Structural Texture Similarity Metrics for Image Analysis and Retrieval We develop new metrics for texture similarity that accounts for human visual perception and the stochastic nature of textures. The metrics rely entirely on local image statistics and allow substantial point-by-point deviations between textures that according to human judgment are essentially identical. The proposed metrics extend the ideas of structural similarity and are guided by research in texture analysis-synthesis. They are implemented using a steerable filter decomposition and incorporate a concise set of subband statistics, computed globally or in sliding windows. We conduct systematic tests to investigate metric performance in the context of "known-item search," the retrieval of textures that are "identical" to the query texture. This eliminates the need for cumbersome subjective tests, thus enabling comparisons with human performance on a large database. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed metrics outperform peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity metric (SSIM) and its variations, as well as state-of-the-art texture classification metrics, using standard statistical measures.

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

natural textures
perceptual quality
statistical models


A lifting implementation of variable-coefficient invertible deinterlacer with embedded motion detector In this paper, a lifting implementation of variable-coefficient invertible deinterlacer with embedded motion detector is proposed. As previous works, the authors have developed invertible deinterlacing that suppresses comb-tooth artifacts caused by field interleaving for interlaced scanning video, which affect the quality of intraframe-based codec such as Motion-JPEG2000. To improve the local adaptability for given pictures, its variable-coefficient processing with motion detection has also been proposed so that filters can be changed according to local properties of motion pictures, while maintaining the invertibility. In this paper, it is shown that the variable-coefficient invertible deinterlacing can be realized by a lifting-based simple hardware architecture, and motion detector can also be embedded. Both of the motion detection and deinterlacing filters are shared by a special choice of their coefficients, and by adaptive selection of deinterlacing filters. The significance of our proposed architecture is verified by showing synthesis results from the VHDL models. The proposed implementation with embedded motion detector achieves about 28% reduction of the gate count compared with the corresponding separate implementation.

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

invertible deinterlacing
lifting implementation


An algorithm for arranging response surface designs in small blocks We consider the problem of blocking response surface designs when the block sizes are prespecified to control variation efficiently and the treatment set is chosen independently of the block structure. We show how the loss of information due to blocking is related to scores defined by Mead and present an interchange algorithm based on scores to improve a given blocked design. Examples illustrating the performance of the algorithm are given and some comparisons with other designs are made.

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

second-order model
central composite design
boxbehnken design
weighted mean efficiency factor


Illusions of control and social domination strategies in knowledge mapping system use In recent years, the overload of information has driven companies to develop visualization technologies as a way to graphically represent knowledge for decision making. On the basis of visualization technologies and on knowledge modeling techniques, knowledge maps (Kmaps) help represent the knowledge assets of a company as graphical discrete objects. Yet such systems, because of their visual representation of knowledge, are prone to creating illusions. Using a case study of three firms' use of Kmaps in their Human Resource departments and drawing upon Bourdieu's social theory, illusion of control theory, and IS as signal and symbol theory, our study provides a critical perspective on the use of Kmaps by groups of actors to reinforce their social domination in business organizations. We find that Kmap use can lead to illusions of knowledge control and illusions of executive control and that in response to the potential for knowledge illusions, three social domination strategies a signal and symbol strategy, an avoidance strategy and an evidence strategy are employed. Implications of these results on Knowledge Management and Information Systems Management future research are discussed. European Journal of Information Systems (2011) 20, 574-588. doi:10.1057/ejis.2011.17; published online 31 May 2011

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

knowledge management
illusion of control
social domination
case study


Adaptive Fuzzy Dynamic Surface Control for Ball and Beam System This paper mainly investigates the control for the ball and beam system. Combined with the conventional dynamic surface control, an adaptive fuzzy scheme is proposed for the equilibrium balance of the ball. First, with the proper defined tracking errors of state variables, an integrating of tracking errors is considered as the fuzzy input. The parameters of fuzzy controller can be optimized by using the proposed adaptive mechanism such that the control performance can be improved. For the proposed control scheme, the closed-loop stability is also analyzed by the Lyapunov theorem. Simulations are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed works. From simulation results, the proposed adaptive fuzzy dynamic surface control scheme can provide better tracking responses than the conventional dynamic surface control counterparts.

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

ball and beam system
adaptive fuzzy dynamic surface control
dynamic surface control


adapting word prediction to subject matter without topic-labeled data Word prediction helps to increase communication rate when using Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices. Basic prediction systems offer topically inappropriate predictions for the context, thus we adapt the predictions to the topic of discourse. However, previous work has relied on texts that are grouped into topics by humans. In contrast, we avoid this restriction by treating each document as a topic. The results are comparable to human-labeled topics and also the method is applicable to unlabeled text.

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

language modeling
statistical methods
topic modeling


A hybrid method for the parallel computation of Green's functions Quantum transport models for nanodevices using the non-equilibrium Green's function method require the repeated calculation of the block tridiagonal part of the Green's and lesser Green's function matrices. This problem is related to the calculation of the inverse of a sparse matrix. Because of the large number of times this calculation needs to be performed, this is computationally very expensive even on supercomputers. The classical approach is based on recurrence formulas which cannot be efficiently parallelized. This practically prevents the solution of large problems with hundreds of thousands of atoms. We propose new recurrences for a general class of sparse matrices to calculate Green's and lesser Green's function matrices which extend formulas derived by Takahashi and others. We show that these recurrences may lead to a dramatically reduced computational cost because they only require computing a small number of entries of the inverse matrix. Then. we propose a parallelization strategy for block tridiagonal matrices which involves a combination of Schur complement calculations and cyclic reduction. It achieves good scalability even on problems of modest size. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

quantum transport
cyclic reduction
inverse matrix
sparse matrix

density functional theory
green's function
nested dissection
parallel computing


Electronic health record implementation and hospitals' total factor productivity The adoption and implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems have been widely promoted as a means for improving health care delivery and controlling costs in U.S. hospitals. To date, the results of efforts to adopt such systems have been mixed and often unsuccessful. This paper uses frontier analysis to measure hospitals' Total Factor Productivity (TFP) during 20062008 and compare it to nine different stages of EHR implementation. Overall, we find that hospitals implementing EHR systems have lower TFP gains relative to those facilities that have as yet to adopt. In particular, hospitals that attempt to fully implement an EHR in one year, the Big Bang strategy, have relatively low TFP levels. Therefore, the anticipated savings from increased EHR use may not be realized in the near-term for EHR system adopters. Moreover, an evidence-based approach to developing the Meaningful Use incentive and reward program for EHR implementation is warranted.

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

hit implementation
data envelopment analysis


Methodologies for assessing telemedicine: A systematic review of reviews Previous reviews have expressed concerns about the quality of telemedicine studies. There is debate about shortcomings and appropriate methodologies. The aim of this review of systematic reviews of telemedicine is to summarize methodologies used in telemedicine research, discuss knowledge gaps and recommendations and suggest methodological approaches for further research. We conducted a review of systematic reviews of telemedicine according to a protocol listing explicit methods, selection criteria, data collection and quality assessment procedures. We included reviews where authors explicitly addressed and made recommendations for assessment methodologies. We did a qualitative analysis of the reviews included, sensitized by two broad methodological positions; positivist and naturalistic approaches. The analysis focused on methodologies used in the primary studies included in the reviews as reported by the review authors, and methodological recommendations made by the review authors. We identified 1593 titles/abstracts. We included 50 reviews that explicitly addressed assessment methodologies. One group of reviews recommended larger and more rigorously designed controlled studies to assess the impacts of telemedicine; a second group proposed standardisation of populations, and/or interventions and outcome measures to reduce heterogeneity and facilitate meta-analysis; a third group recommended combining quantitative and qualitative research methods; and others applying different naturalistic approaches including methodologies addressing mutual adaptations of services and users; politically driven action research and formative research aimed at collaboration to ensure capacity for improvement of services in natural settings. Larger and more rigorous studies are crucial for the production of evidence of effectiveness of unambiguous telemedicine services for pre defined outcome measures. Summative methodologies acknowledging telemedicine as complex innovations and outcomes as partly contingent on values, meanings and contexts are also important. So are formative, naturalistic methodologies that acknowledge telemedicine as ongoing collaborative achievements and engage with stakeholders, including patients to produce and conceptualise new and effective telemedicine innovations.

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

telecare
evaluation and assessment methodologies


LightSlice: Matrix Slice Sampling for the Many-Lights Problem Recent work has shown that complex lighting effects can be well approximated by gathering the contribution of hundreds of thousands of virtual point lights (VPLs). This final gathering step is known as the many-lights problem. Due to the large number of VPLs, computing all the VPLs' contribution is not feasible. This paper presents LightSlice, an algorithm that efficiently solves the many-lights problem for large environments with complex lighting. As in prior work, we derive our algorithm from a matrix formulation of the many-lights problem, where the contribution of each VPL corresponds to a column, and computing the final image amounts to computing the sum of all matrix columns. We make the observation that if we cluster similar surface samples together, the slice of the matrix corresponding to these surface samples has significantly lower rank than the original matrix. We exploit this observation by deriving a two-step algorithm where we first globally cluster all lights, to capture the global structure of the matrix, and then locally refine these clusters to determine the most important lights for each slice. We then reconstruct a final image from only these locally-important lights. Compared to prior work, our algorithm has the advantage of discovering and exploiting the global as well as local matrix structure, giving us a speedup of between three and six times compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.

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

many light
global illumination
matrix sampling


Comparison of energy-saving on the speed control of the VVVF hydraulic elevator with and without the pressure accumulator The speed control system of variable voltage variable frequency (VVVF) hydraulic elevator with the pressure accumulator has been designed, which is a kind of the innovation energy-saving hydraulic elevator. The control system of the VVVF hydraulic elevator with the pressure accumulator is analyzed, and the speed control of the VVVF hydraulic elevator with the pressure accumulator is studied using the PID control algorithm. The comparison of the experimental researches of energy-saving is carried out for the speed control of the VVVF hydraulic elevator with and without the pressure accumulator. The experimental results show that the VVVF hydraulic elevator with the pressure accumulator has higher efficiency compared with the VVVF hydraulic elevator without the pressure accumulator. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

vvvf hydraulic elevator
pressure accumulator
comparison


Bone segmentation and 3D visualization of CT images for traumatic pelvic injuries Pelvic bone segmentation is a vital step in analyzing pelvic CT images, which assists physicians with diagnostic decision making in cases of traumatic pelvic injuries. Due to the limited resolution of the original CT images and the complexity of pelvic structures and their possible fractures, automatic pelvic bone segmentation in multiple CT slices is very difficult. In this study, an automatic pelvic bone segmentation approach is proposed using the combination of anatomical knowledge and computational techniques. It is developed for solving the problem of accurate and efficient bone segmentation using multiple consecutive pelvic CT slices obtained from each patient. Our proposed segmentation method is able to handle variation of bone shapes between slices there by making it less susceptible to inter-personal variability between different patients' data. Moreover, the designed training models are validated using a cross-validation process to demonstrate the effectiveness. The algorithm's capability is tested on a set of 20 CT data sets. Successful segmentation results and quantitative evaluations are present to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of proposed algorithm, well suited for pelvic bone segmentation purposes.

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

traumatic pelvic injury
registered active shape model


New Approach for Conception and Implementation of Object Oriented Expert System Using UML Since conception is the primary part in the realization of a computer system and in order to help designers describe their software, several languages and tools such the UML modelling language have been proposed in the literature. UML knew an important success for the conception of object oriented systems. In this paper, we propose a new approach of conception and implementation of object oriented expert system based on the UML. For this we introduce our approach of design of the object oriented expert system based on UML, then we define an extension of the CLIPS, called VCLIPS_UML, in order to support UML. VCLIPS_UML brings two main improvements to CLIPS. The first improvement permits an easy access and modification of the CLIPS knowledge base. The user introduces his knowledge base described with the UML class and the object diagram; VCLIPS_UML gives the corresponding script directly. The second improvement concerns the ease of its utilization by making the syntactic and semantics aspects of the CLIPS programming language more transparent. The implementation of VCLIPS_UML is carried out in a way to make it expandable and portable.

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

expert system shell
object oriented programming and gui


Material matters: Assessing the effectiveness of materials management IS Materials management information systems (IS) are designed to enhance decision-making performance by lowering costs, increasing turnover, and improving service. Because of the large investment that these systems represent, companies have developed several ways to evaluate their effectiveness. The most direct approach is to assess the effects of the system on materials management performance outcomes such as inventory costs, turnover, and fill rates. The more common approach is to assess effectiveness via substitute measures, such as user perceptions and usage statistics. A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the relationships between materials management performance, user satisfaction, and system usage. The three measures were recorded as subjects performed a purchasing task using an materials management IS. Correlations among the three measures suggest that although satisfaction and usage are closely associated with performance, the relationships among the measures are not sufficiently strong to warrant their use as interchangeable measures of effectiveness. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

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

materials management
purchasing
user satisfaction

is effectiveness
is success
is assessment
decision-making performance
system use


A policy-improvement type algorithm for solving zero-sum two-person stochastic games of perfect information We give a policy-improvement type algorithm to locate an optimal pure stationary strategy for discounted stochastic games with perfect information. A graph theoretic motivation for our algorithm is presented as well.

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


Image encryption using a new parametric switching chaotic system A new Parametric Switching Chaotic System (PSCS) is proposed by embedding three 1D chaotic maps. The 1D and 2D PSCS transforms are introduced for scrambling data streams and 2D data matrices. A PSCS-based image encryption algorithm is proposed. Simulations and analysis are provided to demonstrate the algorithm's encryption performance.

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

parametric switching chaotic system
image encryption


Simulation for the complex Bingham distribution The complex Bingham distribution is relevant for the shape analysis of landmark data in two dimensions. In this paper it is shown that the problem of simulating from this distribution reduces to simulation from a truncated multivariate exponential distribution. Several simulation methods are described and their efficiencies are compared.

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

complex bingham distribution
landmark data
shape analysis
simulation


system implications of integrated photonics Micron-scale photonic devices integrated with standard CMOS processes have the potential to dramatically increase system bandwidths, performance, and configuration flexibility while reducing system power. I first describe some recent developments in silicon nanophotonic technology, such as microring resonators. Small devices have many advantages: reduced power, increased density, and increased speed. By integrating many thousands of these devices on a chip, photonics could potentially be used for most high-speed off-chip and global on-chip communication. Integrated photonics has many advantages at the board and rack scale as well. Recent high-speed board-level electrical signaling (>2.5GHz) precludes the use of multi-drop busses or communication over long distances on ordinary inexpensive PC board materials. By using photonics, high fan-out and high-fan-in bus structures can be built. Due to the low loss of optical signals versus distance, these structures can even be distributed over rack-scale distances. This dramatically increases system flexibility while reducing interconnect power. As an example of the potential impact of photonics, I describe a system architecture for the 2017 time frame we call Corona. Corona is a 3D many-core architecture that uses nanophotonic communication for both inter-core communication and off-stack communication to memory or I/O devices. Dense wavelength division multiplexed optically connected memory modules provide 10 terabyte per second memory bandwidth. A photonic crossbar fully interconnects its 256 low-power multithreaded cores at 20 terabyte per second bandwidth. We believe that in comparison with an electrically-connected many-core alternative, Corona can provide 2 to 6 times more performance on many memory intensive workloads, while simultaneously significantly reducing power.

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


applying aspect oriented programming to distributed storage metadata management High performance computing applications often must handle on the order of peta bytes of data during their operation. Such large data sets inherently require distributed storage. Emerging distributed storage solutions in this realm, such as our L-Store framework, virtualize the distributed nature of the storage by offering the notion of a single file system to applications. These virtualization schemes must manage substantial amount of metadata to handle the data sets across the distributed storage. Apart from the primary concern of virtualization, a number of secondary but crosscutting concerns related to transaction and persistence control, database connection pooling, authentication and authorization, and logging must be addressed in these metadata management schemes. This paper describes our investigations into discovering these secondary and crosscutting concerns in metadata management for large-scale distributed data storage. We describe how we have applied AspectJ to address these crosscutting concerns in metadata management for the L-store distributed storage framework.

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

virtualization
metadata management
distributed storage

extensibility
software
flexibility
aspects
real-world applications
tools
maintainability


Methodology support in CASE tools and its impact on individual acceptance and use: A controlled experiment This paper reports the results of a controlled experiment undertaken to investigate whether the methodology support offered by a CASE tool does have an impact on the tools acceptance and actual use by individuals.Subjects used the process modelling tool SPEARMINT to complete a partial process model and remove all inconsistencies. Half the subjects used a variant of SPEARMINT that corrected consistency violations automatically and silently, whilst the other half used a variant of SPEARMINT that told them about inconsistencies both immediately and persistently but without automatic correction. Measurement of acceptance and prediction of actual use was based on the technology acceptance model, supplemented by beliefs about consistency rules. The impact of form of automated consistency assurance applied or hierarchical consistency rules was found to be significant at the 0.05 level with a type I error of 0.027, explaining 71.6% of the variance in CASE tool acceptance. However, intention to use and thus predicted use was of the same size for both variants of SPEARMINT, whereas perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were affected contrarily.Internal validity of the findings was threatened by validity and reliability issues related to beliefs about consistency rules. Here, further research is needed to develop valid constructs and reliable scales. Following the experiment, a small survey among experienced users of SPEARMINT found that different forms of automated consistency assurance were preferred depending on individual, consistency rule, and task characteristics. Based on these findings, it is recommended that vendors should provide CASE tools with adaptable methodology support, which allow their users to fit automated consistency assurance to the task at hand.

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

methodology support
consistency assurance
technology acceptance
process modelling


Interactive specification and analysis of aspiration-based preferences Model-based Decision Support Systems (DSSs) often use multi-criteria optimization for selecting Pareto-optimal solutions. Such a selection is based on the interactive specification of user preferences. This can be done by a specification of aspiration and reservation levels for criteria. Diverse Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) can be used for specification of these levels, as well as for the interpretation of results. In the approach presented in this paper, the specified aspiration and reservation levels are used for the generation of component achievement functions for corresponding criteria, which reflect the degree of satisfaction with given values of criteria. This paper outlines the methodological background and modular structure of a tool ISAAP (which is included in MCMA) for multi-criteria analysis of decision problems that can be represented as Linear Programming (LP) or Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) problems. The MCMA has been used at IIASA for the analysis of decision problems in water quality management and land use for sustainable development planning. These experiences have shown that MCMA tool is applicable also to large LP and MIP problems. Other implementations of the same methodology have also been applied to analysis of non-linear problems in several engineering applications.

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

modeling
multi-criteria analysis
software


Solution of economic load dispatch using hybrid chemical reaction optimization approach Hybrid chemical reaction optimization (CRO) algorithm applied to ELD is proposed. To improve solution quality hybridization of DE and CRO is made. Effectiveness is checked by applying it in six different test systems. The performance of HCRO-DE is compared with other optimization techniques. Robustness of the proposed method is checked through statistical analysis.

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

economic load dispatch
chemical reaction optimization

valve point loading
prohibited operating zone
differential evolution


Joint semi-supervised learning of Hidden Conditional Random Fields and Hidden Markov Models Hidden Markov Models and Hidden Conditional Random Fields. Semi-supervised learning for hidden state markovian models. Joint learning of a pair of discriminative-generative models. Financial chart pattern classification. Handwriting character recognition.

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

hidden markov models
hidden conditional random fields


Recovery of rhythmic activity in a central pattern generator: analysis of the role of neuromodulator and activity-dependent mechanisms The pyloric network of decapods crustaceans can undergo dramatic rhythmic activity changes. Under normal conditions the network generates low frequency rhythmic activity that depends obligatorily on the presence of neuromodulatory input from the central nervous system. When this input is removed (decentralization) the rhythmic activity ceases. In the continued absence of this input, periodic activity resumes after a few hours in the form of episodic bursting across the entire network that later turns into stable rhythmic activity that is nearly indistinguishable from control (recovery). It has been proposed that an activity-dependent modification of ionic conductance levels in the pyloric pacemaker neuron drives the process of recovery of activity. Previous modeling attempts have captured some aspects of the temporal changes observed experimentally, but key features could not be reproduced. Here we examined a model in which slow activity-dependent regulation of ionic conductances and slower neuromodulator-dependent regulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration reproduce all the temporal features of this recovery. Key aspects of these two regulatory mechanisms are their independence and their different kinetics. We also examined the role of variability (noise) in the activity-dependent regulation pathway and observe that it can help to reduce unrealistic constraints that were otherwise required on the neuromodulator-dependent pathway. We conclude that small variations in intracellular Ca2+ concentration, a Ca2+ uptake regulation mechanism that is directly targeted by neuromodulator-activated signaling pathways, and variability in the Ca2+ concentration sensing signaling pathway can account for the observed changes in neuronal activity. Our conclusions are all amenable to experimental analysis.

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

neuromodulation
phase plane
stomatogastric ganglion
ionic current
calcium


Modeling and Respecting Privacy Specification when Composing DaaS Services The concept of Web service composition has undergone many evolutions and improvements including especially the apparition of new category of services, on which the composition process is made, called "Data-As-A-Service (DaaS). However, privacy is still among the key challenges that keep hampering DaaS service composition solution. Indeed services may follow different, conflicting privacy specifications with respect to the data they use and provide within a composition. In this paper, the authors propose an approach for privacy-aware composition of DaaS services. The authors' approach allows verifying the compatibility of privacy specifications of services involved in a composition. In the case when any composition will be incompatible in terms of privacy, the authors introduce a novel approach based on negotiation to reach compatibility of concerned services. The negotiation approach is cautiously operated with without any privacy damaging of services. The authors validate the applicability of their proposal through a set of experiments.

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

daas service composition
negotiation
privacy
specifications


building classification rules for case-based classifier using fuzzy sets and formal concept analysis The focus of this paper is a construction of better knowledge base in case-based classifier system. Our knowledge base structure is based on concept lattice where rules are built from its subconcept-superconcept relation. Since the lattice can only be constructed from inputs with binary attributes, descriptive and numeric attributes must be transformed to binary attributes. In this paper, we propose the transformation of numeric attributes to descriptive attributes using fuzzy set theory. We experiment on benchmark data sets, Car and Iris, to determine the performance in term of number of rules used and classification precision. The results show that trend of accuracy is proportional to the size of learning inputs. The number of rules used is relatively small compared with size of training data. Our case-based classifier produces very promising results in practice and can classify the new problem more accurate than traditional classifiers.

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

formal concept analysis
fuzzy sets
concept lattice

knowledge acquisition
case-based classifier


Relapse prevention in drug addiction: addressing a messy problem by IS Action Research After primarily successful drug-dependency rehabilitation, relapses occur frequently. There is a tremendous lack of drug-specific outpatient psychotherapy and self-help groups especially in rural areas. Therefore, new approaches must be integrated to reduce relapse rates after inpatient addiction treatment, especially in case of drug dependence. The present paper aims to address this complex problem using an Action Research (AR) methodology. In addition to the systematic literature search, we show the results of interviews with patients and therapists as key stakeholders. After that, the iterative cyclical nature of AR reinforced our research, including the role of adequate ripening concerning inpatient care, the macroeconomic perspective on the insurance companies patient allocation, the importance of external structure and skills in outpatient aftercare and specific impulses for dedicated information systems (ISs). We finally develop the hypothesis that a mobile technology-based IS could (a) be successfully implemented for patients recovering from drug dependence and (b) improve their outcome.

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

relapse prevention
drug addiction
action research
information systems


Immunity-based hybrid evolutionary algorithm for multi-objective optimization in global container repositioning The development of evolutionary algorithms for optimization has always been a stimulating and growing research area with an increasing demand in using them to solve complex industrial optimization problems. A novel immunity-based hybrid evolutionary algorithm known as Hybrid Artificial Immune Systems (HAIS) for solving both unconstrained and constrained multi-objective optimization problems is developed in this research. The algorithm adopts the clonal selection and immune suppression theories, with a sorting scheme featuring uniform crossover, multi-point mutation, non-dominance and crowding distance sorting to attain the Pareto optimal front in an efficient manner. The proposed algorithm was verified with nine benchmarking functions on its global optimal search ability as well as compared with four optimization algorithms to assess its diversity and spread. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to investigate the selection of key parameters of the algorithm. It is found that the developed immunity-based hybrid evolutionary algorithm provides a useful means for solving optimization problems and has successfully applied to the problem of global repositioning of containers, which is one of a constrained multi-objective optimization problem. The developed HAIS will assist shipping liners on timely decision making and planning of container repositioning operations in global container transportation business in an optimized and cost effective manner.

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

evolutionary algorithms
container repositioning
optimization


Minimum-Cost Load-Balancing Partitions We consider the problem of balancing the load among several service-providing facilities, while keeping the total cost low. Let D be the underlying demand region, and let p (1),aEuro broken vertical bar,p (m) be m points representing m facilities. We consider the following problem: Subdivide D into m equal-area regions R (1),aEuro broken vertical bar,R (m) , so that region R (i) is served by facility p (i) , and the average distance between a point q in D and the facility that serves q is minimal. We present constant-factor approximation algorithms for this problem, with the additional requirement that the resulting regions must be convex. As an intermediate result we show how to partition a convex polygon into m equal-area convex subregions so that the fatness of the resulting regions is within a constant factor of the fatness of the original polygon. In fact, we prove that our partition is, up to a constant factor, the best one can get if one's goal is to maximize the fatness of the least fat subregion. We also discuss the structure of the optimal partition for the aforementioned load balancing problem: indeed, we argue that it is always induced by an additive-weighted Voronoi diagram for an appropriate choice of weights.

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

load balancing
fatness
approximation algorithms

geometric optimization
additive-weighted voronoi diagram
fat partitions


The use of airfoil and Chebyshev polynomials methods for solving fuzzy Fredholm integro-differential equations with Cauchy kernel In this paper the airfoil and the Chebyshev polynomials methods to solve the fuzzy Fredholm integro-differential equation with Cauchy kernel under generalized \(H\)-differentiability are discussed. The existence and uniqueness of the solution and convergence of the proposed methods are proved in details. Finally some examples show the accuracy of these methods.

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

airfoil polynomials
integro-differential equation
fuzzy-valued function
\(h\)-difference
generalized differentiability


Free search - a comparative analysis The article presents a novel population-based optimisation method, called Free Search (FS). Essential peculiarities of the new method are introduced. The aim of the study is to identify how robust is Free Search. Explored and compared are four different population-based optimisation methods, namely Genetic Algorithm (in real coded BLX-alpha modification), Particle Swarm Optimisation, Differential Evolution and Free Search. They are applied to five non-linear, heterogeneous, numerical, optimisation problems. The achieved results suggest that Free Search has stable robust behaviour on explored tests; FS can cope with heterogeneous optimisation problems; FS is applicable to unknown (black-box) real-world optimisation tasks. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

free search
genetic algorithm
particle swarm optimisation
differential evolution

adaptive computing
ant colony search
artificial intelligence
evolutionary computation


A Unifying Reference Framework for multi-target user interfaces This paper describes a framework that serves as a reference for classifying user interfaces supporting multiple targets, or multiple contexts of use in the field of context-aware computing. In this framework, a context of use is decomposed into three facets: the end users of the interactive system, the hardware and software computing platform with which the users have to carry out their interactive tasks and the physical environment where they are working. Therefore, a context-sensitive user interface is a user interface that exhibits some capability to be aware of the context (context awareness) and to react to changes of this context. This paper attempts to provide a unified understanding of context-sensitive user interfaces rather than a prescription of various ways or methods of tackling different steps of development. Rather, the framework structures the development life cycle into four levels of abstraction: task and concepts, abstract user interface, concrete user interface and final user interface. These levels are structured with a relationship of reification going from an abstract level to a concrete one and a relationship of abstraction going from a concrete level to an abstract one. Most methods and tools can be more clearly understood and compared relative to each other against the levels of this framework. In addition, the framework expresses when, where and how a change of context is considered and supported in the context-sensitive user interface thanks to a relationship of translation. In the field of multi-target user interfaces is also introduced, defined, and exemplified the notion of plastic user interfaces. These user interfaces support some adaptation to changes of the context of use while preserving a predefined set of usability properties. (C) 2003 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 O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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

context-aware computing
context-sensitive user interfaces
model-based approach
multi-platform user interfaces
multi-target user interfaces
plasticity of user interfaces


Using Shared Risk Link Groups to enhance backup path computation To cope quickly with all types of failure risks (link, node and Shared Risk Link Group (SRLG)), each router detecting a failure on an outgoing interface activates locally all the backup paths protecting the primary paths which traverse the failed interface. With the observation that upon a SRLG failure, some active backup paths are inoperative and do not really participate to the recovery (since they do not receive any traffic flow), we propose a new algorithm (SRLG structure exploitation algorithm or SSEA) exploiting the SRLG structures to enhance the admission control and improve the protection rate. With our algorithm, more flexibility is provided for the backup path selection since a backup path which protects against the failure of a link belonging to a SRLG does not systematically bypass all the links of that SRLG. Moreover, our algorithm permits to save more bandwidth because it does not allocate the bandwidth for the inoperative backup paths even if they are activated. Simulations show that our algorithm SSEA decreases the ratio of rejected backup paths and, it reduces in distributed environments the average number of messages sent to manage the bandwidth information necessary for the backup path computation.

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

network
local protection
bandwidth sharing


A setpoint based dieting model A mathematic model of weight loss during under eating is proposed in the form of a simple energy balance ODE. The model accounts for the body's changing energy requirement per pound as weight is lost around an individual weight setpoint of stable equilibrium and is compared to a constant energy per pound model. The energy requirement per pound of body mass is formed from a linear fit from the equilibrium value to a constructed minimum (starvation) level. The resulting ODE is nonlinear in weight but has an analytical solution. Analysis is conducted in normalized (dimensionless) parameters for universal comparison. The model predicts weight loss as a function of time, the new caloric requirements for maintenance at the reduced weight and that these parameters are dependent on the Fat Free Mass Ratio (FFMR) existing at the setpoint weight. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

setpoint
dieting
model
energy
weight loss


FUAT - A fuzzy clustering analysis tool As it is known, fuzzy clustering is a kind of soft clustering method and primarily based on idea of segmenting data by using membership degrees of cases which are computed for each cluster. However, most of the current fuzzy clustering modules packaged in both open source and commercial products have lack of enabling users to explore fuzzy clusters deeply and visually in terms of investigation of different relations among clusters. Furthermore, without a decision maker or an expert, it is hard to decide the number of clusters in fuzzy clustering studies. Therefore, in this study, a desktop software, namely FUAT, is developed to analyze, explore and visualize different aspects of obtained fuzzy clusters which are segmented by fuzzy c-means algorithm. Moreover, to obtain and inform possible natural cluster number, FUAT is equipped with Expectation Maximization algorithm. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

fuzzy c-means clustering
validity index
visual analysis


FPGA v/s DSP Performance Comparison for a VSC-Based STATCOM Control Application Digital signal processors (DSPs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are predominant in the implementation of digital controllers and/or modulators for power converter applications. This paper presents a systematic comparison between these two technologies, depicting the main advantages and drawbacks of each one. Key programming and implementation aspects are addressed in order to give an overall idea of their most important features and allow the comparison between DSP and FPGA devices. A classical linear control strategy for a well-known voltage-source-converter (VSC)-based topology used as Static Compensator (STATCOM) is considered as a driving example to evaluate the performance of both approaches. A proof-of-concept laboratory prototype is separately controlled with the TMS320F2812 DSP and the Spartan-3 XCS1000 FPGA to illustrate the characteristics of both technologies. In the case of the DSP, a virtual floating-point library is used to accelerate the control routines compared to double precision arithmetic. On the other hand, two approaches are developed for the FPGA implementation, the first one reduces the hardware utilization and the second one reduces the computation time. Even though both boards can successfully control the STATCOM, results show that the FPGA achieves the best computation time thanks to the high degree of parallelism available on the device.

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

digital control
digital signal processor (dsp)
field-programmable gate array (fpga)
static compensator (statcom)


Robust classifying of prokaryotic genomes In this paper, we propose a method to classify prokaryotic genomes using the agglomerative information bottleneck method for unsupervised clustering. Although the method we present here is closely related to a group of methods based on detecting the presence or absence of genes, our method is different because it uses gene lengths as well. We show that this amended method is reliable. For robustness evaluation, we apply bootstrap and jackknife techniques to input data. As a result, we are able to propose an approach to determine the stability level of a cladogram. We demonstrate that the genome tree produced for a selected small group of genomes looks a lot like a phylogenetic tree of this group.

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

upgma unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean


volumetric shadows using splatting This paper describes an efficient algorithm to model the light attenuation due to a participating media with low albedo. The light attenuation is modeled using splatting volume renderer for both the viewer and the light source. During the rendering, a 2D shadow buffer attenuates the light for each pixel. When the contribution of a footprint is added to the image buffer, as seen from the eye, we add the contribution to the shadow buffer, as seen from the light source. We have generated shadows for point lights and parallel lights using this algorithm. The shadow algorithm has been extended to deal with multiple light sources and projective textured lights.

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 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

visualization
illumination
volume rendering


Modified Alternating Direction Methods for the Modified Multiple-Sets Split Feasibility Problems In this paper, we propose two new multiple-sets split feasibility problem models and new solution methods. The first model is more separable than the original one, which enables us to apply a modified alternating direction method with parallel steps to solve it. Then, to overcome the difficulty of computing projections onto the constraint sets, a special version of this modified method with the strategy of projection onto half-space is given. The second model consists in finding a least Euclidean norm solution of the multiple-sets split feasibility problem, for which we provide another modified alternating direction method. Numerical results presented at the last show the efficiency of our methods.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 I O O O O O O O O O O O O

multiple-sets split feasibility problem
parallel computing
half-space projection


Low-power circuit techniques for low-voltage pipelined ADCs based on switched-opamp architecture This paper proposes useful circuit structures for achieving a low-voltage/low-power pipelined ADC based on switched-opamp architecture. First, a novel unity-feedback-factor sample-and-hold which manipulates the features of switched-opamp technique is presented. Second, opamp-sharing is merged into switched-opamp structure with a proposed dual-output opamp configuration. A 0.8-V, 9-bit, 10-Msample/s pipelined ADC is designed to verify the proposed circuit. Simulation results using a 0.18-mu m CMOS 1P6M process demonstrate the figure-of-merit of this pipelined ADC is only 0.71 pJ/step.

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

low-voltage switched-opamp sample-and-hold opamp-sharing


Robust speech recognition using discrete-mixture HMMs This paper introduces new methods of robust speech recognition using discrete-mixture HMMs (DMHMMs). The aim of this work is to develop robust speech recognition for adverse conditions that contain both stationary and non-stationary noise. In particular, we focus on the issue of impulsive noise, which is a major problem in practical speech recognition system. In this paper, two strategies were utilized to solve the problem. In the first strategy, adverse conditions are represented by an acoustic model. In this case, a large amount of training data and accurate acoustic models are required to present a variety of acoustic environments. This strategy is suitable for recognition in stationary or slow-varying noise conditions. The second is based on the idea that the corrupted frames are treated to reduce the adverse effect by compensation method. Since impulsive noise has a wide variety of features and its modeling is difficult, the second strategy is employed. In order to achieve those strategies, we propose two methods. Those methods are based on DMHMM framework which is one type of discrete HMM (DHMM). First, an estimation method of DMHMM parameters based on MAP is proposed aiming to improve trainability. The second is a method of compensating the observation probabilities of DMHMMs by threshold to reduce adverse effect of outlier values. Observation probabilities of impulsive noise tend to be much smaller than those of normal speech. The motivation in this approach is that flooring the observation probability reduces the adverse effect caused by impulsive noise. Experimental evaluations on Japanese LVCSR for read newspaper speech showed that the proposed method achieved the average error rate reduction of 48.5% in impulsive noise conditions. Also the experimental results in adverse conditions that contain both stationary and impulsive noises showed that the proposed method achieved the average error rate reduction of 28.1%.

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

robust speech recognition
hmm
impulsive noise


Exploring the performance of split data cache schemes on superscalar processors and symmetric multiprocessors ? Current technology continues providing smaller and faster transistors, so processor architects can offer more complex and functional ILP processors, because manufacturers can fit more transistors on the same chip area. As a consequence, the fraction of chip area reachable in a single clock cycle is dropping, and at the same time the number of transistors on the chip is increasing. However, problems related with power consumption and heat dissipation are worrying. This scenario is forcing processor designers to look for new processor organizations that can provide the same or more performance but using smaller sizes. This fact especially affects the on-chip cache memory design; therefore, studies proposing new smaller cache organizations while maintaining, or even increasing, the hit ratio are welcome. In this sense, the cache schemes that propose a better exploitation of data locality (bypassing schemes, prefetching techniques, victim caches, etc.) are a good example. This paper presents a data cache scheme called filter cache that splits the first level data cache into two independent organizations, and its performance is compared with two other proposals appearing in the open literature, as well as larger classical caches. To check the performance two different scenarios are considered: a superscalar processor and a symmetric multiprocessor. The obtained results show that (i) in the superscalar processor the split data caches perform similarly or better than larger conventional caches, (ii) some splitting schemes work well in multiprocessors while others work less well because of data localities, (iii) the reuse information that some split schemes incorporate for managing is also useful for designing new competitive protocols to boost performance in multiprocessors, (iv) the filter data cache achieves the best performance in both scenarios.

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

ilp
superscalar processors
split data cache
multiprocessors

competitive coherence protocols
performance evaluation


attentional object spotting by integrating multimodal input An intelligent human-computer interface is expected to allow computers to work with users in a cooperative manner. To achieve this goal, computers need to be aware of user attention and provide assistances without explicit user request. Cognitive studies of eye movements suggest that in accomplishing well-learned tasks, the performer's focus of attention is locked with the ongoing work and more than 90\% of eye movements are closely related to the objects beingmanipulated in the tasks. In light of this, we have developed an attentional object spotting system that integrates multimodal data consisting of eye positions, head positions and video from the "first-person" perspective. To detect the user's focus of attention, we modeled eye gaze and head movements using a hidden Markov model (HMM) representation. For each attentional point in time, the object of user interest is automatically extracted and recognized. We report the results of experiments on finding attentional objects in the natural task of "making a peanut-butter sandwich".

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

eye gaze
attention
task
point
video
users
input
object
data
representation
hidden markov model
user

multimodality
systems
cognition
movement
eye-movement
intelligence
computation
cooperation
experience
timing
lighting
human-computer interfaces


Incorporating risk into bank efficiency: A satisficing DEA approach to assess the Greek banking crisis We propose a satisficing DEA model to measure the efficiency of the Greek banks. LLP are treated as a stochastic controllable input variable. Haircut losses on Greek bonds are treated as an uncontrollable input variable. The proposed frontier screens further some of the best-in-class banks.

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

data envelopment analysis
finance and banking
mathematical programming


Optimal protruding node length of bicycle seats determined using cycling postures and subjective ratings No previous study has systematically examined the effects of protruding nose lengths (PNL). We collected body postures and subjective ratings under 5 seat PNLs2 handle heights conditions. Different PNLs affected only the trunk angle, and did not affect the other body angles. The handle and the PNL variables had varying effects on the degree of pelvic tilt. When PNL=6cm, discomfort was more acceptable and stability was also sufficient for the riders.

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

protruding node of saddle
posture recording
subjective assessment


region-based automatic web image selection We propose a new Web image selection method which employs the region-based bag-of-features representation. The contribution of this work is (1) to introduce the region-based bag-of-features representation into an Web image selection task where training data is incomplete, and (2) to prove its effectiveness by experiments with both generative and discriminative machine learning methods. In the experiments, we used a multiple-instance learning SVM and a standard SVM as discriminative methods, and pLSA and LDA mixture models as probabilistic generative methods. Several works on Web image filtering task with bag-of-features have been proposed so far. However, in case that the training data includes much noise, sufficient results could not be obtained. In this paper, we divide images into regions and classify each region instead of classifying whole images. By this region-based classification, we can separate foreground regions from background regions and achieve more effective image training from incomplete training data. By the experiments, we show that the results by the proposed methods outperformed the results by the whole-image-based bag-of-features.

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

web image mining
multiple instance learning
region-based


A tabu search approach for group scheduling in buffer-constrained flow shop cells The scheduling problem in a cellular manufacturing system (CMS) has been named as group scheduling in the literature. Due to the similarities in the processing route of the parts being in a group, it is mostly referred to as flow shop group scheduling. This problem consists of two interrelated sub-problems, namely intra-group scheduling and inter-group scheduling. On the other hand, mostly there are limited buffers between successive machines in which the work-in-process inventories can be stored. This article investigates the flow shop group scheduling with limited buffers to minimise the total completion time (makespan). Regarding the NP-hardness of this problem, two tabu search algorithms are proposed for solving each sub-problem. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is evaluated on 270 randomly generated problems classified under 27 categories. The results of the proposed algorithm are compared with those of the heuristic published by Solimanpur-Vrat-Shankar (SVS). Computational results demonstrate significant reduction in the average makespan over the SVS-algorithm.

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


On the combination of evolutionary algorithms and stratified strategies for training set selection in data mining In this paper, we present a new approach for training set selection in large size data sets. The algorithm consists on the combination of stratification and evolutionary algorithms. The stratification reduces the size of domain where the selection is applied while the evolutionary method selects the most representative instances. The performance of the proposal is compared with seven non-evolutionary algorithms, in stratified execution. The analysis follows two evaluating approaches: balance between reduction and accuracy of the subsets selected, and balance between interpretability and accuracy of the representation models associated to these subsets. The algorithms have been assessed on large and huge size data sets. The study shows that the stratified evolutionary instance selection consistently outperforms the non-evolutionary ones. The main advantages are: high instance reduction rates, high classification accuracy and models with high interpretability.

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

evolutionary algorithms
stratification
instance selection
training set selection
data mining


Dynamic fault diagnosis using extended matrix and tensor locality preserving discriminant analysis It is well acknowledged that utilizing dynamic information can improve accuracy in fault diagnosis for dynamic processes. Conventional methods encode dynamic information by constructing an extended vector comprising current process data as well as past process data. Then the classic Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is usually applied to extended vectors to reduce dimensionality and obtain a discriminative subspace where overlapping among different fault classes is minimized. However, using extended vectors aggravates the "curse of dimensionality" problem and loses structure information in variables. Besides, LDA probably provides suboptimal results when there are more than two candidate fault classes. This paper proposes using extended matrices to encoding dynamic information and using a novel dimensionality reduction method named Tensor Locality Preserving Discriminant Analysis (TLPDA) to perform dimensionality reduction on extend matrices directly. TLPDA is based on local structure in data and overcomes the main drawbacks of LDA. A new dynamic fault diagnosis scheme is developed based on extended matrices and TLPDA. Extensive simulations on the Tennessee Eastman (TE) benchmark simulation process clearly demonstrate the superiority of our methods in terms of misclassification rate and making use of extra training data. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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 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 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

dynamic fault diagnosis
dimensionality reduction

matrix representation
local structure preserving


Dynamic Spectrum Access is the Solution: Whats the Problem? Dynamic access to spectrum evolved as a concept from an observation that much spectrum was under-utilized. Over time the access rules for this spectrum have changed to geo-location and it has become clear that the spectrum is often subject to interference. This has changed the thinking about the applications most likely to emerge away from classic unlicensed uses such as device-to-device and home networks and towards wide-area machine-to-machine networks and rural broadband. Such applications would prefer somewhat certain access to spectrum so further enhancements to access rules to prioritise certain users should be considered.

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

cognitive radio
geo-location
whitespace
m2m
sdr


Global optimization of polynomials restricted to a smooth variety using sums of squares Let f(1), ... , f(p) be in Q|x| where X = (X-1, ... , X-n)(1), that generate a radical ideal and let V be their complex zero-set. Assume that V is smooth and equidimensional. Given f is an element of Q|x| bounded below, consider the optimization problem of computing f* = inf(x is an element of V boolean AND Rn) f (x). For A is an element of GL(n)(C), we denote by f(A) the polynomial f(AX) and by V-A the complex zero-set of f(1)(A) ... , f(p)(A). We construct families of polynomials M-0(A), ... , M-d(A) in Q|x|: each M-i(A) is related to the section of a linear subspace with the critical locus of a linear projection. We prove that there exists a non-empty Zariski-open set (sic) subset of GL(n)(C) such that for all A is an element of (sic) boolean AND GL(n)(Q), f (x) is positive for all x is an element of V boolean AND R-n if and only if, f(A) can be expressed as a sum of squares of polynomials on the truncated variety generated by the ideal (M-i(A)), for 0 <= i <= d. Hence, we can obtain algebraic certificates for lower bounds on f* using semi-definite programs. Some numerical experiments are given. We also discuss how to decrease the number of polynomials in M-i(A). (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

global constrained optimization
polar varieties


MCore: A non-hydrostatic atmospheric dynamical core utilizing high-order finite-volume methods This paper presents a new atmospheric dynamical core which uses a high-order upwind finite-volume scheme of Godunov type for discretizing the non-hydrostatic equations of motion on the sphere under the shallow-atmosphere approximation. The model is formulated on the cubed-sphere in order to avoid polar singularities. An operator-split RungeKuttaRosenbrock scheme is used to couple the horizontally explicit and vertically implicit discretizations so as to maintain accuracy in time and space and enforce a global CFL condition which is only restricted by the horizontal grid spacing and wave speed. The Rosenbrock approach is linearly implicit and so requires only one matrix solve per column per time step. Using a modified version of the low-speed AUSM+-up Riemann solver allows us to construct the vertical Jacobian matrix analytically, and so significantly improve the model efficiency. This model is tested against a series of typical atmospheric flow problems to verify accuracy and consistency. The test results reveal that this approach is stable, accurate and effective at maintaining sharp gradients in the flow.

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

high-order
finite-volume methods
cubed-sphere
general circulation models
dynamical cores
atmospheric models


Using tree search bounds to enhance a genetic algorithm approach to two rectangle packing problems A popular approach when using a genetic algorithm in the solution of constrained problems is to exploit problem specific information by representing individuals as ordered lists. A construction heuristic is then often used as a decoder to produce a solution from each ordering. In such a situation further information is often available in the form of bounds on the partial solutions. This paper uses two two-dimensional packing problems to illustrate how this information can be incorporated into the genetic operators to improve the overall performance of the search. Our objective is to use the packing problems as a vehicle for investigating a series of modifications of the genetic algorithm approach based on information from bounds on partial solutions.

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

genetic algorithms
branch and bound
cutting


high-speed dynamic logic styles for scaled-down cmos and mtcmos technologies A new high-speed Domino circuit, called HS-Domino is developed. HS-Domino resolves the trade-off between performance and noise margins in conventional CD-Domino logic while dissipating low dynamic power with minimal area overhead. A dual-threshold (MTCMOS) implementation of HS-Domino and DDCVS logic is also devised. This implementation achieves low leakage values during standby, while maintaining high performance and low dynamic power during the active mode.

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

technologies values dynamic performance implementation leakage power logic noise minimal

activation threshold high-performance circuits


Automated control systems for the safety integrity levels 3 and 4 Programs employed for purposes of safety related control must be formally safety licensed, which constitutes a very difficult and hitherto not satisfactorily solved problem. Striving for utmost simplicity and easy comprehensibility of verification methods, the programming methods cause/effect tables and function block diagrams based on verified libraries are assigned to the upper two Safety Integrity Levels SIL 4 and SIL 3, resp., as they are the only ones so far allowing to verify highly safety critical automation software in trustworthy, easy and economic ways. For each of the two SILs a dedicated, low complexity execution platform is presented supporting the corresponding programming method architecturally. Their hardware is fault detecting or supervised by a fail safe logic, resp., to initiate emergency shut-downs in case of malfunctions. By design, there is no semantic gap between the programming and machine execution levels, enabling the safety licensing of application software by extremely simple, but rigorous methods, viz., diverse back translation and inspection. Operating in strictly periodic fashion, the controllers exhibit fully predictable real time behaviour.

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

safety critical automation
safety integrity levels
function block diagrams

cause/effect tables
programmable controllers
safety licensing of software


Decision-feedback multiple symbol detection for differential space-time block coded UWB systems The symbol-by-symbol differential detection scheme, originally employed to detect differential space-time block coded (DSTBC) ultra-wideband (UWB) signal in previous work, suffers from a performance degradation compared with coherent detection. In this paper, a noncoherent multiple symbol detection (MSD) scheme is proposed to enhance the performance of DSTBC-UWB system. After the signal model of DSTBC-UWB is analyzed, the optimal maximum likelihood (ML) MSD is derived and then a suboptimal ML-MSD is obtained by channel approximating. However, exhaustive search based MSD is impractical in DSTBC-UWB systems since its complexity increases exponentially with observation window size. To decrease the computational complexity, the decision-feedback (DF) scheme is introduced to MSD. The resultant DF-MSD yields reasonable complexity and solid performance improvement.

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

ultra-wideband (uwb)
space-time block code (stbc)
multiple symbol detection (msd)


Instinct-Based Mating in Genetic Algorithms Applied to the Tuning of 1-NN Classifiers The behavior of the genetic algorithm (GA), a popular approach to search and optimization problems, is known to depend, among other factors, on the fitness function formula, the recombination operator, and the mutation operator. What has received less attention is the impact of the mating strategy that selects the chromosomes to be paired for recombination. Existing GA implementations mostly choose them probabilistically, according to their fitness function values, but we show that more sophisticated mating strategies can not only accelerate the search, but perhaps even improve the quality of the GA-generated solution. In our implementation, we took inspiration from the "opposites-attract" principle that is so common in nature. As a testbed, we chose the problem of 1-NN classifier tuning where genetic solutions have been employed before, and are thus well-understood by the research community. We propose three "instinct-based" mating strategies and experimentally investigate their behaviors.

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

multiobjective optimization
nearest-neighbor classifiers


the evolution of a computational outreach program to secondary school students This paper tracks the five-year growth and current trajectory of a computational outreach program at a small, liberal-arts college. The program has enhanced opportunities for talented high-school students to experience computation more deeply than their HS curriculum currently offers. This outreach evolved from a naive initial premise into a mutually beneficial interaction between an undergraduate computer science department and a local secondary school. The most important factor in the program's sustainability is a supportive liaison within the high school's administration. We hope the lessons we have learned will help other CS departments develop sustainable outreach programs.

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

education
secondary-school cs outreach
diversity


Learning accurate and concise naive Bayes classifiers from attribute value taxonomies and data In many application domains, there is a need for learning algorithms that can effectively exploit attribute value taxonomies (AVT)-hierarchical groupings of attribute values-to learn compact, comprehensible and accurate classifiers from data-including data that are partially specified. This paper describes AVT-NBL, a natural generalization of the naive Bayes learner (NBL), for learning classifiers from AVT and data. Our experimental results show that AVT-NBL is able to generate classifiers that are substantially more compact and more accurate than those produced by NBL on a broad range of data sets with different percentages of partially specified values. We also show that AVT-NBL is more efficient in its use of training data: AVT-NBL produces classifiers that outperform those produced by NBL using substantially fewer training examples.

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

avt-based naive bayes learner
partially specified data


IMPROVED EFFICIENT ROUTING STRATEGY ON SCALE-FREE NETWORKS Since the betweenness of nodes in complex networks can theoretically represent the traffic load of nodes under the currently used routing strategy, we propose an improved efficient (IE) routing strategy to enhance to the network traffic capacity based on the betweenness centrality. Any node with the highest betweenness is susceptible to traffic congestion. An efficient way to improve the network traffic capacity is to redistribute the heavy traffic load from these central nodes to non-central nodes, so in this paper, we firstly give a path cost function by considering the sum of node betweenness with a tunable parameter beta along the actual path. Then, by minimizing the path cost, our IE routing strategy achieved obvious improvement on the network transport efficiency. Simulations on scale-free Barabasi-Albert (BA) networks confirmed the effectiveness of our strategy, when compared with the efficient routing (ER) and the shortest path (SP) routing.

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

improved efficient routing
betweenness centrality
traffic capacity
transport efficiency


Distributed multichannel MAC protocol for IEEE 802.11 ad hoc wireless LANs The IEEE 802.11 standard supports several independent and equal-capacity communication channels, which can be shared simultaneously and accessed by mobile stations in existing wireless local area networks (WLANs). However, under the restriction of one transceiver per network adapter, these mobile stations can only access one of these communication channels and, thus, the remainder channels are wasted inevitably. A multichannel carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocol, multichannel multiple access (MMA) protocol, is proposed in the paper for supporting parallel transmissions under the above single transceiver constraint. The MMA protocol enables mobile stations to contend for access of multiple data-transferring channels through the use of a dedicated service channel during each contention reservation interval (CRI). After granting the access right of these channels, these mobile stations can transmit data frames over different channels by using a pre-defined channel scheduling algorithm (CSA) in a distributed manner. The time complexity of the proposed heuristic CSA is O(vertical bar X vertical bar log vertical bar X vertical bar + vertical bar X vertical bar X M-2) where vertical bar X vertical bar and M denote the number of successful requests in the CRI and the number of available channels, respectively. An improved MMA(+) protocol with extending reserved transmission opportunities is also introduced and the goal is to maximize the channel utilization further. Simulation results show that the proposed MMA with CSA achieves a much higher throughput than conventional IEEE 802.11 WLAN with single channel. Simulation results also indicate that the achievable peek network throughput is not linearly proportional with the number of channels because of the native collision problem caused by single transceiver. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

ad hoc
algorithm
mac
protocol
scheduling
wireless


Perfect code is W[1]-complete We show that the parameterized problem PERFECT CODE belongs to W[1]. This result closes an old open question, because it was often conjectured that PERFECT CODE could be a natural problem having complexity degree intermediate between W[1] and W[2]. This result also shows W[1]-membership of the parameterized problem WEIGHTED EXACT CNF SATISFIABILITY. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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 B I O O 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

computational complexity
parameterized computational complexity
weighted exact conjunctive normal form
w[1]-completeness


QSIA - a Web-based environment for learning, assessing and knowledge sharing in communities This paper describes a Web-based and distributed system named QSIA that serves as an environment for learning, assessing and knowledge sharing. QSIA - Questions Sharing and Interactive Assignments - offers a unified infrastructure for developing, collecting, managing and sharing of knowledge items. QSIA enhances collaboration in authoring via online recommendations and generates communities of teachers and learners. At the same time, QSIA fosters individual learning and might promote high-order thinking skills among its users. QSIA's community, conceptual architecture, structure overview and implementations are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

architectures for educational technology systems


An application of agent-based simulation to knowledge sharing This paper explores knowledge sharing using an agent-based simulation model. Built using Repast, our application allows managers to simulate employee knowledge-sharing behaviors by making parametric assumptions on employee decision strategies and organizational interventions that affect identifiability, benefits, and costs. Our results show that in the presence of non-linear and adaptive interaction, unintended and unpredictable outcomes might occur, and that knowledge sharing results from the complex interaction between employee behavior and organizational interventions.

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

agent-based modelling
complex adaptive systems


A multilevel genetic algorithm for optimization of geometrically nonlinear stiffened composite structures A multilevel genetic algorithm aiming the global optimization of beam reinforced composite structures with nonlinear geometric behaviour is proposed. A unified approach based on load-displacement control for buckling and first ply failure analysis is adopted. The Newton-Raphson iterative scheme and the arc-length method are used for tracing the equilibrium path and later for updating the critical values. The proposed genetic algorithm performs several sequences of two optimization levels resulting from the decomposition of the original optimization problem. Independent genetic searches are implemented for each level where different fitness functions and sub-populations are considered. The genetic operators selection and crossover supported by an elitist strategy are used while the diversity of the sub-populations is guaranteed based on implicit mutation. A genetic material exchange between levels is performed using clones and so the offspring of matured sub-populations is guaranteed. To improve the efficiency of the multilevel genetic optimization a niche of population is induced after the first stage at both levels.

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

geometrically nonlinear
genetic algorithm
elitist strategy


concept representation based video indexing This poster introduces a novel concept-based video indexing approach. It is developed based on a rich set of base concepts, of which the models are available. Then, for a given concept with several labeled samples, we combine the base concepts to fit it and its model can thus be obtained accordingly. Empirical results demonstrate that this method can achieve great performance even with very limited labeled data. We have compared different representation approaches including both sparse and non-sparse methods. Our conclusion is that the sparse method will lead to much better performance.

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


Tetravalent vertex-transitive graphs of order 4p A graph is vertex-transitive if its automorphism group acts transitively on vertices of the graph. A vertex-transitive graph is a Cayley graph if its automorphism group contains a subgroup acting regularly on its vertices. In this article, the tetravalent vertex-transitive non-Cayley graphs of order 4p are classified for each prime p. As a result, there are one sporadic and five infinite families of such graphs, of which the sporadic one has order 20, and one infinite family exists for every prime p>3, two families exist if and only if p?1 (mod 8) and the other two families exist if and only if p?1 (mod 4). For each family there is a unique graph for a given order. 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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


The complexity of homomorphisms and renamings for minimal unsatisfiable formulas We investigate the complexity of deciding whether for minimal unsatisfiable formulas F and H there exists a variable renaming, a literal renaming or a homomorphism phi such that phi(F) = H. A variable renaming is a permutation of variables. A literal renaming is a permutation of variables which additionally replaces some of the variables by its complements. A homomorphism can be considered as a literal renaming which can map different literals to one literal.

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

minimal unsatisfiable formula
graph isomorphism