Measurement of As diffusivity in Ni2Si thin films The lattice and grain boundary diffusion coefficients of As in 260nm-thick Ni2Si films were measured. The Ni2Si layers were prepared via the reaction between a Si layer deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition and a Ni layer deposited by magnetron sputtering on a Si substrate covered with a SiO2 film. As was implanted in the silicide. Its concentration profiles were measured using secondary ion mass spectroscopy before and after annealing (550700C). 2D finite element diffusion simulations taking into account lattice diffusion and grain boundary (GB) diffusion were performed based on the microstructure of the samples. They were found to fit accurately the measured profiles and allowed to measure the diffusion coefficients for each temperature. Lattice diffusion is characterized by a pre-exponential factor D0v?1.510?1cm2s?1 and an activation energy Qv?2.72eV. In the case of GB diffusion P0=s?D0gb=9.010?3cm3s?1 and the activation energy was found to be higher than for lattice diffusion with Qgb?3.07eV. Existing data concerning diffusion in silicides and other materials is used to discuss these results. The diffusion of As in Ni2Si could be reduced due to impurity segregation in GBs.

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

nickel silicides
arsenic
grain boundaries
polycrystal


Scheduling a two-stage flowshop under makespan constraint We consider selecting and sequencing jobs in a two stage flowshop so that the selected jobs are completed before a specified time limit (such as the end of a shift). The objective is to maximize the weighted (reward) sum of the selected jobs. We show that the problem is NP-hard, and present two procedures to find an optimum solution. The first procedure uses dynamic programming, and the second uses mixed integer programming. The integer programming formulation exploits special properties of the problem and solves large instances of the problem. We also develop heuristics and provide worst case performance guarantees. An improvement procedure is also developed. Extensive computational testing shows that our heuristics, when used jointly with the improvement procedure, yield excellent results (providing solutions within 3% of the optimum in an average sense) for both balanced and unbalanced shops. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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


Multi-criteria decision-making methods with optimism and pessimism based on Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets The theory of Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets (A-IFSs) developed over the last several decades has found useful application in fields requiring multiple-criteria decision analysis. Since the membership-nonmembership pair in A-IFSs belongs to the bivariate unipolarity type, this article describes an approach that relates optimism and pessimism to multi-criteria decision analysis in an intuitionistic fuzzy-decision environment. First, several optimistic and pessimistic point operators were defined to alter the estimation of decision outcomes. Next, based on the core of the estimations, optimistic and pessimistic score functions were developed to evaluate each alternative with respect to each criterion. The suitability function was then established to determine the degree to which each an alternative satisfies the decision maker's requirement. Because the information on multiple criteria corresponding to decision importance is often incomplete, this study included suitability functions in the optimisation models to account for poorly known membership grades. Using a linear equal-weighted summation method, these models were transformed into a single objective optimisation model to generate the optimal weights for criteria. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods were illustrated through a practical example. Finally, computational experiments with enormous amounts of simulation data were designed to conduct a comparative analysis on the ranking orders yielded by different optimistic/pessimistic point operators.

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

atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy set
multiple-criteria decision analysis
point operator
score function
computational experiment


Learning pseudo-tags to augment sparse tagging in hybrid music recommender systems Online recommender systems are an important tool that people use to find new music. To generate recommendations, many systems rely on tag representations of music. Such systems, however, suffer from tag sparsity, whereby tracks lack a strong tag representation. Current state-of-the-art techniques that reduce this sparsity problem create hybrid systems using multiple representations, for example both content and tags. In this paper we present a novel hybrid representation that augments sparse tag representations without introducing content directly. Our hybrid representation integrates pseudo-tags learned from content into the tag representation of a track, and a dynamic weighting scheme limits the number of pseudo-tags that are allowed to contribute. Experiments demonstrate that this method allows tags to remain dominant when they provide a strong representation, and pseudo-tags to take over when tags are sparse. We show that our approach significantly improves recommendation quality not only for queries with a sparse tag representation but also those that are well-tagged. Our hybrid approach has potential to be extended to other music representations that are used for recommendation but suffer from data sparsity, such as user profiles.

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

music recommendation
hybrid representations


Coloring graphs without short cycles and long induced paths ? For an integer k?1 k ? 1 , a graph G G is k k -colorable if there exists a mapping c:VG?{1,,k} c : V G ? { 1 , , k } such that c(u)?c(v) c ( u ) ? c ( v ) whenever u u and v v are two adjacent vertices. For a fixed integer k?1 k ? 1 , the k k -Coloring problem is that of testing whether a given graph is k k -colorable. The girth of a graph G G is the length of a shortest cycle in G G . For any fixed g?4 g ? 4 we determine a lower bound ?(g) ? ( g ) , such that every graph with girth at least g g and with no induced path on ?(g) ? ( g ) vertices is 3-colorable. We also show that for all fixed integers k,??1 k , ? ? 1 , thek k -Coloring problem can be solved in polynomial time for graphs with no induced cycle on four vertices and no induced path on ? ? vertices. As a consequence, for all fixed integers k,??1 k , ? ? 1 and g?5 g ? 5 , the k k -Coloring problem can be solved in polynomial time for graphs with girth at least g g and with no induced path on ? ? vertices. This result is best possible, as we prove the existence of an integer ?? ? ? , such that already 4-Coloring is NP-complete for graphs with girth 4 and with no induced path on ?? ? ? vertices.

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

graph coloring
forbidden induced subgraph


Information systems outsourcing strategies for affiliated firms of the Korean conglomerate groups Information systems (IS) outsourcing has received little academic attention in the non-Western context. This paper reports on IS outsourcing strategies for the affiliated firms of the Korean conglomerate groups which possess their own IS subsidiaries. Aggregating the IS departments of the groups' firms into a separate IS division has been a major trend among the Korean conglomerate groups. The IS division is a separate corporation wholly owned by the parent group. The IS companies of the conglomerate groups occupy a major share of the Korean IS outsourcing market. This is due to the 'guaranteed' IS outsourcing contracts they secure from their groups' affiliated firms. From the affiliated firms' perspective, however, this arrangement prevents them from selecting the best IS solution provider and potentially undermines their information technology (IT) strategy. Using a contingency model based on an organization's information intensity and group influence, this paper offers a set of outsourcing strategies for the affiliated firms of the conglomerate groups. Subsequently the model and the recommended strategies are verified through multiple case studies. Results from these case studies support our model in that user satisfaction is higher when the firm's current outsourcing strategy matches the recommended strategy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

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

information systems
is outsourcing
outsourcing strategy


On the commutativity of antiblocker diagrams under lift-and-project operators ? The behavior of the disjunctive operator, defined by Balas, Ceria and Cornujols, in the context of the antiblocker duality diagram associated with the stable set polytope, QSTAB(G), of a graph and its complement, was first studied by Aguilera, Escalante and Nasini. The authors prove the commutativity of this diagram in any number of iterations of the disjunctive operator. One of the main consequences of this result is a generalization of the Perfect Graph Theorem under the disjunctive rank. In the same context, Liptk and Tunel study the lift-and-project operators N0 N 0 , N and N+ N + defined by Lovsz and Schrijver. They find a graph for which the diagram does not commute in one iteration of the N0 N 0 - and N -operator. In connection with N+ N + , the authors implicitly suggest a similar result proving that if the diagram commutes in k=O(1) k = O ( 1 ) iterations, P=NP P = NP . In this paper, we give for any number of iterations, explicit proofs of the non commutativity of the N0 N 0 -, N - and N+ N + -diagram. In the particular case of the N0 N 0 - and N-operator, we find bounds for the ranks of the complements of line graphs (of complete graphs), which allow us to prove that the diagrams do not commute for these graphs.

O O O O O 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

stable set problem
lift-and-project operators


Nefertiti: a query by content system for three-dimensional model and image databases management This paper presents a new approach for the classification and retrieval of three-dimensional images and models from databases. A set of retrieval algorithms is introduced. These algorithms are content-based, meaning that the input is not made out of keywords but of three-dimensional models. Tensors of inertia, distribution of normals, distribution of cords and multiresolution analysis are used to describe each model. The database can be searched by scale, shape or color or any combination of these parameters. A user-friendly interface makes the retrieval operation simple and intuitive and makes it possible to edit reference models according to the specifications of the user. Experimental results using a database of more than 400 range images and 1000 VRML models are presented (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

object oriented database management system


A correction method using a support vector machine to minimize hematocrit interference in blood glucose measurements A decrease in hematocrit levels increases glucose concentrations. An increase in hematocrit levels decreases glucose concentrations. We develop hematocrit compensation method that minimizes the effects of hematocrit on glucose measurements. Glucose concentrations were calculated with linear fitting prediction and a support vector machine.

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

hematocrit
linear fitting prediction
support vector machine

glucose concentration
adaptive calibration curve
chronoamperometry


Scalable software architectures for decision support Interest in decision-support prog rams for cl in ica I medicine soared in the 1970s. Since that time, workers in medical informatics have been particularly attracted to rule-based systems as a means of providing clinical decision support. Although developers have built many successful applications using production rules, they also have discovered that creation and maintenance of large rule bases is quite problematic. In the 1980s, several groups of investigators began to explore alternative programming abstractions that can be used to build decision-support systems. As a result, the notions of "generic tasks" and of reusable problem-solving methods became extremely influential. By the 1990s, academic centers were experimenting with architectures for intelligent systems based on two classes of reusable components: (1) problem-solving methods - domain-independent algorithms for automating stereotypical tasks - and (2) domain ontologies that captured the essential concepts (and relationships among those concepts) in particular application areas. This paper highlights how developers can construct large, maintainable decision-support systems using these kinds of building blocks. The creation of domain ontologies and problem-solving methods is the fundamental end product of basic research in medical informatics. Consequently, these concepts need more attention by our scientific community.

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

scalable software architectures
decision support
ontologies


Identifier length and limited programmer memory Because early variable mnemonics were limited to as few as six to eight characters, many early programmers abbreviated concepts in their variable names. The past thirty years have seen a steady increase in permitted name length and, slowly, an increase in the actual identifier length. However, in theory names can be too long for programmers to comprehend and manipulate effectively. Most obviously, in object-oriented programs, entity naming often involves chaining of method calls and field selectors (e.g.. class.firstAssignment().name.trim()). While longer names bring the potential for better comprehension through more embedded sub-words, there are practical limits to their length given limited human memory resources. The driving hypothesis behind the presented study is that names used in modern programs have reached this limit. Thus, a goal of the study is to better understand the balance between longer, more expressive names and limited programmer memory resources. Statistical models derived from an experiment involving 158 programmers of varying degrees of experience show that longer names extracted from production code take more time to process and reduce correctness in a simple recall activity. This has clear negative implications for any attempt to read, and hence comprehend or manipulate, the source code found in modern software. The experiment also evaluates the advantage of identifiers having probable ties to a programmer's persistent memory. Combined, these results reinforce past proposals advocating the use of limited, consistent, and regular vocabulary in identifier names. In particular, good naming limits individual name length and reduces the need for specialized vocabulary. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Ethics in Anthropology: Dilemmas and Conundrums This paper is a call for awareness and continual examination of the multifaceted nature of ethics and closely related ideas as they relate to anthropology. At the very least, the lack of common understanding of these ideas has been and continues to be a pressing prblem for all who practice anthropology. In this vein, abbreviated etymologies of these critical concepts are put forth as prologue to forays into ethics in the academy and of science as context for ethical maneuver. Shifting conditions in anthropology are then described in relation to altered ethical orders with examples of early hints of the contemporary scene being drawn from Oscar Lewis's commentary on the raucous reception in Mexico of his book The Children of Sanchez.

B O O B 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 B 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 B I I I

ethics
science as context
dilemmas
conundrums
the children of sanchez

defining
morals
values
ethics in the academy
changes in anthropology
project camelot
oscar lewis


Modification of the fish swarm algorithm with particle swarm optimization formulation and communication behavior The fish swarm algorithm (FSA) is a new intelligent swarm modeling approach that consists primarily of searching, swarming, and following behaviors. This paper proposes several improvements of the FSA, including: (1) using particle swarm optimization formulation to reformulate the FSA, (2) integrating communication behavior into FSA, and (3) creating formulas for major FSA parameters. This paper also focuses on studying the effects of FSA behaviors on optimization during the evolution process. Results focus on the two case study categories of function optimization (eight benchmark functions) and neural network learning (single-input single-output system identification, multi-inputs single output system identification and Iris classification problem). Evidence indicates that the proposed FSA approach reduces the effort necessary to set parameters and that the proposed communication behavior indeed improves FSA.

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

particle swarm optimization
fish swarm algorithm
communication behavior


the computational thinking across the curriculum workshop We report on a workshop conducted as a part of an NSF-funded project focused on enhancing computational thinking in the general education curriculum. The workshop brought together project participants as well as other interested individuals to reflect on the first two years of the grant and begin planning for future work. We report on the results of a survey of workshop participants, providing insight into factors that contribute to the success of such events.

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


ProtoMon: Embedded monitors for cryptographic protocol intrusion detection and prevention Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are responsible for monitoring and analyzing host or network activity to detect intrusions in order to protect information from unauthorized access or manipulation. There are two main approaches for intrusion detection: signature-based and anomaly-based. Signature-based detection employs pattern matching to match attack signatures with observed data making it ideal for detecting known attacks. However, it cannot detect unknown attacks for which there is no signature available. Anomaly-based detection uses machine-learning techniques to create a profile of normal system behavior and uses this profile to detect deviations from the normal behavior. Although this technique is effective in detecting unknown attacks, it has a drawback of a high false alarm rate. In this paper, we describe our anomaly-based IDS designed for detecting malicious use of cryptographic and application-level protocols. Our system has several unique characteristics and benefits, such as the ability to monitor cryptographic protocols and application-level protocols embedded in encrypted sessions, a very lightweight monitoring process, and the ability to react to protocol misuse by modifying protocol response directly.

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

computer security
cryptographic protocol abuse


User reactions to anthropomorphized interfaces It is still an open question whether software agents should be personified in the interface. In order to study the effects of faces and facial expressions in the interface, a series of experiments was conducted to compare subjects' responses to and evaluation of different faces and facial expressions. The experimental results obtained demonstrate that: 1) personified interfaces help users engage in a task, and are well suited for an entertainment domain; 2) people's impressions of a face in a task are different from ones of the face in isolation. Perceived intelligence of a face is determined not by the agent's appearance but by its competence; 3) there is a dichotomy between user groups which have opposite opinions about personification. Thus, agent-based interfaces should be flexible to support the diversity of users' preferences and the nature of tasks.

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

agent
anthropomorphism
facial expression
user interface design
emotion


An inverse geometry problem for the localisation of skin tumours by thermal analysis In this paper, the dual reciprocity method (DRM) is coupled to a genetic algorithm (GA) in an inverse procedure through which the size and location of a skin tumour may be obtained from temperature measurements at the skin surface. The GA is an evolutionary process which does not require the calculation of sensitivities, search directions or the definition of initial guesses. The DRM in this case requires no internal nodes. It is also shown that the DRM approximation function used is not an important factor for the problem considered here. Results are presented for tumours of different sizes and positions in relation to the skin surface.

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

dual reciprocity method
genetic algorithm
tumour

boundary elements
thermal problems
inverse problems


exploiting contextual data for event retrieval in surveillance video Contextual information is vital for the robust extraction of semantic information in automated surveillance systems. We have developed a scene independent framework for the detection of events in which we provide 2D and 3D contextual data for the scene under surveillance via a novel fast and convenient interface tool. In addition, the proposed framework illustrates the use of integral images, not only for detection, as with the classic Viola-Jones object detector, but also for efficient tracking. Finally, we provide a quantitative assessment of the performance of the proposed system in a number of physical locations via groundtruthed datasets.

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


StarBRITE: The Vanderbilt University Biomedical Research Integration, Translation and Education portal StarBRITE is a one-stop, web-based research portal designed to meet the day-to-day needs of the Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College research community during the planning and conduct of research studies. StarBRITE serves as the main online location for research support addressing issues such as identification and location of resources, identification of experts, guidance for regulatory applications and approvals, regulatory assistance, funding requests, research data planning and collection, and serves as a central repository for educational offerings. To date, there have been more than 590,038 StarBRITE hits by more than 6582 cumulative users. We present here StarBRITE design objectives, details about technical infrastructure and system components, status report and activity metrics for the first 2.75-years of operation, and a report of lessons learned during organizing, launching and refining the portal.

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

biomedical informatics
clinical research
translational research
scientific portfolio management
researcher portal
research services


investigating the readability of state-based formal requirements specification languages The readability of formal requirements specification languages is hypothesized as a limiting factor in the acceptance of formal methods by the industrial community. An empirical study was conducted to determine how various factors of state-based requirements specification language design affect readability using aerospace applications. Six factors were tested in all, including the representation of the overall state machine structure, the expression of triggering conditions, the use of macros, the use of internal broadcast events, the use of hierarchies, and transition perspective (going-to or coming-from). Subjects included computer scientists as well as aerospace engineers in an effort to determine whether background affects notational preferences. Because so little previous experimentation on this topic exists on which to build hypotheses, the study was designed as a preliminary exploration of what factors are most important with respect to readability. It can serve as a starting point for more thorough and carefully controlled experimentation in specification language readability.

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

point
applications
use
affect
formal methods
specification language
requirements specification
hierarchies
representation
state machine
exploration
structure
experimentation
macros
factor
industrial
broadcast
readability

empirical studies
communities
event
intern
computation
express
preference
language design
formalism
transit
language


Robust visual tracking by metric learning with weighted histogram representations Measuring the similarity between the target template and a target candidate is a critical issue in visual tracking. An appropriate similarity metric can improve the accuracy and robustness of visual tracking. This paper proposes a robust visual tracking algorithm that incorporates online distance metric learning into visual tracking based on a particle filter framework. The appearance variations of an object are effectively learned via an online metric learning mechanism. In addition, we use spatially weighted feature representations using both color and spatial information of objects, which can further improve the tracking performance. The proposed algorithm is compared with several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms, and experimental results on challenging video sequences demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed tracking algorithm.

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

visual tracking
distance metric learning
weighted histogram representations


Local T-spline surface skinning Skinning or lofting remains a challenging problem in computer graphics and free-form surface design. Although it was addressed by many researchers, no sufficiently general solution has been proposed yet. In the interpolating approach, the incompatibility of the input NURBS curves are solved by knot insertion. This process leads to an explosion in the number of control points defining the skinned surface. Other methods avoid this problem by generating skinned surfaces that approximate rather than interpolate the input curves. In this paper, we provide a solution to this problem using T-splines. Compared with existing approaches, a T-spline skinned surface interpolates a set of incompatible curves with a control mesh of fewer vertices. Typically, the linear system involved could be solved globally. However, our approach provides a local solution for each skinned curve. As such, local modification could be used to meet additional constraints such as given normal and/or predefined curvature across the skinned curves.

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

computer graphics and geometric modeling


Polya's Theorem with zeros Let R[X] be the real polynomial ring in n variables. Polya's Theorem says that if a homogeneous polynomial p is an element of R[X] is positive on the standard n-simplex Delta(n), then for sufficiently large N all the coefficients of (X(1) + ... + X(n))(N) p are positive. We give a complete characterization of forms, possibly with zeros on Delta(n), for which there exists N so that all coefficients of (X(1) + ... + X(n))(N) p have only nonnegative coefficients, along with a bound on the N needed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

polya's theorem
positive polynomial
sums of squares


Modeling and simulating electronic textile applications This paper describes our design of a simulation environment for electronic textiles (e-textiles) and our experiences with that environment. This simulation environment, based upon Ptolemy II, enables us to model a diverse range of areas related to the design of electronic textiles, including the physical environment they will be used in, the behavior of the sensors incorporated into the fabric, the on-fabric network, the power consumption of the system, and the execution of the application and system software. This paper focuses on two aspects of the system, modeling the motion of a person wearing the e-textile and modeling the effect of faults in the e-textile system. To partially validate this environment, we compare simulation results against results from two different physical prototypes, a large-scale acoustic beamformer and a pair of shape-sensing pants.

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

performance
experimentation
measurement
wearable computing
smart fabrics
context awareness


Numerical simulation of detonation using an adaptive Cartesian cut-cell method combined with a cell-merging technique A second-order accurate scheme for the Cartesian cut-cell method developed previously by the authors [Ji H, Lien F-S, Yee E. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 198 (2008), 432] is generalized for application to both two- and three-dimensional inviscid compressible flow problems. A cell-merging approach is used to address the so-called "small cell" problem that has plagued Cartesian cut-cell methods. In the present cell-merging approach, the conservative variables are stored at the cut-cell centroid (including the non-merged and merged cut-cells) rather than at the Cartesian cell center. Although this approach results in a more complicated search algorithm for the determination of the neighbor cells (required for the computation of the spatial gradients of the conservative variables), this approach enables the straightforward formulation of a higher than first-order accurate discretization scheme in the vicinity of the (complex and irregular) internal boundaries of the flow domain. Six test cases (including detonation problems) are used to demonstrate the accuracy and capability of the adaptive cut-cell method, for which both mesh refinement and derefinement techniques are employed in the case of an unsteady shock diffraction problem. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

adaptive mesh refinement/derefinement
3-d cut-cell method
cell-merging methodology


A two-scale model for an array of AFM's cantilever in the static case The primary objective of this paper is to present a simplified model for an array of Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs) operating in static mode. Its derivation is based on the asymptotic theory of thin plates initiated by P. Ciarlet and P. Destuynder and on the two-scale convergence introduced by M. Lenczner which generalizes the theory of G. Nguetseng and G. Allaire. As an example, we investigate in full detail a particular configuration, which leads to a very simple model for the array. Aspects of the theory for this configuration are illustrated through simulation results. Finally the formulation of our theory of two-scale convergence is fully revisited. All the proofs are reformulated in a significantly simpler manner. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

atomic force microscopy
microsystems arrays
multiscale modeling
homogenization


reliability and survivability methodologies for next generation networks This paper aims to review some reliability and availability methodologies suitable to characterize telecommunication networks behavior, in particular, in the presence random failures of network elements. This approach is becoming more and more relevant to assess the Quality of Service offered by a telecom operator to its subscribers, also known as performability. In order to clarify this approaches, we present some examples related to next generation networks based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem. Some notions about the emerging requirements of network survivability are given.

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

availability
ip multimedia subsystem
next generation networks
network survivability


An investigation of teachers beliefs and their use of technology-based assessments Our analysis of beliefs was based the decomposed theory of planned behavior model. 85% of the teachers perceived technology-based assessments (TBAs) as useful tools. Some teachers tended to view school policies and parents opinions as constraints. Teachers also realized the benefits of using TBAs for students learning. Three groups of teachers were identified and characterized based on their use of TBAs.

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

technology-based assessments teachers beliefs the decomposed theory of planned behavior model


A C1 finite element capable of interlaminar stress continuity This paper extends Lee and Liu's [Comput. Struct. 42 (1992) 6978] zig-zag approach for matching tractions across material boundaries to a more traditional finite element implementation suitable for more general partial-coverage layups. Key quantities from a new C1-capable element are compared with traditional C0 elements and Pagano's analytical solution. Comparisons center around interface stresses, as might be used to predict debond of an active or passive damping treatment, and strain energy, the quantity often used to estimate damping is structures. It is shown that traction continuity is important in predicting interface stresses, but not in predicting strain energy distributions.

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

finite element
traction continuity
interface
strain energy


Evaluation of soil and fluid structure interaction in blast modelling of the flying plate test We modelled the flying plate blast scenario using ALE, based on an experimental study. Comparison of three soil models highlights variable kinematic and structural plate responses. We deduced the material parameters of prairie soil for use in the FHWA soil model. Pore pressure development and soil softening are important in accurate impulse calculation. Correlation between charge shape and pressure wave directionality leads to soil densification.

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


Intensity type state variables in the integration of planning and controlling manufacturing processes Nowadays rapid changes of market conditions require more efficient integration of Process Planning and Production Controlling in manufacturing industry. In computer integrated systems the classical models of manufacturing operation planning are not adequate for flexible operation management. This paper shows a new conception to use intensity type machining state variables (e.g. Q [cm(3)/min]) which expresses both machining and management aspects at the same time. The theoretical background of the conception and some application examples will also be detailed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

integration
intensity
manufacturing processes


A field-based approach for examining bicycle seat design effects on seat pressure and perceived stability The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of various bicycle seat designs on seat pressure and perceived stability in male and female cyclists using a unique field-based methodology. Thirty participants, comprising male and female cyclists, pedaled a bicycle at 118W over a 350m flat course under three different seat conditions: standard seat, a seat with a partial anterior cutout, and a seat with a complete anterior cutout. The pressure between the bicycle seat and perineum of the cyclist was collected with a remote pressure-sensing mat, and perceived stability was assessed using a continuous visual analogue scale. Anterior seat pressure and stability values for the complete cutout seat were significantly lower (p<0.05; 62101%) than values for the standard and partial cutout designs. These findings were consistent between males and females. Our results would support the contention that the choice of saddle design should not be dictated by interface pressure alone since optimal anterior seat pressure and perceived seat stability appear to be inversely related.

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


towards a spatial multidimensional model Data warehouses and OLAP systems help to interactively analyze huge volume of data. This data, extracted from transactional databases, frequently contains spatial information which is useful for decision-making process. Integration of spatial data in multidimensional models leads to the concept of SOLAP (Spatial OLAP). Using a spatial measure as a geographical object, i.e. with geometric and descriptive attributes, raises problems regarding the aggregation operation in its semantic and implementation aspects. This paper shows the requirements for a multidimensional spatial data model and presents a multidimensional data model which is able to support complex objects as measures, inter-dependent attributes for measures and aggregation functions, use of ad-hoc aggregation functions and n to n relations between fact and dimension, in order to handle geographical data, according to its particular nature in an OLAP context.

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

spatial olap
multidimensional data
spatial data


A hierarchical Bayesian model for continuous speech recognition This paper proposes a stochastic model for continuous speech recognition that provides automatic segmentation of a spoken utterance into phonemes and facilitates the quantitative assessment of uncertainty associated with the identified utterance features. The model is specified hierarchically within the Bayesian paradigm. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, a Gibbs distribution is used to specify a probability distribution on all the possible partitions of the utterance. The number of partitioning elements which are phonemes is not specified a priori. At a higher level in the hierarchical specification, random variables representing phoneme durations and acoustic vector values are associated reported about 0.9% word error rate. The new model was experimentally compared to continuous density mixture HMM (CDHMM) on a same recognition task, and gave significantly smaller word error rates.

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

hierarchical
bayesian
gibbs distribution
speech recognition


the microsoft data platform Advances in hardware, storage, devices, connectivity, and web technology are changing the way applications are designed, deployed, and managed. Applications are increasingly becoming data-centric and data is everywhere, and in all tiers (from the client to the cloud). Data across multiple tiers requires data access and management capabilities across these tiers. The Microsoft Data Platform presents a vision for an end-to-end data platform that offers data services across all tiers.

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

synchronization
model-centric data and services
device


Inverse-feedforward of charge-controlled piezopositioners Inverse-feedforward control can substantially improve the performance of piezoelectric positioners (piezopositioners). The feedforward-input is found by modeling and inverting the piezopositioner dynamics. The primary challenge in such an approach is the complexity of modeling and inverting the hysteresis nonlinearity in the piezopositioner dynamics. The main contribution of this work is to alleviate this complexity by using charge control to linearize the overall dynamics and then model and invert the simplified (linearized) dynamics. The proposed approach is applied to an experimental piezopositioner and results are presented to contrast the feedforward-based positioning performance with and without the use of charge control to linearize the dynamics. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

piezopositioners
charge control
hysteresis


Piecewise growth curve modeling approach for longitudinal prevention study Conventional growth curve modeling typically involves a single growth profile to represent changes in an outcome variable across time. This study applies an alternative growth curve model with multiple profiles to incorporate multiple developmental stages from which longitudinal data have been obtained. Identifying and modeling the multiple transitional stages involved in repeated measures are both theoretically and empirically important in longitudinal study. A longitudinal data set obtained from a substance use prevention study was used as an example to illustrate this application. The data contained a total of 50 junior high schools (23 control and 27 program schools) observed for seven waves crossing junior high school and high school stages, with the prevalence rate of monthly cigarette use as the outcome measure. Comparisons showed that the piecewise growth curve models incorporating multiple stages demonstrated significant improvement on model fitting compared to the single-piece growth curve model. Results showed marginal prevention effects in the junior high school stage but not in the high school stage. Piecewise growth curve models offer more both substantively and analytically appropriate model specification and flexibility in incorporating transitional periods in studying changes across 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 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 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

epidemiologic methods
multilevel model
random effect model


A framework for use of wireless sensor networks in forest fire detection and monitoring Forest fires are one of the main causes of environmental degradation nowadays. Current surveillance systems for forest fires lack in supporting real-time monitoring of every point of a region at all times and early detection of fire threats. Solutions using wireless sensor networks, on the other hand, can gather sensory data values, such as temperature and humidity, from all points of a field continuously, day and night, and, provide fresh and accurate data to the fire-fighting center quickly. However, sensor networks face serious obstacles like limited energy resources and high vulnerability to harsh environmental conditions, that have to be considered carefully. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive framework for the use of wireless sensor networks for forest fire detection and monitoring. Our framework includes proposals for the wireless sensor network architecture, sensor deployment scheme, and clustering and communication protocols. The aim of the framework is to detect a fire threat as early as possible and yet consider the energy consumption of the sensor nodes and the environmental conditions that may affect the required activity level of the network. We implemented a simulator to validate and evaluate our proposed framework. Through extensive simulation experiments, we show that our framework can provide fast reaction to forest fires while also consuming energy efficiently.

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

wireless sensor networks
forest fire detection


Electrical performance study of 25nm ?-FinFET under the influence of gamma radiation: A 3D simulation In this research paper, a 3D process simulation of 25nm n-channel ?-FinFET and the effect of Gamma radiation on device characteristics have been studied. Device simulations are carried out under the influence of Gamma radiation under varying does conditions from 100Krad (SiO2) to 10Mrad (SiO2). Effects of Gamma radiation on the threshold voltage, transfer characteristics, drive current, off-state leakage current and subthreshold characteristics have been studied. Extracted parameters for virgin and irradiated devices have been compared in order to understand the degradation in the electrical characteristics of the ?-FinFET under study. Simulation results under the low drain and high drain bias has been reported and discussed. It is found that ?-FinFET delivers better performance under irradiation as compared with conventional single gate MOS structures. ?-FinFET is shown to be significantly tolerant to gamma radiation upto dose of 5Mrad (SiO2). In addition, the influence of quantum effects on this nanoscale device is investigated in detail. Sentaurus simulation results obtained has been compared with the reported experimental data.

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


Finite element analysis of welded beam-to-column joints in aluminium alloy EN AW 6082 T6 Shell elements are used to model welded beam-to-column joints in alloy EN AW 6082 T6, and the results are compared with experimental data from the literature. The textured alloy is modelled using an anisotropic plasticity model and the inhomogeneous work-hardening properties of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) are accounted for in the material modelling. In order to represent the geometry as accurately as possible, a varying thickness of the shell elements is used in the various parts of the joints. It is found that the numerical results are strongly mesh dependent. To obtain reliable results for both strength and ductility, it is proposed to introduce non-local plastic thinning in the HAZ. This procedure reduces the mesh dependence of the strain localization, at the cost of introducing one additional parameter, namely the radius of the non-local domain.

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

welds
anisotropy
mesh convergence
non-local plastic thinning


An exact method for the biobjective shortest path problem for large-scale road networks Recursive exact algorithm that implicitly enumerates all solutions. Fast method that works well on graphs of up to 1.2 million nodes and 2.8 million arcs. Consistently outperformed a top-performer benchmark algorithm for real road networks. Easily extensible to the multiobjective shortest path problem with three or more objectives.

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 B I I O O O O O O

biobjective shortest path
multiobjective shortest path

multiobjective combinatorial optimization (moco)


Ultracapacitor integration for short-term energy management in a hybrid system Purpose - This paper aims to deal with the integration of energy storage devices (ultracapacitors) in wind energy applications to absorb the short terms fluctuations. The originality of this contribution is focused on energy management related to wind power frequency distribution between the hybrid sources. The robust and simplified control strategies are proposed and applied to DC-DC converters without AC signals measurements. A novel MPPT method is introduced to operate the wind generator at the maximum power regardless of the wind speed variations. The fluctuating part of this power is mitigated by using a UC. The reference current of this last is obtained from a low pass filter. An innovative limitation algorithm of the UC voltage is proposed with aims to ensure optimal operation of the system. The control algorithms are implemented in a PIC18F4431 microcontroller. Some experimental results from this new approach are presented and analyzed. Design/methodology/approach - This study is organized according to the following main and sub-topics after introduction: frequency distribution principle; wind energy generation; short-term fluctuations storage system; and experimental setup and results. Findings - The simulations results highlight the interest of using ultracapacitors in a wind-diesel system. The experimental results show that the short term fluctuations induced by the wind generator current are effectively mitigated by the ultracapacitors. Originality/value - In this paper, an interesting MPPT method is presented. The fluctuations mitigation is realised by using the frequency distribution according to ultracapacitors dynamics. The ultracapacitors voltage control method is proposed with the aim of maintaining optimal operation conditions, and is validated by experimental tests.

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

ultracapacitors
wind power
energy management

battery
buck converter
buck-boost converter
diesel generator
storage device


APPROXIMATION ALGORITHMS FOR BICLUSTERING PROBLEMS One of the main goals in the analysis of microarray data is to identify groups of genes and groups of experimental conditions (including environments, individuals, and tissues) that exhibit similar expression patterns. This is the so-called biclustering problem. In this paper, we consider two variations of the biclustering problem: the consensus submatrix problem and the bottleneck submatrix problem. The input of the problems contains an m x n matrix A and integers l and k. The consensus submatrix problem is to find an l x k submatrix with l < m and k < n and a consensus vector such that the sum of distances between the rows in the submatrix and the consensus vector is minimized. The bottleneck submatrix problem is to find an l x k submatrix with l < m and k < n, an integer d and a center vector such that the distance between every row in the submatrix and the vector is at most d and d is minimized. We show that both problems are NP-hard and give randomized approximation algorithms for special cases of the two problems. Using standard techniques, we can derandomize the algorithms to get polynomial time approximation schemes for the two problems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that approximation algorithms with guaranteed ratios are presented for microarray data analysis.

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

approximation algorithms
microarray data analysis
genes


Variable neighborhood search for the Vertex Separation Problem The Vertex Separation Problem belongs to a family of optimization problems in which the objective is to find the best separator of vertices or edges in a generic graph. This optimization problem is strongly related to other well-known graph problems; such as the Path-Width, the Node Search Number or the Interval Thickness, among others. All of these optimization problems are NP-hard and have practical applications in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration), computer language compiler design or graph drawing. Up to know, they have been generally tackled with exact approaches, presenting polynomial-time algorithms to obtain the optimal solution for specific types of graphs. However, in spite of their practical applications, these problems have been ignored from a heuristic perspective, as far as we know. In this paper we propose a pure 0-1 optimization model and a metaheuristic algorithm based on the variable neighborhood search methodology for the Vertex Separation Problem on general graphs. Computational results show that small instances can be optimally solved with this optimization model and the proposed metaheuristic is able to find high-quality solutions with a moderate computing time for large-scale instances.

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

combinatorial optimization
metaheuristics
variable neigborhood search
layout problems


Actor analysis methods and their use for public policy analysts Public policy analysts use methods rooted in OR and systems analysis to support policy makers in their judgement. In doing so, most policy analysts recognize the value of a certain understanding of the role of actors in policy making processes. Different methods are available to aid such understanding and, although they all focus on actors, there are important differences between them. Insight into the range of available methods and their characteristics will thus help policy analysts to learn more about the potential and limitations involved in analyzing multi-actor processes. This article provides such an overview, based on the main requirements these methods should meet. This overview is used to discuss some of the implications for policy analysts who are interested in analyzing multi-actor processes, focusing specifically on trade-offs between analytic quality and practical usability.

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

or in societal problem analysis
stakeholder analysis
policy analysis
multi-actor systems


Modelling methods for web application verification and testing: state of the art Models are considered an essential step in capturing different system behaviours and simplifying the analysis required to check or improve the quality of software. Verification and testing of web software requires effective modelling techniques that address the specific challenges of web applications. In this study we survey 24 different modelling methods used in web site verification and testing. Based on a short catalogue of desirable properties of web applications that require analysis, two different views of the methods are presented: a general categorization by modelling level, and a detailed comparison based on property coverage. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


a double-deck elevator systems controller with idle cage assignment algorithm using genetic network programming Many studies on Double-Deck Elevator Systems (DDES) have been done for exploring more ecient algorithms to improve the system transportation capacity, especially in a heavy trac mode. The main idea of these algorithms is to decrease the number of stops during a round trip by grouping the passengers with the same destination as much as possible. How to dispatch idle cages, which is seldom considered in the heavy trac mode, becomes important when developing the controller of DDES. In this paper, we propose a DDES controller with idle cage assignment algorithm using Genetic Network Programming (GNP) for a light traffic mode, which is based on a timer and event-driven hybrid model. To verify the effeciency and effectiveness of the proposed method, some experiments have been done under a special down-peak pattern.

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 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

evolutionary computation
double-deck elevator systems


Nonlinear dimensionality reduction with relative distance comparison This paper proposes a new algorithm for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Our basic idea is to explore and exploit the local geometry of the manifold with relative distance comparisons. All such comparisons derived from local neighborhoods are enumerated to constrain the manifold to be learned. The task is formulated as a problem of quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP). However, such a QCQP problem is not convex. We relax it to be a problem of semi-definite programming (SDP), from which a globally optimal embedding is obtained. Experimental results illustrate the validity of our algorithm.

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

nonlinear dimensionality reduction (nldr)


A cross-layer multi-hop cooperative network architecture for wireless ad hoc networks In this paper, a novel decentralized cross-layer multi-hop cooperative network architecture is proposed and presented. This cross-layer architecture introduces a new cooperative flooding scheme and two decentralized opportunistic cooperative forwarding mechanisms based on randomized coding, and a Routing Enabled Cooperative Medium Access Control (RECOMAC) protocol that enables cooperative forwarding, while incorporating physical, medium access control (MAC) and routing layers. RECOMAC employs randomized coding to realize cooperative diversity, so that relay selection and actuation mechanisms are alleviated and the MAC costs are reduced. The coded packets are routed in the network via the proposed cooperative forwarding schemes, which opportunistically form cooperative sets within a region, not needing a prior route to be established. Essentially, in the RECOMAC architecture, the routing layer functionality is submerged into the MAC layer to provide seamless cooperative communication, while the messaging overhead to set up routes, select and actuate relays is reduced. We evaluate the performance of RECOMAC in terms of network throughput, delay and MAC and routing overhead, in comparison to the conventional architecture based on the well-known IEEE 802.11 MAC and Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocols. RECOMAC is shown to provide quite significant improvement by an order of magnitude difference in all investigated performance metrics, under a variety of scenarios, considering different network sizes, static and mobile scenarios and networks with multiple flows. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

cooperative communications
cooperative routing


The hybrid algorithm for the study of geometric configurations of 2D clusters of uniformly charged classical particles We present the modified, hybrid algorithm for the calculation of topological properties of 2D clusters of charged classical particles. The issue has been so far studied using simulation (Monte Carlo) as well as optimization (Genetic Algorithm) techniques. In the paper we combine the PSO global optimization mechanism with the local search algorithm. We propose different objective functions for different issues analyzed. We show the role of different phases of optimization. We are able to reproduce the earlier results and to present new configurations. It seems also that for the majority of issues our approach is fast and effective.

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

classical coulomb clusters
particle swarm intelligence


An improved truncation technique to analyze a Geo/PH/1 retrial queue with impatient customers This paper considers a discrete-time retrial queue with impatient customers. We establish the global balance equations of the Markov chain describing the system evolution and prove that this queueing system is stable as long as the customers are strict impatient and the mean retrial time is finite. Direct truncation with matrix decomposition is used to approximate the steady-state distribution of the system state and hence derive a set of performance measures. The proposed matrix decomposition scheme is presented in a general form which is applicable to any finite Markov chain of the GI/M/1-type. It represents a generalization of the GaverJacobsLatouche's algorithm that deals with QBD process. Different sets of numerical results are presented to test the efficiency of this technique compared to the generalized truncation one. Moreover, an emphasis is put on the effect of impatience on the main performance measures.

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

impatient customers
matrix decomposition

retrial queues
discrete-time setting
truncation approaches


Hierarchical video content description and summarization using unified semantic and visual similarity Video is increasingly the medium of choice for a variety of communication channels, resulting primarily from increased levels of networked multimedia systems. One way to keep our heads above the video sea is to provide summaries in a more tractable format. Many existing approaches are limited to exploring important low-level feature related units for summarization. Unfortunately, the semantics, content and structure of the video do not correspond to low-level features directly, even with closed-captions, scene detection, and audio signal processing. The drawbacks of existing methods are the following: (1) instead of unfolding semantics and structures within the video, low-level units usually address only the details, and (2) any important unit selection strategy based on low-level features cannot be applied to general videos. Providing users with an overview of the video content at various levels of summarization is essential for more efficient database retrieval and browsing. In this paper, we present a hierarchical video content description and summarization strategy supported by a novel joint semantic and visual similarity strategy. To describe the video content efficiently and accurately, a video content description ontology is adopted. Various video processing techniques are then utilized to construct a semi-automatic video annotation framework. By integrating acquired content description data, a hierarchical video content structure is constructed with group merging and clustering. Finally, a four layer video summary with different granularities is assembled to assist users in unfolding the video content in a progressive way. Experiments on real-word videos have validated the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

hierarchical video summarization
semi-automatic video annotation
video grouping


Immunizing mobile ad hoc networks against collaborative attacks using cooperative immune model In this paper, a security problem of cooperative immunization against collaborative attacks such as blackhole attacks and wormhole attacks, in the mobile ad hoc networks such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) networks, was discussed. Because of the vulnerabilities of the protocol suites, collaborative attacks in the mobile ad hoc networks can cause more damages than individual attacks. In human immune system, nonselfs (i.e., viruses, bacteria and cancers etc.) can attack human body in a collaborative way and cause diseases in the human body. With the inspiration from the human immune system, a tri-tier cooperative immune model was built to detect and eliminate the collaborative attacks (i.e., nonselfs) in the mobile ad hoc networks. ARM-based Network Simulator (NS2) tests and probability analysis were utilized in the prototype for immune model to analyze and detect the attacks. Experimental results demonstrate the validation and effectiveness of the model proposed by minimizing the collaborative attacks and immunizing the mobile ad hoc networks. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

cooperative immune model
ad hoc networks
security
collaborative attacks


Priority levels based multi-hop broadcasting method for vehicular ad hoc networks This paper deals with broadcasting problem in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). This communication mode is commonly used for sending safety messages and traffic information. However, designing an efficient broadcasting protocol is hard to achieve since it has to take into account some parameters related to the network environment, for example, the network density, in order to avoid causing radio interferences. In this paper, we propose a novel Autonomic Dissemination Method (ADM) which delivers messages in accordance with given priority and density levels. The proposed approach is based on two steps: an offline optimization process and an adaptation to the network characteristics. The first step uses a genetic algorithm to find solutions that fit the network context. The second one relies on the Autonomic Computing paradigm. ADM allows each vehicle to dynamically adapt its broadcasting strategy not only with respect to the network density, but also in accordance to the priority level of the message to send. The experimental results show that ADM effectively uses the radio resources even when there are globally many messages to send simultaneously. Moreover, ADM allows to increase the message delivery ratio and to reduce the latency and radio interferences.

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

vanet
broadcast
message priority level
density evaluation
quality of service


On proper secrets, (t, k)-bases and linear codes This paper contains three parts where each part triggered and motivated the subsequent one. In the first part (Proper Secrets) we study the Shamir's "k-out-of-n" threshold secret sharing scheme. In that scheme, the dealer generates a random polynomial of degree k - 1 whose free coefficient is the secret and the private shares are point values of that polynomial. We show that the secret may, equivalently, be chosen as any other point value of the polynomial (including the point at infinity), but, on the other hand, setting the secret to be any other linear combination of the polynomial coefficients may result in an imperfect scheme. In the second part ((t, k)-bases) we define, for every pair of integers t and k such that 1 <= t <= k - 1, the concepts of (t, k)-spanning sets, (t, k)-independent sets and (t, k)-bases as generalizations of the usual concepts of spanning sets, independent sets and bases in a finite-dimensional vector space. We study the relations between those notions and derive upper and lower bounds for the size of such sets. In the third part (Linear Codes) we show the relations between those notions and linear codes. Our main notion of a (t, k)-base bridges between two well-known structures: (1, k)-bases are just projective geometries, while (k - 1, k)-bases correspond to maximal MDS-codes. We show how the properties of (t, k)-independence and (t, k)-spanning relate to the notions of minimum distance and covering radius of linear codes and how our results regarding the size of such sets relate to known bounds in coding theory. We conclude by comparing between the notions that we introduce here and some well known objects from projective geometry.

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

threshold secret sharing
spanning sets
linear codes
projective geometry

discrete linear algebra
linear independence


towards a dsal for object layout in virtual machines High-level language virtual machine implementations offer a challenging domain for modularization, not only because they are inherently complex, but also because efficiency is not likely to be traded for modularity. The central data structure used throughout the VM, the object layout, cannot be succinctly modularised by current aspect technology, as provisions for static crosscutting are not fine-grained enough. This position paper motivates the need for a declarative, domain-specific language for handling the tangled object layout concern. Based on observations in real-world VM implementations, we propose such a language, D4OL. It combines a two-level layout mapping, constraints and an engine to divide responsibilities between VM component and VM developers. We consider a domain-specific language like D4OL a necessary complement to behavioural aspect languages in order to modularize VM implementations.

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


Network architecture and communication modules for guaranteeing acceptable control and communication performance for networked multi-agent systems When sensory and actuation devices in a control system are exchanging data through one common communication medium, the sharing of communication bandwidth will induce unavoidable data latency and might degrade the control performance. Hence, the utilization of communication resource and the requirement of control specification should be analyzed and properly designed when implementing a control system over a network architecture. In this paper, we analyze the performance of information sharing of multiple cooperative agents over one communication network, and propose design methodologies of guaranteeing acceptable control and communication performance in a networked control system. In particular, we study the relationship between the sampling rates of a control system, and the transmission rates of a communication network, and then utilize an integrated networked control design chart to help select design parameters and visualize overall system performance at different sampling and transmission rates. Based on the design parameters selected, the communication modules by utilizing deadband control and state estimation are presented for guaranteeing both control and communication performance. Simulation studies are conducted in a network-and-control simulation tool that is developed on the Matlab/Simulink platform and is used to demonstrate the proposed design methodologies. Both the analysis and simulation results illustrate the characteristics of designing mechanisms between control and communication performance and show the improvement of implementing the proposed communication modules.

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

communication rate
networked control systems
sampling rate


Incremental single shooting-A robust method for the estimation of parameters in dynamical systems Estimating the parameters of a dynamical system based on measurement data is an important but complex task in industrial and scientific practice [Schittkowski, K. (2002). Numerical data fitting in dynamical systems: A practical introduction with applications and software. Kluwer Academic Publishers]. Due to its importance, different approaches to solve this kind of problem have been developed. The most established ones are single shooting [Bard, Y. (1974). Nonlinear parameter estimation. New York: Academic Press], multiple shooting [Bock, H. G. (1983). Recent advances in parameter identification techniques for ODE. In P. Deuflhard, & E. Hairer (Eds.), Numerical treatment of inverse problems in differential and integral equations (pp. 95-121). Boston: Birkhauser] and full discretization techniques [Biegler, L. T. (1984). Solution of dynamic optimization problems by successive quadratic programming and orthogonal collocation. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 8,243-248]. Single shooting is the most natural and simple approach to the problem, directly combining numerical integration and optimization techniques. However, for unstable or singular systems the numerical integration of the dynamic model may fail. This problem is especially severe in the framework of parameter estimation, since the dynamic model has to be integrated many times with different parameter estimates. Multiple shooting and full discretization aim at overcoming these deficiencies but suffer from other drawbacks. Therefore single shooting is still widely applied in industry and academia. In this work we present a novel method called Incremental Single Shooting or ISS for short, which aims at overcoming the deficiencies of the classical single shooting approach while keeping its advantages. (C) 2009 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 B I O O O O B I O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O

single shooting
parameter estimation
multiple shooting

numerical optimization
least-squares
dynamic parameter estimation


Using concept lattices for visual navigation assistance in large databases The increasing size of indexed document sets that are digitally available emphasises the crucial need for more suitable representation tools than traditional textual lists of results. Many efforts have been made to develop graphical tools capable of providing both overall and local views of a collection when focusing on a particular subset of documents. However, an overcrowded visual representation may not be useful to users if they are not guided in the navigation process. Our goal is to combine the classification features of formal concept analysis and existing visualisation techniques to suggest navigation paths in a visual representation through meaningful and progressive foci. While results are promising, in particular concerning interactions between local and overall views, some difficulties arise concerning non-binary attributes. Therefore, we propose an embedded multidimensional scaling projection that offers various abstraction layers. The test collection used for our study is an indexed patent database provided by our industrial partner.

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

formal concept analysis
multidimensional scaling


A customer satisfaction inventory model for supply chain integration Customer relationship is increasingly influencing the performance of inventory management in a supply chain, and customer retention or migration directly affect the number of customer orders and demands as well as the inventory level. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to propose a customer satisfaction inventory (CSI) model that incorporates customer relationship management into an inventory model, where the probabilistic concepts of Markov chains of uncertainties in customer relationships of retention or migration are adopted. This enables us to determine both a CSI level for replenishing the inventory level to best fit future customer demand and a customer CSI value of the net profit or loss of an organization from a customer over its purchasing life against the inventory cost of an organization. The modeling and development of the proposed customer satisfaction inventory CSI model are discussed in this paper. Simulation and analysis are conducted for the proposed model, and satisfactory results are achieved, such that the proposed model can help to determine a CSI level that can fully meet orders and demand as well as minimizing inventory cost and maximizing CSI value.

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


On the vertex-connectivity problem for graphs with sharpened triangle inequality Given a graph with the edge costs satisfying the beta-sharpened triangle inequality: cost(u, v) less than or equal to beta(cost(u, x) + cost(x, v)), for 1/2 less than or equal to beta < 1, we study the NP-hard problem of finding a minimum cost spanning subgraph which is k-vertex-connected, k greater than or equal to 2. We analyze an approximation quadratic-time algorithm whose performance ratio is beta/1-beta. The main motivation of this study is to provide an algorithm with a good performance ratio and a practical worst case running time for significative subclasses of the metric Travelling Salesman Problem and the naturally related to it connectivity problems.

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

approximation algorithms
apx-hardness
vertex/edge connectivity


Electronic emergency-department whiteboards: A study of clinicians expectations and experiences Many emergency departments (EDs) are in a process of transitioning from dry-erase to electronic whiteboards. This study investigates differences in ED clinicians perception and assessment of their electronic whiteboards across departments and staff groups and at two points in time. We conducted a survey consisting of a questionnaire administered when electronic whiteboards were introduced and another questionnaire administered when they had been in use for 89 months. The survey involved two EDs and, for reasons of comparison, a paediatric department. The ED respondents consider the whiteboard information important to their overview, and they approve of the introduction of electronic whiteboards. With the electronic whiteboards, the ED respondents experience a better overall overview of their work than with dry-erase whiteboards. They also experience that whiteboard information has to a larger extent become available where and when they need it. Conversely, the ED respondents expectations toward the electronic whiteboards have not been fulfilled when it comes to keeping information current and obtaining improvements for the patients. The ED staff groups of physicians, nurses, and secretaries experience the electronic whiteboards differently. The physicians, for example, consider it faster and simpler than the nurses to find information on the electronic whiteboards. After extended use, multiple questionnaire items about achieved performance and required effort contribute to explaining the variation in the nurses overall assessment of the whiteboards; for physicians and secretaries few items contribute to explaining the variation in their overall assessment. The respondents from the paediatric department perceive their whiteboards as less important to their overview and collaboration than the ED respondents. The ED clinicians experience positive effects of electronic over dry-erase whiteboards. However, their assessment of electronic whiteboards depends on their staff group, evolves over time, and differs from that of paediatric clinicians. These results likely affect clinicians acceptance of electronic whiteboards and their command of their work.

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

electronic whiteboard
status board
emergency department
technology adoption
before/after survey


Automated energy calculation and estimation for delay-insensitive digital circuits With increasingly smaller feature sizes and higher on-chip densities, the power dissipation of VLSI systems has become a primary concern for designers. This paper first describes a procedure to simulate a transistor-level design using a VHDL testbench, and then presents a fast and efficient energy estimation approach for delay-insensitive (DI) systems, based on gate-level switching. Specifically, the VHDL testbench reads the transistor-level design's outputs and supplies the inputs accordingly, also allowing for automatic checking of functional correctness. This type of transistor-level simulation is absolutely necessary for asynchronous circuits because the inputs change relative to handshaking signals, which are not periodic, instead of changing relative to a periodic clock pulse, as do synchronous systems. The method further supports automated calculation of power and energy metrics. The energy estimation approach produces results three orders of magnitude faster than transistor-level simulation, and has been automated and works with standard industrial design tool suites, such as Mentor Graphics and Synopsys. Both methods are applied to the NULL Convention Logic (NCL) DI paradigm, and are first demonstrated using a simple NCL sequencer, and then tested on a number of different NCL 4-bit4-bit unsigned multiplier architectures. Energy per operation is automatically calculated for both methods, using an exhaustive testbench to simulate all input combinations and to check for functional correctness. The results show that both methods produce the desired output for all circuits, and that the gate-level switching approach developed herein produces results more than 1000 times as fast as transistor-level simulation, that fall within the range obtained by two different industry-standard transistor-level simulators. Hence, the developed energy estimation method is extremely useful for quickly determining how architecture changes affect energy usage.

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


Mining Quasi-Bicliques from HIV-1-Human Protein Interaction Network: A Multiobjective Biclustering Approach In this work, we model the problem of mining quasi-bicliques from weighted viral-host protein-protein interaction network as a biclustering problem for identifying strong interaction modules. In this regard, a multiobjective genetic algorithm-based biclustering technique is proposed that simultaneously optimizes three objective functions to obtain dense biclusters having high mean interaction strengths. The performance of the proposed technique has been compared with that of other existing biclustering methods on an artificial data. Subsequently, the proposed biclustering method is applied on the records of biologically validated and predicted interactions between a set of HIV-1 proteins and a set of human proteins to identify strong interaction modules. For this, the entire interaction information is realized as a bipartite graph. We have further investigated the biological significance of the obtained biclusters. The human proteins involved in the strong interaction module have been found to share common biological properties and they are identified as the gateways of viral infection leading to various diseases. These human proteins can be potential drug targets for developing anti-HIV drugs.

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

protein-protein interaction
hiv-1
quasi-biclique
multiobjective optimization


Register swapping schemes for low power execution For embedded systems, the power dissipation on buses has become an essential issue in recent years. Many real-time embedded processors, such as DSP processors, adopt the Harvard architecture in which the data and instruction buses are separated to avoid processing-speed degradation. The power dissipation on an instruction bus can be reduced if the switching activities between consecutive instructions on that bus are reduced. Two efficient algorithms, the greedy method and the dynamic programming based method, are proposed to swap commutative source register fields of adjacent instructions. The switching activities on the instruction bus are therefore reduced, without affecting the execution results. Experimental results show that the proposed schemes result in a reduction of as much as 21.43% in the switching activities of consecutive source register fields between commutative blocks. In addition, the proposed schemes can be conveniently integrated with other encoding schemes to further improve the power dissipation on an instruction bus.

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

instruction bus
low power
dynamic programming