Segmenting Shape Using Deformation Information To segment a shape into parts is an important problem in shape representation and analysis. We propose in this paper a novel framework of shape segmentation using deformation models learned from multiple shapes. The deformation model from the target image to every other image is then estimated. Finally, normalized-cut graph partition is applied to the graph constructed based on the similarity of local patches in the target image, and a segmentation of the shape is carried out. Experimental results for images from MPEG7 shape database show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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

shape segmentation
deformation model
graph partition


Normal fuzzy filters in BE-algebras In this paper, we introduce the notion of normal fuzzy filters and maximal fuzzy filters in a BE-algebra. We prove that every maximal fuzzy filter of X is normal and if mu is a maximal fuzzy filter of X, then x(mu) = {x is an element of X vertical bar mu(x) = mu(1)} is a maximal filter of X.

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


Heuristic for the rectangular two-dimensional single stock size cutting stock problem with two-staged patterns We propose a recursion for packing rectangular items into strips. We propose a recursion for placing strips on the plate. The cutting plan is obtained from solving a sequence of residual problems. Solve more than 75% of the benchmark instances to optimality. Achieve better solution quality than a commercial stock cutting software package.

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

two-dimensional cutting stock
two-staged patterns
column generation


Informational analysis: a Shannon theoretic approach to measure the performance of a diagnostic test Diagnostic test accuracy, based on sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive values (dichotomous case), and on ROC analysis (continuous case), should be expressed with a single, coherent index. We propose to modelize the diagnostic test as a flow of information between the disease, that is, a hidden state of the patient, and the physicians. We assume that (1) sensitivity, specificity, and false-positive/false-negative rates are the probabilities of a binary asymmetric channel; (2) the diagnostic channel information is measured by mutual information. We introduce two summary measures of accuracy, namely the information ratio (IR) for the dichotomous case, and the global information ratio (GIR) for the continuous case. We apply our model to a study by Pisano et al. (N Engl J Med 353(17):17731783, 2005), who compared digital versus film mammography, in diagnosing breast cancer in a screening population of 42,760 women. In film mammography, the maximum IR (0.178) corresponds to the standard cutoff of sensitivity and specificity provided by the ROC analysis (GIR 0.200). Maximum IR and GIR for digital mammography are higher (0.201 and 0.229, respectively), but IR corresponds to a cutoff with higher sensitivity but lower specificity, thus suggesting that larger information provided by digital mammography carries the risk of more false-positive cases.

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

measure of diagnostic test performance
multivalued diagnostic test
binary classifiers
readers expertise evaluation


Effective Navigation of Query Results Based on Concept Hierarchies Search queries on biomedical databases, such as PubMed, often return a large number of results, only a small subset of which is relevant to the user. Ranking and categorization, which can also be combined, have been proposed to alleviate this information overload problem. Results categorization for biomedical databases is the focus of this work. A natural way to organize biomedical citations is according to their MeSH annotations. MeSH is a comprehensive concept hierarchy used by PubMed. In this paper, we present the BioNav system, a novel search interface that enables the user to navigate large number of query results by organizing them using the MeSH concept hierarchy. First, the query results are organized into a navigation tree. At each node expansion step, BioNav reveals only a small subset of the concept nodes, selected such that the expected user navigation cost is minimized. In contrast, previous works expand the hierarchy in a predefined static manner, without navigation cost modeling. We show that the problem of selecting the best concepts to reveal at each node expansion is NP-complete and propose an efficient heuristic as well as a feasible optimal algorithm for relatively small trees. We show experimentally that BioNav outperforms state-of-the-art categorization systems by up to an order of magnitude, with respect to the user navigation cost. BioNav for the MEDLINE database is available at http://db.cse.buffalo.edu/bionav.

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

interactive data exploration and discovery


Design and validation of a metamodel for metacognition support in artificial intelligent systems Computational metacognition is a technical area of artificial intelligence whose aim is to increase the degree of autonomy and awareness an intelligent system has about its own reasoning and learning. In the literature, different models of metacognition are applied to artificial intelligent systems. However many of these models have a narrow focus, because they do not address comprehensively the elements of metacognition. This paper presents an analysis of metacognitive models discussed in the literature in order to discover the common (invariants) and varying (variants) elements. The main contribution of this work is the development of a comprehensive and general purpose metamodel named MISM that covers and describes a broad range of commonly referenced concepts in metacognitive models in the area of artificial intelligence. A validation process was conducted to ensure the reliability of MISM in terms of generality, expressiveness and completeness. The validation was performed using three techniques for improvements and adjustments to the metamodel: (i) comparison with other models; (ii) frequency-based selection; and (iii) model tracing. The adjusted and improved version of the metamodel was named MISM 1.1.

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


Towards utility-optimal random access without message passing It has been recently suggested by Jiang and Walrand that adaptive carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) can achieve optimal utility without any message passing in wireless networks. In this paper, after a survey of recent work on random access, a generalization of this algorithm is considered. In the continuous-time model, a proof is presented of the convergence of these adaptive CSMA algorithms to be arbitrarily close to utility optimality, without assuming that the network dynamics converge to an equilibrium in between consecutive CSMA parameter updates. In the more realistic, slotted-time model, the impact of collisions on the utility achieved is characterized, and the tradeoff between optimality and short-term fairness is quantified. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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 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 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

distributed control
network utility maximization
optimization
scheduling
stochastic network
wireless network


A new sliding-mode control with fuzzy boundary layer This study develops a sliding-mode controller based on fuzzy variable boundary layer with a control gain and boundary layer thickness as design parameters. The control gain is an important factor affecting the control performance of variable structure system (VSS). Sliding-mode controllers based on a variable boundary layer are superior to the fixed-layer method for tracking. In order to regulate the design parameters and increase operating efficiency, the proposed methodologies make use of fuzzy inference which reduces the number of fuzzy inputs. By using fuzzy algorithms in choosing a control gain and boundary layer, we propose methods which have better tracking performance than the conventional method. Finally, the results of simulation are given to demonstrate the validity of this algorithm. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

variable structure system
variable boundary layer

sliding-mode control
fuzzy sliding surface


Semi-parametric specification tests for mixing distributions We present a semi-parametric method for testing mixing distributions in the mixed Poisson model. The proposed method, which is based on the generalized method of moments, does not demand the complete specification of the probability function but only requires a specification of a set of moment conditions which the model should satisfy. We demonstrate that an explicit expression for moment relations between the mixing and the mixed distributions provides a natural way in selecting moment restrictions and model parameterization. The Monte Carlo evidence suggests that the test has satisfactory performance for moderate size samples.

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

mixed poisson distribution
model specification
monte carlo simulation
semi-parametric method


Optimal key systems A key system is represented by an ordered rooted tree. We construct trees minimizing relevant cost functions. Our application concerns interactive voice response (IVR), or automated telephone operators, for navigation purposes.

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


A study on interaction control for seismic response of parallel structures A structure response control approach which uses controlled interactions between two parallel structures (a primary structure and an auxiliary structure) to reduce the seismic response of the primary structure (P-structure) during earthquake excitation, is proposed. Three strategies of the control approach, including optimal passive control, semi-active control, and active control are examined. The optimum passive-coupling elements between two parallel structures under different circumstances are firstly investigated. Then, emphasis has been placed on the derivation of a simple effective algorithm for semi-active control which guarantees the power absorption of the required control force from the P-structure at every time step. Finally, numerical results in the frequency and time domains are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of these proposed control strategies. The comparison of the structure response time histories when subjected to El Centro 1940 ground excitation with different control methods also illustrates that the semi-active control based on optimum passive coupling element can achieve improvement in reducing the response of P-structure compared to the passive control and is almost comparable to the active control system with the same degree of magnitude of control force, and that the proposed instantaneous power absorption semi-active control algorithm is always superior to conventional linear control law.

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

interaction control
parallel structures
power absorption
earthquake excitation


Effect of elevated temperatures on properties and color intensities of fly ash mortar This research examines the engineering properties and color intensities of mortar containing different amounts of fly ash (0, 5, 10 and 20%) mixed at different water-to-binder ratios (w/b = 0.23, 0.47 and 0.59) and exposed at different temperatures (T = 25, 100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 degrees C). Results show that there is greater mass loss on ignition with high w/b and higher temperatures. In addition, the color channel image analyzer (Windows software written in Delphi) is utilized to study the relationship between the curing temperature and intensity of three primary colors, red, green and blue (RGB), of the fly ash mortar specimens. The results show that the RGB intensities on the specimen surface increases from that at 25 degrees C. The mortar specimen becomes white with increase in w/b but without the addition of fly ash. Moreover, for mortar specimens with greater content of fly ash, red on the specimen surface has the greatest increase in intensity at elevated temperature. Observation the variations in color on the specimen surface may help estimate the highest elevated temperatures that concrete structures can withstand.

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

elevated temperature
fly ash
mortar
image analyzer


End-to-end quality of service-based admission control using the fictitious network analysis The performance analysis of a network link is a well-studied problem. However, the most interesting issue for a service provider is to evaluate the end-to-end quality of service (QoS). The evaluation of the end-to-end QoS (e.g. loss probability or delay) depends on the traffic statistic which is constantly modified as the traffic traverse the network, making its analysis a very difficult problem. In this work we use a simplified framework known as fictitious network analysis that allows us to estimate on-line the end-to-end loss ratio from input traffic traces statistics. We prove that the defined estimator is consistent and that a Central Limit Theorem is verified. Based on these estimations an admission control mechanism can be implemented. More precisely, we propose a simply method to estimate the control admission region, i.e. which are the flows that can be accepted in the network that verifies that its end-to-end loss ratio is smaller than a given threshold. While decisions based on the fictitious network analysis are safe, it may lead to network resources under-utilization (it generally overestimates the QoS parameters). In this work we establish sufficient conditions to assure that results obtained by means of the fictitious network coincide with real ones (there is no overestimation). We present first the conditions in the one-link case and extend them to the multilink case, necessary to evaluate the end-to-end loss ratio. When different results are obtained we define a method to find a bound for the overestimation. We also present numerical examples to compare the performance obtained in the real and the fictitious network, validating our main results. (C) 2010 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.

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

end-to-end quality of service
large deviations


Reversible Watermarking Using Adaptive Edge-Guided Interpolation Reversible watermarking is an open problem in information hiding field, with embedding the encoded bit '1' or '0' into some sensitive images, such as the law enforcement, medical records and military images. The technique can retrieve the original image without distortion, after the embedded message has been extracted. Histogram-based scheme is a remarkable breakthrough in reversible watermarking schemes, in terms of high embedding capacity and low distortion. This scheme is lack of capacity control due to the requirement for embedding large-scale data, because the largest hidden capacity is decided by the amount of pixels with the peak point. In this paper, we propose a reversible watermarking scheme to enlarge the number of pixels with the peak point as large as possible. This algorithm is based on an adaptive edge-guided interpolation, furthermore, hides messages by interpolation-error, i.e. the difference between the original and interpolated image value. Simulation results compared with other state-of-the-art reversible watermarking schemes in this paper demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm.

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

adaptive interpolation-error expansion
edge-guided interpolation
histogram shift


tracking privacy compliance in b2b networks Governments are now enacting comprehensive legislation that regulates how organizations collect and protect sensitive data about individuals. Typically, such legislation has focused on the relationship between consumer and business to ensure proper consent is obtained, procedures exist to safeguard data, and the consumer has recourse to challenge the business. In practice, such legislation places the entire administrative burden of tracking compliance on both the consumer and the business. More significantly, the legislation does not adequately address the sharing of private information between businesses that cooperate in providing services to consumers. In this paper, we introduce the concept of an "information transfer registry" as a mechanism to track compliance in a business to business network that is complementary to existing legislation and technical standards. We show that the concept has the added benefit of reducing the administrative burden on consumers and businesses.

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

privacy
legislation
compliance
standards
information transfer registry


APOA with parabola model for directing orbits of chaotic systems Artificial plant optimisation algorithm (APOA) is a recent proposed evolutionary computation in which the growing process of one tree is mapped into the optimised problem. In APOA, three new operators: photosynthesis operator, phototropism operator and apical dominance operator are designed to simulate three important phenomenon. In this paper, a new variant of APOA in which the light responsive curve of photosynthesis operator is selected as parabola model. To test the performance, this variant is applied to directing orbits of chaotic system. Simulation results show it is effective.

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

artificial plant optimisation algorithm
apoa
parabola model
directing orbits of chaotic system


GHIC: A hierarchical pattern-based clustering algorithm for grouping Web transactions Grouping customer transactions into segments may help understand customers better. The marketing literature has concentrated on identifying important segmentation variables (e.g., customer loyalty) and on using cluster analysis and mixture models for segmentation. The data mining literature has provided various clustering algorithms for segmentation without focusing specifically on clustering customer transactions. Building on the notion that observable customer transactions are generated by latent behavioral traits, in this paper, we investigate using a pattern-based clustering approach to grouping customer transactions. We define an objective function that we maximize in order to achieve a good clustering of customer transactions and present an algorithm, GHIC, that groups customer transactions such that itemsets generated from each cluster, while similar to each other, are different from ones generated from others. We present experimental results from user-centric Web usage data that demonstrates that GHIC generates a highly effective clustering of transactions.

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

classification
association rules
web mining


Robust location estimation under dependence We discuss the approximation of the mean of autocorrelated data under contaminations of different types. Many robust location estimators have been investigated carefully for independent data, but their properties have not been studied in detail under dependencies. We pay attention to estimators based on subranges like minimum volume ellipsoid and minimum covariance determinant estimators, mid-ranges and trimmed means, of which the sample mean and median are special cases, and also include the Hodges - Lehmann and the Bickel - Hodges estimators. Our interest is in small to moderate sample sizes.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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
robustness
additive outliers
innovative outliers
sensitivity function
bias curve


ICT and AIDS literacy: a challenge for information professionals in India Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of ICT to disseminate preventive health care information to combat the AIDS epidemic in India. The role of information professionals in various libraries and information centres and the challenges they are facing to increase HIV/AIDS awareness are discussed. Finally, recommendations are given and the conclusion is drawn that libraries and information professionals must develop AIDS literacy programmes to cater to the growing health information needs of the community. Design/methodology/approach - Literature search, web site information and personal interaction with the key persons associated with various HIV/AIDS awareness projects. Findings - Lack of knowledge about AMS, its modes of transmission and ways to avoid infection, are major challenges in India. Staff in ICT-based library and information centres can make a high impact on the local community by developing community-based AMS literacy programmes and hopefully save the society from an AMS epidemic. There is a perceived need for providing health information services through public libraries to the illiterate rural population who are increasingly making themselves vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. However, awareness of e-channels is low, especially in rural India; one solution is to increase take-up and run AIDS awareness campaigns through electronic media. Originality/value - A summary is provided of ICT-based projects and initiatives by libraries and other agencies to disseminate AIDS information. Few multi-type consortia have been formed in the USA and UK to develop AIDS databases and e-learning modules are listed. These can be used as examples by Indian libraries with limited resources wishing to enhance community awareness through ICT. The concerted efforts amongst stakeholders are emphasized with the objectives of enhancing information professionals' skill in the AIDS information dissemination process.

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

communication technologies
information profession
hiv
acquired immune defficiency syndrome


Rapid re-meshing and re-solution of three-dimensional boundary element problems for interactive stress analysis Structural design of mechanical components is an iterative process that involves multiple stress analysis runs; this can be time consuming and expensive. It is becoming increasingly possible to make significant improvements in the efficiency of this process by increasing the level of interactivity. One approach is through real-time re-analysis of models with continuously updating geometry. A key part of such a strategy is the ability to accommodate changes in geometry with minimal perturbation to an existing mesh. This work introduces a new re-meshing algorithm that can generate and update a boundary element mesh in real-time as a series of small changes are sequentially applied to the associated model. The algorithm is designed to make minimal updates to the mesh between each step whilst preserving a suitable mesh quality that retains accuracy in the stress results. This significantly reduces the number of terms that need to be updated in the system matrix, thereby reducing the time required to carry out a re-analysis of the model. A range of solvers are assessed to find the most efficient and robust method of re-solving the system. The GMRES algorithm, using complete approximate LU preconditioning, is found to provide the fastest convergence rate.

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

boundary element method
meshing
re-analysis
linear solvers


Extended 2D Codes Supporting Multirate and QoS in Optical CDMA Networks With Poisson and Binomial MAI Models In this paper, an extended 2D multiweight multilength optical orthogonal code (MWML-OOC) is proposed and analyzed using both Poisson and binomial distributions of multiple access interference (MAI). We also analyze the performance of 1D and 2D MWML-OOC that can support multirate transmission and quality-of-services (QoS) differentiation in the optical code-division multiple-access networks. The theory of the 1D MWML-OOC is reviewed where its bit-error rate (BER) performance analysis, based on the binomial model of MAI using the convolution technique, is presented and compared with the well-known Poisson model. The results indicated that the overall performance referred to as BER considering the binomial distribution of MAI is better than that obtained from Poisson-modeled MAI for both 1D and 2D MWML-OOCs. It was also found that the extended 2D MWML-OOC can support a greater number of users with reduced chip times and highly improve the BER performance compared with its 1D and 2D counterparts.

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

2d codes
binomial distribution
multirate
optical cdma
poisson model
qos differentiation


Multi-operator based biogeography based optimization with mutation for global numerical optimization ? Biogeography based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary optimization based on the science of biogeography for global optimization. We propose two extensions to BBO. First, we propose a new migration operation based multi-parent crossover called multi-parent migration model, which is a generalization of the standard BBO migration operator. The new migration model can satisfy a balance of exploration and exploitation. Second, the Gaussian mutation operator is integrated into multi-operator biogeography based optimization (MOBBO) to enhance its exploration ability and to improve the diversity of population. Experiments have been conducted on 23 benchmark problems of a wide range of dimensions and diverse complexities. Simulation results and comparisons demonstrate the proposed MOBBO algorithm based multi-parent crossover model is better, or at least comparable to, the BBO, PBBO and evolutionary algorithms from literature when considering the quality of the solutions obtained.

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

biogeography based optimization
global numerical optimization
exploration
exploitation


COMPETITIVE COMPLEXITY OF MOBILE ROBOT ON-LINE MOTION PLANNING PROBLEMS This paper classifies common mobile robot on-line motion planning problems according to their competitive complexity. The competitiveness of an on-line algorithm measures its worst case performance relative to the optimal off-line solution to the problem. Competitiveness usually means constant relative performance. This paper generalizes competitiveness to any functional relationship between on-line performance and optimal off-line solution. The constants in the functional relationship must be scalable and may depend only upon on-line information. Given an on-line task, its competitive complexity class is a pair of lower and upper bounds on the competitive performance of all on-line algorithms for the task, such that the two bounds satisfy the same functional relationship. The paper classifies the following on-line motion planning problems into competitive classes: area coverage, navigation to a target, and on-line search for an optimal path. In particular, it is shown that navigation to a target whose position is either a priori known or recognized upon arrival belongs to a quadratic competitive complexity class. The hardest on-line problem involves navigation in unknown variable traversibility environments. Under certain restriction on traversibility, this last problem belongs to an exponential competitive complexity class.

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


Information fusion in wireless sensor networks with source correlation In this paper, we consider a central estimating officer (CEO) scenario, where sensors observe a noisy version of a binary sequence generated by a single source (the "phenomenon") and the access point (AP)'s goal is to estimate, by properly fusing the received data, this sequence. Due to this system model, the data sent by the sensors are correlated and, therefore, it is possible to exploit a proper a priori information in the localized fusion operation performed at the AP. In the presence of channel coding at the sensors and block faded communication links, we first derive the optimum maximum a priori probability (MAP) joint decoding and fusion rule, showing its computational unfeasibility. We then derive two suboptimal decoding/fusion strategies. In the first case, the fusion rule exploits the source correlation and receives, at its input, the soft-output values generated by a joint channel decoder (JCD). Two possible iterative JCD algorithms are proposed: one with "circular" iterations between the component decoders (associated with the sources) and one with "parallel" iterations between the component decoders. For each algorithm, two information combining strategies are considered. In the second case, a separate channel decoding (SCD) scheme is considered and the correlation is exploited only during the fusion operation. Our results show that the scheme with SCD followed by fusion basically leads to the same probability of decision error of the scheme with JCD and fusion with, however, a much lower computational complexity, thus making it suitable to resource-constrained scenarios. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

information fusion
wireless sensor networks
source correlation

central estimating officer (ceo) problem


human behavioral detection and data cleaning in assisted living environment using wireless sensor networks Due to the increasing number of the elderly, more and more people need to have additional health care such as medical or environmental monitoring information at home or nursing facility. Most elderly people are likely to have a sudden behavioral changes due to their aging or existing health problems. Therefore, it is necessary to have an autonomous system that can monitor them in order to prevent emergent situation in advance. In this paper, we present a wireless sensor network system that can recognize human behavioral patterns of the elderly who lives alone. We model episodes that are series of events for a person who lives in an one-bedroom apartment. We propose data cleaning techniques in both sensor and base station sides for the erroneous environment of wireless sensor networks. Based on these techniques, we try to extract discrete events as close as possible to effective events. We introduce non-real time analysis to recognize human behavioral patterns on the centralized system, which can be further extended to a real-time analysis. We also adopt an existing search technique to apply it to detect similar or abnormal behavior. We experiment the proposed system by gathering behavioral pattern data from the miniature one-bedroom apartment that is equipped with SunSPOTs in our HERACLEIA Laboratory. We look up the resulting episodes from our experiment in the dictionary that is a set of predetermined episodes using the suggested algorithm.

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 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

data cleaning
assisted living environment

search episodes
human behavior detection


Domain decomposition method for dynamic faulting under slip-dependent friction The anti-plane shearing problem on a system of finite faults under a slip-dependent friction in a linear elastic domain is considered. Using a Newmark method for the time discretization of the problem, we have obtained an elliptic variational inequality at each time step. An upper bound for the time step size, which is not a CFL condition, is deduced from the solution uniqueness criterion using the first eigenvalue of the tangent problem. Finite element form of the variational inequality is solved by a Schwarz method assuming that the inner nodes of the domain lie in one subdomain and the nodes on the fault lie in other subdomains. Two decompositions of the domain are analyzed, one made up of two subdomains and another one with three subdomains. Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate convergence for a single time step (convergence of the Schwarz algorithm, influence of the mesh size, influence of the time step), convergence in time (instability capturing, energy dissipation, optimal time step) and an application to a relevant physical problem (interacting parallel fault segments).

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


An empirical study of empty prediction of multi-label classification This is the first empirical study of empty prediction of multi-label classification. Every algorithm considered all made empty prediction on different datasets. HOMER and RAkEL have the overall lowest empty prediction rates in the study. Four thresholding methods which in theory can solve empty predictions are compared. Probabilistic thresholds are the best solution in terms of example based F1.

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


twice-ramanujan sparsifiers We prove that every graph has a spectral sparsifier with a number of edges linear in its number of vertices. As linear-sized spectral sparsifiers of complete graphs are expanders, our sparsifiers of arbitrary graphs can be viewed as generalizations of expander graphs. In particular, we prove that for every d > 1 and every undirected, weighted graph G = (V,E,w) on n vertices, there exists a weighted graph H=(V,F,~{w}) with at most ?d(n-1)? edges such that for every x ? R V , [x T L G x ? x T L H x ? ((d+1+2?d)/(d+1-2?d)) x T L G x] where L G and L H are the Laplacian matrices of G and H, respectively. Thus, H approximates G spectrally at least as well as a Ramanujan expander with dn/2 edges approximates the complete graph. We give an elementary deterministic polynomial time algorithm for constructing H.

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


Active learning for semi-supervised clustering based on locally linear propagation reconstruction The success of semi-supervised clustering relies on the effectiveness of side information. To get effective side information, a new active learner learning pairwise constraints known as must-link and cannot-link constraints is proposed in this paper. Three novel techniques are developed for learning effective pairwise constraints. The first technique is used to identify samples less important to cluster structures. This technique makes use of a kernel version of locally linear embedding for manifold learning. Samples neither important to locally linear propagation reconstructions of other samples nor on flat patches in the learned manifold are regarded as unimportant samples. The second is a novel criterion for query selection. This criterion considers not only the importance of a sample to expanding the space coverage of the learned samples but also the expected number of queries needed to learn the sample. To facilitate semi-supervised clustering, the third technique yields inferred must-links for passing information about flat patches in the learned manifold to semi-supervised clustering algorithms. Experimental results have shown that the learned pairwise constraints can capture the underlying cluster structures and proven the feasibility of the proposed approach.

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

active learning
manifold learning
locally linear embedding


A stratified dispersive wave model with high-order nonreflecting boundary conditions A layered-model is introduced to approximate the effects of stratification on linearized shallow water equations. This time-dependent dispersive wave model is appropriate for describing geophysical (e.g., atmospheric or oceanic) dynamics. However, computational models that embrace these very large domains that are global in magnitude can quickly overwhelm computer capabilities. The domain is therefore truncated via artificial boundaries, and nonreflecting boundary conditions (NRBC) devised by Higdon are imposed. A scheme previously proposed by Neta and Givoli that easily discietizes high-order Higdon NRBCs is used. The problem is solved by finite difference (FD) methods. Numerical examples follow the discussion. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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

nonreflecting boundary conditions
stratification
finite difference


the next 700 bft protocols Modern Byzantine fault-tolerant state machine replication (BFT) protocols involve about 20,000 lines of challenging C++ code encompassing synchronization, networking and cryptography. They are notoriously difficult to develop, test and prove. We present a new abstraction to simplify these tasks. We treat a BFT protocol as a composition of instances of our abstraction. Each instance is developed and analyzed independently. To illustrate our approach, we first show how our abstraction can be used to obtain the benefits of a state-of-the-art BFT protocol with much less pain. Namely, we develop AZ yzzyva , a new protocol that mimics the behavior of Zyzzyva in best-case situations (for which Zyzzyva was optimized) using less than 24\% of the actual code of Zyzzyva. To cover worst-case situations, our abstraction enables to use in AZyzzyva any existing BFT protocol, typically, a classical one like PBFT which has been tested and proved correct. We then present Aliph , a new BFT protocol that outperforms previous BFT protocols both in terms of latency (by up to 30\%) and throughput (by up to 360\%). The development of Aliph required two new instances of our abstraction. Each instance contains less than 25\% of the code needed to develop state-of-the-art BFT protocols.

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

modularity
byzantine failures
performance


An objective comparison of the cost effectiveness of three testing methods Branch testing is a well established method for exercising software. JJ-path testing, whilst employed by some practitioners, is less popular, and the testing of JJ-pairs finds few adherents. In this paper an objective, practical study of the cost-effectiveness of these three testing methods is reported. The effectiveness of each method is assessed, in the presence of infeasible paths, not only on its ability to cover the specific structural element of code that it targets, but also on its ability to cover the structural elements targeted by the other two methods the collateral coverage it achieves. The assessment is based on the results derived from experiments in which each of the three methods is applied to 35 units of program code.

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

jj-path testing
jj-pair testing
white box testing
cost-effectiveness
structural testing


CPL+: An improved approach for evaluating the local completeness of event logs We propose an improved approach to estimate the local completeness of event logs. The approach is analyzed based on a counter-intuitive result that we prove. Experiments show that the approach is better than other approaches on small logs.

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

approximation algorithms
process mining
information completeness
event log


Optimization of airport ground operations integrating genetic and dynamic flow management algorithms This paper(1) presents a new method for automatically finding the best routes and schedules for airport ground operations within a decision support system for tower controllers, a hard real-world application. It explores the potential advantages of hybridizing two complementary types of algorithmic approaches to find solutions as fast as possible: a genetic algorithm and a time-space dynamic flow management algorithm. An integrated system to combine the strengths of each algorithm and exploit their complementary nature has been analyzed. The proposed flow-management algorithm deterministically optimizes an over-simplified problem, while the genetic algorithm is able to search within a more realistic representation of the real problem, but success is not always guaranteed if the search space grows. The performance of this combination is illustrated using simulated samples of a real-world scenario: ground operations at Madrid Barajas International Airport.

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

network flow management
hybrid genetic algorithms
scheduling
routing


minimizing bank selection instructions for partitioned memory architecture Bank switching is a technique that increases the code and data memory in microcontrollers without extending the address buses. Given a program in which variables have been assigned to data banks, we present a novel optimization technique that minimizes the overhead of bank switching through cost-effective placement of bank selection instructions. The optimal placement is controlled by a variety of different objectives, such as runtime, low power, small code size or a combination of these parameters. We have formulated the problem as a form of Partitioned Boolean Quadratic Programming (PBQP).We implemented the optimization as part of a PIC Micro-chip backend and evaluated the approach for several optimization objectives. Our benchmark suite comprises programs from MiBench and DSPStone plus a microcontroller real-time kernel and drivers for microcontroller hardware devices. Our optimization achieved a reduction of program memory space between 2.7\% and 18.2\%, and an overall improvement with respect to instruction cycles between 5.1\% and 28.8\%. Our optimization achieved an optimal solution for all benchmark programs.

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

partitioned memory architecture
microcontrollers

bank-switching
compiler optimization
pbqp
ram allocation


A nonlinear spectrum estimation system using RBF network modified for signal processing This paper proposes a nonlinear signal processing by using a three layered network which is trained with self-organized clustering and supervised learning. The network consists of three layers, i.e., a self-organized layer, an evaluation layer and an output layer. Since the evaluation layer is designed as a simple perceptron network and the output layer is designed as a fixed weight linear node, the training complexity is the same as a conventional one consisting of self-organized clustering and a simple perceptron network. In other words, quite high speed training can be realized. Generally speaking, since the data range is arbitrary large in signal processing, the network should cover this range and output a value as accurately as possible. However, it may be hard for only a node in the network to output these data. Instead of this mechanism, if this dynamic range is covered by using several nodes, the complexity of each node is reduced and the associated range is also limited. This results on the higher performance of the network than conventional RBFs. This paper introduces a new non-linear spectrum estimation which consists of LPC analysis and RBF network. it is shown that accuracy spectrum envelopes can be obtained since a new RBF network can estimate some nonlinearities in a speech production.

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

level estimator
non-linear spectrum estimation


Arithmetic on the European logarithmic microprocessor A new European research project aims to develop a microprocessor based on the logarithmic number system, in which a real number is represented as a fixed-point logarithm. Multiplication and division therefore proceed in minimal time with no rounding error. However, the system can only offer an overall advantage over floating-point if addition and subtraction can be performed with speed and accuracy at least equal to that of floating-point, but these operations require the interpolation of a nonlinear function which has hitherto been either time-consuming or inaccurate. We present a procedure by which additions and subtractions can be performed rapidly and accurately and show that these operations are thereby competitive with their floating-point equivalents. We then present some large-scale case studies which show that the average performance of the LNS exceeds floating-point, in terms of both speed and accuracy.

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


Design error reduction: toward the effective utilization of building information modeling An advocated panacea for reducing design errors and rework in construction and engineering projects is building information modeling (BIM). Yet, it would appear that advocates of BIM have overlooked why and how design errors occur. In this article, the nature of error is explained and the principal underlying causes identified with reference to the normative literature and the authors phenomenological research. A systemic model for reducing design errors is presented and the enabling role of BIM discussed.

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

building information modeling
design errors


Bounded flooding routing algorithm for provisioning the globally optimal route in a hierarchical ATM network ATM virtual path (VP) contains bundles of virtual channels (VCs). A VP layer network can be used as a server layer network of VC layer networks and each VC layer network can be a client layer. Therefore the effective provision of VC services can be achieved by a better routing scheme of the VP layer network. However, the traditional hierarchical routing scheme of PNNI signaling protocol does not provide the globally optimal route in hierarchical transport network due to its successive network partitioning and topology abstraction. We propose a new VP routing scheme suitable for a nation-wide hierarchical transport network and a network model suitable for the scalable VP network management system. The routing algorithm can provide the globally optimal route in the hierarchical network environment from the perspectives of maximization of network resource utilization and satisfaction of the end user's QoS requirement. In addition, we describe the implementation model of the ATM virtual path network management system (VP-NMS). Lastly, we show the routing performance evaluated in the High Speed Information Network (HSIN) of Korea Telecom.

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

hierarchical network management
hierarchical qos routing
inter-domain network management system
atm vp optimal route provision


Large-scale dynamic optimization of a low density polyethylene plant This paper presents the optimal control policy of an industrial low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant. Based on a dynamic model of the whole plant, optimal feed profiles are determined to minimize the transient states generated during the switching between different steady states. This industrial process produces LDPE by high-pressure polymerization of ethylene in a tubular reactor. The plant produces different final products. The model consists of two parts, the first one corresponds to the reactor and the second to the rest of the plant. The process has many time delays that are also incorporated into the optimization model. The resulting differential algebraic equation (DAE) plant model includes over 500 equations. The continuous state and control variables are discretized by applying orthogonal collocation on finite elements. The resulting NLP is solved with a reduced space interior point algorithm. The paper studies two cases of switching among different polymer grades determining the optimal butane flow rates, in order to minimize the time to reach the steady state operation corresponding to the desired new product quality. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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


Esophageal disease in pediatrics The following on esophageal disease in pediatrics contains commentaries on acquisition of neuromuscular maturation; physiology of esophageal peristaltic and sphincteric reflexes; implications for clinical practice; and conditions that predispose to severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in children with potential risk for esophageal cancer.

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

embryology
peristalsis
fetal swallowing
airway protection
barrett's esophagus


Global stability for reactiondiffusion equations in biology The aim of this work is to study the global stability for some diffusion equations in biology by constructing Lyapunov functionals. These Lyapunov functionals are obtained from those for ordinary differential equations. Several examples from virology and epidemiology are given to illustrate our method.

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

diffusion
lyapunov functionals
stability


free head motion eye gaze tracking without calibration This paper introduces a novel technique for remote eye gaze tracking and detection of point of regard that is specially designed for wide use in HCI. It addresses and eliminates two of the major problems of commercial remote eye gaze tracking, namely the need for user calibration before each session and of accuracy degradation with head movement. The new technique uses a single calibrated camera, several light sources with known positions and a physical model of the eye to estimate the 3D position of the eye and its gaze direction. Simulation results using ray tracing are used to study the accuracy and robustness of the system, and demonstrate its operability.

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


a tight bound on approximating arbitrary metrics by tree metrics In this paper, we show that any n point metric space can be embedded into a distribution over dominating tree metrics such that the expected stretch of any edge is O(log n) . This improves upon the result of Bartal who gave a bound of O(log n log log n) . Moreover, our result is existentially tight; there exist metric spaces where any tree embedding must have distortion ?(log n) -distortion. This problem lies at the heart of numerous approximation and online algorithms including ones for group Steiner tree, metric labeling, buy-at-bulk network design and metrical task system. Our result improves the performance guarantees for all of these problems.

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

tree metrics
tree
task
point
log
approximation
performance
metric spaces
network design
group
paper
metrics

label
embeddings
systems
distributed
online algorithm


An Improved Routing Algorithm Based on Social Link Awareness in Delay Tolerant Networks The routing efficiency in delay tolerant networks is degraded due to intermittent connection and high latency. Additionally, socially selfish nodes in social networks refuse to provide message forwarding service since there are limited resources. To solve these problems, an improved routing algorithm based on the social link awareness is proposed. In this algorithm, multiple social features of the nodes behaviors are utilized to quantify the nodes pairs social links. The social links of the nodes pairs are computed based on their encounter history. These social links can be used to construct the friendship communities of the nodes. The intra-community and inter-community forwarding mechanisms are implemented to raise the successful delivery ratio with low overhead and decrease the transmission delay. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm shortens the routing delay and increases the successful delivery ratio, thereby improving the routing efficiency.

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

delay tolerant networks
routing algorithm


experimenting with exception propagation mechanisms in service-oriented architecture Exception handling is one of the popular means used for improving dependability and supporting recovery in the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). This practical experience paper presents the results of error and fault injection into Web Services. We summarize our experiments with the SOA-specific exception handling features provided by the two development kits: the Sun Microsystems JAX-RPC and the IBM WebSphere Software Developer Kit for Web Services. The main focus of the paper is on analyzing exception propagation and performance as the major factors affecting fault tolerance (in, particular, error handling, and fault diagnosis) in Web Services.

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

fault tolerance
exception handling
exception propagation mechanisms

robustness
service-oriented architecture
dependability benchmarking


Energy-Aware Scheduling on Multicore Heterogeneous Grid Computing Systems We address a multicriteria non-preemptive energy-aware scheduling problem for computational Grid systems. This work introduces a new formulation of the scheduling problem for multicore heterogeneous computational Grid systems in which the minimization of the energy consumption, along with the makespan metric, is considered. We adopt a two-level model, in which a meta-broker agent (level 1) receives all user tasks and schedules them on the available resources, belonging to different local providers (level 2). The computing capacity and energy consumption of resources are taken from real multi-core processors from the main current vendors. Twenty novel list scheduling methods for the problem are proposed, and a comparative analysis of all of them over a large set of problem instances is presented. Additionally, a scalability study is performed in order to analyze the contribution of the best new bi-objective list scheduling heuristics when the problem dimension grows. We conclude after the experimental analysis that accurate trade-off schedules are computed by using the new proposed methods.

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

grid scheduling
energy-aware
heterogeneous computing


learning submodular functions There has been much interest in the machine learning and algorithmic game theory communities on understanding and using submodular functions. Despite this substantial interest, little is known about their learnability from data. Motivated by applications, such as pricing goods in economics, this paper considers PAC-style learning of submodular functions in a distributional setting. A problem instance consists of a distribution on {0,1} n and a real-valued function on {0,1} n that is non-negative, monotone, and submodular. We are given poly(n) samples from this distribution, along with the values of the function at those sample points. The task is to approximate the value of the function to within a multiplicative factor at subsequent sample points drawn from the same distribution, with sufficiently high probability. We develop the first theoretical analysis of this problem, proving a number of important and nearly tight results. For instance, if the underlying distribution is a product distribution then we give a learning algorithm that achieves a constant-factor approximation (under some assumptions). However, for general distributions we provide a surprising Omega(n 1/3 ) lower bound based on a new interesting class of matroids and we also show a O(n 1/2 ) upper bound. Our work combines central issues in optimization (submodular functions and matroids) with central topics in learning (distributional learning and PAC-style analyses) and with central concepts in pseudo-randomness (lossless expander graphs). Our analysis involves a twist on the usual learning theory models and uncovers some interesting structural and extremal properties of submodular functions, which we suspect are likely to be useful in other contexts. In particular, to prove our general lower bound, we use lossless expanders to construct a new family of matroids which can take wildly varying rank values on superpolynomially many sets; no such construction was previously known. This construction shows unexpected extremal properties of submodular functions.

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

learning theory
matroids
submodular functions


Diffusion of e-government: A literature review and directions for future directions In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of research published on the topic of e-government diffusion. This paper provides a meta-analytic review of the literature on the diffusion of e-government. We analyzed the related literature in the leading journals and from international conferences in the field of information systems and public administration. Our analytical results reveal the main theoretical foundations, research methods, and research topics found in the relevant literature. The meta-analysis identified four main research topics: (1) the factors that influence the diffusion of e-government, (2) the diffusion of e-government systems and applications, (3) the impacts of e-government diffusion on government agencies and employees, and (4) the relationships between information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructures and the diffusion of e-government. Researchers have developed eight related theories to discuss e-government diffusion and adopted four methods to explore it. We suggest directions that researchers should pursue to strengthen the diffusion of e-government and to draw out deeper issues.

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

diffusion of e-government
influencing factors
theoretical foundation


detecting region outliers in meteorological data Spatial outliers are the spatial objects with distinct features from their surrounding neighbors. Detection of spatial outliers helps reveal important and valuable information from large spatial data sets. In the field of meteorology, for example, spatial outliers can be associated with disastrous natural events such as tornadoes, hurricane, and forest fires. Previous study of spatial outlier mainly focuses on point data. However, in the meteorological data or other applications, spatial outliers are frequently represented in region, i.e., a group of points, with two dimensions or even three dimensions, and the previous point-based approaches may not be appropriate to be used. As region outliers are commonly multi-scale objects, wavelet analysis is an effective tool to study them. In this paper, we propose a wavelet analysis based approach to detect region outliers. We discuss the region outlier detection problem and design a suite of algorithms to effectively discover them. The algorithms were implemented and evaluated with a real-world meteorological data set.

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


Temporal aggregation impacts on epidemiological simulations employing microcontact data Microcontact datasets gathered automatically by electronic devices have the potential augment the study of the spread of contagious disease by providing detailed representations of the study populations contact dynamics. However, the impact of data collection experimental design on the subsequent simulation studies has not been adequately addressed. In particular, the impact of study duration and contact dynamics data aggregation on the ultimate outcome of epidemiological models has not been studied in detail, leaving the potential for erroneous conclusions to be made based on simulation outcomes.

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

infection transmission
sensor-based data
simulation model
dynamic model
contagion
epidemiology
surveillance


Lebesgue decomposition theorem for sigma-finite signed fuzzy measures Further research on signed fuzzy measures is made. Lebesgue decomposition theorems for a-finite signed fuzzy measures and fuzzy measures are proved under the null-null additive condition. Thus, the relative result in classical measure theory is generalized. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

signed fuzzy measure
null-null additivity


Modeling the impact of imperfect HIV vaccines on the incidence of the infection One concern about HIV vaccine trials is that participants might develop a false sense of security and increase their risk behavior. This fear has (at least partially) impaired the development of extensive clinical trials on HIV vaccines and are, in principle, justified. In this paper, we develop a dynamical model which allows experiments on the effects of an imperfect vaccine on a population prone to change its risk behavior. Our results show that even the poorest of the candidate vaccines to be seriously considered, may have beneficial effects on reducing transmission, even when risk behaviors increases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

transmission dynamics
mathematical modeling
control strategies


The effect of the channel reliability factor in the MAP algorithm on turbo code performance in bluetooth systems The effects of the channel reliability factor on the performance of turbo decoders that use a maximum a posteriori probability algorithm are investigated for wireless communication fading channels, such as Bluetooth systems. The channel reliability factor is related to the channel signal-to-noise ratio. For various values of the channel reliability factor, the obtained performance curves of the maximum a posteriori probability algorithm are given for the case of DMx Bluetooth data packets. When the channel reliability factor increases, the bit-error-rate performance of the DMx Bluetooth data packets also increases over fading channels.

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

turbo coding
channel reliability factor (l(c))


Improved PLSOM algorithm The original Parameter-Less Self-Organising Map (PLSOM) algorithm was introduced as a solution to the problems the Self-Organising Map (SOM) encounters when dealing with certain types of mapping tasks. Unfortunately the PLSOM suffers from over-sensitivity to outliers and over-reliance on the initial weight distribution. The PLSOM2 algorithm is introduced to address these problems with the PLSOM. PLSOM2 is able to cope well with outliers without exhibiting the problems associated with the standard PLSOM algorithm. The PLSOM2 requires very little computational overhead compared to the standard PLSOM, thanks to an efficient method of approximating the diameter of the inputs, and does not rely on a priori knowledge of the training input space. This paper provides a discussion of the reasoning behind the PLSOM2 and experimental results showing its effectiveness for mapping tasks.

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


Adaptive state space partitioning for reinforcement learning The convergence property of reinforcement learning has been extensively investigated in the field of machine learning, however, its applications to real-world problems are still constrained due to its computational complexity. A novel algorithm to improve the applicability and efficacy of reinforcement learning algorithms via adaptive state space partitioning is presented. The proposed temporal difference learning with adaptive vector quantization (TD-AVQ) is an online algorithm and does not assume any a priori knowledge with respect to the learning task and environment. It utilizes the information generated from the reinforcement learning algorithms. Therefore, no additional computations on the decisions of how to partition a particular state space are required. A series of simulations are provided to demonstrate the practical values and performance of the proposed algorithms in solving robot motion planning problems.

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

reinforcement learning
state space partitioning

nearest neighbor quantizer
peg-in-hole
navigation


simulating new markets by introducing new accepting policies for the conventional continuous double auction In recent years a huge number of online auctions that use Multi Agent systems have been created. As a result there are numerous auctions that provide the same product. In this case each customer can buy a product with the lowest possible price. But searching between auctions in terms of finding the suitable product can be time consuming for consumers and also providing products in different markets is a difficult task for suppliers. So the need for an autonomous agent in these types of markets is deeply felt. On the other side the structure of an auction mechanism that provides the environment for traders to operate their trades is vital. Despite all the research that has been done about online auctions, most of them were about single markets. But in real world the stocks and commodities of companies are listed and traded in different markets. There is a growing tendency towards research about online auctions and Market Design. Particularly in recent years CAT (CATallactics) game has provided an important opportunity to develop and test new techniques in this field. In this paper after introducing CAT game and PersianCAT agent, we want to challenge the conventional accepting policy used in stock markets like New York Stock Exchange and provide a better solution that improves the general performance of the markets.

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

market design
accepting policy
multi agent systems


Single-matrix formulation of a time domain acoustic model of the vocal tract with side branches Although it has been found that the piriform fossae play an important role in speech production and acoustics, the popular time domain articulatory synthesizer of [Maeda, S., 1982. A digital simulation method of the vocal-tract system. Speech Comm. 1 (3-4), 199-229] currently cannot include any more than one side branch to the acoustic tube that represents the main vocal tract. To overcome this limitation, in this paper we extended Maeda's (1982) simulation method, by mathematical reformulation in terms of a single-matrix equation having a system matrix that is both sparse and symmetric. Using vocal tract area functions measured by MRI, the simulation results showed that the piriform fossae suppress the energy in the higher frequencies by introducing spectral zeros around 4-5 kHz, and also tend to lower the second formant of vowels. These spectral changes agree with results produced using a well-tested frequency domain transmission-line method, thus validating our new formulation of the time domain synthesizer. The reformulation can be easily extended to accommodate any number of vocal tract side branches, thus enabling more realistic, physiologically correct acoustic simulation of speech production. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

time domain simulation
piriform fossa
articulatory synthesis


Blueline: A distributed Bluetooth scatternet formation and routing algorithm The emerging Bluetooth technology is a best-known PAN (Personal Area Networks) technology. It still has some issues left open in the current specification. Among them, the scatternet formation and routing are two major issues. In this paper, we proposed a new Bluetooth scatternet formation algorithm and its routing algorithm. Our method constructs and maintains a scatternet in a distributed way and does not need all nodes to be in the transmission range of each other. We use the PARK mode to let Bluetooth devices have more chances to link each other in order to build a better-connected scatternet. We also propose an on demand routing algorithm for the scatternet constructed. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms are quite efficient and effective.

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

bluetooth
routing algorithm
personal area networks
scatternet


analysis and design of ieee 802.16 uplink scheduling algorithms and proposing the ira algorithm for rtps qos class Scheduling algorithms in WiMAX are of great importance due to their effect in delivering a high speed broadband while satisfying the traffic Quality of Service (QoS) constraints. A well designed scheduling algorithm should carefully deal with throughput maximization, delay constraints satisfaction and maintaining fairness among subscribers. This paper focuses on uplink (UL) scheduling effect on the performance of real time Polling Services (rtPS) QoS class performance using OFDM as a physical layer where rtPS is a service class for variable bit rate (VBR) data such as MPEG compressed video. Ensuring QoS constraints for rtPS class is challenging due to critical delay constraints and throughput requirements. The paper proposes an uplink scheduling algorithm called the Instantaneously Replacing Algorithm (IRA). The algorithm mainly schedules connections based on their Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) but instantaneously replaces high SNR connections with connections that may violate their intended QoS requirements. The proposed algorithm is analyzed in the paper using an NS-2 simulation model. Comparing to another set of UL schedulers, simulation results show that the proposed algorithm enhances QoS Satisfaction in the network as it tends to minimize the delay and at the same time distribute the network resources in a fair manner among Subscriber Stations (SSs) while maintaining a throughput comparable to that achieved using SNR based approaches.

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


New pole-searching algorithm with applications to probabilistic circular slope stability assessment Conventional deterministic analysis for evaluating slope stability, although computationally efficient, is gradually shadowed by probabilistic analysis in two aspects. First deterministic analysis does not account for inevitable soil variability, and secondly its assessment would be deficient especially under a critical condition. However, probabilistic analysis that is computationally expensive sometime deters itself from being used when efficient algorithms are absent. For optimizing the calculation during probabilistic slope analysis, this study introduces a new algorithm in searching for the center of a circular slip surface, referred to as the pole. Not only can this algorithm effectively locate the pole, but its accuracy is improved compared to that of the conventional method. This study further demonstrates the algorithm by performing a probabilistic analysis for a benchmark slope through Monte Carlo Simulation. Such a probabilistic analysis saves 106h from the use of the conventional pole-searching algorithm in an equivalent analysis. The results show that circular slope stability is indeed affected by soil variability, which should not be overlooked since it is inevitable owing to natural randomness.

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

probabilistic and deterministic analyses


Potential Energy of Water In the present paper the importance of the water as resource for hydropower, his sub appraisement in the electrical market, and the function of the state as regulatory entity, to demand the rational use in hydroelectric power station.

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

rational use of water
electricity market


Agent-based load balancing on homogeneous minigrids: Macroscopic modeling and characterization this paper, we present a macroscopic characterization of agent-based load balancing in homogeneous minigrid environments. The agent-based load balancing is regarded as agent distribution from a macroscopic point of view. We study two quantities on minigrids: the number and size of teams where agents ( tasks) queue. In macroscopic modeling, the load balancing mechanism is characterized using differential equations. We show that the load balancing we concern always converges to a steady state. Furthermore, we show that load balancing with different initial distributions converges to the same steady state gradually. Also, we prove that the steady state becomes an even distribution if and only if agents have complete knowledge about agent teams on minigrids. Utility gains and efficiency are introduced to measure the quality of load balancing. Through numerical simulations, we discuss the utility gains and efficiency of load balancing in different cases and give a series of analysis. In order to maximize the utility gain and the efficiency, we theoretically study the optimization of agents' strategies. Finally, in order to validate our proposed agent-based load balancing mechanism, we develop a computing platform, called Simulation System for Grid Task Distribution (SSGTD). Through experimentation, we note that our experimental results in general confirm our theoretical proofs and numerical simulation results from the proposed equation system. In addition, we find a very interesting phenomenon, that is, agent-based load balancing mechanism is topology-independent.

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

homogeneous minigrids
load balancing
task distribution
agents
macroscopic modeling

steady states
convergence
grid simulation


Object protection in distributed systems With reference to a distributed system consisting of nodes connected by a local area network, we consider a salient aspect of the protection problem, the representation of access permissions and protection domains. We present a model of a protection system supporting typed objects. Possession of an access permission for a given object is certified by possession of an object pointer including the specification of a set of access rights. We associate an encryption key with each object and a password with each domain. Object pointers are stored in memory in a ciphertext form obtained by using the object key and including the value of the domain password. Each process is executed in a domain and can take advantage of a given object pointer only if this object pointer was encrypted by including the password of this domain. A set of protection primitives makes it possible to use object pointers for object reference and to control the movements of the objects across the network. The resulting protection environment is evaluated from a number of salient viewpoints, including ease of access right distribution and revocation, interprocess interaction and cooperation, protection against fraudulent actions of access right manipulation and stealing, storage overhead, and network traffic.

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

access right
distributed system
domain
object
protection


sw development projects in academia A significant amount of current software engineering research is conducted within the context of computer science and computing departments or colleges. Similarly, software engineering degree programs are being developed by such academic units as well as within engineering colleges [1]. However, every computer or computing department has its own experiences, successes or pitfalls in software engineering (SE) and software development (SD) teaching, which would be useful to share and discuss with the education community. In this paper we discuss the experiences and results from four years of teaching "Projects in Computer Science" in Computer Information Systems (CIS) Diploma and "Software Engineering" in Bachelor of Computer Information Systems (BCIS) Degree programs [2] at Okanagan College. Also we provide analysis and evaluation for several already finished and current projects. The class teaching in both programs was organized into two parts. The learning of SD in the CIS as well as SE in the BCIS programs were synchronized with the practical SD and SE projects with real sponsors from industry and academia in small and medium size groups of students (3--6 members in SD and 5--11 members in SE projects). Students developed their final projects incorporating four main Rational Unified Process phases [3] and 4--7 short iterations typical to the Agile SD process. Additionally, in the SE projects students learned and used Extreme Programming (XP) iterative process [4]. In several projects students successfully combined Software prototyping [5] with Agile SD and Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools [6]. Instructors supervised and supported students in the role of sponsors or mediators. Many student groups were able to develop impressive, high quality final project applications and systems. The sponsors provided very positive feedback and references for most of the projects.

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

college
computer information systems
software development
projects


Numerical modelling and analysis of external gear pumps by applying generalized control volumes Components in gear pumps usually involve complex geometrical arrangements in order to achieve the desired performance. The use of lumped parametric models is considered the most accurate and effective method for investigation of the associated design issues. In this study, the numerical modelling approach based on the lumped parameters and control volume concepts is reviewed, especially for gear teeth within the meshing zone. To apply the approach to the entire gear pump, control volume concepts are generalized to all gear pockets and flow orifices with some reasonable assumptions. The assumptions include instantaneous angular positions, orifice transitions and imagined control volumes with internal flows. The fluid dynamics and pump performance, which even have the measurement difficulties, can be estimated to investigate and optimize the design parameters of gears by the model. A simulation example and its experimental results of a gear machine are presented to validate the proposed approach in this article.

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

generalized control volumes
numerical modelling
gear pump


The design of the YAP compiler: An optimizing compiler for logic programming languages Several techniques for implementing Prolog in a efficient manner have been devised since the original interpreter, many of them aimed at achieving more speed. There are two main approaches to efficient Prolog implementation: ( 1) compilers to bytecode and then interpreting it ( emulators) or ( 2) compilers to native code. Emulators have smaller load/compilation time and are a good solution for their simplicity when speed is not a priority. Compilers are more complex than emulators, and the difference is much more acute if some form of code analysis is performed as part of the compilation, which impacts development time. Generation of low level code promises faster programs at the expense of using more resources during the compilation phase. In our work besides using an mixed execution mode, we design an optimizing compiler that using type feedback profiling, dynamic compilation and dynamic deoptimization for improving the performance of logic programming languages.

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

just-in-time compiler
compiler optimizations


On-the-go soil sensors for precision agriculture The basic objectives of site-specific management of agricultural inputs are to increase profitability of crop production, improve product quality, and protect the environment. Information about the variability of different soil attributes within a field is essential for the decision-making process. The inability to obtain soil characteristics rapidly and inexpensively remains one of the biggest limitations of precision agriculture. Numerous researchers and manufacturers have attempted to develop on-the-go soil sensors to measure mechanical, physical and chemical soil properties. The sensors have been based on electrical and electromagnetic, optical and radiometric, mechanical, acoustic, pneumatic, and electrochemical measurement concepts. While only electric and electromagnetic sensors are widely used at this time, other technologies presented in this review may also be suitable to improve the quality of soil-related information in the near future.

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


Developable Bezier patches: properties and design Geometric design of quadratic and cubic developable Bezier patches from two boundary curves is studied in this paper. The conditions for developability are derived geometrically from the de Casteljau algorithm and expressed as a set of equations that must be fulfilled by the Bezier control points. This set of equations allows us to infer important properties of developable Bezier patches that provide useful parameters and simplify the solution process for the patch design. With one boundary curve freely specified, five more degrees of freedom are available for a second boundary curve of the same degree. Various methods are introduced that fully utilize these five degrees of freedom for the design of general quadratic and cubic developable Bezier patches in 3D space. A more restricted generalized conical model or cylindrical model provides simple solutions for higher-order developable patches. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

developable surfaces
computer aided design


Regularized vector field learning with sparse approximation for mismatch removal A sparse approximation is presented for vector-valued regularized least-squares. We derive a bound for the sparse approximation. Based on it, we give a new robust vector field learning algorithm called SparseVFC. We apply SparseVFC to mismatch removal and it achieves state-of-the-art performance. The proposed method has linear time and space complexities in the scale of samples.

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

vector field learning
sparse approximation
mismatch removal

regularization
reproducing kernel hilbert space
outlier