Use of SAMC for Bayesian analysis of statistical models with intractable normalizing constants Statistical inference for the models with intractable normalizing constants has attracted much attention. During the past two decades, various approximation- or simulation-based methods have been proposed for the problem, such as the Monte Carlo maximum likelihood method and the auxiliary variable Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The Bayesian stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm specifically addresses this problem: It works by sampling from a sequence of approximate distributions with their average converging to the target posterior distribution, where the approximate distributions can be achieved using the stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm. A strong law of large numbers is established for the Bayesian stochastic approximation Monte Carlo estimator under mild conditions. Compared to the Monte Carlo maximum likelihood method, the Bayesian stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm is more robust to the initial guess of model parameters. Compared to the auxiliary variable MCMC methods, the Bayesian stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm avoids the requirement for perfect samples, and thus can be applied to many models for which perfect sampling is not available or very expensive. The Bayesian stochastic approximation Monte Carlo algorithm also provides a general framework for approximate Bayesian analysis.

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

bayesian analysis
markov chain monte carlo
stochastic approximation


Framework for measuring complexity of aerospace systems We propose a framework for measuring the complexity of aerospace systems and demonstrate its application. A measure that incorporates size, coupling, and modularity aspects of complexity is developed that emphasizes the importance of indirect coupling and feedback loops in the system. We demonstrate how hierarchical modular structure in the system reduces complexity and present an algorithm to decompose the system into modules. The measure is tested and found to be scalable for large-scale systems involving thousands of components and interactions (typical in modern aerospace systems). We investigate the sensitivity of the measure and demonstrate the ability of the framework to identify incorrectness in system representation. The merits of the framework are exemplified through a case study comparing three spacecraft. The framework provides the designer with three key capabilities that can positively influence the aerospace (or other) design process: the ability to identify complex subsystems, the ability to classify misrepresentations, and the ability to trade-off commercially of the shelf (COTS) and non-COTS components.

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

satellite design
design space exploration


maximizing efficiency of solar-powered systems by load matching Solar power is an important source of renewable energy for many low-power systems. Matching the power consumption level with the supply level can make a great difference in the efficiency of power utilization. This paper proposes a source-tracking power management strategy that maximizes the panel's total energy output under a given solar profile by load matching. The power efficiency was validated by extensive measurement. Compared to a conventional solar powered system, our load matching strategy improves the power utilization by 132\% for a portable system performing image processing and wireless communication tasks.

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

power model
photovoltaics
solar-aware
solar energy


A numerical scheme based on differential quadrature method to solve time dependent Burgers' equation Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a numerical method to solve time dependent Burgers' equation with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach - The presence of the nonlinearity in the problem leads to severe difficulties in the solution approximation. In construction of the numerical scheme, quasilinearization is used to tackle the nonlinearity of the problem which is followed by semi discretization for spatial direction using differential quadrature method (DQM). Semi discretization of the problem leads to a system of first order initial value problems which are followed by fully discretization using RK4 scheme. The method is analyzed for stability and convergence. Findings - The method is illustrated and compared with existing methods via numerical experiments and it is found that the proposed method gives better accuracy and is quite easy to implement. Originality/value - The new scheme is developed by using some numerical schemes. The scheme is analyzed for stability and convergence. In support of predicted theory some test examples are solved using the presented method.

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

quasilinearization
differential quadrature method

burgers' equation
runge-kutta method
order of convergence
differential equations
mathematics


A novel steganographic algorithm using animations as cover Information security is gaining widespread importance in distributed decision support systems [T.S. Raghu, and H. Chen, Cyberinfrastructure for homeland security: Advances in information sharing, data mining, and collaboration systems. Decision Support Systems 43 (2007) 13211323]. Conventional steganographic models available in the literature on information hiding use the knowledge of cover-object and stego-object to extract embedded data. Embedding algorithms have been predominantly used in steganography for hiding data whereas encoding algorithms have been used for data compression. This research study proposes a modified model for steganographic system that incorporates encoding algorithms based upon the information theoretic model documented in Cachin [C. Cachin, An Information-Theoretic Model for Steganography, Information and Computation 192 (1) (2004) 4156.]. The differences between the conventional model and the proposed model are analyzed in this study. We further implement the proposed model by designing a novel steganographic algorithm that utilizes animations as cover-objects. The proposed approach is then compared with an encoding algorithm for gif animations and a modified embedding algorithm with animations as the cover. Gifshuffle is a steganographic software that hides data in gif animations. Digital Invisible Ink Toolkit (DIIT) is a software that uses embedding algorithm to conceal data into images. DIIT is remodeled to hide data within animated images in this study. Experiments reveal that the encoding algorithms are suitable for information hiding using animations. The study finds that the proposed encoding framework with animations provides a practical framework for analysis and has a better security performance than Gifshuffle and DIIT. Although the proposed model achieves more hiding rate, Gifshuffle is computationally faster than other techniques.

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


Completing a total uncertainty measure in the Dempster-Shafer Theory This paper seeks to complete the models that have been introduced over the last few years to quantify the uncertainty in Dempster-Shafer Theory. We examine Ichihashi and Maeda's model and we try to extend it with a correction factor. The factor discriminates between situations that having a clear difference from an intuitive point of view, the Ichihashi and Maeda's measure assigns identical values to them.

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

theory of evidence
imprecise probabilities
entropy
randomness
specificity


Multivalent functions with respect to n-ply points and symmetric conjugate points Multivalent analytic functions that are starlike, convex, close-to-convex, and quasi-convex with respect to n-ply points as well as multivalent functions with respect to symmetric points, conjugate points and symmetric conjugate points are considered. These classes of functions interestingly unify various known subclasses that have separately been introduced and studied. Inclusion and convolution properties of these generalized classes are investigated, and numerous known results could be obtained as special instances. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

starlike and convex multivalent functions


Correlation-based algorithm for multi-dimensional single-tone frequency estimation In this paper, parameter estimation for a R-dimensional (R -D) single cisoid with R?2 R ? 2 in additive white Gaussian noise is addressed. By exploiting the correlation of the data samples, we construct R single-tone sequences which contain the R-D frequency parameters. Based on linear prediction and weighted linear squares techniques, two proposals are developed for fast and accurate frequency estimation from each constructed sequence. The two devised estimators are proved to be asymptotically unbiased while their variances achieve CramrRao lower bound when the signal-to-noise ratio and/or data length tend to infinity. Computer simulations are also included to compare the proposed approach with conventional R-D harmonic retrieval schemes in terms of mean square error performance and computational complexity.

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 O O O O O O O O O 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

multi-dimensional spectral analysis
fast algorithm


Implications of Electronics Technology Trends for Algorithm Design1 Scaling of electronics technology has brought us to a pivotal point in the design of computational devices. Technology scaling favours transistors over wires which has led us into an era where communication takes more time and consumes more power than the computation itself. This technology driver inevitably pushes us toward a communication-centric approach to algorithm design. To assess the efficiency of an algorithm we will need to be able to predict data movement both in time and space. We demonstrate that algorithms exhibit fractal like communication behaviour which is likely to help with such an analysis. Moreover, successfully exploiting these fractal properties will allow us to reduce communication, thereby increasing performance and power efficiency.

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

cmp
communication complexity
fractal structure
temporal interconnect
networks-on-chip
rent's rule
tera-scale


Modelling the Kaiser effect and deformation rate analysis in sandstone using the discrete element method Non-destructive methods for rock in-situ stress estimation have been extensively investigated in recent years. Such techniques as deformation rate analysis and the acoustic emission method, which are based on rock memory recovery utilising the Kaiser effect, have become popular among many practitioners. The physical nature of this phenomenon has not however been universally established. In this study the primary cause of the Kaiser effect, the interaction of microcracks, was investigated. The numerical modelling package PFC2D was employed for creation of a synthetic cored specimen and simulation of uniaxial compression tests. The ability of the numerical model to reproduce the Kaiser effect and the deformation rate analysis phenomenon was confirmed, and a direct comparison was made between laboratory and numerical observations. The link between the Kaiser effect/deformation rate analysis and development of microcracks was established. The realistic behaviour of the numerical model can be used for exploration of other mechanical properties of rocks and also to further study the characteristics of the deformation rate analysis curve. The results of the modelling work may provide assistance for a more accurate interpretation of deformation rate analysis curves.

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

deformation rate analysis
kaiser effect
discrete element method


A Data Fusion Methodology for Wireless Sensor Systems An efficient DFA (data fusion algorithm) plays an important role in tracking for moving objects over WSS (wireless sensor system) deployments in order to track the objects accurately. Accuracy in object tracking is mainly dominated by the prediction for those moving targets by filtering and refining the results from wireless mobile sensors deployed in WSS environment. A DFA based on CHHN (competitive Hopfield neural network) technique for obtaining the relationship between measurements results from wireless mobile sensors and estimation of existing tracks over WSS (wireless sensor system) is proposed in this paper. Embedded within the CHNN is also a competitive learning mechanism which creatively removes the dilemma of occasional irrational solutions in traditional HNN (Hopfield neural networks). In this research, except the proposed approach is established with CHNN, the methodology of data fusion over WSS is guaranteed to converge into a stable state when performing a data association. In words, the CHNN-based DFA is combined with wireless mobile sensors in a WSS environment to demonstrate the target tracking capabilities. Computer simulation results illustrate that the new methodology of data fusion based on CHNN is not only successfully able to solve the data association problems addressed over WSS environments, but the specified simulated targets can also be tracked without large scale missing.

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

chnn (competitive hopfield neural network)


Center-based nearest neighbor classifier In this paper, a novel center-based nearest neighbor (CNN) classifier is proposed to deal with the pattern classification problems. Unlike nearest feature line (NFL) method, CNN considers the line passing through a sample point with known label and the center of the sample class. This line is called the center-based line (CL). These lines seem to have more capacity of representation for sample classes than the original samples and thus can capture more information. Similar to NFL, CNN is based on the nearest distance from an unknown sample point to a certain CL for classification. As a result, the computation time of CNN can be shortened dramatically with less accuracy decrease when compared with NFL. The performance of CNN is demonstrated in one simulation experiment from computational biology and high classification accuracy has been achieved in the leave-one-out test. The comparisons with nearest neighbor (NN) classifier and NFL classifier indicate that this novel classifier achieves competitive performance.

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

pattern classification
nearest neighbor
nearest feature line
computational biology


Bibliometric evolution: Is the journal of the association for information science and technology transforming into a specialty Journal? Applying a recently developed method for measuring the level of specialization over time for a selection of library and information science (LIS)-core journals seems to reveal that Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) is slowly transforming into a specialty journal. The transformation seems to originate from a growing interest in bibliometric topics. This is evident from a longitudinal study (19902012) of the bibliometric coupling strength between Scientometrics and other LIS-core journals (including JASIST). The cause of this gradual transformation is discussed, and possible explanations are analyzed.

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

scholarly publishing
bibliometrics
bibliographic coupling


a gaussian random field model of smooth fitness landscapes The smoothness of a fitness landscape, to date still an elusive notion, is considered to be a fundamental empirical requirement to obtain good performance for many existing meta-heuristics. In this paper, we suggest that a theory of smooth fitness landscapes is central to bridge the gap between theory and practice in EC. As a first step towards this theory, we formalize the notion of smooth fitness landscapes in a general setting using a Gaussian random field model on metric spaces. Then, for the specific case of the Hamming space, we show experimentally that traditional search algorithms with search operators based on this space reach better performance on smoother fitness landscapes. This shows that the formalized notion of smoothness captures the important heuristic property of its informal counterpart.

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


multimodal group action clustering in meetings We address the problem of clustering multimodal group actions in meetings using a two-layer HMM framework. Meetings are structured as sequences of group actions. Our approach aims at creating one cluster for each group action, where the number of group actions and the action boundaries are unknown a priori. In our framework, the first layer models typical actions of individuals in meetings using supervised HMM learning and low-level audio-visual features. A number of options that explicitly model certain aspects of the data (e.g., asynchrony) were considered. The second layer models the group actions using unsupervised HMM learning. The two layers are linked by a set of probability-based features produced by the individual action layer as input to the group action layer. The methodology was assessed on a set of multimodal turn-taking group actions, using a public five-hour meeting corpus. The results show that the use of multiple modalities and the layered framework are advantageous, compared to various baseline 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

multi-person event modeling
multi-sensor networks
automatic meeting analysis


Ultra-thin silicon nitride by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) for deep sub-micron CMOS technologies Silicon nitride is considered a promising candidate to replace thermal oxide dielectrics, as the latter is reaching its scaling limits due to the excessive increase in the gate tunneling leakage current. The novel hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) technique shows promise for gate quality silicon nitride film yields at 250 C while maintaining their primary advantage of a higher dielectric constant of 7.1. In this paper we report the results of our efforts towards developing ultra-thin HWCVD silicon nitride as an advanced gate dielectric for the replacement of thermal gate oxides in future generations of ultra large scale integration (ULSI) devices.

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

low-temperature silicon nitride (si3n4)
high-k dielectric


Gene Therapy for Treatment of Cerebral Ischemia Using Defective Herpes Simplex Viral Vectors Significant advances have been made over the past few years concerning the cellular and molecular events underlying neuron death. Recently, it is becoming increasingly clear that some of genes induced during cerebral ischemia may actually serve to rescue the cell from death. However, the injured cell may not be capable of expressing protein at high enough levels to be protective. One of the most exciting arenas of such interventions is the use of viral vectors to deliver potentially neuroprotective genes at high levels. Neurotropic herpes simplex viral (HSV) strains are an obvious choice for gene therapy to the brain, and we have used bipromoter vectors that are capable of transferring various genes to neurons. Using this system in experimental models of stroke, cardiac arrest, and excitotoxicity, we have found that it is possible to enhance neuron survival against such cerebral insults by overexpressing genes that target various facets of injury. These include energy restoration by the glucose transporter (GLUT-1), buffering calcium excess by calbindin, preventing protein malfolding or aggregation by stress proteins and inhibiting apoptotic death by BCL-2. We show that in some cases, gene therapy is also effective after the onset of injury, and also address whether successful gene therapy necessarily spares function. Although gene therapy is limited to the few hundred cells the vector is capable of transfecting, we consider the possibility of such gene therapy becoming relevant to clinical neurology in the future.

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

excitotoxin
heat shock protein
herpes virus


Fast generation of curved perspectives for ultra-wide-angle lenses in VR applications Classic ultra-wide-angle perspectives are not realistic and often misleading, nevertheless, they have to be used in many applications where the viewer needs a survey of the scene. Current hardware, however, only supports classic perspectives. We present a fast polygon-oriented algorithm that allows the use of curved perspectives in order to overcome several drawbacks, but at the cost of non-linearity. Space is projected onto a sphere rather than onto an image plane. The spherical coordinates are then interpreted two-dimensionally. We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of several approaches to curved perspectives. Time measurements show that real-time animation of reasonably complicated scenes can still be done; the overhead (additional cost of CPU-time) is less than 20%. Thus, curved perspectives are a good choice in virtual reality applications where ultra-wide-angle lenses have to be used.

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

wide-angle lenses
orthogonal projection
stereographic projection
cylindrical projection
mollweide projection
eckert projection


Generalized coincident pulse technique and new addressing schemes for time-division multiplexing optical buses Time-division multiplexing (TDM) optical buses have applications in computer networks, high-performance routers and switches, and interprocessor communication subsystems of parallel computers. Three waveguides are used to implement the previously proposed TDM optical bus. One waveguide is used for data transmission, and the other two waveguides are used for processor addressing. The coincident pulse technique is used to implement a unary addressing scheme. This architecture has two drawbacks: the bandwidth of address waveguides is wasted and the scalability of the bus is limited due to the unary addressing. In this paper, the coincident pulse technique is generalized in order to derive compact addressing schemes for TDM optical buses. Based on this new technique, optimal addressing schemes are presented. Several general methods for designing new addressing schemes are proposed to achieve various trade-offs. Compared with the previously proposed addressing scheme, the new schemes significantly improve the utilization of the bandwidth of optical waveguides and the scalability of a TDM optical bus. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

coincident pulse technique
processor addressing

fiber optics
optical bush network
parallel processing
router
switch
time-division multiplexing


spatiotemporal correspondence as a metric for human-like robot motion Coupled degrees-of-freedom exhibit correspondence, in that their trajectories influence each other. In this paper we add evidence to the hypothesis that spatiotemporal correspondence (STC) of distributed actuators is a component of human-like motion. We demonstrate a method for making robot motion more human-like, by optimizing with respect to a nonlinear STC metric. Quantitative evaluation of STC between coordinated robot motion, human motion capture data, and retargeted human motion capture data projected onto an anthropomorphic robot suggests that coordinating robot motion with respect to the STC metric makes the motion more human-like. A user study based on mimicking shows that STC-optimized motion is (1) more often recognized as a common human motion, (2) more accurately identified as the originally intended motion, and (3) mimicked more accurately than a non-optimized version. We conclude that coordinating robot motion with respect to the STC metric makes the motion more human-like. Finally, we present and discuss data on potential reasons why coordinating motion increases recognition and ability to mimic.

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


Study of landscape of global leather patents and analysis of technology linkages to trade The paper identifies the effect of changing patenting priorities in the emerging global leather trade. A landscape of invention portfolios generated through research and development in global leather sector has been investigated covering a three-year aggregated reference period of 19982000 relative to 19881990. Patents have been classified based on country of origin, applicant type and subject areas. Changing direction of global R&D in leather in various subject areas as indicated by generation of patents has been mapped. Technology trends have been analyzed. The trends indicate that product oriented research and bio-product alternatives to chemical inputs in leather processing are gaining higher significance and interest in leather research. The relationship between the balance of trade in leather world during 19982000 and the growth of patenting practices has also been studied.

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

leather patents
leather processing
balance of trade

patent landscaping
chemicals
devices
products
wto
ipr


Compressed bloom filters A Bloom filter is a simple space-efficient randomized data structure for representing a set in order to support membership queries. Although Bloom filters allow false positives, for many applications the space savings outweigh this drawback when the probability of an error is sufficiently low. We introduce compressed Bloomfilters, which improve performance when the Bloom filter is passed as a message, and its transmission size is a limiting factor. For example, Bloom filters have been suggested as a means for sharing Web cache information. In this setting, proxies do not share the exact contents of their caches, but instead periodically broadcast Bloom filters representing their caches. By using compressed Bloom filters, proxies can reduce the number of bits broadcast, the false positive probability, and/or the amount of computation per lookup. The cost is the processing time for compression and decompression, which can use simple arithmetic coding, and more memory use at the proxies, which utilize the larger uncompressed form of the Bloom filter.

algorithms
computer networks
information theory
distributed computing
distributed information systems


Comparison of different solution algorithms for collocated method of MCIM to calculate steady and unsteady incompressible flows on unstructured grids In this paper, the collocated method of MCIM (Mass Corrected Interpolation Method) is employed for solving two-dimensional incompressible flows on unstructured grid systems. A control-volume-based finite element (CVFEM) approach has been taken in which conservation equations are formed for each control volume throughout the solution domain. In this study, three different algorithms are proposed and investigated. In the first algorithm a fully coupled formulation is used, however in the second algorithm a segregated approach without pressure correction is employed. In the third solution algorithm, the scheme of MCIM is implemented to SIMPLE-like segregated algorithm. The linear system of equations obtained in these algorithms is solved using a direct sparse solver. The accuracy and performance of the proposed algorithms are demonstrated by solving different steady and unsteady benchmark problems. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

incompressible flow
collocated unstructured grid
simple-like algorithm


An approach to polygonal approximation of digital curves based on discrete particle swarm algorithm An approach to polygonal approximation of regular digital curves based on PSO algorithm is presented. In this paper, each particle corresponds to a candidate solution to the polygonal approximation problem, which is represented as a binary vector. The offset error of centroid between the original curve and the approximation polygon, and the variance of distance error for each approximation segment are adopted in the fitness function to evaluate the feasibility degree of the candidate solution. The sigmoid function of iteration times is used as the acceleration factors instead of the constant factors to improve the global searching characteristics. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can get suitable approximation results for preserving the features of original curves.

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

polygonal approximation
pso
centroid
sigmoid function


Comparative parallel execution of SWAT hydrological model on multicore and grid architectures The paper presents a comparative analysis made on the calibration of a large-scale model, executed both on grid and multicore architectures. The goal is to highlight the advantages brought by the grid infrastructure over the multicore architecture, especially for large-scale applications, which require large amounts of data and a large number of executions. The large-scale application used as a case study for this research work is the calibration of a large-scale SWAT hydrological model, covering the Danube River Basin.

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

grid
multicore
comparative analysis
swat
calibration


Efficiency evaluation of analog/RF alternate test: Comparative study of indirect measurement selection strategies The conventional practice for testing analog or RF integrated circuits is specification-based testing, which relies on the direct measurement of the circuit performance parameters. This approach offers good test quality but at the price of extremely high testing costs. In order to reduce test costs, a promising approach, called indirect or alternate testing has been proposed. Its basic principle consists in using the correlation between the conventional analog/RF performances and some low-cost measurements, called Indirect Measurements (IMs), in order to estimate the analog/RF parameters without measuring them directly. In this paper, we perform efficiency evaluation of this strategy, and in particular we perform a comparative analysis of different IM selection strategies in order to define efficient alternate testing implementation. Efficiency is evaluated in terms of model accuracy by using classical metrics such as average and maximal prediction errors, and in terms of prediction reliability by introducing a new metric called Failing Prediction Rate (FPR). Results are illustrated on two case studies for which we have experimental test data.

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

indirect testing
low-cost measurements
feature selection
test efficiency
specifications
analog and rf integrated circuits


CoMFA and CoMSIA Studies on Aryl Carboxylic Acid Amide Derivatives as Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase (DHODH) Inhibitors DHODH is a flavoenzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of dihydroorotate (DHO) to orotate (ORO) as part of the fourth and rate limiting step of the de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway. Inhibitors of DHODHs have proven efficacy for the treatment of cancer, malaria and immunological disorders. 3D QSAR studies on some aryl carboxylic acid amide derivatives as hDHODH inhibitors were performed by comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices (CoMSIA) methods to rationalize the structural requirements responsible for the inhibitory activity of these compounds. The alignment strategy was used for these compounds by means of Distill function defined in SYBYL X 1.2. The best CoMFA and CoMSIA models obtained for the training set were statistically significant with cross-validated coefficients (q(2)) of 0.636 and 0.604 and conventional coefficients (r(2)) of 0.993 and 0.950, respectively. Both the models were validated by an external test set of five compounds giving satisfactory prediction (r(pred)(2)) of 0.563 and 0.523 for CoMFA and CoMSIA models, respectively. Further the robustness of the model was verified by bootstrapping analysis. Generated CoMFA and CoMSIA models provide useful information for the design of novel inhibitors with good hDHODH inhibitory.

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

3d qsar
comfa
comsia
hdhodh inhibitors
aryl carboxylic acid amide derivatives


fms and fmse encryption/decryption algorithms using flipping, mapping, and shifting operations Cryptography is one of the most important areas in the computer industry. Encryption allows an application to secure its data from being accessed by hackers. Currently there are many industry-standard encryption/decryption algorithms including RSA, Rijndael, Blowfish [1,2], and so forth. However, they are fairly complex and require that one spend a lot of time to comprehend and implement them. This paper introduces two simple encryption/decryption algorithms that are fast and fairly secure. The algorithms manipulate a 64-bit input using flipping, mapping, and shifting to achieve its encryption/decryption.

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


Liberating the dimension for function approximation: Standard information This is a follow-up paper of "Liberating the dimension for function approximation", where we studied approximation of infinitely variate functions by algorithms that use linear information consisting of finitely many linear functionals. In this paper, we study similar approximation problems, however, now the algorithms can only use standard information consisting of finitely many function values. We assume that the cost of one function value depends on the number of active variables. We focus on polynomial tractability, and occasionally also study weak tractability. We present non-constructive and constructive results. Non-constructive results are based on known relations between linear and standard information for finitely variate functions, whereas constructive results are based on Smolyak's construction generalized to the case of infinitely variate functions. Surprisingly. for many cases, the results for standard information are roughly the same as for linear information. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

function approximation
tractability
standard information


Weakness and improvements of Yong-Lee's anonymous fingerprinting protocol In 2005, Yong and Lee proposed a buyer-seller fingerprinting protocol using symmetric and commutative encryptions. They claimed that their protocol was practical and anonymous since they used symmetric and commutative encryptions. However, an attacker can get the content embedded with one or more honest buyers' fingerprints using man-in-the-middle attack. In this letter, we point out the weakness and propose methods for improving to their protocol.

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

anonymous buyer-seller protocol
watermarking
man-in-the-middle attack


Mobile Iris Challenge Evaluation (MICHE)-I, biometric iris dataset and protocols A new dataset of iris images acquired by mobile devices can support researchers. MICHE-I will assist with developing continuous authentication to counter spoofing. The dataset includes images from different mobile devices, sessions and conditions.

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


Virtual courseware for geoscience education: Virtual Earthquake and Virtual Dating Virtual courseware developed for introductory-level, on-line geology labs is an interactive teaching/learning model that has an enormous pedagogical potential for making Web sites places where students learn by doing. Virtual Earthquake and Virtual Dating are modest examples of the 'virtual courseware' paradigm. Virtual Earthquake helps students explore the techniques of how an earthquake's epicenter is located and how its Richter magnitude is determined. Virtual Dating models the theory and techniques of the radiometric age determination of rocks and minerals. Virtual courseware applications offer several advantages over traditional floppy disk or CD ROM-based courseware, the most significant being the ease of dissemination. The author's experience with bringing these two virtual applications on-line suggests that there is a need for interactive geology labs on-line and that the approach will be received with enthusiasm by the educational community. The widespread implementation and adoption of virtual courseware can bring meaningful educational content and interactivity for the geosciences that goes beyond multimedia on the World-Wide-Web. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

earth science
on-line labs
web-based
instructional


On Fast-Decodable Space-Time Block Codes We focus on full-rate, fast-decodable space-time block codes (STBCs) for 2 x 2 and 4 x 2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission. We first derive conditions and design criteria for reduced-complexity maximum-likelihood (ML) decodable 2 x 2 STBCs, and we apply them to two families of codes that were recently discovered. Next, we derive a novel reduced-complexity 4 x 2 STBC, and show that it outperforms all previously known codes with certain constellations.

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

quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes (stbcs)


Quantitative measurement of component accessibility and product assemblability for design for assembly application One of the important issues about product assemblability (PA) is to design a product configuration that will facilitate assembly operations. The product configuration in this paper means the arrangement of components within a product. When a product is assembled, every component has to be handled by an assembly agent from the feeding position to the composing position. During this action, the product configuration plays a critical role in the planning and execution of the handling task of each component. The influence of the product configuration on the accessible range of a component can be investigated by considering the accessibility of the component. With an assembly oriented product configuration a product can achieve maximal assemblability in terms of the accessibility of each component. A quantitative rating, referred to as component accessibility (CA), has been developed to measure the accessibility of a component of a product during the conceptual and preliminary design stages. The CA is defined as the reciprocal of the information required for an ideal assembly agent to manipulate the component to have collision-free straight-line destination approaching in the presence of other assembled components. This CA has not previously been quantified and thus designers have only been able to rely on their own experience in arranging the components of a product. With the help of CA, a designer can select an optimal arrangement of components for assembly operations, and the best method for joining mating components can be chosen accordingly. As a result of the provision of CA, traditional DFA evaluation methodologies can be reinforced and many DFA-related applications can be further explored. Another quantitative measure, referred to as PA, has been developed accordingly to quantify the assemblability of a product on the basis of accessibility of each component. The relationship between the information content of assembling a product and the information content associated with each component has been derived. It has been found that the relationship between PA and CA of each component is similar to the relationship between the resistance of an equivalent resistor and the resistance of parallel resistors in electricity.

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

quantitative measurement
component accessibility
product assemblability
design for assembly


On stochastic dynamic programming for solving large-scale planning problems under uncertainty The stochastic dynamic programming approach outlined here, makes use of the scenario tree in a back-to-front scheme. The multi-period stochastic problems, related to the subtrees whose root nodes are the starting nodes (i.e., scenario groups), are solved at each given stage along the time horizon. Each subproblem considers the effect of the stochasticity of the uncertain parameters from the periods of the given stage, by using curves that estimate the expected future value (EFV) of the objective function. Each subproblem is solved for a set of reference levels of the variables that also have nonzero elements in any of the previous stages besides the given stage. An appropriate sensitivity analysis of the objective function for each reference level of the linking variables allows us to estimate the EFV curves applicable to the scenario groups from the previous stages, until the curves for the first stage have been computed. An application of the scheme to the problem of production planning with logical constraints is presented. The aim of the problem consists of obtaining the planning of tactical production over the scenarios along the time horizon. The expected total cost is minimized to satisfy the product demand. Some computational experience is reported. The proposed approach compares favorably with a state-of-the-art optimization engine in instances on a very large scale.

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

stochastic dynamic programming
scenario tree

mixed 0-1 model
tactical production planning


Performance evaluation of hydropower generation system using transfer function modelling Poor electricity generation in Nigeria is a very serious problem. The low power generation is caused in part by the ineffective maintenance and inefficient performance of Nigerias power generation facilities. The aim of this study is to develop a new and better way of evaluating the performance of hydropower generation facilities in order to improve their performance using transfer function modelling. It involves taking inputoutput data from a hydropower generation process over a 10-year period and developing transfer function models of the process for the 10 years, which are used as performance indicators. Based on the performance indicators obtained from the models, the results show that the efficiency of the power generation facility was worst in the year 2006 and best in 2003. Generally the indicators (coefficient of performance) were undulating over the 10-year period. Finally based on the fact the power plant has under performed over the years, a value of coefficient of performance which must be above the highest coefficient of performance of 7.523 obtained was suggested as a benchmark below which a hydropower plant is assumed to have under performed. The result of this study is expected to open new ways to improving maintenance effectiveness and operations efficiency of power generation facilities. The study would be of immense help in improving power generation in Nigeria and elsewhere.

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

transfer function
hydropower
electricity generation
performance indicators
modelling


coordinating multiple rovers with interdependent science objectives This paper describes an integrated system for coordinating multiple rover behavior with the overall goal of collecting planetary surface data. The MISUS system combines techniques from planning and scheduling with machine learning to perform autonomous scientific exploration with cooperating rovers. A distributed planning and scheduling approach is used to generate efficient, multi-rover coordination plans, monitor plan execution, and perform re-planning when necessary. A machine learning clustering component is used to deduce geological relationships among collected data and select new science activities. A key concept promoted by this system is the use of goal interdependency information to perform plan optimization and increase the value of collected science data. We discuss how we represent and reason about goal dependency and utility information in our planning system and explain how this information can change dynamically during system use. We show through experimental results that our approach significantly increases overall plan quality versus a standard approach that treats goal utilities independently.

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


Mesoscopic simulation studies on micellar phases of Pluronic P103 solution The microphase separation dynamics of the triblock copolymer surfactant P103 [(ethylene oxide)(17)(propylene oxide)(60)(ethylene oxide)(17)] was investigated by a dynamic variant of mean-field density functional theory. Different self-assembled aggregates, spherical micelles, micellar clusters and disk-like micelles, are explored in the solution. The spherical micelle above critical micelle concentration (CMC) is a dense core consisting mainly of PPO and a hydrated PEO swollen corona, and is in good agreement with the experimental results concerning their structures. At a concentration of 10-15%, micellar clusters with a larger PPO core form as a result of coalescence among spherical micelles. At concentrations above 16% by volume, a series of disk-like micelles come into being. The order parameters show that spherical micelles are easily formed, while the micellar clusters or disk-like micelles need a longer time to reach steady equilibrium. The results show that mesoscopic simulation can augment experimental results on amphiphilic polymers, and provide some mesoscopic information at the mesoscale level.

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


index support for rule activation Integrated rule and database systems are quickly moving from the research laboratory into commercial systems. However, the current generation of prototypes are designed to work with small rule sets involving limited inferencing. The problem of supporting large complex rule programs within database management systems still presents significant challenges. The basis for many of these challenges is providing support for rule activation. Rule activation is defined as the process of determining which rules are satisfied and what data satisfies them. In this paper we present performance results for the DATEX database rule system and its novel indexing technique for supporting rule activation. Our approach assumes that both the rule program and the database must be optimized synergistically. However, as an experimental result we have determined that DATEX requires very few changes to a standard DBMS environment, and we argue that these changes are reasonable for the problems being solved. Based on the performance of DATEX we believe we have demonstrated a satisfactory solution to the rule activation problem for complex rule programs operating within a database system.

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

activation
generation
database management systems
database system
performance
paper
dbms
program
indexing
research
systems
process
data
support
laboratory
database
rules

challenge standardization change experimentation environments prototype operability complexity


finding social roles in wikipedia This paper investigates some of the social roles people play in the online community of Wikipedia. We start from qualitative comments posted on community oriented pages, wiki project memberships, and user talk pages in order to identify a sample of editors who represent four key roles: substantive experts, technical editors, vandal fighters, and social networkers. Patterns in edit histories and egocentric network visualizations suggest potential "structural signatures" that could be used as quantitative indicators of role adoption. Using simple metrics based on edit histories we compare two samples of Wikipedians: a collection of long term dedicated editors, and a cohort of editors from a one month window of new arrivals. According to these metrics, we find that the proportions of editor types in the new cohort are similar those observed in the sample of dedicated contributors. The number of new editors playing helpful roles in a single month's cohort nearly equal the number found in the dedicated sample. This suggests that informal socialization has the potential provide sufficient role related labor despite growth and change in Wikipedia. These results are preliminary, and we describe several ways that the method can be improved, including the expansion and refinement of role signatures and identification of other important social roles.

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

online community
wikipedia
structural signatures
social roles


Drawing trees in a streaming model We pose a new visualization challenge, asking Graph Drawing algorithms to cope with the requirements of Streaming applications. In this model a source produces a graph one edge at a time. When an edge is produced, it is immediately drawn and its placement cannot be altered. The drawing has an image persistence, that controls the lifetime of edges. If the persistence is k, an edge remains in the drawing for the time spent by the source to generate k edges, and then it fades away. In this model we study the area requirement of planar straight-line grid drawings of trees and we assess the output quality of the presented algorithms by computing the competitive ratio with respect to the best known offline algorithms. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O O B O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 of algorithms
graph algorithms
online algorithms
large graphs


A genetic reduction of feature space in the design of fuzzy models The two fundamental conflicting requirements of fuzzy modeling, namely accuracy and transparency (interpretability) have resulted in a plethora of design methodologies and ensuing architectures of fuzzy models. This study contributes to the ongoing approaches to the enhancement of interpretability of fuzzy models by focusing on the reduction of input space in which such models are constructed. Fuzzy clustering realized through Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) is carried out in the input space of reduced dimensionality and the information granules obtained in such space are used to form a series of local models of the rule-based fuzzy model. The reduction of the input space is a problem of combinatorial nature and to solve this task, considered is the optimization scheme of genetic algorithms. In this sense, the feature (input) space reduction is realized by a wrapper algorithm, where the objective function guiding its development of the input space expresses the performance of the resulting fuzzy model. The design utilizes two commonly encountered concepts and functional constructs of fuzzy models, viz. information granules built in the reduced input space and a collection of local linear models forming the conclusion parts of the rules. Considering the well-established architecture of fuzzy models, the main objective of this study is to present a way of an efficient reduction of the input space leading to the enhanced interpretability of the fuzzy models and investigate and quantify possibilities of optimization of fuzzy models with regard. The underlying design issues being of particular practical interest in this modeling context deal with the dependencies between the level of reduction of the input space versus the granularity of the fuzzy model (viz. the number of its rules) and a quantification of an impact of the parameters of the granules (fuzzification coefficient) on the performance of the obtained model. The experimental studies highlighting the numerical aspects of the design comprise experimentation with synthetic data and those publicly available at several data sites.

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


Enabling systematic, harmonised and large-scale biofilms data computation: The Biofilms Experiment Workbench There is a critical need to develop bioinformatics tools that expedite the interchange and comparison of microbiological and clinical results among laboratories. Biofilms are a prominent subject within Biomedical research. The Biofilms Experiment Workbench (BEW) is a novel software workbench for the operation and analysis of biofilms experimental data. The Biofilms Markup Language (BML) is a new data representation format for modelling biofilms experiments. BEW is able to manage information of microbiological studies with various purposes.

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

clinical microbiology
experimental data workbench
interchange format
harmonised vocabulary


Bewertung von Discountoptionen bei Softwarelizenzvertrgen Viele Unternehmen setzen fr Systemsoftware und Applikationen lizenzpflichtige Standardsoftware kommerzieller Anbieter ein. Neben der Regelung zum Nutzungsrecht sind in den Softwarelizenzvertrgen immer fter Leistungen, wie Softwareupgrades oder Anwenderschulungen, enthalten oder gegen Gebhr integrierbar, die vom Lizenznehmer whrend der Vertragslaufzeit zu einem vergnstigten Leistungspreis oder kostenlos in Anspruch genommen werden knnen. Dieses Recht auf eine Vergnstigung wird als Discountoption bezeichnet und muss bei der Vertragsauswahl und -gestaltung bewertet werden. Der Beitrag zeigt die grundstzliche Bewertungsproblematik, sowie einige Schwchen bisheriger Bewertungsanstze auf und stellt anschlieend auf Basis der Realoptionstheorie ein Modell vor, das eine Bewertung der Discountoptionen mit finanzmathematischen Methoden ermglicht. Da der Wert von Discountoptionen mit einem analytischen Verfahren hufig nur mit Einschrnkungen abgeschtzt werden kann, wird auf Basis der numerischen Rckwrtsinduktion ein praxistaugliches Lsungsverfahren erlutert. Die Vorgehensweise bei der Modellanwendung und der erzielte Erkenntnisfortschritt werden anhand eines Beispiels illustriert.

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

realoptionen
software asset management
lizenzmanagement
real options
discount options
license management


Influence of anteroposterior shifting of trunk mass centroid on vibrational configuration of human spine This study attempts to determine the influence of anteroposterior (A-P) shifting of trunk mass from the upright sedentary posture on dynamic characteristics of the human lumbar spine. A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model comprising of the T12Pelvis spine unit was used to mimic the human spine system. It is not clear how the A-P shifting of the upper part of human upper body affect on vibrational modality of the human lumbar spine under whole body vibration. Five trunk mass point locations were assumed by 2.0cm anterior, 1.0cm anterior, 1.0cm posterior and 2.0cm posterior to the upright sedentary posture including no shifting posture. FE modal analysis was used to extract the resonant frequencies and vibration modes of the human spine. The analytical results indicate that trunk mass centroid shifting onwards or rearwards may result in a reduction of vertical resonant frequency of the human spine. The human spine has the highest vertical resonant frequency at the normal upright sedentary posture with the trunk mass locating around 1.0cm anterior to the L3L4 vertebral centroid. Larger A-P deformations and rotational deformations were also found at the spine motion segments L3L4 and L4L5, which imply higher compressive stress and shear stress at the disc annulus of those spinal motion segments. The findings in this study may explain why long-term whole body vibration might induce the degeneration of human spine at the relevant spinal motion 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

lumbar spine
modal analysis
vibration modes


set-at-a-time access to xml through dom To support the rapid growth of the web and e-commerce, W3C developed DOM as an application programming interface that provides the abstract, logical tree structure of an XML document. In this paper, we propose ordered-set-at-a-time extensions for DOM while maintaining its tightly managed navigational nature. In particular, we define the NodeSequence interface with functions that filter, navigate, and transform sequences of nodes simultaneously. The extended DOM greatly simplifies writing some application code, and it can reduce the communications overhead and response time between a client application and the DOM server to provide applications with more efficient processing. As validation of our proposals, we present application examples that compare the convenience and efficiency of DOM with and without extensions.

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

set-at-a-time
navigation
application program interface


eliciting hierarchical structures from enumerative structures for ontology learning Some discourse structures such as enumerative structures have typographical, punctuational and laying out characteristics which (1) make them easily identifiable and (2) convey hierarchical relations which provide ontology fragments clues. This study will try to show how these textual objects can be exploited in order to considerably improve the process of ontology enrichment from text.

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

discourse theory, document structure
enumerative structure


Real-time holonic scheduling of material handling operations in a dynamic manufacturing environment In a real-world manufacturing environment, finding the right sequences and associated schedules with resource, precedence, and timing constraints is a difficult task. Moreover, a decision time period of hours or even minutes is simply too long. Good solutions are often needed in real time. One approach to overcome the limitations of classical scheduling is the use of distributed schemes such as agent or holonic-based control architectures. This paper presents a solution for scheduling material handling devices in the cellular manufacturing environment using the holonic control approach. In holonic systems, under real-time constraints, a feasible schedule for the material handling devices emerges from the combination of individual material handling holons schedules. Internal evaluation and allocation algorithms and specific cooperation mechanisms between the holons in the architecture are the basis for the resultant emergent schedules. These evaluation algorithms are developed using several scenarios that take into account uncertainties that usually exist in a dynamic manufacturing environment, such as new orders entering into the system. The study results obtained show that the holonic system is capable of accommodating new arriving jobs and delivers good solutions in real time.

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

reactive scheduling
material handling systems


PIN pointing the motivational dimensions behind Pinterest The central findings are the uses and gratifications of Pinterest. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed five uses and gratifications. Fashion, entertainment, organization, virtual exploration and creative projects. A second-order model was proposed to explain the motivations to use Pinterest. Motivations provide retailers information about using Pinterest as a marketing tool.

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

pinterest
uses and gratifications
motivations


Numerical analysis of an experimental pipe buried in swelling soil This paper investigates the pipesoil interaction for pipes buried in expansive soil when subjected to swelling soil movement due to increase in moisture content. A laboratory experiment has been undertaken on a plastic pipe in a large-scale pipe box. A three dimensional numerical model is developed to analyse the pipe response, using FLAC3D computer program. The pipe is assumed to behave as a linearly elastic material, while the soil is modelled as a nonlinear material with MohrCoulomb failure criterion. The water flow and soil/pipe deformations are decoupled, where water flow is calculated using simplified capillary rise theory on the basis of measurements made. A reasonably good agreement between the experimental results and model predictions is reported.

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

pipesoil interaction
numerical analysis
expansive soil
moisture content


A review of novelty detection Novelty detection is the task of classifying test data that differ in some respect from the data that are available during training. This may be seen as one-class classification, in which a model is constructed to describe normal training data. The novelty detection approach is typically used when the quantity of available abnormal data is insufficient to construct explicit models for non-normal classes. Application includes inference in datasets from critical systems, where the quantity of available normal data is very large, such that normality may be accurately modelled. In this review we aim to provide an updated and structured investigation of novelty detection research papers that have appeared in the machine learning literature during the last decade.

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


The optimal sequenced route query Real-world road-planning applications often result in the formulation of new variations of the nearest neighbor (NN) problem requiring new solutions. In this paper, we study an unexplored form of NN queries named optimal sequenced route (OSR) query in both vector and metric spaces. OSR strives to find a route of minimum length starting from a given source location and passing through a number of typed locations in a particular order imposed on the types of the locations. We first transform the OSR problem into a shortest path problem on a large planar graph. We show that a classic shortest path algorithm such as Dijkstra's is impractical for most real-world scenarios. Therefore, we propose LORD, a light threshold-based iterative algorithm, which utilizes various thresholds to prune the locations that cannot belong to the optimal route. Then we propose R-LORD, an extension of LORD which uses R-tree to examine the threshold values more efficiently. Finally, for applications that cannot tolerate the Euclidean distance as estimation and require exact distance measures in metric spaces (e.g., road networks) we propose PNE that progressively issues NN queries on different point types to construct the optimal route for the OSR query. Our extensive experiments on both real-world and synthetic datasets verify that our algorithms significantly outperform a disk-based variation of the Dijkstra approach in terms of processing time (up to two orders of magnitude) and required workspace (up to 90% reduction on average).

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

spatial databases
nearest neighbor search
trip planning queries


Can Quantum Entanglement Between Ion Transition States Effect Action Potential Initiation? The involvement of atomic determinants in molecular models underlying ion-conducting proteins suggests a revisitation of classical concepts that are based on rate-theory models (e.g. gating particles) and bulk solvation concepts. Here, we investigate possible effects of a quantum correlation regime within ion-conducting molecules (voltage gated ion channels) on the onset dynamics of propagating voltage pulses (action potentials, APs). In particular, we focus on the initiation characteristics of action potentials, (API). We model the classical onset parameters of the sodium current in the HodgkinHuxley equation as three similar but independent probabilistic mechanisms that can become quantum correlated. The underlying physics is general and can involve entanglement between various degrees of freedom underlying ion transition states or gating states during conduction, for example, Na+ ions in different channel locations, or different coordination states of ions with atoms lining sub-regions of the protein (filter-states). We find that the resulting semi-classical version of the HodgkinHuxley equation, incorporating entangled sodium channel system states, can either enhance or slow down the rise in membrane potentials at the time of signal initiation. As in principle a single sodium channel can drive the membrane to an AP threshold, we suggest that the observed effects of a semi quantum-classical signal description point to a self-amplification of Na+ channels and may be due to quantum interferences within the atomic environment of channel atoms. If inserted into canonical generators of AP signals, the suggested quantum term can further enhance signal onset-rapidness, an aspect that has recently been observed in real cortical neurons and that seems to be inevitable for the encoding of high-frequency input.

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

action potential initiation
ion transition states
quantum entanglement

neural signals
sodium channels
quantum cooperativity


Drawing for illustration and annotation in 3D We present a system for sketching in 3D, which strives to preserve the degree of expression, imagination, and simplicity of use achieved by 2D drawing. Our system directly uses user-drawn strokes to infer the sketches representing the same scene from different viewpoints, rather than attempting to reconstruct a 3D model. This is achieved by interpreting strokes as indications of a local surface silhouette or contour. Strokes thus deform and disappear progressively as we move away from the original viewpoint. They may be occluded by objects indicated by other strokes, or, in contrast, be drawn above such objects. The user draws on a plane which can be positioned explicitly or relative to other objects or strokes in the sketch. Our system is interactive, since we use fast algorithms and graphics hardware for rendering. We present applications to education, design, architecture and fashion, where 3D sketches can be used alone or as an annotation of an existing 3D model.

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


sdms-an image processing application Lights! Camera! Action! constitute the basic fundamentals of Digital image processing. Digital image processing is a rapidly evolving field with growing applications in science and engineering. Image processing holds the possibility of developing the ultimate machine that could perform the visual functions of all living beings. Digital image processing has a broad spectrum of applications such as remote sensing via satellites, medical processing, radar, sonar, and automated inspection of industrial parts. Simple Digital Metrology System abbreviated as SDMS is a digital image processing application involving the field of measurement and calibration. The principal idea of this system is to automate the inspection process of sheet metal components manufactured by small and medium scale industries. The motive behind developing SDMS is to reduce the time and labor spent by the industries for inspection of components. This paper shall throw light upon various aspects of image processing and will focus mainly on the details of SDMS as an application of digital image processing.

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


A parametric VLSI architecture for video motion estimation This paper presents a VLSI macro-cell for the implementation of full-search (FS) motion estimation that is a key issue of various video processing and compression standards such as MPEG and H.263. Beyond the usual algorithm, advanced-prediction and static-priority options are supported to improve the SNR/bit-rate efficiency. The architecture is fully parametric in terms of block size and maximum search area size and the latter is also dynamically programmable. Based on a hardware multiplexing strategy and a saturation mechanism, the architecture features high throughput/area efficiency and reduced hardware complexity with respect to conventional FS systolic arrays. Two ASICs were implemented on a 0.25?m CMOS technology. The high-speed one features a 5.4mm2 core size and processes up to 4CIF format at 105MHz. The smaller one features a 2mm2 core size and processes QCIF and CIF formats at 18 and 72MHz, respectively. Exploiting the search area size programmability, these two formats can be processed with an average power consumption of 16 and 65mW, respectively, which is of paramount interest for wireless applications.

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

image coding
very large scale integration (vlsi)
high-speed integrated circuits
low-power circuits


Resilient Authenticated Execution of Critical Applications in Untrusted Environments Modern computer systems are built on a foundation of software components from a variety of vendors. While critical applications may undergo extensive testing and evaluation procedures, the heterogeneity of software sources threatens the integrity of the execution environment for these trusted programs. For instance, if an attacker can combine an application exploit with a privilege escalation vulnerability, the operating system (OS) can become corrupted. Alternatively, a malicious or faulty device driver running with kernel privileges could threaten the application. While the importance of ensuring application integrity has been studied in prior work, proposed solutions immediately terminate the application once corruption is detected. Although, this approach is sufficient for some cases, it is undesirable for many critical applications. In order to overcome this shortcoming, we have explored techniques for leveraging a trusted virtual machine monitor (VMM) to observe the application and potentially repair damage that occurs. In this paper, we describe our system design, which leverages efficient coding and authentication schemes, and we present the details of our prototype implementation to quantify the overhead of our approach. Our work shows that it is feasible to build a resilient execution environment, even in the presence of a corrupted OS kernel, with a reasonable amount of storage and performance overhead.

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

operating systems
security
virtual machine monitors


Theoretical study of the pH-dependent antioxidant properties of vitamin C Molecules acting as antioxidants capable of scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) are of utmost importance in the living cell. Vitamin C is known to be one of these molecules. In this study we have analyzed the reactivity of vitamin C toward the and ROS species, in all acidic, neutral and basic media. In order to do so, density functional theory (DFT) have been used. More concretely, the meta-GGA functional MPW1B95 have been used. Two reaction types have been studied in each case: addition to the ring atoms, and hydrogen/proton abstraction. Our results show that is the most reactive species, while displays low reactivity. In all three media, vitamin C reactions with two hydroxyl radicals show a wide variety of possible products.

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

antioxidant properties
reactive oxygen species
vitamin c


linking names and faces by person-based subset clustering In this paper we address the challenge problem of linking names and faces from online news. Developing accurate technologies for linking names and faces is valuable when retrieving or mining information from images collections. Here, we propose a novel method called Person-based Subset Clustering. It divides into four steps. Firstly, we detect names in the captions. Secondly, for the target name, we retrieval all images with the same name. Thirdly, each image is normalized by calibrating two facial feature points. And then we extract the Local Gabor Binary Pattern Histogram Sequence as the local visual features to represent each face image, and pair-wise distances are calculated. Finally, several clustering methods are applied to clustering the faces. Experiments show the effectiveness of our method, which is based on a data set consisting of approximately 690 news pictures and captions from Yahoo News.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 device adaptive inflow boundary condition for Wigner equations of quantum transport In this paper, an improved inflow boundary condition is proposed for Wigner equations in simulating a resonant tunneling diode (RTD), which takes into consideration the band structure of the device. The original Frensley inflow boundary condition prescribes the Wigner distribution function at the device boundary to be the semi-classical FermiDirac distribution for free electrons in the device contacts without considering the effect of the quantum interaction inside the quantum device. The proposed device adaptive inflow boundary condition includes this effect by assigning the Wigner distribution to the value obtained from the Wigner transform of wave functions inside the device at zero external bias voltage, thus including the dominant effect on the electron distribution in the contacts due to the device internal band energy profile. Numerical results on computing the electron density inside the RTD under various incident waves and non-zero bias conditions show much improvement by the new boundary condition over the traditional Frensley inflow boundary condition.

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

frensley inflow boundary condition
resonant tunneling diode


A software tool to evaluate crystal types and morphological developments of accessory zircon An innovative database for mineralogical and petrological users was developed. The database program enables the visualization of zircon growth. ZIRCTYP has the advantage of an easy data input. Stored data may be presented by eye-catching results sheets.

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

morphological analysis
typology diagram
microsoft access


Polynomial-time quantum algorithms for finding the linear structures of Boolean function In this paper, we present quantum algorithms to solve the linear structures of Boolean functions. Suppose Boolean function \(f\): \(\{0, 1\}^{n}\rightarrow \{0, 1\}\) is given as a black box. There exists an unknown n-bit string \(\alpha \) such that \(f(x)=f(x\oplus \alpha )\). We do not know the n-bit string \(\alpha \), excepting the Hamming weight \(W(\alpha )=m, 1\le m\le n\). Find the string \(\alpha \). In case \(W(\alpha )=1\), we present an efficient quantum algorithm to solve this linear construction for the general \(n\). In case \(W(\alpha )>1\), we present an efficient quantum algorithm to solve it for most cases. So, we show that the problem can be solved nearly in quantum polynomial times \(O(n^{2})\). From this view, the quantum algorithm is more efficient than any classical algorithm.

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


Characterizing knowledge diffusion of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology by citation analysis This study investigates the knowledge diffusion patterns of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (N&N) by analyzing the overall research interactions between N&N and nano-related subjects through citation analysis. Three perspectives were investigated to achieve this purpose. Firstly, the overall research interactions were analyzed to identify the dominant driving forces in advancing the development of N&N. Secondly, the knowledge diffusion intensity between N&N and nano-related subjects was investigated to determine the areas most closely related to N&N. Thirdly, the diffusion speed was identified to detect the time distance of knowledge diffusion between N&N and nano-related subjects. The analysis reveals that driving forces from the outside environment rather than within N&N itself make the foremost contributions to the development of N&N. From 1998 to 2007, Material Science, Physics, Chemistry, N&N, Electrical & Electronic and Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering are the key contributory and reference subjects for N&N. Knowledge transfer within N&N itself is the quickest. And the speed of knowledge diffusion from other subjects to N&N is slower than that from N&N to other subjects, demonstrating asymmetry of knowledge diffusion in the development of N&N. The results indicate that N&N has matured into a relatively open, diffuse and dynamic system of interactive subjects.

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Novel script line identification method for script normalization and feature extraction in on-line handwritten whiteboard note recognition When writing on a whiteboard, the writer stands rather than sits and the writing arm does not rest. Due to these adverse conditions when writing on a whiteboard, the script lines within the handwritten text suffer from high variations, i.e. they cannot be approximated by polynomials of low order. In this paper, we propose a novel method for identifying script lines in handwritten whiteboard notes by assigning the sample points of the script trajectory to the script lines. The optimal assignment is then found by the Viterbi algorithm. We present two ways to use the script line characterization. First, the script lines are used to normalize the skew and size of the text lines. In a second approach, the feature vector of a standard recognition system is augmented by the explicit script line membership of each sample point, aiming at reducing the confusions between characters differing in size rather than in shape (like s and S or e and l). As experiments show, a relative improvement of r=3.3% r = 3.3 % in character-level and r=3.4% r = 3.4 % in word-level accuracy compared to a baseline system can be achieved with the proposed script line identification method. In addition, the written character confusion as described above can be reduced. Finally, the proposed utilizations are examined and discussed in further detail.

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whiteboard note recognition
script line identification
script normalization

on-line handwriting recognition
line-member
preprocessing


finding positively invariant sets of a class of nonlinear loops via curve fitting In this paper, we study positively invariant sets of a class of nonlinear loops and discuss the relation between these sets and the attractors of the loops. For the canonical Hnon map, a numerical method based on curve fitting is proposed to find a positively invariant set containing the strange attractor. This work can be generalized to find inequality termination conditions for loops with nonlinear assignments.

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Specifications and Evaluation of a MAC Protocol for a LP-WPAN Industrials have been increasingly interested in wireless sensor and actuator networks to monitor and control installations. The recent IEEE 802.15.4 standard has been developed to address vital issues of these networks, such as limited battery power and low processing capabilities. However, the standard does not meet all the requirements of industrial networks. For example, only some of the IEEE 802.15.4 nodes save energy. Also, this standard suffers from beacon frame collisions. In this paper, we describe MaCARI, a deterministic MAC layer protocol which allows all nodes to save energy and avoids the beacon frame collisions. We discuss several optimizations to increase the performance of the protocol or to offer QoS features. We evaluated the main components of MaCARI using a simulation and a prototype on a real hardware platform in order to prove their feasibility.

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wireless sensor networks
ieee 802.15.4
energy-efficient mac protocol
slotted csma/ca


Synaptic compensation on Hopfield network: implications for memory rehabilitation The discrete-time neural network proposed by Hopfield can be used for storing and recognizing binary patterns. Here, we investigate how the performance of this network on pattern recognition task is altered when neurons are removed and the weights of the synapses corresponding to these deleted neurons are divided among the remaining synapses. Five distinct ways of distributing such weights are evaluated. We speculate how this numerical work about synaptic compensation may help to guide experimental studies on memory rehabilitation interventions.

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memory rehabilitation
synaptic compensation

alzheimers disease
hopfield neural network