ON IRRELEVANCE AND ALGORITHMIC EQUALITY IN PREDICATIVE TYPE THEORY Dependently typed programs contain an excessive amount of static terms which are necessary to please the type checker but irrelevant for computation. To separate static and dynamic code, several static analyses and type systems have been put forward. We consider Pfenning's type theory with irrelevant quantification which is compatible with a type-based notion of equality that respects eta-laws. We extend Pfenning's theory to universes and large eliminations and develop its meta-theory. Subject reduction, normalization and consistency are obtained by a Kripke model over the typed equality judgement. Finally, a type-directed equality algorithm is described whose completeness is proven by a second Kripke model.

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

dependent types
proof irrelevance
typed algorithm equality
logical relation
universal kripke model


Free object in the category of L-fuzzy left R-modules determined by L-fuzzy set Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study free L-fuzzy left R-module, using the language of categories and functors for the general description of L-fuzzy left R-modules generated by L-fuzzy set. In the language of categories and functors, an L-fuzzy left R-modules generated by L-fuzzy set is called a free object in the category of L-fuzzy left R-modules determined by L-fuzzy set. Design/methodology/approach - Category theory is used to study the existent quality, unique quality and material structure of L-fuzzy left R-modules generated by L-fuzzy set. Findings - The paper gives the uniqueness, structure and existence theorems of free object in the category of L-fuzzy left R-modules determined by L-fuzzy set, and the authors prove that the fuzzy free functor is left adjoint to the fuzzy underlying functor. Research limitations/implications - Some property of free L-fuzzy left R-modules will need to be further researched. Originality/value - The paper defines a new class of L-fuzzy left R-modules, i.e. free L-fuzzy left R-modules, research and explore free L-fuzzy left R-modules in theory.

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


Evolving Multimodal Networks for Multitask Games Intelligent opponent behavior makes video games interesting to human players. Evolutionary computation can discover such behavior, however, it is challenging to evolve behavior that consists of multiple separate tasks. This paper evaluates three ways of meeting this challenge via neuroevolution: 1) multinetwork learns separate controllers for each task, which are then combined manually; 2) multitask evolves separate output units for each task, but shares information within the network's hidden layer; and 3) mode mutation evolves new output modes, and includes a way to arbitrate between them. Whereas the first two methods require that the task division be known, mode mutation does not. Results in Front/Back Ramming and Predator/Prey games show that each of these methods has different strengths. Multinetwork is good in both domains, taking advantage of the clear division between tasks. Multitask performs well in Front/Back Ramming, in which the relative difficulty of the tasks is even, but poorly in Predator/Prey, in which it is lopsided. Interestingly, mode mutation adapts to this asymmetry and performs well in Predator/Prey. This result demonstrates how a human-specified task division is not always the best. Altogether the results suggest how human knowledge and learning can be combined most effectively to evolve multimodal behavior.

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

multiagent
multiobjective
predator/prey games


Evaluation of a template protection approach to integrate fingerprint biometrics in a PIN-based payment infrastructure Biometric authentication has a great potential to improve the security, reduce cost, and enhance the customer convenience of payment systems. Despite these benefits, biometric authentication has not yet been adopted by large-scale point-of-sale and automated teller machine systems. This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the benefits and limitations associated with the integration of biometrics in a PIN-based payment authentication system. Based on a review of the market drivers and deployment hurdles, a method is proposed in which biometrics can be seamlessly integrated in a PIN-based authentication infrastructure. By binding a fixed binary, renewable string to a noisy biometric sample, the data privacy and interoperability between issuing and acquiring banks can improve considerably compared to conventional biometric approaches. The biometric system security, cost aspects, and customer convenience are subsequently compared to PIN by means of simulations using fingerprints. The results indicate that the biometric authentication performance is not negatively influenced by the incorporation of key binding and release processes, and that the security expressed as guessing entropy of the biometric key is virtually identical to the current PIN. The data also suggest that for the fingerprint database under test, the claimed benefits for cost reduction, improved security and customer convenience do not convincingly materialize when compared to PIN. This result can in part explain why large-scale biometric payment systems are virtually non-existent in Europe and the United States, and suggests that other biometric modalities than fingerprints may be more appropriate for payment systems. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

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

authentication
biometrics
payment systems
pin


on merging partitioned databases Partitioning of a distributed data base requires either that update activity be restricted or that a strategy for conflict resolution and partition merging be used once communication is restored. The graph-theoretic approach used by Davidson follows the latter approach and can be used to show that finding an optimum solution to the general problem is NP-complete. We give several methods of reducing the size of the graphs involved. Two open subproblems are shown to be NP-complete, while an extension of a known polynomial-time subproblem is given. Simulation results are used to study both the amount of compression achieved by the graph reduction techniques and their effects on heuristics for the problem. In addition, some modifications are made to existing heuristics to improve their performance. A simple probabilistic model is developed and compared to the simulation results.

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

communication
conflict resolution
merging
simulation
performance
reduction
general
partition
data base
size
graph
heuristics
distributed
compression
update

activation
polynomial
extensibility
timing
strategies
method
probabilistic models
database
effect
completeness


A computational framework for polyconvex large strain elasticity Conjugate stresses to the extended kinematic set, elegantly related to classical stress tensors. A convex complementary strain energy functional in terms of a new set of conjugate stresses. Formulation of several variational principles, expanding the ideas in Schrder etal. (2011). A novel HellingerReissner variational principle. A stabilised PetrovGalerkin discretisation in the context of mixed principles.

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

complementary energy variational principle


Dynamic data mining technique for rules extraction in a process of battery charging Battery charging controllers design and application is a growing industry direction. Fast and efficient charging of battery packs is a problem which is difficult and often expensive to solve using conventional techniques. The majority of existing works on intelligent charging systems are based on expert knowledge and heuristics. Not all features of the desired charging behavior can be attained by the hard-wired logic implemented by expert generated rules. Because the battery charging is a highly dynamic process and the chemical technology a battery uses varies significantly for different battery types, data mining technique can be of real importance for extracting the charging rules from the large databases, especially when the charging logic is to be continuously changed during the life of the battery dependent on the type and characteristics of the battery and utilization conditions. In this paper we use soft computing-based data mining technique for extraction of control rules for effective and fast battery charging process. The obtained rules were used for NiCd battery charging. The comparative performance evaluation was done among the existing charging control methods and the proposed system, which demonstrated a significant increase of performance (minimum charging time and minimum overheating) using the soft computing-based approach.

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

data mining
control rules
battery charging

soft computing
fuzzy recurrent neural network
genetic algorithm
intelligent control


synthesizing optimal filters for crosstalk-cancellation for high-speed buses We present practical algorithms for the synthesis of crosstalk cancelling equalizing filters. We examine designs optimized for the traditional l2 metric and introduce an approach based on the l? metric. We compare the two approaches for realistic buses with tight wire spacings. We show bandwidth improvements of up to a factor of 2 using crosstalk cancellation when compared with no filtering or independent pre-emphasis for each wire. Using l? optimization, we achieve roughly 50\% better performance than the l2 methods. We are aware of only one other published description of crosstalk cancellation for high-performance buses [9]. We believe that our work is the first to show the advantages of l? optimization and to consider crosstalk cancellation for more than just nearest neighbours for high-speed buses.

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


Magnetotelluric impedances and parametric sensitivities for 1-D anisotropic layered media Anisotropy of the electrical conductivity within the Earth has recently provided a significant link between geoelectrical models and the underlying tectonic setting. Interpretation of magnetotelluric data for anisotropic conductivities suffers from inherent ambiguity, and even for theoretically distinguishable parameters the resolution pattern may be rather complex as compared to isotropic models. As a tool for the resolution and sensitivity studies, we present an algorithm for jointly evaluating the magnetotelluric impedances and their partial derivatives with respect to the parameters of a 1-D generally anisotropic layered medium. The algorithm is based on impedance propagation formulas through a stack of anisotropic layers and their direct differentiation with respect to the model parameters. By virtue of an equivalency principle, the situation of a generally anisotropic layered medium can be always reduced in magnetotellurics to a simpler model with horizontally anisotropic layers. By rotating the impedances into the local anisotropy strike, the two wave modes in an anisotropic layer can be quasi-separated, and elimination of the positive exponential wave factors in the impedance formulas is possible, which stabilizes both the impedance and sensitivity calculations. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated on a simple qualitative sensitivity study for a four-layer model with depth-variable anisotropy parameters. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

equivalent horizontal anisotropy
matrix propagation
parametric partial derivatives
frechet derivatives


emotional interaction as a way of communication The article presents the design and evaluation phase --- an example of an emotional interaction for elderly users as a means for interpersonal communication, management with the residence (smart house) and communication with the external environment. The proposed solution suggests using non-verbal communication (care for a garden) with the assistance of sound, colours, materials and shapes for creating an intuitive, fluid and permanent communication. The paper also reports on the evaluation phase of this kind of interaction by investigating whether it is suitable for different age group users. The evaluation phase was focused more on the 60+ year old elderly users. We evaluated this way of interaction in different situations: in communicating with relatives, taking medicine, recording reminders, controlling their home and using different services. Evaluation results showed that our users felt that this interaction is too simple and that older people in their fourth life period (around the eighties) do not appreciate this way of thinking.

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

elderly people
interaction design
interface


Front-tracking finite element method for dendritic solidification A two-dimensional finite element method capable of tracking sharp interfaces is developed. The method is based on a fixed mesh of bilinear isoparametric elements and is extremely simple and easy to use. The interfaces are tracked with a set of marker points that define their position at all times. Several different approaches to finding the interface position and velocity are discussed, and their effect on the convergence rate is examined. It is shown through numerical examples that the approximation to the interface position converges with second-order accuracy in two-dimensional problems, as opposed to previously developed finite difference algorithms that are only first-order accurate. The approximation to the interface velocity is shown to be of first order. A number of examples are examined, including several that provide a careful comparison with previously published results. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

dendritic solidification
finite element method


Solving time-varying quadratic programs based on finite-time Zhang neural networks and their application to robot tracking In this paper, finite-time Zhang neural networks (ZNNs) are designed to solve time-varying quadratic program (QP) problems and applied to robot tracking. Firstly, finite-time criteria and upper bounds of the convergent time are reviewed. Secondly, finite-time ZNNs with two tunable activation functions are proposed and applied to solve the time-varying QP problems. Finite-time convergent theorems of the proposed neural networks are presented and proved. The upper bounds of the convergent time are estimated less conservatively. The proposed neural networks also have superior robustness performance against perturbation with large implementation errors. Thirdly, feasibility and superiority of our method are shown by numerical simulations. At last, the proposed neural networks are applied to robot tracking. Simulation results also show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

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 O O O O O 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

time-varying qp problems
finite-time znn
tunable activation function
upper bound of convergent time


k-order additive fuzzy measures A generalization of k-order additive discrete fuzzy measures recently introduced by Grabisch is shown, k-order additive fuzzy measures on general spaces are introduced. Connection of the proposed generalization with the general Mobius transform of Shafer is shown. General evaluation formula for the Choquet integral is given. Further generalizations concerning the type of applied arithmetics are proposed.

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


The influence of intentional versus incidental retrieval practices on the role of recollection in test-enhanced learning A testing effect occurs when taking a test leads to more durable memory for tested materials, relative to restudying them during the same period of time. In the current study, we examined whether incidental and intentional restudy/testing practice modes during a practice phase would modulate the contribution of recollection-based and familiarity-based retrieval in a final recognition test. Both practice strategy (restudy versus testing) and practice mode (incidental vs. intentional) were manipulated between participants (N=160). The restudy and testing groups performed a semantic rating task and a word fragment completion task, respectively, in the incidental condition or in the intentional condition. Only those participants in the intentional condition were instructed to recall or restudy the targets. All participants went through two studypractice cycles that involved two different sets of targets. After the second cycle, participants performed a list-discrimination recognition test that could assess the contributions of recollection-based and familiarity-based retrieval on test-enhanced learning. The testing effect occurred in the intentional condition, but not in the incidental condition. Relative to intentional restudy, intentional testing boosted recollection, but not familiarity, demonstrating the role of recollection in test-enhanced learning.

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


automated program flaw finding using simulated annealing One of the major costs in a software project is the construction of test-data. This paper outlines a generalised test-case data generation framework based on optimisation techniques. The framework can incorporate a number of testing criteria, for both functional and non-functional properties. Application of the optimisation framework to testing specification failures and exception conditions is illustrated. The results of a number of small case studies are presented and show the efficiency and effectiveness of this dynamic optimisation-base approach to generating test-data.

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

optimisation
exception conditions
framework
software
simulated annealing
generation
efficiency
case studies
dynamic
functional
project
data
paper

automatic test-case generation
software testing
applications
formal specifications
optimisation techniques
test
exception
case
effect
automation
failure


Controllability of neutral functional integrodifferential systems in Banach spaces Sufficient conditions for controllability of neutral functional integrodifferential systems in a Banach space are established. The results are obtained by using the Schacfer fixed-point theorem. An example is provided to illustrate the theory. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Parallel implementation of the TRANSIMS micro-simulation This paper describes the parallel implementation of the TRansportation ANalysis and SIMulation System (TRANSIMS) traffic micro-simulation. The parallelization method is domain decomposition, which means that each CPU of the parallel computer is responsible for a different geographical area of the simulated region. We describe how information between domains is exchanged, and how the transportation network graph is partitioned. An adaptive scheme is used to optimize load balancing. We then demonstrate how computing speeds of our parallel micro-simulations can be systematically predicted once the scenario and the computer architecture are known. This makes it possible, e.g., to decide if a certain study is feasible with a certain computing budget, and how to invest that budget. The main ingredients of the prediction are knowledge about the parallel implementation of the micro-simulation, knowledge about the characteristics of the partitioning of the transportation network graph, and knowledge about the interaction of these quantities with the computer system. In particular, we investigate the differences between switched and non-switched topologies, and the effects of 10 Mbit, 100 Mbit, and Gbit Ethernet. As an example, we show that with a common technology 100 Mbit switched Ethernet one can run the 20000-link EMME/2-network for Portland (Oregon) more than 20 times faster than real time on 16 coupled Pentium CPUs.

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

traffic simulation
parallel computing
transportation planning


Stereovision depth analysis by two-dimensional motion charge memories Several strategies to retrieve depth information from a sequence of images have been described so far. In this paper a method that turns around the existing symbiosis between stereovision and motion is introduced; motion minimizes correspondence ambiguities, and stereovision enhances motion information. The central idea behind our approach is to transpose the spatially defined problem of disparity estimation into the spatialtemporal domain. Motion is analyzed in the original sequences by means of the so-called permanency effect and the disparities are calculated from the resulting two-dimensional motion charge maps. This is an important contribution to the traditional stereovision depth analysis, where disparity is got from the image luminescence. In our approach, disparity is studied from a motion-based persistency charge measure.

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


Crowdsourcing healthcare costs: Opportunities and challenges for patient centered price transparency Efforts to improve health care price transparency have garnered significant attention from patients, policy makers, and health insurers. In response to increasing consumer demand, state governments, insurance plans, and health care providers are reporting health care prices. However, such data often do not provide consumers with the most salient information: their own actual out-of-pocket cost for medical care. Although untested, crowdsourcing, a mechanism for the public to help answer complex questions, represents a potential solution to the problem of opaque hospital costs. This article explores, the challenges and potential opportunities for crowdsourcing out-of-pocket costs for healthcare consumers.

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


Automated Quantitative Assessment of HER-2/neu Immunohistochemical Expression in Breast Cancer The expression of the HER-2/neu (HER2) gene, a member of the epidermal growth factor receptor family, has been shown to be a valuable prognostic indicator for breast cancer. However, interobserver variability has been reported in the evaluation of HER2 with immunohistochemistry. It has been suggested that automated computer-based evaluation can provide a consistent and objective evaluation of HER2 expression. In this manuscript, we present an automated method for the quantitative assessment of HER2 using digital microscopy. The method processes microscopy images from tissue slides with a multistage algorithm, including steps of color pixel classification, nuclei segmentation, and cell membrane modeling, and extracts quantitative, continuous measures of cell membrane staining intensity and completeness. A minimum cluster distance classifier merges the features to classify the slides into HER2 categories. An evaluation based on agreement analysis with pathologist-derived HER2 scores, showed good agreement with the provided truth. Agreement varied within the different classes with highest agreement (up to 90%) for positive (3+) slides, and lowest agreement (72%-78%) for equivocal (2+) slides which contained ambiguous scoring. The developed automated method has the potential to be used as a computer aid for the immunohistochemical evaluation of HER2 expression with the objective of increasing observer reproducibility.

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

biomarker
computer-aided immunohistochemistry
her2/neu
pathology


Public-sector E-commerce and state financial management - Capacity versus wealth This article examines the development of public-sector e-commerce at the state level with a focus on financial management. The author first provides a review of the current literature and relevant theories on e-government in relation to e-commerce and financial management. Second, an overview of state issues, trends, and development in the domain of e-commerce are investigated with data from an e-commerce survey. Third, the author develops and tests a model of e-commerce development. An e-commerce index is tested against a series of management and social-economic characteristics of the states. The overriding factors that explain e-commerce development at the state level are information technology (IT) management capacity and social services IT capacity. The traditional factor used to explain technology diffusion, being state wealth, was not found to be statistically significant.

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

financial management
management capacity

e-commerce
electronic government
internet


Tools for consistency management between design products Consistency between different design documents is most important, as these documents are usually elaborated by different persons. Consistency means that structures within different documents "match" each other and also the values of corresponding attributes. Interactive and incremental tools for building up and maintaining consistency - so-called integrators - install fine-grained relations (semantic links) between objects of these documents. Such integrators have been investigated for some time in different application domains (Nagl, 1996). This paper deals with two extensions of integrators (Kortgen, 2009a,b). Both are devoted to speed up the (re-) integration process. The first extension makes use of the still valuable information of links damaged due to changes of documents. The second reuses consistent documents of past projects, to find out big and suitable related parts of design documents or of corresponding underlying knowledge. This paper is written for a chemical engineer and, therefore, emphasizes the tool functionality side. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

semantic links between objects of different documents


Space and Time Basis Function Design for the Method of Moments in Time-Domain Analysis of Wire and Planar Structures In this article, an algorithm able to deal at the same time with wire frame and surface patch models for the method of moments in time domain is presented. After a unified theory combining both models, attention is focused on stability dependence issues on the time basis function chosen and on other algorithm parameters. An accurate analysis of time interpolation functions and of their time filtering properties is provided. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 21:551-559, 2011.

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


Characterizing the protonation states of the catalytic residues in apo and substrate-bound human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 protease Protonation states of the catalytic residues in HTLV-1 protease were investigated. In apo HTLV-1 protease, the two catalytic residues are both unprotonated. In HTLV-1 proteasesubstrate complex, Asp32 is protonated, Asp32? is unprotonated. Substrate binding favors a protonated Asp32 over protonated Asp32? by 2.8kcal/mol. The HTLV-1 proteasesubstrate complex structure was analyzed in detail.

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

htlv-1 protease
free energy simulations
qm/mm


Scientific Perspectives on Music Therapy Abstract: What needs to be done on the long road to evidence-based music therapy? First of all, an adequate research strategy is required. For this purpose the general methodology for therapy research should be adopted. Additionally, music therapy needs a variety of methods of allied fields to contribute scientific findings, including mathematics, natural sciences, behavioral and social sciences, as well as the arts. Pluralism seems necessary as well as inevitable. At least two major research problems can be identified, however, that make the path stony: the problem of specificity and the problem of eclecticism. Neuroscientific research in music is giving rise to new ideas, perspectives, and methods; they seem to be promising prospects for a possible contribution to a theoretical and empirical scientific foundation for music therapy. Despite the huge heterogeneity of theoretical approaches in music therapy, an integrative model of working ingredients in music therapy is useful as a starting point for empirical studies in order to question what specifically works in music therapy. For this purpose, a heuristic model, consisting of five music therapy working factors (attention modulation, emotion modulation, cognition modulation, behavior modulation, and communication modulation) has been developed by the Center for Music Therapy Research (Viktor Dulger Institute) in Heidelberg. Evidence shows the effectiveness of music therapy for treating certain diseases, but the question of what it is in music therapy that works remains largely unanswered. The authors conclude with some questions to neuroscientists, which we hope may help elucidate relevant aspects of a possible link between the two disciplines.

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

music therapy
therapy research
working ingredients

multidisciplinary approach
pluralistic point of view


An efficient key-management scheme for hierarchical access control based on elliptic curve cryptosystem The elliptic curve cryptosystem is considered to be the strongest public-key cryptosystem known today and is preferred over the RSA cryptosystem because the key length for secure RSA has increased over recent years, and this has put a heavier processing load on its applications. An efficient key management and derivation scheme based on the elliptic curve cryptosystem is proposed in this paper to solve the hierarchical access control problem. Each class in the hierarchy is allowed to select its own secret key. The problem of efficiently adding or deleting classes can be solved without the necessity of regenerating keys for all the users in the hierarchy, as was the case in previous schemes. The scheme is shown much more efficiently and flexibly than the schemes proposed previously.

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


Stability analysis and controller synthesis for discrete-time delayed fuzzy systems via small gain theorem This paper investigates the problems of stability analysis and controller synthesis of discrete-time TakagiSugeno (TS) fuzzy systems with time-varying delay via an inputoutput approach. The original system is reformulated as a feedback subsystem and a forward subsystem with two constant time delays and a delay uncertainty satisfying the scaled small gain theorem. The lifting method is employed to convert the forward subsystem to a delay-free system, where the main result concerning the stability analysis of the system is obtained based on the scaled small gain theorem. The merit of the new stability condition lies in its reduced conservatism, which is made possible by a more precise estimation of the time-varying delay. Additionally, a state-feedback controller is designed through the LyapunovKrasovskii functional approach combined with the utilization of the scaled small gain theorem. Two illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the less conservatism of the stability condition and the effectiveness of the controller design method.

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

fuzzy systems
stability analysis
scaled small gain theorem


Compressive sensing scalp EEG signals: implementations and practical performance Highly miniaturised, wearable computing and communication systems allow unobtrusive, convenient and long term monitoring of a range of physiological parameters. For long term operation from the physically smallest batteries, the average power consumption of a wearable device must be very low. It is well known that the overall power consumption of these devices can be reduced by the inclusion of low power consumption, real-time compression of the raw physiological data in the wearable device itself. Compressive sensing is a new paradigm for providing data compression: it has shown significant promise in fields such as MRI; and is potentially suitable for use in wearable computing systems as the compression process required in the wearable device has a low computational complexity. However, the practical performance very much depends on the characteristics of the signal being sensed. As such the utility of the technique cannot be extrapolated from one application to another. Long term electroencephalography (EEG) is a fundamental tool for the investigation of neurological disorders and is increasingly used in many non-medical applications, such as braincomputer interfaces. This article investigates in detail the practical performance of different implementations of the compressive sensing theory when applied to scalp EEG signals.

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

compressive sensing
wearable computing systems

electroencephalography (eeg)
sampling theory
e-health


Unified design of iterative receivers using factor graphs Iterative algorithms are an attractive approach to approximating optimal, but high-complexity, joint channel estimation and decoding receivers fur communication systems. We present a unified approach based on factor graphs for deriving iterative message-passing receiver algorithms for channel estimation and decoding. For many common channels, it is easy to find simple graphical models that lead directly to implementable algorithms. Canonical distributions provide a new, general framework for handling continuous variables. Example receiver designs for Rayleigh fading channels with block or Markov memory, and multipath fading channels with fixed unknown coefficients illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.

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

iterative decoding
low-density parity-check (ldpc) codes


compiling regular patterns to sequential machines Pattern matching combined with regular expressions has many applications including semistructured data matching and lexical analysis in compilers. Variables in patterns allow one to refer to parts of the matching input. But some regular patterns suffer from inherent ambiguity, yielding more than one valid result. A match policy like shortest or longest match can disambiguate such patterns.In this paper, we show that regular pattern matching corresponds to sequential transduction. We derive straightforward ways to optimally compile regular patterns to sequential machines and to decide when regular patterns are unambiguous. Unambiguous patterns can be matched in a single traversal of the input. Ambiguities in patterns correspond to nondeterminism in sequential machines. Applying the match policy optimally yields two deterministic sequential machines, which produce the shortest match in two consecutive runs.

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

matching
sequential machines
regular patterns


Efficient kernel models for learning and approximate minimization problems This paper investigates techniques for reducing the computational burden of local learning methods relying on kernel functions in the framework of approximate minimization, i.e., when they are employed to find the minimum of a given cost functional. The considered approach is based on an optimal choice of the kernel width parameters through the minimization of an empirical cost and can provide a solution to important problems, such as function approximation and multistage optimization. However, when the stored data are too many, the kernel model output evaluation can take a long time, making local learning unsuited to contexts where a fast function evaluation is required. At the same time, the training procedure to obtain the kernel widths can become too demanding as well. Here it is shown that a large saving in the computational effort can be achieved by considering subsets of the available data suitably chosen according to different criteria. An analysis of the performance of the new approach is provided. Then, simulation results show in practice the effectiveness of the proposed techniques when applied to learning and approximate minimization problems.

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


Near ground propagation model for pine tree forest environment A propagation model experimentally derived from both free space and near ground plane earth path loss models for pine tree forest with foliage depth lower than 400m has been proposed. It is a piecewise model taking foliage depth of 200m as a boundary. The model is compared with several well-known models, namely Weissberger, ITU-R and COST235. Different from other models, the proposed one takes into account trunk height gain k. Observed average error is about 6dB for proposed model whereas it is about 32dB, 16dB and 20dB for COST235, Weissberger and ITU-R models, respectively. Also, it is observed that COST235 estimates the highest path loss among the models and it has the highest absolute errors especially in a forest with low foliage density.

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

free space path loss
near ground plane earth model
radio propagation
radio propagation terrain factors


Coordinated procurement/inspection and production model under inspection errors In this study, we investigate integrating the acquisition of input materials, material inspection and production planning, where type I and type II inspection errors are allowed, and the unit acquisition cost is dependent on the average quality level. This study aims to find an optimal purchase lot size (or here, equivalently, the fixed production rate multiplied by the production run time), input quality level and the associated inspection policy that minimize the total cost per item including the order cost, materials purchase cost, setup cost, inventory holding cost, and the quality-related cost. Furthermore, the boundaries, conditions and properties for the optimal production run time are obtained under an optimal inspection policy when the input material quality level is fixed. These findings will facilitate the establishing of an efficient algorithm for an optimal solution. The study demonstrates that a partial inspection approach could dominate over both the commonly used policies of full or no inspection, which is different from a previous report where the optimal inspection policy is either full or no inspection. A numerical example is performed to evaluate the impact of the two types of inspection errors and the process deterioration because of a nonconforming process input on the optimal solution, where a Weibull shift distribution is used to simulate the process failure time. Finally, conclusions are addressed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


A UWB CMOS low-noise amplifier with noise reduction and linearity improvement techniques In this paper, a highly linear CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) for ultra-wideband applications is presented. The proposed LNA improves both input second- and third-order intercept points (IIP2 and IIP3) by canceling the common-mode part of all intermodulation components from the output current. The proposed LNA structure creates equal common-mode currents with the opposite sign by cascading two differential pairs with a cross-connected output. These currents eliminate each other at the output and improve the linearity. Also, the proposed LNA improves the noise performance by canceling the thermal noise of the input and auxiliary transistors at the output. Detailed analysis is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed LNA structure. Post-layout circuit level simulation results using a 90nm RF CMOS process with Spectre-RF reveal 9.5dB power gain, -3dB bandwidth (BW?3dB) of 8GHz from 2.4GHz to 10.4GHz, and mean IIP3 and IIP2 of +13.1dBm and +42.8dBm, respectively. The simulated S11 is less than ?11dB in whole frequency range while the LNA consumes 14.8mW from a single 1.2V power supply.

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

ultra-wideband cmos lna
noise figure
intermodulation distortion cancellation
noise cancellation
common-mode current


A sixth order hybrid finite difference scheme based on the minimized dispersion and controllable dissipation technique The dispersion and dissipation properties of a scheme are of great importance for the simulation of flow fields which involve a broad range of length scales. In order to improve the spectral properties of the finite difference scheme, the authors have previously proposed the idea of optimizing the dispersion and dissipation properties separately and a fourth order scheme based on the minimized dispersion and controllable dissipation (MDCD) technique is thus constructed [29]. In the present paper, we further investigate this technique and extend it to a sixth order finite difference scheme to solve the Euler and NavierStokes equations. The dispersion properties of the scheme is firstly optimized by minimizing an elaborately designed integrated error function. Then the dispersiondissipation condition which is newly derived by Hu and Adams [30] is introduced to supply sufficient dissipation to damp the unresolved wavenumbers. Furthermore, the optimized scheme is blended with an optimized Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillation (WENO) scheme to make it possible for the discontinuity-capturing. In this process, the approximationdispersionrelation (ADR) approach is employed to optimize the spectral properties of the nonlinear scheme to yield the true wave propagation behavior of the finite difference scheme. Several benchmark test problems, which include broadband fluctuations and strong shock waves, are solved to validate the high-resolution, the good discontinuity-capturing capability and the high-efficiency of the proposed scheme.

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

low dispersion scheme
dissipation controllable scheme
optimized weno scheme
hybrid scheme
approximate dispersion relation


Case based time series prediction using biased time warp distance for electrical evoked potential forecasting in visual prostheses Case based time series prediction (CTSP) is a machine learning technique to predict the future behavior of the current time series by referring similar old cases. To reduce the cost of the visual prostheses research, we devote to the investigation of predictive performance of CTSP in electrical evoked potential (EEP) prediction instead of doing numerous biological experiments. The heart of CTSP for EEP prediction is a similarity measure of training case for target electrical stimulus by using distance metric. As EEP experimental case consists of the stationary electrical stimulation values and time-varying EEP elicited values, this paper proposes a new distance metric which takes the advantage of point-to-point distance's efficient operation in stationary data and time series distance's high capability in temporal data, called as biased time warp distance (BTWD). In BTWD metric, stimulation set difference (Diff_I) and EEP sequence difference (Diff_II) are calculated respectively, and a time-dependent bias configuration is added to reflect the different influences of Diff_I and Diff_II to the numerical computation of BTWD. Similarity-related adaptation coefficient summation is employed to yield the predictive EEP values at given time point in principle of k nearest neighbors. The proposed predictor using BTWD was empirically tested with data collected from the electrophysiological EEP eliciting experiments. We statistically validated our results by comparing them with other predictor using classical point-to-point distances and time series distances. The empirical results indicated that our proposed method produces superior performance in EEP prediction in terms of predictive accuracy and computational complexity.

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

time series prediction
electrical evoked potential
distance metric
bias configuration


Task scheduling modelling and reliability evaluation of grid services using coloured Petri nets The computational grid is a new technology aimed to facilitate resource sharing and wide area collaborations. Task scheduling is an important aspect in the grid environment to obtain a desired quality of service (QoS). In grid environments, the resource management system (RMS) is responsible for the scheduling and execution of tasks. The RMS divides the incoming tasks into several subtasks and distributes them among grid resources for parallel execution. Then, the RMS integrates the received results into the entire task output, which is requested by the user. A grid service is desired to execute a certain task under the control of the RMS. In this paper, the task scheduling by RMS and the task execution within grid resources are modeled using coloured Petri nets (CPNs). The proposed CPN-based modelling pattern formally describes the process of task distribution and execution within the grid environment. We have also proposed a method for evaluation the grid service reliability based on the analysis of the model. In addition, an instance of the proposed model for a sample grid environment is constructed and analysed using CPN Tools. The CPN model and the results of the reliability evaluation of the sample grid environment are also presented in this paper.

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

computational grid
task scheduling
reliability evaluation


Ad hoc systems backboned by fibres: limitation and solutions An ad hoc network is a set of wireless mobile nodes that communally form a network without specific user administration or configuration. There are several scenarios that do not have an available network infrastructure and could benefit from the creation of an ad hoc network as rescue/emergency operations, law enforcement activities, tactical/military missions, commercial projects, educational classrooms.

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

fibre-fed wireless
optical fibre transmission
qos
quality of service
chromatic dispersion compensation
equalisation
talbot effect


Development of a Web site usability instrument based on ISO 9241-11 The importance of Web site usability is apparent. Previous studies have found that a usable Web site creates a positive attitude toward online stores, increases stickiness and revisit rates, and eventually stimulates online purchases. A usable Web site also provides benefits to e-business by reducing website development, support, and maintenance costs. The ISO 9241-11 standard for usability has been one of the standards for defining usability in several areas, particularly that of Web sites. This study builds on Quesenbery's reformulation of the ISO 9241-11 standards for Web site usability by developing an instrument to measure its dimensions. The results of the study found an appropriate instrument for Web site usability that showed some nomological validity, although raising questions about its comprehensiveness as a measure of all important dimensions of usability.

O O O B I I 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 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

instrument development
b2c e-commerce
iso 9241-11


On the Contribution of Molecular Topology to Drug Design and Discovery The role of molecular topology (MT) in the design and selection of new drugs is discussed. After an overview of the different in silico molecular design current technologies, the QSAR analysis is dealt in detail with particular emphasis in the use of topological indices as molecular descriptors. The results of the application of MT in drug design and discovery are described and finally a possible explanation is given about some of the key reasons explaining its the extraordinary performance.

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


Constitutive error based material parameter estimation procedure for hyperelastic material An ECE based parameter estimation technique for hyperelastic material is proposed. Incompatible stressstrain pair is generated via two forward problems. Penalty approach is adopted to generate strains that weakly satisfy measurements. An alternating strategy is followed to solve the underlying optimization problem. Explicit material parameter update formula is derived.

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

constitutive relation error
inverse problem
nonlinear elasticity
trace minimization


detection of networks blocks used by the storm worm botnet Storm Worm is a prolific web-spread Trojan virus that infects computers and turns them into nodes (called bots) of a botnet. The bots then can be used to distribute spam messages, launch DOS attacks, host phishing web sites, etc. This paper investigated Storm Worm bots that were used to propagate the virus during a four-month period of time. We found certain network blocks, because of their vulnerability, were more likely to contain Storm Worm bots.

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

forensic analysis
electronic mail
data mining
cyber crime


Effect of packing on the cluster nature of C nanotubes: An information entropy analysis The possibility of the existence of single?wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in organic solvents in the form of clusters is discussed. A theory is developed based on a bundlet model for clusters, which enables describing the distribution function of clusters by size. Comparison of the calculated values of solubility with experiments would permit obtaining energetic parameters characterizing the interaction of an SWNT with its surrounding, in a solid or solution. Fullerenes and SWNTs are unique objects, whose behaviour in many physical situations is characterized by remarkable peculiarities. Peculiarities in solutions show up first in that fullerenes and SWNTs represent the only soluble forms of carbon, what is related to the originality in the molecular structure of fullerenes and SWNTs. The fullerene molecule is a virtually uniform closed spherical or spheroidal surface, and an SWNT is a smooth cylindrical unit. Both structures give rise to the relatively weak interaction between the neighbouring molecules in a crystal and promote interaction of the molecules with those of a solvent. Another peculiarity in solutions is related to their trend to form clusters, consisting of a number of fullerene molecules or SWNTs. The energy of interaction of a fullerene molecule or SWNT with solvent molecules is proportional to the surface of the former molecule and roughly independent of the orientation of solvent molecules. All these phenomena have a unified explanation in the framework of the bundlet model of a cluster, in accordance with which the free energy of an SWNT involved in a cluster is combined from two components, viz. a volume one proportional to the number of molecules n in a cluster, and a surface one proportional to n1/2. Algorithms for classification are proposed based on the criteria information entropy and its production. Many classification algorithms are based on information entropy. When applying these procedures to sets of moderate size, an excessive number of results appear compatible with data, and this number suffers a combinatorial explosion. However, after the equipartition conjecture, one has a selection criterion between different variants resulting from classification between hierarchical trees. According to this conjecture, for a given charge or duty, the best configuration of a flowsheet is the one in which the entropy production is most uniformly distributed. Information entropy, cluster and principal component analyses agree.

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

solubity of carbon nanotubes
droplet model for clusters
nanotube
nanohorn


Controlling pH in a precipitation process This paper deals with pH control in a precipitation and dissolution process. The process is a part of the electrolyte purification plant at Falconbridge Nikkelverk in Kristiansand, Norway. The process including the present strategy for pH control are presented, and experienced weaknesses with this strategy are described. A rigorous dynamic model of the process is briefly summarized. This model was developed in earlier work with the purpose of being a tool for control design. Because of the precipitation in form of hydroxides and the limited dissolution of nickel carbonate, the process is approximately linear in pH. Therefore, an alternative strategy for pH control based on adding derivative and feed forward action is suggested. The alternative central strategy is by simulations shown to give severe improvements in performance. The stability of the proposed controller is briefly analysed.

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


Dynamic optimization of bioreactors using probabilistic tendency models and Bayesian active learning Due to the complexity of metabolic regulation, first-principles models of bioreactor dynamics typically have built-in errors (structural and parametric uncertainty) which give rise to the need for obtaining relevant data through experimental design in modeling for optimization. A run-to-run optimization strategy which integrates imperfect models with Bayesian active learning is proposed. Parameter distributions in a probabilistic model of bioreactor performance are re-estimated using data from experiments designed for maximizing information and performance. The proposed Bayesian decision-theoretic approach resorts to probabilistic tendency models that explicitly characterize their levels of confidence. Bootstrapping of parameter distributions is used to represent parametric uncertainty as histograms. The Bajpai & Reuss bioreactor model for penicillin production validated with industrial data is used as a representative case study. Run-to-run convergence to an improved policy is fast despite significant modeling errors as long as data are used to revise iteratively posterior distributions of the most influencing model parameters. (C) 2012 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 B I O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

experimental design
modeling for optimization

bayesian inference
fed-batch fermentation
run-to-run optimization
sensitivity analysis


Incremental Buffer Insertion and Module Resizing Algorithm Using Geometric Programming This paper presents an efficient algorithm for incremental buffer insertion and module resizing for a full-placed floorplan. Our algorithm offers it method to use the white space in a given floorplan to resize modules and insert buffers, and at the same time keeps the resultant floorplan as close to the original one is possible. Both the buffer insertion and module resizing are modeled its geometric programming problems, and can be solved extremely efficiently using new developed solution methods. The experimental results suggest that the the wire length difference between the initial floorplan and result are quite small (less than 5%), and the global structure of the initial floorplan are preserved very well.

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

floorplan
buffer insertion
module resizing
geometric programming


Lookahead actions in dispatching to parallel queues Applying the first policy iteration (FPI) to any static dispatching (task assignment) policy yields a new improved dynamic policy that takes into account the particular cost structure and the expected future arrivals. However, it is generally hard to go beyond that due to the complex state space and the resulting difficulty in computing the value function for a dynamic policy. For example, applying FPI to identical FCFS servers with Bernoulli split gives the Least-Work-Left (LWL) policy, for which no closed-form value function is known. In fact, LWL with identical servers is equivalent to an M/G/k queue, the performance measures of which have remained as open problems. The situation gets even more complicated with heterogeneous servers. In this paper, we take an intermediate approach and consider lookahead actions that concern not only the current job but also the job arriving next, after which a basic (static) policy is assumed to take over. This is important as the benefits from some decisions can only be reaped with appropriate subsequent actions. The lookahead enables sound estimates also for marginal admission costs, e.g., with respect to LWL. The superior performance of the new near-optimal dispatching policies is demonstrated numerically. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


A dynamic overproduce-and-choose strategy for the selection of classifier ensembles The overproduce-and-choose strategy, which is divided into the overproduction and selection phases, has traditionally focused on finding the most accurate subset of classifiers at the selection phase, and using it to predict the class of all the samples in the test data set. It is therefore, a static classifier ensemble selection strategy. In this paper, we propose a dynamic overproduce-and-choose strategy which combines optimization and dynamic selection in a two-level selection phase to allow the selection of the most confident subset of classifiers to label each test sample individually. The optimization level is intended to generate a population of highly accurate candidate classifier ensembles, while the dynamic selection level applies measures of confidence to reveal the candidate ensemble with the highest degree of confidence in the current decision. Experimental results conducted to compare the proposed method to a static overproduce-and-choose strategy and a classical dynamic classifier selection approach demonstrate that our method outperforms both these selection-based methods, and is also more efficient in terms of performance than combining the decisions of all classifiers in the initial pool.

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

dynamic classifier selection
optimization
measures of confidence


Evaluation of two-dimensional ZK-MEW equation using the Exp-function method In this paper, J.H. Hes Exp-function method is used to obtain a generalized soliton solution with some free parameters of the ZakharovKuznetsov-Modified Equal-Width (ZK-MEW) equation. Suitable choice of parameters in the generalized solution leads to Mustafa Incs solution [M. Inc, New exact solutions for the ZK-MEW equation by using symbolic computation, Applied Mathematics and Computation 189 (1) (2007) 508513]. The results show that Hes method is very powerful and convenient.

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

two-dimensional zk-mew equation
exp-function method


The Rate of Convergence of AdaBoost The AdaBoost algorithm was designed to combine many "weak" hypotheses that perform slightly better than random guessing into a "strong" hypothesis that has very low error. We study the rate at which AdaBoost iteratively converges to the minimum of the "exponential loss." Unlike previous work, our proofs do not require a weak learning assumption, nor do they require that minimizers of the exponential loss are finite. Our first result shows that the exponential loss of AdaBoost's computed parameter vector will be at most epsilon more than that of any parameter vector of l (1)-norm bounded by B in a number of rounds that is at most a polynomial in B and 1/epsilon. We also provide lower bounds showing that a polynomial dependence is necessary. Our second result is that within C/epsilon iterations, AdaBoost achieves a value of the exponential loss that is at most epsilon more than the best possible value, where C depends on the data set. We show that this dependence of the rate on epsilon is optimal up to constant factors, that is, at least Omega(1/epsilon) rounds are necessary to achieve within epsilon of the optimal exponential loss.

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

optimization
coordinate descent
convergence rate


effects of the form of representation and number of computer agents on conformity In this paper, we demonstrate that the form of representation (character vs. text box) and the number (one vs. four) of computer agents affect people's conformity as well as attitudes toward the agent. A text box, as compared to a simple stick figure, induced more opinion change as well as eliciting more conformity. Interestingly, one text box was rated better than four text boxes in terms of social attractiveness, social presence, and trustworthiness, while the opposite was true of character.

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

character
representation
agent
social presence
conformity


On the relevance of localdistortional interaction effects in the behaviour and design of cold-formed steel columns Relevance of web-triggered LD interaction in cold-formed steel columns investigated. Numerical results concerning lipped channel, hat, zed and rack-section columns presented. Two quite different types of LD mode interaction are identified and characterised. Development/calibration of DSM-based design approaches against LD interactive failures. Use of numerical/experimental ultimate strengths to assess the DSM design approach merits.

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 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

lipped channel
hat
localdistortional interaction

cold-formed steel columns
zed and rack cross-sections
post-buckling behaviour
ultimate strength
direct strength method (dsm)


Natural language tagging with genetic algorithms This work analyzes the relative advantages of different metaheuristic approaches to the well-known natural language processing problem of part-of-speech tagging. This consists of assigning to each word of a text its disambiguated part-of-speech according to the context in which the word is used. We have applied a classic genetic algorithm (GA), a CHC algorithm, and a simulated annealing (SA). Different ways of encoding the solutions to the problem (integer and binary) have been studied, as well as the impact of using parallelism for each of the considered methods. We have performed experiments on different linguistic corpora and compared the results obtained against other popular approaches plus a classic dynamic programming algorithm. Our results claim for the high performances achieved by the parallel algorithms compared to the sequential ones, and state the singular advantages for every technique. Our algorithms and some of its components can be used to represent a new set of state-of-the-art procedures for complex tagging scenarios. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

genetic algorithms
chc algorithm
natural language processing
parallel algorithms


Applications of the direct exponential curve resolution algorithm (DECRA) to solid state nuclear magnetic resonance and mid-infrared spectra DECRA (direct exponential curve resolution algorithm) is a fast multivariate method used to resolve spectral data with concentration profiles that are linear combinations of exponential functions. DECRA has been previously applied to a wide variety of spectroscopies. Results are presented in this paper for two new application areas: solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of polymorphic crystal mixtures and mid-infrared spectroscopy of chemical reactions. Furthermore, the paper will show the effect of the way the data set is split, which is a part of the algorithm, on the results. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

direct exponential curve resolution algorithm (decra)

generalized rank annihilation method (gram)


Improving the FE simulation of molded packages using warpage measurements Due to the constant development of new components in microsystem technology the possibility to guarantee the reliability and lifetime of these components is essential. An efficient method for this purpose is Finite Element (FE) modelling. In order to shorten lengthy and expensive lifetime tests, FE simulations become more and more necessary. To obtain suitable FE models, multitude of material and technical component characteristics are needed. However, due to the rapid development of new materials, the characteristics are often insufficient or even unknown. Therefore additional measurements of the material or the complete system are necessary. Which material data is required depends first and foremost on the component and its usage. In this paper the importance of temperature dependent topographic measurements for the simulation model of a package design (Smart Power Module) will be demonstrated. The warpage of a whole package was measured at different temperatures in order to obtain unknown material behaviour like the chemical shrinkage and polymer relaxation. For this purpose, the Shadow Moir Measurement Method was utilised. This work will focus on how to obtain experimental data of two different molding compounds (MC) in several stages of lifetime as well as implementing the results in a FE simulation model.

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

finite element methods
thermoir
mold compound
aging


ReBISR: A Reconfigurable Built-In Self-Repair Scheme for Random Access Memories in SOCs Built-in self-repair (BISR) technique has been widely used to repair embedded random access memories (RAMs). This paper presents a reconfigurable BISR (ReBISR) scheme for repairing RAMs with different sizes and redundancy organizations. An efficient redundancy analysis algorithm is proposed to allocate redundancies of defective RAMs. In the ReBISR, a reconfigurable built-in redundancy analysis (ReBIRA) circuit is designed to perform the redundancy algorithm for various RAMs. Also, an adaptively reconfigurable fusing methodology is proposed to reduce the repair setup time when the RAMs are operated in normal mode. Experimental results show that the ReBISR scheme can achieve high repair rate (i.e., the ratio of the number of repaired RAMs to the number of defective RAMs). The area cost of the ReBISR is very small, which is only about 2.7% for four RAMs (one 4 Kbit RAM, one 16 Kbit RAM, one 128 Kbit RAM, and one 512 Kbit RAM). Moreover, the time overhead of redundancy analysis is very small. For example, the ratio of the redundancy analysis time to the test time for a 512 Kbit RAM tested by a March-14N test with solid data backgrounds is only about 0.25%. On the other hand, the proposed fusing scheme can achieve about 86.94% reduction of repair setup time in comparison with a typical fusing scheme for 20 512 x 16 x 64-bit RAMs of which each RAM has one spare row and one spare column.

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

built-in redundancy analysis (bira)
built-in self-repair (bisr)
built-in self-test (bist)
march test
random access memory (ram)
yield improvement


Evaluation of MODIS surface reflectance products for wheat leaf area index (LAI) retrieval The accuracy of leaf area index (LAI) retrieval depends critically on the quality of the input reflectance. MODIS Collection 4 (C4) and Collection 5 (C5) land surface reflectance data are used for wheat LAI retrieval. Results are compared with in situ measurements. The uncertainty in the reflectance data of the two collections (C4 and C5) from both Terra and Aqua sensors is analyzed and its influence on LAI retrieval is discussed. The discrepancies of blue and near infrared reflectances between Terra and Aqua in the C5 data are less than the discrepancies between the sensors in the C4 data. For both Terra and Aqua, the C5 data have much lower blue reflectance than do the C4 data. This can be attributed to improvements in the atmospheric correction algorithm for the C5 data including cloud mask definition and aerosol retrieval. Using both empirical vegetation indices and inversion methods, the LAI is derived from the C4 and C5 surface reflectances. For daily C4 data, only Aqua Normalized difference water indices (NDWI) have significant correlations with the LAI (at a 99% confidence level); in contrast, for the daily C5 data, all the vegetation indices have significant correlations with the LAI. A three-layer neural network is used to invert a one-dimensional (1-D) radiative transfer model for LAI estimation. For the daily C4 data, the correlation between the modeled and measured LAIs is poor and the root mean square error (RMSE) is larger than 1.1; in comparison, the RMSE for the daily C5 data is 0.7. For both C4 and C5 collections, the LAI tends to be overestimated when the sensor is operated with a large view zenith angle in the backscattering direction. The error is either due to the mismatch between the measured reflectance and the modeled reflectance from the simple 1-D radiative transfer model in this direction or due to the assumption of a Lambertian surface in the MODIS atmospheric correction. Additionally, for both methods the results from the 8-day composite C4 data are much better than the results from daily C4 data because there is less cloud and aerosol contamination after compositing. In summary, the daily C4 reflectance has greater uncertainty than does the daily C5 reflectance. Daily C5 data are more preferable for LAI retrieval; if only C4 data are available, more reliable results can be achieved using the 8-day composite data if its temporal resolution is not a concern for dynamic growth monitoring.

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


structural features in content oriented xml retrieval The structural features of XML components are an extra source of information that should be used in a content-oriented retrieval task on this type of documents. In this paper we explore one of the structural features from the INEX collection [1] that could be used in content-oriented search. We analyse the gain this knowledge could add to the performance of an information retrieval system and present a first approach on how this structural information could be extracted from a relevance feedback process to be used as priors in a language modelling framework.

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

xml retrieval
relevance feedback
structural features


Shadowed c-means: Integrating fuzzy and rough clustering A new method of partitive clustering is developed in the framework of shadowed sets. The core and exclusion regions of the generated shadowed partitions result in a reduction in computations as compared to conventional fuzzy clustering. Unlike rough clustering, here the choice of threshold parameter is fully automated. The number of clusters is optimized in terms of various validity indices. It is observed that shadowed clustering can efficiently handle overlapping among clusters as well as model uncertainty in class boundaries. The algorithm is robust in the presence of outliers. A comparative study is made with related partitive approaches. Experimental results on synthetic as well as real data sets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach.

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

c-means algorithm
three-valued logic
cluster validity index
fuzzy sets
rough sets


On the ordinal equivalence of the Johnston, Banzhaf and Shapley power indices ? In this paper, we characterize the games in which Johnston, ShapleyShubik and PenroseBanzhafColeman indices are ordinally equivalent, meaning that they rank players in the same way. We prove that these three indices are ordinally equivalent in semicomplete simple games, which is a newly defined class that contains complete games and includes most of the realworld examples of binary voting systems. This result constitutes a twofold extension of Diffo Lambo and Moulens result (Diffo Lambo and Moulen, 2002) in the sense that ordinal equivalence emerges for three power indices (not just for the ShapleyShubik and PenroseBanzhafColeman indices), and it holds for a class of games strictly larger than the class of complete games.

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

simple games
power indices
ordinal equivalence

game theory
decision support systems
complete simple games


A critical review of Knowledge-Based Engineering: An identification of research challenges Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) is a research field that studies methodologies and technologies for capture and re-use of product and process engineering knowledge. The objective of KBE is to reduce time and cost of product development, which is primarily achieved through automation of repetitive design tasks while capturing, retaining and re-using design knowledge. Published research on KBE is not very extensive and also quite dispersed; this paper is an effort to collect and review existing literature on KBE. A total of 50 research contributions have been analysed. The main objectives of this analysis are to identify the theoretical foundations of KBE and to identify research issues within KBE, pointing out the challenges and pitfalls that currently prohibit a wider adoption of KBE while suggesting avenues for further research. Key findings include (a) the necessity for improved methodological support and adherence, (b) better transparency and traceability of knowledge, (c) the necessity for a quantitative framework to assess the viability and success of KBE development and implementation projects, and (d) the opportunity to move towards mass customization approaches through distributed deployment of KBE in the extended enterprise.

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

knowledge-based engineering
knowledge engineering
intelligent systems


Integrating human observer inferences into robot motion planning Our goal is to enable robots to produce motion that is suitable for humanrobot collaboration and co-existence. Most motion in robotics is purely functional, ideal when the robot is performing a task in isolation. In collaboration, however, the robots motion has an observer, watching and interpreting the motion. In this work, we move beyond functional motion, and introduce the notion of an observer into motion planning, so that robots can generate motion that is mindful of how it will be interpreted by a human collaborator. We formalize predictability and legibility as properties of motion that naturally arise from the inferences in opposing directions that the observer makes, drawing on action interpretation theory in psychology. We propose models for these inferences based on the principle of rational action, and derive constrained functional trajectory optimization techniques for planning motion that is predictable or legible. Finally, we present experiments that test our work on novice users, and discuss the remaining challenges in enabling robots to generate such motion online in complex situations.

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

humanrobot collaboration
predictability
legibility
trajectory optimization
action interpretation


Geographically weighted visualization: Interactive graphics for scale-varying exploratory analysis We introduce a series of geographically weighted (GW) interactive graphics, or geowigs, and use them to explore spatial relationships at a range of scales. We visually encode information about geographic and statistical proximity and variation in novel ways through gw-choropleth maps, multivariate gw-boxplots, gw-shading and scalograms. The new graphic types reveal information about GW statistics at several scales concurrently. We impernent these views in prototype software containing dynamic links and GW interactions that encourage exploration and refine them to consider directional geographies. An informal evaluation uses interactive GW techniques to consider Guerry's clataset of 'moral statistics', casting doubt on correlations originally proposed through visual analysis, revealing new local anomalies and suggesting multivariate geographic relationships. Few attempts at visually synthesising geography with multivariate statistical values at multiple scales have been reported. The geowigs proposed here provide informative representations of multivariate local variation, particularly when combined with interactions that coordinate views and result in gw-shading. We argue that they are widely applicable to area and point-based geographic data and provide a set of methods to support visual analysis using GW statistics through which the effects of geography can be explored at multiple scales.

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

geographical weighting
exploratory data analysis
scale
interaction
coordinated views


Two-Level Tries: A General Acceleration Structure for Parallel Routing Table Accesses The stringent performance requirement for the high efficiency of routing protocols on the Internet can be satisfied by exploiting the threaded border gateway protocol (TBGP) on multi-cores, but the state-of-the-art TBGP performance is restricted by a mass of contentions when racing to access the routing table. To this end, the highly-efficient parallel access approach appears to be a promising solution to achieve ultra-high route processing speed. This study proposes a general routing table structure consisting of two-level tries for fast parallel access, and it presents a heuristic-based divide-and-recombine algorithm to solve a mass of contentions, thereby accelerating the parallel route updates of multi-threading and boosting the TBGP performance. As a projected TBGP, this study also modifies the table operations such as insert and lookup, and validates their correctness according to the behaviors of the traditional routing table. Our evaluations on a dual quad-core Xeon server show that the parallel access contentions decrease sharply by 92.5% versus the traditional routing table, and the maximal update time of a thread is reduced by 56.8% on average with little overhead. The convergence time of update messages are improved by 49.7%.

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

multi-cores
two-level tries
route update


Statistical thresholding method for infrared images Conventional statistical thresholding methods use class variance sum as criterions for threshold selection. These approaches neglect specific characteristic of practical images and fail to obtain satisfactory results when segmenting some images with similar statistical distributions in the object and background. To eliminate the limitation, a novel statistical criterion is defined by utilizing standard deviations of two thresholded classes, and the optimal threshold is determined by optimizing the criterion. The proposed method was compared with several classic thresholding counterparts on a variety of infrared images as well as general real-world ones, and the experimental results demonstrate its superiority.

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

bilevel thresholding
image segmentation
standard deviation
statistical theory
infrared image


A generalization of dissimilarity representations using feature lines and feature planes Even though, under representational restrictions, the nearest feature rules and the dissimilarity-based classifiers are feasible alternatives to the nearest neighbor method; individually, they may not be sufficiently powerful if a very small set of prototypes is required, e.g. when it is computationally expensive to deal with larger sets of prototypes. In this paper, we show that combining both strategies, taking advantage of their individual properties, provides an improvement, particularly for correlated data sets. The combined strategy consists in deriving an enriched (generalized) dissimilarity representation by using the nearest feature rules, namely feature lines and feature planes. On top of that enriched representation, Bayesian classifiers can be constructed in order to obtain a good generalization.

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

dissimilarity
representation
feature lines
feature planes
generalization


StructureFunction Relationships of the NCKX2 Na+/Ca2+-K+ Exchanger K+-dependent Na+/Ca2+ exchangers (NCKX) have been shown to play important roles in physiological processes as diverse as phototransduction in rod photoreceptors, motor learning and memory in mice, and skin pigmentation in humans. Most structurefunction studies on NCKX proteins have been carried out on the NCKX2 isoform, but sequence similarity suggests that the results obtained with the NCKX2 isoform are likely to apply to all NCKX1-5 members of the human SLC24 gene family. Here we review our recent work on the NCKX2 protein concerning the topological arrangement of transmembrane segments carrying out cation transport, and concerning residues important for transport function and cation binding

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

na+/ca2+ exchange
calcium homeostasis
secondary transporters