approaches has shown to significantly reduce parameter uncertainties with minimal amount of effort.

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

identifiability
experimental design
profile likelihood

computational modeling
readout selection
intervention site selection
chlorophyll fluorescence induction


Boosted Bayesian network classifiers The use of Bayesian networks for classification problems has received a significant amount of recent attention. Although computationally efficient, the standard maximum likelihood learning method tends to be suboptimal due to the mismatch between its optimization criteria (data likelihood) and the actual goal of classification (label prediction accuracy). Recent approaches to optimizing classification performance during parameter or structure learning show promise, but lack the favorable computational properties of maximum likelihood learning. In this paper we present boosted Bayesian network classifiers, a framework to combine discriminative data-weighting with generative training of intermediate models. We show that boosted Bayesian network classifiers encompass the basic generative models in isolation, but improve their classification performance when the model structure is suboptimal. We also demonstrate that structure learning is beneficial in the construction of boosted Bayesian network classifiers. On a large suite of benchmark data-sets, this approach outperforms generative graphical models such as naive Bayes and TAN in classification accuracy. Boosted Bayesian network classifiers have comparable or better performance in comparison to other discriminatively trained graphical models including ELR and BNC. Furthermore, boosted Bayesian networks require significantly less training time than the ELR and BNC algorithms.

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

bayesian network classifiers
structure learning


Computation of maximum likelihood estimates for multiresponse generalized linear mixed models with non-nested, correlated random effects Estimation of generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) with non-nested random effects structures requires the approximation of high-dimensional integrals. Many existing methods are tailored to the low-dimensional integrals produced by nested designs. We explore the modifications that are required in order to adapt an EM algorithm with first-order and fully exponential Laplace approximations to a non-nested, multiple response model. The equations in the estimation routine are expressed as functions of the first four derivatives of the conditional likelihood of an arbitrary GLMM, providing a template for future applications. We apply the method to a joint Poissonbinary model for ranking sporting teams, and discuss the estimation of a correlated random effects model designed to evaluate the sensitivity of value-added models for teacher evaluation to assumptions about the missing data process. Source code in R is provided in the online supplementary material (see Appendix C).

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

fully exponential laplace approximation
joint model
multiple membership
multivariate
sparse matrix


A 4.31-approximation for the geometric unique coverage problem on unit disks We give an improved approximation algorithm for the unique unit-disk coverage problem: Given a set of points and a set of unit disks, both in the plane, we wish to find a subset of disks that maximizes the number of points contained in exactly one disk in the subset. Erlebach and van Leeuwen (2008) introduced this problem as the geometric version of the unique coverage problem, and gave a polynomial-time 18-approximation algorithm. In this paper, we improve this approximation ratio 18 to 2 + 4 / 3 + ? ( 0 ? > 0 . Our algorithm runs in polynomial time which depends exponentially on 1/? 1 / ? . The algorithm can be generalized to the budgeted unique unit-disk coverage problem in which each point has a profit, each disk has a cost, and we wish to maximize the total profit of the uniquely covered points under the condition that the total cost is at most a given bound.

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

approximation algorithm
unique coverage problem


Feature saliency using signal-to-noise ratios in automated diagnostic systems developed for ECG beats Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been used in a great number of medical diagnostic decision support system applications and within feedforward ANNs framework there are a number of established measures such as saliency measures for identifying important input features. By identifying a set of salient features, the noise in a classification model can be reduced, resulting in more accurate classification. In this study, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) saliency measure was employed to determine saliency of input features of multilayer perceptron neural networks (MLPNNs) used in classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats (normal beat, congestive heart failure beat, ventricular tachyarrhythmia beat, atrial fibrillation beat) obtained from the Physiobank database. The SNR saliency measure determines the saliency of a feature by comparing it to that of an injected noise feature and the SNR screening method utilizes the SNR saliency measure to select a parsimonious set of salient features. ECG signals were decomposed into timefrequency representations using discrete wavelet transform. Input feature vectors were extracted using statistics over the set of the wavelet coefficients. The MLPNNs used in the ECG beats-classification were trained for the SNR screening method. The application results of the SNR screening method to the ECG signals demonstrated that classification accuracies of the MLPNNs with salient input features are higher than that of the MLPNNs with salient and non-salient input features.

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

signal-to-noise ratio
classification accuracy
ecg beats classification


Computability of topological pressure for sofic shifts with applications in statistical physics The topological pressure of dynamical systems theory is examined from a computability theoretic point of view. It is shown that for sofic shift dynamical systems, the topological pressure is a computable function. This result is applied to a certain class of one dimensional spin systems in statistical physics. As a consequence, the specific free energy of these spin systems is computable. Finally, phase transitions of these systems are considered. It turns out that the critical temperature is recursively approximable.

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

shift dynamical systems
topological pressure
statistical physics


Procedure guidance for Internet forensics coping with copyright arguments of client-server-based P2P models ? Digital technology for transferring and controlling data has made substantial advances in recent years. It is important to protect innovations and to curb the copyright infringements in computer-based systems. Copyright is a legal framework of basic rights, allowing the owner to control or permit someone else to reproduce copyrighted works with commercial value. In recent decades, copyright violations have been moving into the criminal realm. This paper focuses on the procedure guidance of a fictitious P2P model, and discusses whether it contributes to the crime of copyright infringement in dealing with the distribution of digital content. From the perspective of internet forensics, the action research and the whole control mechanism, it is shown that a commercial server has full control over the P2P model.

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

copyright protection
cybercrime
forensic analysis


Fast Inference with Min-Sum Matrix Product The MAP inference problem in many graphical models can be solved efficiently using a fast algorithm for computing min-sum products of n x n matrices. The class of models in question includes cyclic and skip-chain models that arise in many applications. Although the worst-case complexity of the min-sum product operation is not known to be much better than O(n(3)), an O(n(2.5)) expected time algorithm was recently given, subject to some constraints on the input matrices. In this paper, we give an algorithm that runs in O(n(2) log n) expected time, assuming that the entries in the input matrices are independent samples from a uniform distribution. We also show that two variants of our algorithm are quite fast for inputs that arise in several applications. This leads to significant performance gains over previous methods in applications within computer vision and natural language processing.

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


cache-efficient memory layout of aggregate data structures We describe an important memory optimization that arises in the presence of aggregate data structures such as arrays and structs in a C/C++ based system design methodology. We present an algorithm for determining an optimized memory layout of such data. Our implementation consists of a pointer analysis and resolution phase, followed by memory layout optimization. Experiments on typical applications from the DSP domain result in up to 44\% improvement in memory performance.

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

data cache
data layout
embedded processors


Instantaneous frequency in timefrequency analysis: Enhanced concepts and performance of estimation algorithms The instantaneous frequency (IF) is a very important feature of nonstationary signals in numerous applications. The first overview of the concept and application of the IF estimators is presented in seminal papers by Boashash. Since then, a significant knowledge has been gained about the performance of the IF estimators. This knowledge has been used not only for development of various IF estimators but also for introduction of novel timefrequency (TF) representations. The IF estimation in environments characterized by low signal-to-noise (SNR) has achieved significant benefits from these theoretical developments. In this paper, we review some of the most important developments in the last two decades related to the concept of the IF, performance analysis of IF estimators, and development of IF estimators for low SNR environments.

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

timefrequency signal analysis
parametric estimation
non-parametric estimation
robust estimation


Dynamic communication zone control method on autonomous decentralized based roadside network infrastructure The roadside network system for ITS services uses micro-cells in its access infrastructure. For the roadside network that provides the uninterrupted communication using microcells such as DSRC, an effective communication control scheme must be established so as to manage the communication passes to vehicles in the network. One of the fundamental requirements for the communication control scheme for the roadside network is to assure fault-tolerance, which means in this system that the communication control mechanism needs to be managed even in part of the base stations in the network might be in fault. On the other hand, for the communication control in the roadside network using microcells, issues to be solved are the handover mechanism for taking over connection information to provide uninterrupted communication environment, which causes the degradation of the end-to-end throughput. In order to solve those problems, the authors developed a communication control scheme. We implemented the scheme as the specific 'ADS algorism' to control the communication zone dynamically, which works effectively on the Autonomous Decentralized System (ADS) communication platform. Furthermore, we also developed the specific ADS algorism to assure fault-tolerance for the communication zone control, which can reconfigure the communication zone in case the BSs in the roadside network are in fault and can keep the operations by the reconfigured communication zone. We evaluated the ADS algorism for the communication zone control by computer simulation. The results show the effectiveness of the ADS algorism for the dynamic communication zone control mechanism and for the fault-tolerant mechanism for communication zone reconfiguration on fault.

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

autonomous decentralized system (ads)
intelligent transportation system (its)
dynamic zone control
communication protocol
distributed system


A class of multi-objective supply chain networks optimal model under random fuzzy environment and its application to the industry of Chinese liquor An important issue, when shipping cost and customers demand are random fuzzy variables in supply chain network (SCN) design problem, is to find the network strategy that can simultaneously achieve the objectives of minimization total cost comprised of fixed costs of plants and distribution centers (DCs), inbound and outbound distribution costs, and maximization customer services that can be rendered to customers in terms of acceptable delivery time. In this paper, we propose a random fuzzy multi-objective mixed-integer non-linear programming model for the SCN design problem of Luzhou Co., Ltd. which is representative in the industry of Chinese liquor. By the expected value operator and chance constraint operator, the model has been transformed into a deterministic multi-objective mixed-integer non-linear programming model. Then, we use spanning tree-based genetic algorithms (st-GA) by the Prfer number representation to find the SCN to satisfy the demand imposed by customers with minimum total cost and maximum customer services for multi-objective SCN design problem of this company under condition of random fuzzy customers demand and transportation cost between facilities. Furthermore, the efficacy and the efficiency of this method are demonstrated by the comparison between its numerical experiment results and those of tradition matrix-based genetic algorithm.

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

supply chain networks
prfer number
genetic algorithm

multi-objective optimization
random fuzzy variable


a powerful modular computer on a universal building module This paper develops basic principles for constructing instruction sets for two modifications of a modular computer distinct from each other in both the width of the primary memory and the increment h in which consecutive computer sizes are formed. It is shown that since modular computers are assembled from universal modules using pin-to-pin connections only, in constructing an instruction set one has to rely on the modular control organization principle which provides selective activation and deactivation of the same logical circuits in different modules without violating the principle of circuit identity. The paper develops new complex instructions which speed up computations.

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

memory access operations
processor dependent operations
instruction intervals
control codes


KelpIO: a telescope-ready domain-specific I/O library for irregular block-structured applications To ameliorate the need to spend significant programmer time modifying parallel programs to achieve high-performance, while maintaining compact, comprehensible source codes, this paper advocates the use of telescoping languages technology to automatically apply, during the normal compilation process, high-level performance enhancing transformations to applications using a high-level domain-specific I/O library. We believe that this approach will be more acceptable to application developers than new language extensions, but will be just as amenable to optimization by advanced compilers, effectively making it a domain-specific language extension for I/O. The paper describes a domain-specific I/O library for irregular block-structured applications based on the KeLP library, describes high-level transformations of the library primitives for improving performance, and describes how a high-level domain-specific optimizer for applying these transformations could be constructed using the telescoping languages framework.

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

domain-specific languages
input/output library


Consistency maintenance for evolving feature models Software product line (SPL) techniques handle the construction of customized systems. One of the most common representations of the decisions a customer can make in SPLs is feature models (FMs). An FM represents the relationships among common and variable features in an SPL. Features are a representation of the characteristics in a system that are relevant to customers. FMs are subject to change since the set of features and their relationships can change along an SPL lifecycle. Due to this evolution, the consistency of FMs may be compromised. There exist some approaches to detect and explain inconsistencies in FMs, however this process can take a long time for large FMs. In this paper we present a complementary approach to dealing with inconsistencies in FM evolution scenarios that improves the performance for existing approaches reducing the impact of change to the smallest part of an FM that changes. To achieve our goal, we formalize FMs from an ontological perspective and define constraints that must be satisfied in FMs to be consistent. We define a set of primitive operations that modify FMs and which are responsible for the FM evolution, analyzing their impact on the FM consistency. We propose a set of predefined strategies to keep the consistency for error-prone operations. As a proof-of-concept we present the results of our experiments, where we check for the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach in FMs with thousands of features. Although our approach is limited by the kinds of consistency constraints and the primitive operations we define, the experiments present a significant improvement in performance results in those cases where they are applicable.

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

feature models
evolution
consistency maintenance

software product lines
ontology
semantics


Short-term combined economic emission hydrothermal scheduling using improved quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization This paper presents an improved quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (IQPSO) for short-term combined economic emission hydrothermal scheduling, which is formulated as a bi-objective problem: (i) minimizing fuel cost and (ii) minimizing emission cost. In this paper, quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization is improved employing heuristic strategies in order to handle the equality constraints especially water dynamic balance constraints and active power balance constraints. A feasibility-based selection technique is also devised to handle the reservoir storage volumes constraints. To show feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, different case studies, such as economic load scheduling (ELS), economic emission scheduling (EES) and combined economic emission scheduling (CEES) in hydrothermal scheduling, are carried out and the test results are compared with those of other methods reported in the literature. It is also very important to note that the proposed method is capable of yielding higher-quality solutions while strictly satisfying all constraints of the test system.

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

economic load scheduling
combined economic emission scheduling


An evolutionary scheduling scheme based on gkGA approach to the job shop scheduling problem This paper presents an evolutionary scheduling scheme for solving the job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) and other combinatorial optimization problems. The approach is based on a genetized-knowledge genetic algorithm (gkGA). The basic idea behind the gkGA is that knowledge of heuristics which are used in the GA is also encoded as genes alongside the genetic strings, referred to as chromosomes. Furthermore, during the GA selection, weaker heuristics die out while stronger ones survive for a given problem instance. We evaluate our evolutionary scheduling scheme based on the gkGA approach using well known benchmark instances for the JSSP. We observe that the gkGA based scheme is shown to consistently outperform the scheme based on ordinary GAs. In addition the gkGA-based scheme removes the problem of instance dependency.

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

genetic algorithm
gkga
job shop scheduling problem
combinatorial optimization


Daisy Viz: A model-based user interface toolkit for interactive information visualization systems While information visualization technologies have transformed our life and work, designing information visualization systems still faces challenges. Non-expert users or end-users need toolkits that allow for rapid design and prototyping, along with supporting unified data structures suitable for different data types (e.g., tree, network, temporal, and multi-dimensional data), various visualization, interaction tasks. To address these issues, we designed DaisyViz, a model-based user interface toolkit, which enables end-users to rapidly develop domain-specific information visualization applications without traditional programming. DaisyViz is based on a user interface model for information (UIMI), which includes three declarative models: data model, visualization model, and control model. In the development process, a user first constructs a UIMI with interactive visual tools. The results of the UIMI are then parsed to generate a prototype system automatically. In this paper, we discuss the concept of UIMI, describe the architecture of DaisyViz, and show how to use DaisyViz to build an information visualization system. We also present a usability study of DaisyViz we conducted. Our findings indicate DaisyViz is an effective toolkit to help end-users build interactive information visualization systems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

user interface
information visualization
toolkit

multiple coordinated views
model-based interface development


Wh-Fronting in a two-probe system Prior work on wh-movement has distinguished among several types of wh-fronting languages that permit distinct patterns of overt and covert movement, instantiated for example by the Slavic languages, English, and German. This paper extends the cross-linguistic typology of multiple questions by arguing that Hebrew instantiates a new kind of wh-fronting language, unlike any that are discussed in the current literature. It will show that Hebrew distinguishes between two kinds of interrogative phrases: those that are headed by a wh-word (wh-headed phrases: what, who, [DP which X], where, how) and those that contain a wh-word but are headed by some other element (wh-containing phrases: [NP N of wh], [PP P wh]). We observe the special status of wh-headed phrases when one occurs structurally lower in a question than a wh-containing phrase. In that case, the wh-headed phrase can be targeted by an Agree/Attract operation that ignores the presence of the c-commanding wh-containing phrase. The paper develops an account of the sensitivity of interrogative probing operations to the head of the interrogative phrase within Cables (2010) Q-particle theory. It proposes that the Hebrew Q has an EPP feature which can trigger head-movement of wh to Q and that a wh-probe exists alongside the more familiar Q-probe, and shows how these two modifications to the theory can account for the intricate dataset that emerges from the paper. The emerging picture is one in which interrogative probing does not occur wholesale but rather can be sensitive to particular interrogative features on potential goals.

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

wh-movement
q-particles
superiority
probe-goal relations


A new method to solve large linear systems: the algorithm of "recursive reduction" Let A epsilon R-nXn be a regular matrix, and b epsilon R-n, we study a new direct method of the linear system resolution AX = b by an algorithm called: algorithm of "recursive reduction". (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

large linear systems
recursive reduction


A synthesis of evaluation criteria for software specifications and specification techniques Several evaluation criteria exist in the literature for both specification and specification techniques. These. evaluation criteria identify a list of desired properties in specifications and specification techniques for judging their goodness. This paper presents a detailed analysis of several specification and specification technique evaluation criteria. Detailed analysis of these criteria identified that there is a lack of consistency in the property definition among criteria. The implication of this lack of differentiation between the two concepts is that the criteria for both specification and specification techniques are intermingled. Since the concept of specification is different from specification technique, the criteria used for one might not be applicable for the other. For example, "completeness" and "consistency" are specification criteria. A specification can be complete and consistent regardless of the medium used to represent the specification, the process used in its construction, the degree/extent of tools and automation used, or whether it is formal or informal. However, there is meaning to denote that a technique can be used to produce "consistent" or "complete" specifications. Hence, for proper applicability of these criteria, this paper separates specification criteria from that of the specification technique criteria. This paper also presents a unified criteria terminology and uses a table to list each criterion property. from various researchers mapped to the unified terminology. The paper,also identifies and presents a mapping from technique criteria to the specification criteria that shows which technique criteria satisfies specification criteria. The applicability of the mapping is then demonstrated by applying the mapping to a specification language and its support environment.

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

software specification
descartes specification language


an integrated approach to predictive genomic analytics A variety of methods and algorithms have recently been employed in the analysis of gene expression data, including reverse-engineering and knowledge-based pathway modeling, semantic gene similarity, network analysis and clustering. These methods and algorithms address different subparts of the same overall challenge and need to be applied in combination to address predictive genomic analysis as a whole. In this paper, we present an integrated approach to predictive genomic analysis that achieves this objective and describe an application of the approach to the study of neuroprotection in stroke.

O O O O O O O O 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

biological pathways
gene clustering
gene ontology
predictive pathway analysis
pathway inference


Czech Industrial Property Office and its information services The Czech Industrial Property Office was established in 1993. It had its origins in the Czechoslovak Patent Office between 1919 and 1993. Patent information activities since 1993 have been directed towards the enhancement of internal databases, of free-of-charge external databases, publications, and dissemination of information. In addition a range of value-added patent, trademark and industrial design search services for the public have been developed. The Industrial Property Training Institute provides training courses and a range of publishing activities.

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

patent information
training
publications

czech republic
value-added search services
internet databases
esp@cenet
education
patlib centres


Possibilistic nonlinear dynamical analysis for pattern recognition A nonlinear dynamical system can be defined as a study of any system that implies motion, change, or evolution in time where a change in one variable is not proportional to a change in a related variable. The mathematical operations underlying such a system are very useful for pattern recognition with time-series data. One of the most recent developments in nonlinear dynamical analysis is the so-called approximate entropy family. However, its algorithms are deterministic and do not consider uncertainty where the modeling of possibility can be appropriate and advantageous in many practical situations. Thus, possibilistic entropy algorithms are proposed in this paper as a new methodology for nonlinear dynamical analysis. The proposed approach is based on the notions of the approximate entropy family, geostatistics, and the theory of fuzzy sets. Furthermore, for the first time, nonlinear dynamical analysis of mass spectrometry data is presented for computer-based recognition of potential protein biomarkers and classification, which can be utilized for early disease prediction. Experimental results using proteomic and genetic data have shown the potential application of the proposed possibilistic nonlinear dynamical analysis to the study of complex biosignals.

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

possibility
fuzzy sets
geostatistics
biosignals
pattern recognition


Large scale arbitrary search with rendezvous search systems As distributed systems are getting larger and more complex, search facilities for finding data and services within the system become crucial. Users expect search engines to deal with complex query languages like keyword search, SQL, or XPath. At the same time, application developers cannot be expected to come up with distributed versions of those query languages from scratch. Rendezvous search systems are a scalable solution to this problem. By separating the query processing from the network communication, existing libraries for query processing can be easily reused. Rendezvous search systems have been successfully deployed in data center environments like the Google web search engine and are a popular research area for arbitrary search in peer-to-peer environments. Due to the decentralized nature of peer-to-peer systems, a high degree of self-organization and self-optimization can be found in such solutions.

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


a data tracking scheme for general networks Consider an arbitrary distributed network in which large numbers of objects are continuously being created, replicated, and destroyed. A basic problem arising in such an environment is that of organizing a data tracking scheme for locating object copies. In this paper, we present a new tracking scheme for locating nearly copies of replicated objects in arbitrary distributed environments. Our tracking scheme supports efficient accesses to data objects while keeping the local memory overhead low. In particular, our tracking scheme achieves an expected polylog( n )-approximation in the cost of any access operation, for an arbitrary network. The memory overhead incurred by our scheme is &Ogr; (polylog( n )) times the maximum number of objects stored at any node, with high probability. We also show that our tracking scheme adapts well to dynamic changes in the network.

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

network environments dynamic approximation object data probability tracking general access distributed paper cost scheme

organization efficiency locatability memorialized locality change


Assessment of aortic pressure power components and their link to overall elastic and resistive arterial properties This paper reviews the analytical expressions for in-phase and quadrature aortic power components associated with the real and imaginary parts of aortic input admittance, respectively It is shown that active power (W)over-dot(act), and its steady, (W)over-dot(stdy), and pulsatile, (W)over-dot(puls), components logically follow from in-phase power. Reactive power follows from quadrature power only for sinusoidal signals. The definition of reactive power indexes for real aortic pressures and flows requires extreme care. The link between overall arterial properties and pressure power components (and indexes) is investigated, making use of a three-element windkessel model and ascending aortic pressure and flow data taken from eight anaesthetised dogs, under basal state and after treatment with a vasoconstrictor (methoxamine). Seven dogs are normotensive in the baseline state (NBA cases, n = 7), the average (+/- SE) of mean pressure being 86.5 +/- 5.2 mmHg. The eighth dog has a baseline mean pressure of 134 mmHg and is considered to be hypertensive. The two experimental cases from this dog are grouped with those from the other seven dogs after vasoconstriction, to form the NVC + H group (n=9). On average, fitting the model to the experimental data yields a 100% increase (p 0.05) in aortic characteristic impedance, from the NEA group to the NVC + H. Correspondingly, the peak-to peak amplitude of quadrature power shows a 69% increase (p 0.05), a 40% increase (p 0.05), respectively. Energetic efficiency of the arterial system, E-art = 1 - ((W) over dot(puls)/(W) over dot(act)), increases by 8% (p<0.02). From analysis of the estimates of power components and arterial parameters in relation to low-frequency phase angles of aortic impedance, it is concluded that the decrease in total arterial compliance with increasing pressure reduces the power lost in pulsation. This happens at the expense of an increase in quadrature power and absolute values of related reactive power indexes.

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

active power
quadrature power
reactive power
arterial compliance


3D reconstruction of polyhedral objects from single parallel projections using cubic corner This paper presents a direct method to recover the geometry of the 3D polyhedron depicted in a single parallel projection. It uses two sets of information, the list of faces in the object, obtained automatically from the drawing, and a user-identified cubic corner, to compute for the coordinates of the vertices in the drawing and thus establish the 3D geometry of the whole polyhedron. The algorithm exploits the topological structure of the polyhedron, implicit in the connectivities between the faces, resulting in a complexity that is linear in the number of faces. The method is extended to objects with no cubic corners as well. The algorithm works well for recovering objects from accurate line drawings, producing accurate 3D objects. A simple extension to the algorithm allows it to handle inaccurate drawings such as sketches, and produce 3D objects that are consistent with our human perception of the drawings.

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

3d reconstruction
cubic corner
parallel projection

computer-aided conceptual design
line drawing


an in-depth look at the architecture of an object/relational mapper Object/relational mapping (ORM) tools can deliver a number of benefits to object-oriented, data-centric applications. These benefits are usually artifacts of the implementation of the tool used for the mapping, and not of the ORM paradigm itself. We will examine some of the significant features that the Kodo[1] ORM implementation delivers, by looking at the architecture of Kodo to see the source of these features.

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

openjpa
bject/relational mapping
jpa
java persistence api
bea weblogic server
jdo


THE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS OF NON-RESPONSE IN TEAM-LEVEL RESEARCH: WHAT EVERY IS RESEARCHER SHOULD KNOW TO AVOID BIAS Teams are an important part of the information systems (IS) field, in both practice and research. In practice, IS teams are the norm in software development. IS researchers have studied various aspects of IS teams, such as productivity and composition, among many others. In studying teams, researchers make the assumption that, in most cases, the aggregated responses from individual team members provide the 'team-level' data needed to examine the phenomenon of interest. Bias due to non-response is acknowledged, but rarely controlled or explicitly considered in the analysis. This study examines the effects that individual within-team non-response and the factors that condition its effect have in biasing team-level research. In our examination, a list of maxims to be considered or followed by researchers is produced. The explicit consideration of non-response bias in team-level research should help strengthen the research which, in turn, will help the IS field better utilize teams.

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

non-response bias
multi-level issues
non-sampling errors
team-level
group level


Median MSD-based method for face recognition An improved maximum scatter difference (MSD) criterion is proposed in this paper. A weakness of existing MSD model is that the class mean vector in the expressions of within-class scatter matrix and between-class scatter matrix is estimated by class sample average. Under the non-ideal conditions such as variations of expression, illumination, pose, and so on, there will be some outliers in the sample set, so the class sample average is not sufficient to provide an accurate estimate of the class mean using a few of given samples. As a result, the recognition performance of traditional MSD model will decrease. To address this problem, also to render MSD model rather robust, within-class median vector rather than within-class mean vector is used in the original MSD method. The results of experiments conducted on CAS-PEAL and FERET face database indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

maximum scatter difference (msd)
within-class median


A statistical approach to robust video temporal indexing and segmentation For video indexing, the problem of video cut detection remains largely an open problem because of the wide nature of transitions that occur in a digital video. This paper describes a shot boundary detection technique, which is an amalgamation of few statistical methods and measures, and robustly detects camera breaks in a full-motion video clip. The proposed algorithm incorporates a weighted histogram, an error-propagation technique for increased robustness, and a curve-fitting technique to extract partitions from the similarity curve for avoiding heuristically chosen threshold value. The algorithm has been validated on many video clips and is shown to give improved results, including for videos with rapid scanning, changes in illumination, fade-ins and fade-outs, and with special effects like dissolve and filters.

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

video segmentation
shot-detection
error propagation
curve fitting


Identification of physical parameters in contact joints models of machines supporting systems This article proposes a method of improving the accuracy of analytical models of machine tools supporting systems, by merging model analyses with experimental research of real construction. In this method, physical parameters of the model are identified on the basis of results obtained from experimental investigations of machine tools. The analytical model of construction is created in accordance with the concept of the rigid finite elements method, enriched with the possibility of contact joints modelling, according to the original idea of external loads correction. This article presents a software package, ESTES, which supports computations in the identification process. The required physical and geometrical data as well as the set of computations results are specified. This article also contains examples of parameter identification and concludes with the discussion of the results obtained and the conclusions deducted from analyses.

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

contact joint models
machine supporting systems
construction analysis


Three-dimensional singular boundary elements for corner and edge singularities in potential problems ? It is well known that the spatial derivative of the potential field governed by the Laplace and Poisson equations can become infinite at corners (in two and three dimensions) and edges (in three dimensions). Conventional elements in the finite element and boundary element methods do not give accurate results at these singular locations. This paper describes the formulation and implementation of new singular elements for three-dimensional boundary element analysis of corner and edge singularities in potential problems. Unlike the standard element, the singular element shape functions incorporate the correct singular behavior at the edges and corners, specifically the eigenvalues, in the formulation. The singular elements are used to solve some numerical examples in electrostatics, and it is shown that they can improve the accuracy of the results for capacitance and electrostatic forces quite significantly. The effects of the size of the singular elements are also investigated.

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

boundary element method
corner singularity


Reliability and Maintenance Modeling for Dependent Competing Failure Processes With Shifting Failure Thresholds We present reliability and maintenance models for systems subject to multiple s-dependent competing failure processes with a changing, dependent failure threshold. In our model, two failure processes are considered: soft failure caused by continuous degradation together with additional abrupt degradation due to a shock process, and hard failure caused by the instantaneous stress from the same shock process. These two failure processes are correlated or s-dependent in two respects: 1) the arrival of each shock load affects both failure processes, and 2) the shock process impacts the hard failure threshold level. In previous research, the failure thresholds are fixed constants, which is appropriate for most design and reliability problems. However, the nature of the failure threshold has become a critical issue for certain classes of complex devices. When withstanding shocks, the system is deteriorating, and its resistance to failure is weakening. In this case, it becomes more sensitive to hard failure. In this paper, three cases of dependency between the shock process and the hard failure threshold level are studied. The first case is that the hard failure threshold value changes to a lower level when the first shock is recorded above a critical value, or a generalized extreme shock model. The second case is that the hard failure threshold value decreases to a lower level when the time lag between two sequential shocks is less than a threshold delta, or a generalized delta-shock model. The third case is that the hard failure threshold value reduces to a lower level right after m shocks whose magnitudes are larger than a critical value, or a generalized m-shock model. Based on degradation and random shock modeling, reliability models are developed for these two s-dependent failure processes with a shifting failure threshold. Two preventive maintenance policies are also applied and compared to decide which one is more beneficial. Then a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System example is given to demonstrate the reliability models and maintenance polices.

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


Finite-valued Logics for Information Processing We examine the issue of collecting and processing information from various sources, which involves handling incomplete and inconsistent information. Inspired by the framework first proposed by Belnap, we consider structures consisting of information sources which provide information about the values of formulas of classical propositional logic, and a processor which collects that information and extends it by deriving conclusions following from it according to the truth tables of classical logic, applied forward and backward. Our model extends Belnap's in allowing the sources to provide information also about complex formulas. As that framework cannot be captured using finite ordinary logical matrices, if we want to represent each of the relevant logics with a single matrix, we employ Nmatrices for that purpose. In opposition to the approach proposed in our earlier work, we assume that the information sources are reasonable, i.e. that they provide information consistent with certain coherence rules. We provide sound and complete sequent calculi admitting strong cut elimination for the logic of a single information source, and (several variants of) the logic generated by the source and processor structures described above. In doing this, we also provide new characterizations for some known logics. We prove that, in opposition to the variantwith unconstrained information sources considered earlier, the latter logic cannot be generated by structures with any bounded number of sources.

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

information processing
inconsistent information
sequent calculi

incomplete information
finite logics
many-valued logics
non-deterministic logical matrices


adapting a fault prediction model to allow inter languagereuse An important step in predicting error prone modules in a project is to construct the prediction model by using training data of that project, but the resulting prediction model depends on the training data. Therefore it is difficult to apply the model to other projects. The training data consists of metrics data and bug data, and these data should be prepared for each project. Metrics data can be computed by using metric tools, but it is not so easy to collect bug data. In this paper, we try to reuse the generated prediction model. By using the metrics and bug data which are computed from C++ and Java projects, we have evaluated the possibility of applying the prediction model, which is generated based on one project, to other projects, and have proposed compensation techniques for applying to other projects. We showed the evaluation result based on open source projects.

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


Spatial interpolation methods applied in the environmental sciences: A review Comparison of commonly used spatial interpolation methods in environmental science. Analysis of factors affecting the performance of spatial interpolation methods. Classification of 25 methods to illustrate their relationship. Guidelines for selecting an appropriate method for a given dataset. A list of software packages for commonly used spatial interpolation methods.

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

statistics
interpolator
geostatistics
kriging
spatially continuous surfaces