gender differences in computer science students We examined gender differences and differences in Computer Science (CS) majors vs. non-majors in ability in quantitative areas, educational goals and interests, experience with computers, stereotypes and knowledge about CS, confidence, personality, support and encouragement, stress and financial issues, gender discrimination, and attitudes toward the academic environment in CS. What is unique to this investigation is its multivariate nature. While others have studied these variables in isolation, our study looks at them collectively to identify important interactions among variables. This will eventually allow us to identify a profile of women who pursue careers in CS. The findings are reported in detail below. Particularly noteworthy is that men had more confidence in using computers than did women even when statistically controlling quantitative ability. In fact, female CS majors had less computer confidence than did male non-majors.

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

computer science
women
confidence
goals
personality
support
experience
stress
knowledge
gender

interaction
education
variability
stereotyping
environments
computation
profiles
control
isolates
attitude
gender differences
student


A mechanisation of some context-free language theory in HOL4 We describe the mechanisation of some foundational results in the theory of context-free languages (CFLs), using the HOL4 system. We focus on pushdown automata (PDAs). We show that two standard acceptance criteria for PDAs (accept-by-empty-stack and accept-by-final-state) are equivalent in power. We are then able to show that the pushdown automata (PDAs) and context-free grammars (CFGs) accept the same languages by showing that each can emulate the other. With both of these models to hand, we can then show a number of basic, but important results. For example, we prove the basic closure properties of the context-free languages such as union and concatenation. Along the way, we also discuss the varying extent to which textbook proofs (we follow Hopcroft and Ullman) and our mechanisations diverge: sometimes elegant textbook proofs remain elegant in HOL; sometimes the required mechanisation effort blows up unconscionably.

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

pushdown automata
closure properties
hol4

context-free languages
context-free grammars


Periodic doubly degenerate parabolic equation with nonlocal terms This paper is a remark on Gao and Wang (2007) [4]. Under some weaker conditions than PI, we establish the existence of nontrivial nonnegative periodic solutions for a doubly degenerate parabolic equation with nonlocal terms. The key is the use of De Giorgi iteration technique and the theory of Leray-Schauder degree. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


feature-oriented programming and the ahead tool suite Feature Oriented Programming (FOP) is an emerging paradigmfor application synthesis, analysis, and optimization. Atarget application is specified declaratively as a set of features,like many consumer products (e.g., personal computers,automobiles). FOP technology translates suchdeclarative specifications into efficient programs.

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

program
product
applications
efficiency
technologies
personal computer
optimality
feature-oriented programing


taming the y operator In this paper I present a set of conceptually simple but involved techniques used by LIAR, the MIT SCHEME compiler, to generate good code when recursive procedures are specified in terms of suitable versions of the Y operator. The techniques presented are general-purpose analysis and optimization tools, similar to well-known techniques used in the analysis and optimization of applicative languages, that combine synergistically to enable LIAR to generate identical machine code for ordinary recursive definitions written using letrec and those written using suitable forms of Y.

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

recursion optimality procedure language definition operability compilation version general


Characterisation of JSRs spin-on hardmask FF-02 Some of the spin-on interlayer dielectrics (ILD) with dielectric constant k below 2.3, targeted for the 65 nm node and below, are available with their spin-on hard masks (SoHM) to reduce the total effective capacitance and to provide high selectivity to their respective ILDs during integration. In this work, FF-02, JSRs SoHM is characterised. Its thermal stability, chemical compatibility to stripping solutions and resistance to moisture are investigated. Methods to seal the surface of FF-02 to chemicals are explored. Electrical properties including the dielectric constant, leakage current and breakdown fields are evaluated in planar capacitors and in single damascene structures.

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


Iterative reweighted minimization methods for \(l_p\) regularized unconstrained nonlinear programming In this paper we study general \(l_p\) regularized unconstrained minimization problems. In particular, we derive lower bounds for nonzero entries of the first- and second-order stationary points and hence also of local minimizers of the \(l_p\) minimization problems. We extend some existing iterative reweighted \(l_1\) (\(\mathrm{IRL}_1\)) and \(l_2\) (\(\mathrm{IRL}_2\)) minimization methods to solve these problems and propose new variants for them in which each subproblem has a closed-form solution. Also, we provide a unified convergence analysis for these methods. In addition, we propose a novel Lipschitz continuous \({\epsilon }\)-approximation to \(\Vert x\Vert ^p_p\). Using this result, we develop new \(\mathrm{IRL}_1\) methods for the \(l_p\) minimization problems and show that any accumulation point of the sequence generated by these methods is a first-order stationary point, provided that the approximation parameter \({\epsilon }\) is below a computable threshold value. This is a remarkable result since all existing iterative reweighted minimization methods require that \({\epsilon }\) be dynamically updated and approach zero. Our computational results demonstrate that the new \(\mathrm{IRL}_1\) method and the new variants generally outperform the existing \(\mathrm{IRL}_1\) methods (Chen and Zhou in 2012; Foucart and Lai in Appl Comput Harmon Anal 26:395407, 2009).

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

iterative reweighted \(l_1\) minimization

iterative reweighted \(l_2\) minimization


Upgrade-aware virtual infrastructure mapping in software-defined elastic optical networks An emerging use case in software-defined networking is to provide efficient mapping of multiple virtual infrastructures (VIs) simultaneously over the same physical substrate (PS) which can increase the resource utilization of the PS, thus improving its providers revenue. In this paper, for the first time, we investigate a practical and yet theoretically challenging issue related to dynamic VI mapping in software-defined elastic optical networks while considering the presence of possible upgrade of the VIs and the optical layer constraints, which has not been addressed in any of the existing studies. More specifically, we investigate the following aspects: (1) Which revenue models are appropriate? (2) How to map a new VI request or to upgrade an existing VI to maximize the PS providers revenue? In particular, we study two different revenue models in terms of the incremental pricing policy and the binding pricing policy and propose a number of efficient heuristics to solve the upgrade-aware VI mapping (U-VIM) problem. We also perform comprehensive performance evaluation in different scenario, and the results show that plan-ahead is a desirable strategy when conducting VI mapping in the presence of VI upgrade.

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

virtual infrastructure mapping
elastic optical networks
vi upgrade
revenue


Can evaluation studies benefit from triangulation? A case study Background: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly being used in health care. Rigorous evaluations of ICT applications during both introduction and routine use are of great importance for decision makers and users. Within evaluation research, two main (and often rather distinct) traditions can be found: the objectivistic and the subjectivistic tradition. Methods: The theory of triangulation deals with the integration of methods and approaches as to conduct better evaluation studies. In evaluation research, triangulation in general means the multiple employment of various sources of data, observers, methods, and/or theories in investigations of the same phenomenon. We applied triangulation aspects in the analysis of the effects of a computer-based nursing documentation system. Results: We discuss, based on this case study, what benefits can be obtained from applying triangulation in an evaluation study. We show how both the validation of results and the completeness of results can be supported by triangulation. Discussion: The decision whether triangulation may be useful for a given research question, and how it may be correctly applied, requireslike other evaluation methodsintensive training and methodological experience. Medical informatics evaluation research may profit from this well-established theory.

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

medical informatics
evaluation studies
nursing
triangulation

interviews
evaluation methods
qualitative research


The bidimensionality theory and its algorithmic applications This paper surveys the theory of bidimensionality. This theory characterizes a broad range of graph problems ('bidimensional') that admit efficient approximate or fixed-parameter solutions in a broad range of graphs. These graph classes include planar graphs, map graphs, bounded-genus graphs and graphs excluding any fixed minor. In particular, bidimensionality theory builds on the Graph Minor Theory of Robertson and Seymour by extending the mathematical results and building new algorithmic tools. Here, we summarize the known combinatorial and algorithmic results of bidimensionality theory with the high-level ideas involved in their proof; we describe the previous work on which the theory is based and/or extends; and we mention several remaining open problems.

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


An Omega(n log n) lower bound for computing the sum of even-ranked elements Given a sequence A of 2n real numbers, the EvenRankSum problem asks for the SLIM of the It values that are at the even positions in the sorted order of the elements in A. We prove that, in the algebraic computation-tree model, this problem has time complexity Theta(n log n). This solves an open problem posed by Michael Shamos at the Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry in 2008. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

lower bounds
order statistics
computational complexity


Identification of breast cancer prognosis markers via integrative analysis In breast cancer research, it is of great interest to identify genomic markers associated with prognosis. Multiple gene profiling studies have been conducted for such a purpose. Genomic markers identified from the analysis of single datasets often do not have satisfactory reproducibility. Among the multiple possible reasons, the most important one is the small sample sizes of individual studies. A cost-effective solution is to pool data from multiple comparable studies and conduct integrative analysis. In this study, we collect four breast cancer prognosis studies with gene expression measurements. We describe the relationship between prognosis and gene expressions using the accelerated failure time (AFT) models. We adopt a 2-norm group bridge penalization approach for marker identification. This integrative analysis approach can effectively identify markers with consistent effects across multiple datasets and naturally accommodate the heterogeneity among studies. Statistical and simulation studies demonstrate satisfactory performance of this approach. Breast cancer prognosis markers identified using this approach have sound biological implications and satisfactory prediction performance.

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

breast cancer prognosis
gene expression
marker identification
integrative analysis


Communication in distributed tracking systems: an ontology-based approach to improve cooperation Current Computer Vision systems are expected to allow for the management of data acquired by physically distributed cameras. This is especially the case for modern surveillance systems, which require communication between components and a combination of their outputs in order to obtain a complete view of the scene. Information fusion techniques have been successfully applied in this area, but several problems remain unsolved. One of them is the increasing need for coordination and cooperation between independent and heterogeneous cameras. A solution to achieve an understanding between them is to use a common and well-defined message content vocabulary. In this research work, we present a formal ontology aimed at the symbolic representation of visual data, mainly detected tracks corresponding to real-world moving objects. Such an ontological representation provides support for spontaneous communication and component interoperability, increases system scalability and facilitates the development of high-level fusion procedures. The ontology is used by the agents of Cooperative Surveillance Multi-Agent System, our multi-agent framework for multi-camera surveillance systems.

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

video surveillance
ontologies
multi-agent systems


A Tracking System Using a Differential Detector for M-ary Bi-orthogonal Spread Spectrum Communication Systems As an application of the direct sequence spread spectrum (SS) communication system, there is an M-ary bi-orthogonal SS communication system. In its system, several spreading sequences (bi-orthogonal sequences) are used in a code shift keying basis. Hence, design of the spreading code synchronization system has been an issue in the M-ary bi-orthogonal SS systems. In this paper, the authors focus on a code tracking system using a differential detector and a Delay Lock Loop (DLL). They investigate a tracking performance of their code tracking system by theoretical analysis. In addition, a multi-stage interference canceler is applied to the M-ary bi-orthogonal SS system. As the result, it is shown that the tracking performance of the theoretical analysis is almost the same as that of computer simulations in a multi-user environment. It is also shown that the multi-stage interference canceler is effective in improvement of the BER performance.

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


On the distributivity of implication operators over T and S norms In this paper, we explore the distributivity of implication operators [especially Residuated (R)- and Strong (S)-implications] over Takagi (T)- and Sugeno (S)-norms. The motivation behind this work is the on going discussion on the law [(p boolean AND q) --> r] = [(p --> r) boolean OR (q --> r)] in fuzzy logic as given in the title of the paper by Trillas and Alsina. The above law is only one of the four basic distributive laws. The general form of the previous distributive law is J(T(p, q), r) = S(J(p, r), J(q, r)). Similarly, the other three basic distributive laws can be generalized to give equations concerning distribution of fuzzy implications J on T- and S-norms. In this paper, we study the validity of these equations under various conditions on the implication operator J. We also propose some sufficiency conditions on a binary operator under which the general distributive equations are reduced to the basic distributive equations and are satisfied. Also in this work, we have solved one of the open problems posed by M. Baczynski (2002).

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


Inverse limits on [0,1] using sequence of N-type maps We examine the inverse limits generated by inverse sequences on [0, 1] with N-type bonding maps chose from a four-parameter family of piecewise linear continuous functions. We analyze the continua generated by these sequences and obtain sufficient conditions for these sequences to give rise to indecomposable inverse limits.

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


An integer programming model for hierarchical workforce scheduling problem In this paper, an integer programming model for the hierarchical workforce problem under the compressed workweeks is developed. The model is based on the integer programming formulation developed by Billionnet [A. Billionnet, Integer programming to schedule a hierarchical workforce with variable demands, European Journal of Operational Research 114 (1999) 105114] for the hierarchical workforce problem. In our model, workers can be assigned to alternative shifts in a day during the course of a week, whereas all workers are assigned to one shift type in Billionnets model. The main idea of this paper is to use compressed workweeks in order to save worker costs. This case is also suitable for the practice. The proposed model is illustrated on the Billionnets example problem and the obtained results are compared with the Billionnets model results.

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

integer programming
scheduling
hierarchical workforce


The tinmith system - Demonstrating new techniques for mobile augmented reality modelling This paper presents user interface technology, using a glove based menuing system and 3D interaction techniques. It is designed to support applications that allow users to construct simple models of outdoor structures. The construction of models is performed using various 3D virtual reality interaction techniques, as well as using real time constructive solid geometry, to allow users to build up shapes with no prior knowledge of the environment. Previous work in virtual environments has tended to focus mostly on selection and manipulation, but not starting from an empty world. We demonstrate our user interface with the Tinmith-Metro application, designed to capture in city models and street furniture.

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 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

augmented reality
constructive solid geometry

wearable computers
user interfaces
3d modelling


LOPASS: A Low-Power Architectural Synthesis System for FPGAs With Interconnect Estimation and Optimization In this paper, we present a low-power architectural synthesis system (LOPASS) for field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) designs with interconnect power estimation and optimization. LOPASS includes three major components: 1) a flexible high-level power estimator for FPGAs considering the power consumption of various FPGA logic components and interconnects; 2) a simulated-annealing optimization engine that carries out resource selection and allocation, scheduling, functional unit binding, register binding, and interconnection estimation simultaneously to reduce power effectively; and 3) a k-cofamily-based register binding algorithm and an efficient port assignment algorithm that reduce interconnections in the data path through multiplexer optimization. The experimental results show that LOPASS produces promising results on latency optimization compared to an academic high-level synthesis tool SPARK. Compared to an early commercial high-level synthesis tool, namely, Synopsys Behavioral Compiler, LOPASS is 61.6% better on power consumption and 10.6% better on clock period on average. Compared to a current commercial tool, namely, Impulse C, LOPASS is 31.1% better on power reduction with an 11.8% penalty on clock period.

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

behavioral synthesis
field-programmable gate array (fpga)
power optimization


Rescue

of

Dying

Neurons

by

(R)-Deprenyl

in

the

MPTP-Mouse

Model

of

Parkinson's

Disease

Does

Not

Include

Restoration

of

Neostriatal

Dopamine

Chronic

to

administration

of

the

selective,

potent,

and

irreversible

monoamine

oxidase

B

inhibitor

(R)-deprenyl

has

been

shown

to

increase

the

tyrosine

hydroxylase

immunoreactivity

in

the

substantia

nigra

of

mice

that

had

been

treated

three

days

earlier

with

a

neurotoxic

dose

of

the

parkinsonian-inducing

agent

1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine

(MPTP).

This

reported

rescuing

of

lesioned

nigrostriatal

cell

bodies

by

(R)-deprenyl

prompted

us

to

investigate

if

this

(R)-deprenyl

treatment

also

could

restore

neostriatal

dopamine

levels

that

are

depleted

by

MPTP.

The

results

of

these

experiments

show

that

long

term

or

weeks)

treatment

with

(R)-deprenyl

beginning

three

days

post

MPTP

administration

did

not

result

in

restoration

of

depleted

neostriatal

dopamine

levels

in

mice.

We

conclude

that,

although

(R)-deprenyl

may

rescue

MPTP-injured

nigrostriatal

neurons,

it

does

not

lead

to

functional

recovery

of

these

neurons

as

measured

by

the

restoration

of

neostriatal

dopamine

levels.

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

(r)-deprenyl
neuroprotection
c57bl/6 mouse
regeneration
spontaneous recovery
parkinson's disease
neuronal rescue


visual separation of concerns through multidimensional program storage Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) has primarily focused on linguistic and meta-linguistic mechanisms for separating concerns in program source. However, the kinds of concern separation and complexity management that AOSD endeavors to achieve are not the exclusive province of programming language design.In this paper, we propose a new model of concern separation called visual separation of concerns (VSC) , which is based on a new model of program storage. By altering the mechanisms used to store and manipulate program artifacts, much of the capability of concern separation can be captured without performing any linguistic transformations. We also describe our implementation of VSC, which is based on Stellation, an experimental software configuration management system. The VSC approach combined with software configuration management can have advantages over conventional approaches by avoiding program transformations, by providing persistent storage of features such as concern maps, and by enabling new techniques for concern identification and manipulation.

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

software configuration management
maps
storage
identification
implementation
manipulation
complexity
paper
model
management
programming language

aspect-oriented software development
persistence
visualization
systems
experimentation
design
separation-of-concerns
feature
linguistics
program transformation


Fuzzy logic-based object-oriented methods to reduce quantization error and contextual bias problems in software development During the last several years, a considerable number of software development methods have been introduced to produce robust, reusable and adaptable software systems. Methods create software artifacts through the application of a large number of heuristic rules. These rules are generally expressed in two-valued logic. In object-oriented methods, for instance, candidate classes are identified by applying the following intuitive rule: "If an entity in a requirement specification is relevant and can exist autonomously in the application domain, then select it as a class". In this paper, we identify and define two major problems regarding how rules are defined and applied in current methods. First, two-valued logic cannot effectively express the approximate and inexact nature of a typical software development process. Although software engineers can perceive partial relevance of an entity and possibly select the entity as a partial candidate class, they are constrained by two-valued logic to quantize relevance into relevant and irrelevant. Second, the influence of contextual factors on rules is generally not modelled explicitly. We term these problems as quantization error and contextual bias problems, respectively. To reduce these problems, we propose to express heuristic rules using fuzzy logic. We illustrate formally how fuzzy logic-based methodological rules can help in lowering the effects of quantization error and contextual bias problems. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

approximate reasoning
fuzzy inference systems
object-oriented methods
adaptable design models


Coupling dynamic simulation and interactive multiobjective optimization for complex problems: An APROS-NIMBUS case study We couple interactive multiobjective optimization with a dynamic process simulator. We bring out the importance of utilizing interactive multiobjective optimization. We propose an augmented interactive decision making process. We coupled interactive NIMBUS method with APROS dynamic process simulator. A two-stage separation process was solved as an example problem.

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

augmented interactive multiobjective optimization algorithm


The maintenance of spatial accuracy by the perisaccadic remapping of visual receptive fields Humans and monkeys can direct their eyes to the spatial location of briefly flashed targets even when a saccade intervenes between the stimulus flash and the saccade to acquire its location. It had been proposed that the oculomotor system performs this task by resorting to a supraretinal representation of space. In this paper we review neurophysiological and clinical data suggesting that the brain can use a different strategy that does not require an explicit supraretinal representation of targets. We propose and implement a simple neural model that can keep track continuously of the location of saccade targets in eye-centered coordinates. Finally, based on recent data, we argue that such a neural mechanism is in fact used to keep track not only of saccade targets but of the location of salient areas of the visual scene in general.

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

saccades
salience
lateral intraparietal cortex (lip)
frontal eye fields (fef)
superior colliculus (sc)


Spectral evolution in dynamic networks We introduce and study the spectral evolution model, which characterizes the growth of large networks in terms of the eigenvalue decomposition of their adjacency matrices: In large networks, changes over time result in a change of a graphs spectrum, leaving the eigenvectors unchanged. We validate this hypothesis for several large social, collaboration, rating, citation, and communication networks. Following these observations, we introduce two link prediction algorithms based on the learning of the changes to a networks spectrum. These new link prediction methods generalize several common graph kernels that can be expressed as spectral transformations. The first method is based on reducing the link prediction problem to a one-dimensional curve-fitting problem which can be solved efficiently. The second algorithm extrapolates a networks spectrum to predict links. Both algorithms are evaluated on fifteen network datasets for which edge creation times are known.

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


The impact of information and communication technologies on the costs of democracy Recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) can change the way strategic organizational decisions are negotiated and voted upon. We propose an analytical framework that investigates the effect of such technologies on the costs of the decision-making process in organizations by incorporating a technology variable in an already well-known model of public decision-making. The framework is applicable to any large group decision setting where collective decisions are made by voting, such as shareholders' meetings, local and federal government meetings. We apply the framework to derive policies that will help to decrease the costs related to the democratic process. The first policy requires that governments should invest more in technologies that support multi-lateral communication and negotiation among citizens, and the second requires that citizens should use better voting mechanisms than simple majority voting to make decisions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

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

constitutional economics
electronic government
external costs
multi-lateral communication
shareholder democracy


online oblivious routing We consider an online version of the oblivious routing problem. Oblivious routing is the problem of picking a routing between each pair of nodes (or a set of flows), without knowledge of the traffic or demand between each pair, with the goal of minimizing the maximum congestion on any edge in the graph. In the online version of the problem, we consider a "repeated game" setting, in which the algorithm is allowed to choose a new routing each night, but is still oblivious to the demands that will occur the next day. The cost of the algorithm at every time step is its competitive ratio, or the ratio of its congestion to the minimum possible congestion for the demands at that time step.We present an algorithm that is (1+?) competitive with respect to the best algorithm that uses a single routing for the entire sequence of days (known as the optimal static routing). Our result is a strengthening of the recent result of Azar et al [4], who gave a polynomial time algorithm to find an oblivious routing with the best possible competitive ratio, in that our algorithm achieves a competitive ratio arbitrarily to close to that of Azar et al [4], while at the same time performing nearly as well as the optimal static routing for the given sequence of demands. Our work was done independently, but subsequent to that of Azar et al [4].

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

congestion
polynomial
game
oblivious routing
routing
graph
version
algorithm
knowledge
traffic
sequence
cost
online

gradient descent
optimality
online algorithms
competitive analysis
competition
timing
networks


Black-box concurrent zero-knowledge requires (almost) logarithmically many rounds We show that any concurrent zero-knowledge protocol for a nontrivial language (i.e., for a language outside BPP), whose security is proven via black-box simulation, must use at least (&UOmega;) over tilde (log n) rounds of interaction. This result achieves a substantial improvement over previous lower bounds and is the first bound to rule out the possibility of constant-round concurrent zero-knowledge when proven via black-box simulation. Furthermore, the bound is polynomially related to the number of rounds in the best known concurrent zero-knowledge protocol for languages in NP (which is established via black-box simulation).

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

cryptography
interactive protocols
zero knowledge
concurrent zero knowledge
round complexity


a virtual laboratory model for encouraging undergraduate research Undergraduate students who perform research benefit greatly from the experience, yet achieving high levels of voluntary participation remains an elusive goal. This paper describes the implementation of an innovative laboratory model designed to encourage computer science undergraduates to actively pursue collaborative research with faculty and other students. As an extension of earlier research into team-based software engineering education, the Applied Computing Technology Laboratory was formed to provide an authentic and engaging experience in real-world computer science research. The model, which relies on a web site as its focus, is presented along with the results of one year of active research.

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

software engineering education
undergraduate research

collaborative learning
faculty-student research


Mapping Filtering Streaming Applications In this paper, we explore the complexity of mapping filtering streaming applications on large-scale homogeneous and heterogeneous platforms, with a particular emphasis on communication models and their impact. Filtering applications are streaming applications where each node also has a selectivity which either increases or decreases the size of its input data set. This selectivity makes the problem of scheduling these applications more challenging than the more studied problem of scheduling "non-filtering" streaming workflows. We address the complexity of the following two problems: Evaluation: Given a mapping of nodes to processors, how can one compute the period and latency? Optimization: Given a filtering workflow, how can one compute the mapping and schedule that minimize the period or latency? A solution to this problem requires generating both the mapping and the associated operation list-the order in which each processor executes its assigned tasks. We address this general problem in two steps. First, we address the simplified model without communication cost. In this case, the evaluation problems are easy, and the optimization problems have polynomial complexity on homogeneous platforms. However, we show that the optimization problems become NP-hard on heterogeneous platforms. Second, we consider platforms with communication costs. Clearly, due to the previous results, the optimization problems on heterogeneous platforms are still NP-hard. Therefore we come back to homogeneous platforms and extend the framework with three significant realistic communication models. Now even evaluation problems become difficult, because the mapping must now be enriched with an operation list that provides the time-steps at which each computation and each communication occurs in the system: determining the best operation list has a combinatorial nature. Not too surprisingly, optimization problems are NP-hard too. Altogether, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the additional difficulties induced by heterogeneity and communication costs.

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

query optimization
web service
streaming application
communication model
complexity results


Ontology, esthetics and creativity at the crossroads in Information System design Based on a three-year observation of how design quality has evolved for a community of novice information systems designers, with the support of a shared design memory, we discuss the role of modern art influences on the original design representations that the students have produced. Starting from the emergence in the community of certain representational styles, we point out their correspondence with underlying design ontologies, and we advance the hypothesis that suggestions coming from modern art are being used both as a gnoseological means and as a suitable way to express and communicate deep design motifs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Optimal single machine scheduling of products with components and changeover cost We study scheduling products with subassemblies on a single machine. We derive structural results that characterize optimal schedules. We show that optimal schedules can be derived from a recurrent sequence of schedules. These optimal schedules can be implemented before total demand is known.

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

scheduling
single machine
components
changeover cost


a comparison of logic-based infrastructures for concern detection and extraction In this paper we evaluate logic code analysis and transformation frameworks for their suitability as basic infrastructures for fast detection and extraction of (crosscutting) concerns. Using design patterns as example concerns, we identify desirable properties that an infrastructure should fulfill. We then report our initial results of evaluating candidate systems with respect to these properties. We show how high precision design pattern detectors can be easily formulated as predicates that are evaluated in mere seconds even on the sources of large software systems, such as the Eclipse IDE. Although details still remain to be analyzed further, our current results suggest that the pair JTransformer & CTC is a good candidate for a general infrastructure, combining very good querying performance, scalability and short turn-around times with a seamless integration of querying and transformation capabilities.

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

logic code analysis and transformation
jtransformer
ctc

design pattern detection
concern mining
code-quest
jquery


flexible and efficient access control in oracle A single model for access control across the database and application server tiers is crucial to ensure consistent secure access to data in all the tiers. In this paper, we present the common model for access control within Oracle database and application tiers which is based on the standard WebDAV ACLs (Access Control Lists). Further, we discuss the flexible mechanisms for defining ACLs and associating them with data and various optimization techniques for efficiently evaluating ACLs in large scale enterprise applications.

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


Some consistent finite element formulations of 1-D beam models: a comparative study A consistent Finite Element formulation was developed for four classical 1-D beam models. This formulation is based upon the solution of the homogeneous differential equation (or equations) associated with each model. Results such as the shape functions, stiffness matrices and consistent force vectors for the constant section beam were found. Some of these results were compared with the corresponding ones obtained by the standard Finite Element Method (i.e. using polynomial expansions for the field variables). Some of the difficulties reported in the literature concerning some of these models may be avoided by this technique and some numerical sensitivity analysis on this subject are presented.

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

differential equations
polynomial functions


Real-time feature matching in image sequences for non-structured environments. Applications to vehicle guidance This paper describes an integrated vehicle control system with visual feedback. A general-purpose, low-level feature matching method, able to work in real time without any strict assumptions on the environment structure or camera parameters, generates low-level matching results, which are used as source of data for applications like mobile object tracking, among others. A generalized predictive path-tracking control approach keeps the vehicle on the trajectory defined by the moving target. In the low-level matching process, block-based features (windows) are selected and tracked along a stream of monocular images; least residual square error and similarity between clusters of features are used as constraints to select the right matching pair between multiple candidates. Real-time performance is achieved through optimized algorithms and a parallel DSP-based multiprocessor system implementation. Object detection and tracking is motion-based, and does not require a predefined model of the target. The integrated control system has been tested on the ROMEO-3R experimental vehicle.

O B I O 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 vision
position estimation
non-structured environments
mobile robotics
parallel processing
generalized predictive control
path tracking
autonomous vehicles


Automatic video self modeling for voice disorder Video self modeling (VSM) is a behavioral intervention technique in which a learner models a target behavior by watching a video of him- or herself. In the field of speech language pathology, the approach of VSM has been successfully used for treatment of language in children with Autism and in individuals with fluency disorder of stuttering. Technical challenges remain in creating VSM contents that depict previously unseen behaviors. In this paper, we propose a novel system that synthesizes new video sequences for VSM treatment of patients with voice disorders. Starting with a video recording of a voice-disorder patient, the proposed system replaces the coarse speech with a clean, healthier speech that bears resemblance to the patients original voice. The replacement speech is synthesized using either a text-to-speech engine or selecting from a database of clean speeches based on a voice similarity metric. To realign the replacement speech with the original video, a novel audiovisual algorithm that combines audio segmentation with lip-state detection is proposed to identify corresponding time markers in the audio and video tracks. Lip synchronization is then accomplished by using an adaptive video re-sampling scheme that minimizes the amount of motion jitter and preserves the spatial sharpness. Results of both objective measurements and subjective evaluations on a dataset with 31 subjects demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.

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

video self modeling
voice disorder
audio segmentation

positive feedforward
computational multimedia
frame interpolation
voice imitation
lip reading


Swarm Intelligence: Based Cooperation Optimization of Multi-Modal Functions In this paper, an advanced particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) is proposed to solve multi-modal function optimization problems. Multiple swarms are used for parallel search, and an artificial repulsive potential field on local search space is set up to prevent multiple swarms converging to the same areas. In addition, this paper provides a theoretical analysis of the strategy of multi-swarm parallel search in algorithms. Finally, the proposed algorithm has been tested on three benchmark functions, and the results show a superior performance compared with other PSO variants.

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

particle swarm optimization
repulsive potential field


Policy-driven customization of cross-organizational features in distributed service systems In a cross-organizational context, software services are provided and consumed by different organizations. Ensuring that the non-functional requirements of all the involved organizations are satisfied is hard to achieve in such a distributed and heterogeneous environment: the implementation of features, for example, security, is scattered across the services of multiple organizations. In this paper, we present a coordination architecture for flexible and policy-driven composition of cross-organizational features in distributed service systems. The underlying approach of this architecture is to specify the features and their composition at a higher level that abstracts the internal implementation mechanisms of the organizations involved. By means of feature composition policies, the organizations specify at a fine-grained level which features are required and when they have to apply. Driven by these policies, our coordination middleware dynamically integrates the appropriate features throughout the cross-organizational service composition in a consistent and efficient way. We have validated our architecture in a proof of concept showing limited performance overhead. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

cross-organizational
feature-oriented
service engineering
dynamic composition


The moderating effect of gender on relationship quality and loyalty toward Internet service providers ? Relationship quality based on CommitmentTrust theory can explain and predict the success of a relationship between an ISP and its customers, measured in terms of loyalty. We proposed a model to express the relationship and included gender as a moderator in the relationship. We then developed a questionnaire to test the model empirically and used a sample in Spain to check its validity and reliability. Analysis provided strong support for our hypotheses that gender exerted a significant moderating role on our model relationships. The influence of trust on commitment and of commitment on loyalty was significantly stronger for females than males, while the effects of satisfaction on commitment and of trust on loyalty were significantly stronger for males. Implications were drawn for practitioners.

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

gender
relationship quality
satisfaction
trust
commitment
loyalty


Enhanced compact models for the connected subgraph problem and for the shortest path problem in digraphs with negative cycles We investigate the minimum-weight connected subgraph problem. The importance of this problem stems from the fact that it constitutes the backbone of many network design problems having applications in several areas including telecommunication, energy, and distribution planning. We show that this problem is NP-hard NP - hard , and we propose a new polynomial-size nonlinear mixed-integer programming model. We apply the Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT) to linearize the proposed model while keeping a polynomial number of variables and constraints. Furthermore, we show how similar modelling techniques enable an enhanced polynomial size formulation to be derived for the shortest elementary path. This latter problem is known to be intractable and has many applications (in particular, within the context of column generation). We report the results of extensive computational experiments on graphs with up to 1000 nodes. These results attest to the efficacy of the proposed compact formulations. In particular, we show that the proposed formulations consistently outperform compact formulations from the literature.

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


global methods in the flow graph approach to retargetable microcode generation We have reported on local retargetable microcode generation methods based on the flow graph model in previous papers. In this paper, we consider the extension of these methods to global retargetable microcode generation. This includes intermediate representations of basic blocks containing control flow directives and their construction from global program dags, resource allocation and its interaction with code generation, machine-independent semantics and procedures for global microcode generation, and global compaction. The emphasis is on issues and promising directions for research on global methods vis a vis final results and definitive answers, as it reflects the early stages of our research.

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

interaction
research
generation
resource allocation
flow
graph
paper
global

method
compact
semantic
procedure
direct
extensibility
control flow
code generation


Development of fuzzy regression models using genetic algorithms This paper presents the comparative study for fuzzy regression model using linear programming and fuzzy regression model using genetic algorithms. Two cases were considered: crisp X - crisp Y and crisp X - fuzzy Y. Simulation was carried out with a tool developed in MATLAB.

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

fuzzy regression
linear programming
genetic algorithms


A low-granularity classifier for data streams with concept drifts and biased class distribution Many applications track streaming data for actionable alerts, which may include, for example, network intrusions, transaction frauds, bio-surveilence abnormalities, and so forth. Some stream classification models are built for this purpose. Due to concept drifts, maintaining a model's up-to-dateness has become one of the most challenging tasks in mining data streams. State-of-the-art approaches, including both the incrementally updated classifiers and the ensemble classifiers, have proved that model update is a very costly process. In this paper, we show that reducing model granularity reduces the update cost, as models of fine granularity enable us to efficiently pinpoint local components in the model that are affected by the concept drift. It also enables us to derive new model components to reflect the current data distribution, thus avoiding expensive updates on a global scale. Furthermore, those actionable alerts being monitored are usually rare occurrences. The existing stream classifiers cannot handle this problem. We address this problem and show that the low-granularity classifier handles rare events on stream data with ease. Experiments on real and synthetic data show that our approach is able to maintain good prediction accuracy at a fraction of the model updating cost of state-of-the-art approaches.

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


Ultrathin homogeneous Ni(Al) germanosilicide layer formation on strained SiGe with Al/Ni multi-layers Homogeneous Ni(Al) germanosilicide layers are formed on strained SiGe. Ni5(SiGe)3 phase is identified. Al concentration and annealing temperature influence the formed germanosilicides. The optimized process also applies to Si0.55Ge0.45 with higher Ge content.

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


Testing component compatibility in evolving configurations Software components are increasingly assembled from other components. Each component may further depend on others, and each may have multiple active versions. The total number of configurationscombinations of components and their versionsin use can be very large. Moreover, components are constantly being enhanced and new versions are being released. Component developers, therefore, spend considerable time and effort doing compatibility testingdetermining whether their components can be built correctly for all deployed configurationsboth for existing active component versions and new releases. In previous work we developed Rachet, a distributed, cache-aware mechanism to support large-scale compatibility testing of component-based software with a fixed set of component versions. In this paper, we observe that it is too expensive to perform compatibility testing from scratch each time a new version of a component is released. We thus add a new dimension to Rachet: to perform incremental and prioritized compatibility testing. We describe algorithms to compute differences in component compatibilities between current and previous component builds, a formal test adequacy criterion based on covering the differences, and cache-aware configuration sampling and testing methods that attempt to reuse effort from previous testing sessions. Because testers are often interested in focusing test effort on newly released and modified components and their versions, we have developed a prioritization mechanism that enhances compatibility testing by examining the configurations that test new or modified component versions first, while also distributing the work over a cluster of machines. We evaluate our approach using the 5-year evolution history of a scientific middleware component. Our results show that our methods can increase performance significantly over Rachets previous retest-all approach and also tests important component compatibilities early in the overall testing process, making the process of compatibility testing practical for evolving components.

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


use of low cost wireless communication technology for education in rural kenya With the advent of mobile revolution, the emerging mobile technologies can support a broad range of learning activities on a variety of mobile devices, a concept referred to as mobile learning. The combination of wireless communication technology and mobile computing is resulting in rapid transformations of the educational world. This paper explores the use of low cost wireless technology in combination with other existing technologies to bring education to rural and pastoralist tribes in Kenya who would otherwise not have access to education.

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


A neural network based approach for sentiment classification in the blogosphere Recognizing emotion is extremely important for a text-based communication tool such as a blog. On commercial blogs, the evaluation comments by bloggers of a product can spread at an explosive rate in cyberspace, and negative comments could be very harmful to an enterprise. Lately, researchers have been paying much attention to sentiment classification. The goal is to efficiently identify the emotions of their customers to allow companies to respond in the appropriate manner to what customers have to say. Semantic orientation indexes and machine learning methods are usually employed to achieve this goal. Semantic orientation indexes do not have good performance, but they return results quickly. Machine learning techniques provide better classification accuracy, but require a lot of training time. In order to combine the advantages of these two methods, this study proposed a neural-network based approach. It uses semantic orientation indexes as inputs for the neural networks to determine the sentiments of the bloggers quickly and effectively. Several actual blogs are used to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach outperforms traditional approaches including other neural networks and several semantic orientation indexes.

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

semantic orientation
neural networks
sentiment classification
blogs


A regularization framework in polar coordinates for transductive learning in networked data In networked data, linked objects tend to belong to the same class, and densely linked subgraphs are often available. Based on these facts, this paper presents a regularization framework that consists of fitting and regularization terms for transductive learning in networked data. The desirable value of the fitting term is related to the number of labeled data, whereas that of the regularization term is dependent on the structure of the graph. The ratio of these two desirable values is essential for the estimation of the optimal regularization parameters, such as that proposed in our paper. Under the proposed regularization framework, an effective classification algorithm is developed. Two methods are also introduced to incorporate contents of objects into the proposed framework to ultimately improve classification accuracy. Promising experimental results are reported on a toy problem and a paper classification task.

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

regularization framework
networked data
transductive learning


Forecasting container throughputs at ports using genetic programming To accurately forecast container throughput is crucial to the success of any port operation policy. This study attempts to create an optimal predictive model of volumes of container throughput at ports by using genetic programming (GP), decomposition approach (X-11), and seasonal auto regression integrated moving average (SARIMA). Twenty-nine years of historical data from Taiwans major ports were collected to establish and validate a forecasting model. The Mean Absolute Percent Error levels between forecast and actual data were within 4% for all three approaches. The GP model predictions were about 3236% better than those of X-11 and SARIMA. These results suggest that GP is the optimal method for this case. GP predicted that container throughputs at Taiwans major ports would slowly increase in the year 2008. Since Taiwans government opened direct transportation with China in July 2008, the issue of container throughput in Taiwan has become even more worthy of discussion.

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

container throughput
forecasting
genetic programming


Mixed stabilized finite element methods based on backward difference/AdamsBashforth scheme for the time-dependent variable density incompressible flows ? In this paper, we consider a second-order mixed stabilized finite element method based on pressure projection method for variable density incompressible flows. The originality of the proposed approach is to use a stabilized method based on the difference between a consistent and an under-integrated mass matrix of the pressure for variable density incompressible flows approximated by the lowest equal-order finite element pairs. A second-order backward difference (BDF) for the temporal term and a second-order AdamsBashforth (AB) for the explicit treatment of the nonlinear term lead to the presented second-order BDF/AB scheme. The stability of the method was proved and the performance of the method is numerically illustrated. Finally, comparison with some established methods, a series of numerical experiments are given to show that this method has better stability and accuracy.

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

mixed stabilized finite element
pressure projection

second-order bdf/ab scheme
variable density flows
equal order pairs


A group sparsity imaging algorithm for transient radio sources Radio interferometers can achieve high spatial resolution for temporally constant sources by combining data observed over long periods of time. Recent imaging algorithms reconstruct smoothly varying sources by representing temporal variation in polynomial or Fourier bases. We present a novel image reconstruction algorithm that is able to reconstruct continuously and erratically varying sources as well, as long as they are confined to small regions of the image. This is achieved by enforcing spatial locality and sparsity of temporally varying sources through a group sparsity prior. Numerical experiments show that the proposed approach recovers image series to high accuracy where methods without temporal consistency fail, and outperforms static reconstructions of dynamic scenes even for image regions with no temporal variation.

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

radio interferometry
compressed sensing
sparse recovery


Spatial dimensions of Internet activity The global diffusion of Internet activity is advancing at an unprecedented rate. However, it is increasingly apparent that the diffusion of information technologies and their associated activity is spatially uneven. Utilizing a comprehensive database of domain registrations, spatialstatistical methods, and a geographic information system (GIS), the spatial dimensions of Internet activity are explored for the state of Ohio. In addition to identifying considerable differences in Internet activity between urban and rural locales, results suggest that existing telecommunication infrastructure and educational institutions also play significant roles in the level of Internet-related activity for the region.

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


Implementation of various control algorithms for hand rehabilitation exercise using wearable robotic hand In this paper, the control algorithms for strength exercise using wearable robotic hand are reviewed and the experimental results are analyzed and discussed. The SNU Exo-Glove is a soft exoskeleton that actuates motor function in disabled hands. This new type of device comprises a jointless simple mechanical structure and is actuated with wires. The strength exercise algorithms include isotonic, isokinetic, and impedance control exercises. An electromyography (EMG) regulation algorithm is proposed to limit the maximum level of activation of the muscles to prevent injury of the muscles and joints. The tension of the wire and the sEMG signal are analyzed to validate the effectiveness of rehabilitation with SNU Exo-Glove.

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

wearable robotic hand
soft exoskeleton
isotonic
isokinetic
impedance control


Parametric free-form shape design with PDE models and reduced basis method We present a coupling of the reduced basis methods and free-form deformations for shape optimization and design of systems modelled by elliptic PDEs. The free-form deformations give a parameterization of the shape that is independent of the mesh, the initial geometry, and the underlying PDE model. The resulting parametric PDEs are solved by reduced basis methods. An important role in our implementation is played by the recently proposed empirical interpolation method, which allows approximating the non-affinely parameterized deformations with affinely parameterized ones. These ingredients together give rise to an efficient online computational procedure for a repeated evaluation design environment like the one for shape optimization. The proposed approach is demonstrated on an airfoil inverse design problem.

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

reduced basis methods
empirical interpolation
shape optimization

free-form deformations
engineering design


Grey-prediction self-organizing fuzzy controller for robotic motion control A self-organizing fuzzy controller (SOFC) under system control has online learning capabilities; nevertheless, the SOFC may excessively modify its fuzzy rules when its learning rate and weighting distribution are inappropriately selected. This results in oscillatory phenomena in the system during the control process. Moreover, the SOFC is mainly used to manipulate single-input single-output systems. When it is used to handle robotic systems, which are multiple-input multiple-output systems, the dynamic coupling effects between degrees of freedom (DOF) in the robotic systems are difficult to eliminate. To eliminate these problems, this study developed a grey-prediction self-organizing fuzzy controller (GPSOFC) for robotic systems. The GPSOFC introduces a grey-prediction algorithm into the SOFC to pre-correct fuzzy rules to reasonable ones for the control of robotic systems. This solves the problem caused by the inappropriate selection of parameters in the SOFC and compensates for the dynamic coupling effects between the DOFs in the robotic systems. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method, this study used the GPSOFC to manipulate a 6-DOF robot to determine its control performance. The GPSOFC yielded better control performance than the SOFC for robotic motion control, as shown in experimental results. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

grey-prediction algorithm
self-organizing fuzzy controller


Intense visible upconversion and energy transfer in Ho3+/Yb3+ codoped tellurite glasses for potential fiber laser New Ho3+/Yb3+ codoped tellurite glass was prepared using melt-quenching method. The thermal stability of glass sample increased with rare-earth doped concentration. Codoping with Yb3+ led to intensive green and red upconversion of Ho3+ owing to ET. ET mechanism was investigated by calculating micro-coefficient and phonon contribution. The prepared Ho3+/Yb3+ codoped tellurite glass is suitable for visible-band fiber laser.

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

upconversion emission
ho3+/yb3+ codoping


Overall connectivity a next generation molecular connectivity The development of molecular connectivity concept and some of its key elements Randi?s inverse-square-root function and the detailed subgraph characterization are analyzed. The concept of overall connectivity recently advanced is presented as a next step in unfolding the ideas of molecular connectivity by combining them with those of molecular complexity. Definitions of overall connectivity index, eth-order overall connectivities, and overall connectivity vector are presented along with formulae for calculating these sets of topological indices for several classes of graphs of chemical relevance. Based on sums of adjacencies over all subgraphs (or up to a limiting subgraph size in large molecules), the overall connectivities increase both with molecule size and complexity, as expressed in branching and cyclicity of molecular skeleton. When applied to molecules containing heteroatoms, valence overall connectivities are constructed employing the Kier and Hall scheme. The usefulness of the novel indices is demonstrated by modeling physicochemical properties of alkane compounds. A detailed comparison is made with other models derived for the same set of compounds, proceeding from molecular connectivity, as well as with two other probe connectivity functions the overall connectivity versions of the second Zagreb index, and a derivative inverse function of this index. The favorable comparisons indicate the need of molecular connectivity paradigm revisiting, and show the potential of the overall connectivity indices for QSPR/QSAR applications.

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

overall connectivity
molecular connectivity
molecular complexity


Online bio-inspired trajectory generation of seven-link biped robot based on TS fuzzy system Presenting a novel online method for trajectory generation of a biped robot. Eliminating the need to solve inverse kinematics for all points on the trajectory. Determining an analytical function for trajectory of all lower-body joint angles. Learning a fuzzy relationship between walking and CPG parameters. Suggesting a natural form for a ZMP trajectory to preserve the dynamic balance.

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

central pattern generators
nonlinear oscillators
online trajectory generation
fuzzy logic


A simple calculus for proteins and cells The use of process calculi to represent biological systems has led to the design of different formalisms Such as brane calculi and K-calculus. Both have proved to be useful to model different types of biological systems. As an attempt to unify the formalisms, we introduce the bio kappa-calculus, a simple Calculus for describing proteins and cells, in which bonds are represented by means of shared names and interactions are modelled at the domain level. In bio kappa-calculus, protein-protein interactions have to be at most binary and cell interactions have to fit with sort constraints. In this contribution we define the semantics of bio kappa-calculus, analyse its properties, discuss the expressivity of the calculus by modelling two significant examples - a signalling pathway and a virus infection - and study an implementation in Milner's pi-calculus. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

systems biology
process algebra
signal transduction pathways


implementing a virtual community of interest at capella university The School of Business and Technology (SOBT) at Capella University has embarked on a "Community of Interest" (COI) pilot implementation aimed at enriching the experience of learners and faculty engaged in its online academic environment. The COI achieves this goal by providing a feature-rich set of avenues for communication and collaboration on a social networking platform. This interaction encourages the free sharing, reviewing, and generation of knowledge, facilitating learner-learner, learner-faculty, and faculty-faculty interaction and supporting the research process. For Ph.D. learners, the COI bridges the gap between the online classrooms and face-to-face residency sessions. For faculty, it provides a place to collaborate and communicate about a variety of issues and projects outside of meetings and conference calls.. An earlier paper [9] provided the rationale for building a virtual COI for stakeholders outside the confines of online classrooms. This paper reports on the experience gained by implementing a pilot social networking website serving the needs of those Ph.D. learners and faculty in specializations related to Information Technology (IT) or IT Management. The website was first implemented utilizing the social networking tool Elgg". Migration to LifeRay" is underway. The paper describes the platform capabilities, user activities, benefits observed, and user experience in this pilot implementation. It suggests best practices intended to keep the COI flourishing and allow the expansion of the COI to a wider learner and faculty community at the university level.

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


A Compact Routing Scheme and Approximate Distance Oracle for Power-Law Graphs Compact routing addresses the tradeoff between table sizes and stretch, which is the worst-case ratio between the length of the path a packet is routed through by the scheme and the length of an actual shortest path from source to destination. We adapt the compact routing scheme by Thorup and Zwick [2001] to optimize it for power-law graphs. We analyze our adapted routing scheme based on the theory of unweighted random power-law graphs with fixed expected degree sequence by Aiello et al. [2000]. Our result is the first analytical bound coupled to the parameter of the power-law graph model for a compact routing scheme. Let n denote the number of nodes in the network. We provide a labeled routing scheme that, after a stretch-5 handshaking step (similar to DNS lookup in TCP/IP), routes messages along stretch-3 paths. We prove that, instead of routing tables with O(n(1/2)) bits (O suppresses factors logarithmic in n) as in the general scheme by Thorup and Zwick, expected sizes of O(n(gamma) log n) bits are sufficient, and that all the routing tables can be constructed at once in expected time O(n(1+gamma) log n), with gamma = tau-2/2 tau-3 + epsilon, where tau epsilon (2, 3) is the power-law exponent and epsilon > 0 (which implies epsilon < gamma < 1/3 + epsilon). Both bounds also hold with probability at least 1-1/n (independent of epsilon). The routing scheme is a labeled scheme, requiring a stretch-5 handshaking step. The scheme uses addresses and message headers with O(log nlog log n) bits, with probability at least 1-o(1). We further demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme by simulations on real-world graphs as well as synthetic power-law graphs. With the same techniques as for the compact routing scheme, we also adapt the approximate distance oracle by Thorup and Zwick [2001, 2005] for stretch-3 and we obtain a new upper bound of expected O(n(1+gamma)) for space and preprocessing for random power-law graphs. Our distance oracle is the first one optimized for power-law graphs. Furthermore, we provide a linear-space data structure that can answer 5-approximate distance queries in time at most O(n(1/4+epsilon)) (similar to gamma, the exponent actually depends on tau and lies between epsilon and 1/ 4 + epsilon).

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

algorithms
shortest-path query
complex networks
power-law graphs


Quadratic stabilization of switched systems We consider quadratic stabilization of uncertain switched systems when a switching rule is imposed on state feedback controllers of subsystems. A method is proposed to constructively design switching rules for continuous and discrete-time switched systems with norm-bounded time-varying uncertainties. The switching rules designed via this method do not rely on uncertainties, and the switched system is quadratically stabilizable via switched state feedback for all uncertainties.

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

uncertain switched systems
switching rule

quadratic stability
lyapunov method
feedback stabilization


An efficient method for identifying and filling surface depressions in digital elevation models for hydrologic analysis and modelling Identification and removal of surface depressions is a critical step for automated modelling of surface rainfall runoff based on Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). At present, nearly all GIS and hydrologic software packages employ Jenson and Domingue's method for preparing depressionless DEMs for hydrologic analysis. This conventional method is computationally intensive and time-consuming. With the growing availability of high-resolution DEMs produced by airborne LIDAR and InSAR techniques, GIS-based hydrologic applications often need to handle larger geographic areas at finer resolutions. In the face of high-resolution DEMs, the conventional method becomes inadequate and deficient. In this paper, we present a new method for efficiently identifying and filling surface depressions in DEMs. This method can simultaneously determine flow paths and spatial partition of watersheds with one pass of processing. A novel concept of spill elevation and the least-cost search for optimal flow paths are the two cornerstones of our method. The time complexity of our method is in O(Nlog N). It has been implemented using C+ + programming language and successfully applied to USGS DEMs and LIDAR DEMs of various sizes. Experiments show that our method outperforms the conventional method by a factor of over 30, in terms of running time.

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

surface depressions
digital elevation models
hydrologic analysis
modelling


Thermomechanical effects in the flow of a fluid in porous media This paper deals with analysis, by methods of extended thermodynamics, of the thermomechanical effects which arise in the flow of a weakly viscous fluid in a porous medium. Under the hypothesis that the fluid fills all the interstices among the powder and that the size of the powder grains and of the interstices is much lower than a suitable characteristic length, linearized field equations are written, which include, in a natural way, terms which take into account the Dufour, Soret, and virtual mass effects. As a limiting case when the evolution time of the heat flux goes to infinite and no entropy flux is carried, the flow of liquid helium II in a porous medium is obtained. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

flow in porous media
heat and mass transfer
thermomechanics
transport processes


Sparse Non-negative Matrix Factorization (SNMF) based color unmixing for breast histopathological image analysis SNMF uses more meaningful representation of color components for separating stained colors. Color unmixing is driven by the specific data information of each individual image. SNMF efficiently decomposes brown DAB component from IHC images. Served as a pre-processing step for accurately segmenting nuclei and lymphocytes from H & E images. SNMF shows improved performance than compared approaches.

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

breast histology
immunohistochemistry image
hematoxylin and eosin image


A revisit to fitting parametric surfaces to point clouds We study the performance of algorithms for freeform surface fitting when different error terms are used as quadratic approximations to the squared orthogonal distances from data points to the fitting surface. We review the TD error term and the SD error term in surface fitting to point clouds, present robust surface fitting algorithms using the TD error term and a new variant of the SD error term. We report experimental results on comparing them with the prevailing PD error term in the setting of fitting B-spline surfaces to point cloud data. We conclude that using the TD error term and the SD error term leads to surface fitting algorithms that converge much faster than using the PD error term. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

squared orthogonal distance
convergence rate
b-spline surface
loop subdivision surface


The subspace Gaussian mixture modelA structured model for speech recognition We describe a new approach to speech recognition, in which all Hidden Markov Model (HMM) states share the same Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) structure with the same number of Gaussians in each state. The model is defined by vectors associated with each state with a dimension of, say, 50, together with a global mapping from this vector space to the space of parameters of the GMM. This model appears to give better results than a conventional model, and the extra structure offers many new opportunities for modeling innovations while maintaining compatibility with most standard techniques.

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

speech recognition
gaussian mixture model


Application of a new hybrid neuro-evolutionary system for day-ahead price forecasting of electricity markets In this paper, a new forecast strategy is proposed for day-ahead prediction of electricity prices, which are so valuable for both producers and consumers in the new competitive electric power markets. However, electricity price has a nonlinear, volatile and time dependent behavior owning many outliers. Our forecast strategy is composed of a preprocessor and a Hybrid Neuro-Evolutionary System (HNES). Preprocessor selects the input features of the HNES according to MRMR (Maximum Relevance Minimum Redundancy) principal. The HNES is composed of three Neural Networks (NN) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) in a cascaded structure with a new data flow among its building blocks. The effectiveness of the whole proposed method is demonstrated by means of real data of the PJM and Spanish electricity markets. Also, the proposed price forecast strategy is compared with some of the most recent techniques in the area.

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

hybrid neuro-evolutionary system
neural network
evolutionary algorithm


Development of a lightweight CAE middleware for CAE data exchange Computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis is considered essential for product development because it decreases the simulation time, reduces the prototyping costs, and enhances the reusability of product parts. The reuse of quality-assured CAE data has been continually increasing in order to shorten the product development cycle and to improve the product quality. However, less attention has been paid to systematic research on the interoperability of CAE data because of the diversity of CAE data and because the structure of CAE data is more complex than that of CAD data. In this paper, we suggest a CAE data exchange method for the effective sharing of geometric and analysis data. The method relies on heterogeneous CAE systems, a virtual reality system, and our developed lightweight CAE middleware for CAE data exchange. We also designed a generic CAE kernel, which is a critical part of the CAE middleware. The kernel offers a way of storing analysis data from various CAE systems, and, with the aid of a script command, enabling the data to be translated for a different system. The reuse of CAE data is enhanced by the fact that the CAE middleware can be linked with a virtual reality system or a product data management system.

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

middleware
kernel
interoperability
data exchange


ASAM: Automatic architecture synthesis and application mapping This paper focuses on mastering the automatic architecture synthesis and application mapping for heterogeneous massively-parallel MPSoCs based on customizable application-specific instruction-set processors (ASIPs). It presents an overview of the research being currently performed in the scope of the European project ASAM of the ARTEMIS program. The paper briefly presents the results of our analysis of the main challenges to be faced in the design of such heterogeneous MPSoCs. It explains which system, design, and electronic design automation (EDA) concepts seem to be adequate to address the challenges and solve the problems. Finally, it discusses the ASAM design-flow, its main stages and tools and their application to a real-life case study.

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 O O O O O O

heterogeneous multi-processor system-on-chip (mpsoc)


hardware support for automatic routing A system for automatic routing based on an iterative application of Lee's algorithm is presented. An extended cell admissibility is defined for continuous design rules in coarse rectangular grids. Combined hardware and software design strategies are applied towards the definition of data structures and their kernel primitives for automatic routing. The hardware architecture and the implementation of specific structures are discussed. The resulting extended routing unit is used in a CAD system. Thus the throughput of the iterative router is improved by a factor of 5 compared to the equivalent software process. Finally the architecture of a high speed stand-alone routing processor is presented.

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

processor
strategies
factor
architecture
definition
design
data structures
implementation
router
throughput
support
routing
hardware
algorithm
rules

applications
software processes
systems
software design
continuation
iter