Configuration and extension of embedded processors to optimize IPSec protocol execution Security protocols, such as IPSec and SSL, are being increasingly deployed in the context of networked embedded systems. The resource-constrained nature of embedded systems and, in particular, the modest capabilities of embedded processors make it challenging to achieve satisfactory performance while executing security protocols. A promising approach for improving performance in embedded systems is to use application-specific instruction set processors that are designed based on configurable and extensible processors. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive performance analysis of the IPSec protocol on a state-of-the-art configurable and extensible embedded processor (Xtensa from Tensilica Inc.). We present performance profiles of a lightweight embedded IPSec implementation running on the Xtensa processor, and examine in detail the various factors that contribute to the processing latencies, including cryptographic and protocol processing. In order to improve the efficiency of IPSec processing on embedded devices, we then study the impact of customizing an embedded processor by synergistically 1) configuring architectural parameters, such as instruction and data cache sizes, processor-memory interface width, write buffers, etc., and 2) extending the base instruction set of the processor using custom instructions for both cryptographic and protocol processing. Our experimental results demonstrate that upto 3.2 X speedup in IPSec processing is possible over a popular embedded IPSec software implementation.

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

embedded processors
embedded systems
ipsec
performance
security protocols

configurability
embedded security
extensibility


A marketing category management system: a decision support system using scanner data Point-of-sale scanner data provides a unique opportunity for analyzing consumer package goods (CPG) trends and patterns. Decisions of ever-increasing complexity are made possible by the amount of data available. Unfortunately, the analysis of such voluminous data requires complex techniques and processing requirements not available to many marketing decision makers. In this paper, we describe a prototype system which allows users to manage the complex models and scanner data to make forecasts in an interactive fashion. A limited test of the prototype allowed users not familiar with the underlying models to develop product forecasts.

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

decision support systems
marketing management
bvar forecasts


Web-based discussion groups at stake: the profile of museum professionals online Online forums help in stimulating debates and reflection on a wide range of cultural topics, as well as providing answers for museum professionals working in specialised areas. The main objective of this paper is to concentrate on the relevance of individuals interacting virtually within an informal knowledge setting, from which to judge the value of Web-based discussion groups. However, little is known about how museum-related forums target their audience and which subjects are of real interest to them. Arising from the statistical results of an international survey of users of online museum forums, the authors have investigated the users' socio-demographic profile, their content preference, and favourite Web-based discussions (e.g. e-mail lists, newsgroups, forums). The outcome of the collected data should be useful in further binding together the worldwide museum community; as there is great scope for enlivening interactions and empowering individual knowledge in various fields of expertise.

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

virtual organizations
electronic mail
knowledge management
national cultures
museums
information media


On the Number of Errors Correctable with Codes on Graphs We study ensembles of codes on graphs (generalized low-density parity-check, or LDPC codes) constructed from random graphs and fixed local constrained codes, and their extension to codes on hypergraphs. It is known that the average minimum distance of codes in these ensembles grows linearly with the code length. We show that these codes can correct a linearly growing number of errors under simple iterative decoding algorithms. In particular, we show that this property extends to codes constructed by parallel concatenation of Hamming codes and other codes with small minimum distance. Previously known results that proved this property for graph codes relied on graph expansion and required the choice of local codes with large distance relative to their length.

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

hypergraph codes
parallel concatenation of codes


Innovation and knowledge creation: How are these concepts related? Innovation and knowledge creationthese two concepts have a strong relationship but this relationship has not been examined systematically. This paper reviews the important theoretical work in both streams of research, highlighting the fundamental similarities and differences. Four major models of innovation are compared, and the distinction between radical and incremental innovation is examined. The nature of organizational knowledge and the process of knowledge creation are presented. We then compare the principal findings of the research on innovation and knowledge creation, and conclude with a new framework that differentiates types of innovation based on a knowledge creation perspective.

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

incremental innovation
knowledge creation


Dynamic distributed lanes: motion planning for multiple autonomous vehicles Unorganized traffic is a generalized form of travel wherein vehicles do not adhere to any predefined lanes and can travel in-between lanes. Such travel is visible in a number of countries e.g. India, wherein it enables a higher traffic bandwidth, more overtaking and more efficient travel. These advantages are visible when the vehicles vary considerably in size and speed, in the absence of which the predefined lanes are near-optimal. Motion planning for multiple autonomous vehicles in unorganized traffic deals with deciding on the manner in which every vehicle travels, ensuring no collision either with each other or with static obstacles. In this paper the notion of predefined lanes is generalized to model unorganized travel for the purpose of planning vehicles travel. A uniform cost search is used for finding the optimal motion strategy of a vehicle, amidst the known travel plans of the other vehicles. The aim is to maximize the separation between the vehicles and static obstacles. The search is responsible for defining an optimal lane distribution among vehicles in the planning scenario. Clothoid curves are used for maintaining a lane or changing lanes. Experiments are performed by simulation over a set of challenging scenarios with a complex grid of obstacles. Additionally behaviours of overtaking, waiting for a vehicle to cross and following another vehicle are exhibited.

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 O O O 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 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 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

robotics
graph search
multi-robot path planning
multi-robotic systems


Approximating maximum weight K-colorable subgraphs in chordal graphs We present a 2-approximation algorithm for the problem of finding the maximum weight K-colorable subgraph in a given chordal graph with node weights. The running time of the algorithm is O(K(n + m)), where n and m are the number of vertices and edges in the given graph. (C) 2008 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

approximation algorithms
coloring
interval graphs


Useful Lifetime Prediction of Rubber Components Using Accelerated Testing Rubber material properties, and useful lifetime prediction and evaluation are very important in the design procedure to assure the safety and reliability of rubber components. We have been interested for many years in predicting the lifetimes of rubber materials in oxygen-containing environments using a combination of accelerated aging tests and extrapolation models. In this paper, we investigate the heat aging effects on the material properties, and useful lifetime prediction of ethylene-propylene diene M-class rubber (EPDM), and acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) for refrigerator components. The experimental results sssay that the crosslink density changes are varied with compositions of rubber vulcanization, and characteristics of heat aging behaviors of rubber vulcanizates are described well using the activation energy change with aging time. The stress and strain curves were obtained from the results of the simple tension test for specimens. To predict the useful lifetime of EPDM, and NBR, the mechanical property changes were determined under accelerated aging conditions. Rubber was aged at temperatures ranging from 50 to 100 for times ranging from 1 to 180 days. We present a general approach for more confidently correlating accelerated aging results with aging under service conditions using the Arrhenius methodology. By using the compression set test, several useful lifetime prediction equations for rubber material are proposed.

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

activation energy
crosslink
lifetime prediction
rubber material

accelerated test
acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber
ethylene-propylene diene m-class rubber
heat-aging


Energy-Efficient Hierarchical Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks Clustering algorithm is wildly used in the routing of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, because of the non-uniform cluster-head selection in the classical clustering algorithm, some nodes maybe exhaust energy prematurely. In this paper, a distributed, energy-efficient routing protocol based on multiple objective decision-making and ant colony (EERMA) is proposed for large scale cluster-based wireless sensor networks. A multiple objective decision-making based clustering algorithm is adopted to select the best nodes as the cluster-heads according to their energy efficiency. Meanwhile, the Density Method is adopted to avoid collisions and to ensure the symmetrical distribution of the cluster-heads. In inter-cluster, an improved AntNet algorithm, which is a biologically inspired paradigm specified for WSNs, is adopted across all cluster-heads to forward aggregate data to the sink node by means of multi-hop. As only cluster-heads participate in the inter-cluster routing operation, the algorithm can provide a smooth operation more effectively. Simulation results denote that EERMA algorithm has longer lifetime and more eximious expansibility than LEACH-like algorithms.

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

wireless sensor networks
routing
ant colony

cluster
multiple objective decision-making


Detection and localization of specular surfaces using image motion cues Successful identification of specularities in an image can be crucial for an artificial vision system when extracting the semantic content of an image or while interacting with the environment. We developed an algorithm that relies on scale and rotation invariant feature extraction techniques and uses motion cues to detect and localize specular surfaces. Appearance change in feature vectors is used to quantify the appearance distortion on specular surfaces, which has previously been shown to be a powerful indicator for specularity (Doerschner et al. in Curr Biol, 2011). The algorithm combines epipolar deviations (Swaminathan et al. in Lect Notes Comput Sci 2350:508523, 2002) and appearance distortion, and succeeds in localizing specular objects in computer-rendered and real scenes, across a wide range of camera motions and speeds, object sizes and shapes, and performs well under image noise and blur conditions.

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

specularity detection
surface reflectance estimation


analysis of traffic data from a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network Satellite data networks provide broadband access for areas not served by traditional broadband technologies. In this paper, we describe a collection of traffic data (billing records and tcpdump traces) from a satellite Internet service provider in China. We use the billing records to investigate the uploaded and downloaded traffic volume and the aggregate user behavior. We examine daily and weekly cycles and effects of holidays on traffic patterns. Analysis of the tcpdump traces indicates that Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) accounts for the majority of data transfers. The analysis also includes the detection of anomalies such as invalid TCP flag combinations, port scans, and anomalies in traffic volume.

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

traffic measurements
satellite-terrestrial networks


Predicting helium and neon adsorption and separation on carbon nanotubes by Monte Carlo simulation The adsorption of helium and neon mixtures on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) was investigated at various temperatures (subcritical and supercritical) and pressures using canonical Monte Carlo (CMC) simulation. Adsorption isotherms were obtained at different temperatures (4, 40, 77 and 130 K) and pressures ranging from 1 to 16 MPa. Separation factors and isosteric enthalpies of adsorption were also calculated. Moreover, the adsorption isotherms were obtained at constant specific temperatures (4 and 40 K) and pressures (0.2 and 1.0 MPa) as a function of the amount adsorbed. All of the adsorption isotherms for an equimolar mixture of helium and neon have a Langmuir shape, indicating that no capillary condensation occurs. Both the helium and the neon adsorption isotherms exhibit similar behavior, and slightly more of the helium and neon mixture is adsorbed on the inner surfaces of the SWCNTs than on their outer surfaces. More neon is adsorbed than helium within the specified pressure range. The data obtained show that the isosteric enthalpies for the adsorption of neon are higher than those for helium under the same conditions, which means that adsorption of neon preferentially occurs by (15, 15) SWCNTs. Furthermore, the isosteric enthalpies of adsorption of both gases decrease with increasing temperature.

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

molecular simulation
carbon nanotube
separation factor
isosteric enthalpy of adsorption


The complexity of bivariate power series arithmetic Inspired by Schonhage's discussion in the Proc. 11th Applied Algebra and Error Correcting Codes Conference (AAECC), Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci., Springer, Berlin, Vol. 948, 1995 pp. 70, we study the multiplicative complexity of the multiplication, squaring, inversion, and division of bivariate power series modulo the "triangular" and "quadratic" ideals (Xd+1,(XY)-Y-d,Xd-1 Y-2,..., Yd+1) and (Xd+1, Yd+1), respectively. For multiplication, we obtain the lower bounds 5/4 d(2) -O(d) and 2 1/3 d(2) - O(d) for the triangular and quadratic case, respectively, opposed to the upper bounds 3/2 d(2) + O(d) and 3d(2) + O(d). For squaring, we prove the lower bounds 7/8 d(2) - O(d) and 1 3/5 d(2) - O(d). As upper bounds, we have d(2) + O(d) and 2 1/2 d(2) + O(d) for the triangular and quadratic case, respectively. Concerning inversion, the obtained lower bounds coincide with those of squaring. As upper bounds, we show 3 5/6 d(2) +O(d) and 8 1/3 d(2) + O(d), respectively. The lower bounds for division are those of multiplication. The upper bounds follow from combining the bounds for inversion and multiplication. All of the above lower bounds hold over arbitrary fields (in the case of multiplication and division) and over fields of characteristic distinct from two (in the case of squaring and inversion), respectively. All upper bounds are valid for fields that "support FFTs", that is, fields that have characteristic zero and contain all roots of unity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multiplicative complexity
bivariate power series
multiplication
division


parallel multilevel k-way partitioning scheme for irregular graphs In this paper we present a parallel formulation of a multilevel k-way graph partitioning algorithm. The multilevel k-way partitioning algorithm reduces the size of the graph by collapsing vertices and edges (coarsening phase), finds a k-way partition of the smaller graph, and then it constructs a k-way partition for the original graph by projecting and refining the partition to successively finer graphs (uncoarsening phase). A key innovative feature of our parallel formulation is that it utilizes graph coloring to effectively parallelize both the coarsenin and the refinement during the uncoarsening phase. Our algorithm is able to achieve a high degree of concurrency, while maintaining the high quality partitions produced by the serial algorithm. We test our scheme on a large number of graphs from finite element methods, and transportation domains. Our parallel formulation on Cray T3D, produces high quality 128-way partitions on 128 processors in a little over two seconds, for graphs with a million vertices. Thus our parallel algorithm makes it possible to perform dynamic graph partition in adaptive computations without compromising quality.

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

spectral partitioning methods
multilevel partitioning methods
parallel graph partitioning
parallel sparse matrix algorithms
kernighan-lin heuristic


inferring document similarity from hyperlinks Assessing semantic similarity between text documents is a crucial aspect in Information Retrieval systems. In this work, we propose to use hyperlink information to derive a similarity measure that can then be applied to compare any text documents, with or without hyperlinks. As linked documents are generally semantically closer than unlinked documents, we use a training corpus with hyperlinks to infer a function a,b ? sim ( a,b ) that assigns a higher value to linked documents than to unlinked ones. Two sets of experiments on different corpora show that this function compares favorably with OKAPI matching on document retrieval tasks.

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

neural networks
gradient descent
term weighting
matching measure


Personal computing acceptance factors in small firms: A structural equation model This study draws upon the technology acceptance model as the theoretical basis and empirical findings for a pragmatic explanation of key factors affecting personal computing acceptance in small firms. The study uses results from a survey of 358 users in small firms in New Zealand to test a structural model examining the hypothesized relationships among the following constructs: intraorganizational factors, extraorganizational factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and personal computing acceptance (i.e., system usage). The findings indicate that perceived ease of use is a dominant factor in explaining perceived usefulness and system usage, and that perceived usefulness has a strong effect on system usage. The results also indicate that exogenous variables influence both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, particularly management support and external support. Inconsistent with prior research in large firms, relatively little support was found for the influence of both internal support and internal training. Implications for the acceptance of personal computing and future research on personal computing acceptance in small firms are discussed.

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

personal computing acceptance
small firms
intraorganizational factors
extraorganizational factors
technology acceptance model


GFM-Based Methods for Speaker Identification This paper presents three novel methods for speaker identification of which two methods utilize both the continuous density hidden Markov model (HMM) and the generalized fuzzy model (GFM), which has the advantages of both Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno models. In the first method, the HMM is utilized for the extraction of shape-based batch feature vector that is fitted with the GFM to identify the speaker. On the other hand, the second method makes use of the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and the GFM for the identification of speakers. Finally, the third method has been inspired by the way humans cash in on the mutual acquaintances while identifying a speaker. To see the validity of the proposed models [HMM-GFM, GMM-GFM, and HMM-GFM (fusion)] in a real-life scenario, they are tested on VoxForge speech corpus and on the subset of the 2003 National Institute of Standards and Technology evaluation data set. These models are also evaluated on the corrupted VoxForge speech corpus by mixing with different types of noisy signals at different values of signal-to-noise ratios, and their performance is found superior to that of the well-known models.

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

gaussian mixture model (gmm)
generalized fuzzy model (gfm)
hidden markov model (hmm)
shape-based batching (sbb)


Implementation of a virtual environment for traffic accident simulation Part I: The 3D models and control panels A proper assessment of traffic accident site and prompt clearance actions with response emergency vehicles are crucial to reduce related congestion on freeways. Training novice officers in accident site management will reduce inappropriate assessment that delays rapid clearance response. The INtelligent TRaffic Evaluator for Prompt Incident Diagnosis using a Reality Engine (INTREPID-RE) simulates traffic accidents using the virtual reality technique. The system allows users to evaluate accidents as if they were present at a real accident site. The simulated traffic accidents generated by INTREPID-RE are based on a combination of vehicle types, highway conditions, visibility, and final position of the involved vehicles. In this first of a two-part paper, the research results in major features, such as the creation of an interactive user interface panel, seven highway configurations, five types of traffic vehicles, overturning condition of the vehicles, traffic cones, nighttime visibility, foggy weather conditions, animation of moving vehicles, and dynamic text display. These features are the essential ingredients for developing the virtual world discussed in the second part of the paper.

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

traffic accident
virtual reality
virtual world

3d object
cyberspace
incident management
traffic safety
traffic simulation


Academic infotecture - Course design for cyberschool This article recounts the author's experiences teaching two political theory classes for the Virginia Tech CyberSchool initiative during the summer of 1996 using the World Wide Web as the near-exclusive method of delivery. It documents the planning and implementation processes, taking into specific account the role played in these processes by administrative and technological constraints. The possible roles of Web-based course delivery for large universities are discussed. The article concludes with a consideration of what the authors would change in subsequent iterations of this project as well as what he would not change.

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

political theory
planning
implementation
course delivery

web-based education
internet
online education
information technology
higher education


A novel approach for fast codebook re-quantization In this paper, we present a fast codebook re-quantization algorithm (FCRA) using codewords of a codebook being re-quantized as the training vectors to generate the re-quantized codebook. Our method is different from the available approach, which uses the original training set to generate a re-quantized codebook. Compared to the traditional approach, our method can reduce the computing time dramatically, since the number of codewords of a codebook being re-quantized is usually much smaller than the number of original training vectors. Our method first classifies codewords of a re-quantized codebook into static and active groups. This approach uses the information of codeword displacements between successive partitions to reject impossible candidates in the partition process of codebook re-quantization. By implementing a fast search algorithm used for vector quantization encoding (MFAUPI) in the partition step of FCRA, the computational complexity of codebook re-quantization can be further reduced significantly. Using MFAUPI, the computing time of FCRA can be reduced by a factor of 1.553.78. Compared with the available approach OARC (optimization algorithm for re-quantization codebook), our proposed method can reduce the codebook re-quantization time by a factor of about 8005 using a training set of six real images. This reduction factor is increased when the re-quantized codebook size and/or training set size are increased. It is noted that our proposed algorithm can generate the same re-quantized codebook as that produced by the OARC.

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


Modeling and simulation of laser tracking systems Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to properly calibrate the laser tracking system (LTS) prior to using it for metrology and improving the measuring accuracy of LTS. Design/methodology/approach - A kinematics model that describes not only the motion but also geometric variations of LTS is developed. Effects of tracking mirror mechanism dimension errors on measured coordinates and target reflector alignment errors on sensor reading are investigated. Findings - Through error analysis of the proposed model, it is claimed that gimbals axis misalignments and tracking mirror center offset are the key contributors to measure errors of LTS. Intensive simulation studies are conducted to check the validity of the theoretical results and various practical issues are also explored in the simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that under realistic conditions the 10-parameter model is the minimal and complete model. Research limitations/implications - This model, together with its error model which is also presented in this paper, can be used for design, calibration, and control of LTS. Originality/value - This paper develops a kinematics model that describes not only the motion but also geometric variations of LTS, and demonstrates that gimbals axis misalignments and tracking mirror center offset is the key contributor to measuring errors of LTS.

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

modelling
lasers
measurement
laser tracking
tracking mirror


Boolean functions with a simple certificate for CNF complexity In this paper we study relationships between CNF representations of a given Boolean function f f and essential sets of implicates of f f . It is known that every CNF representation and every essential set must intersect. Therefore the maximum number of pairwise disjoint essential sets of f f provides a lower bound on the size of any CNF representation of f f . We are interested in functions, for which this lower bound is tight, and call such functions coverable. We prove that for every coverable function there exists a polynomially verifiable certificate (witness) for its minimum CNF size. On the other hand, we show that not all functions are coverable, and construct examples of non-coverable functions. Moreover, we prove that computing the lower bound, i.e. the maximum number of pairwise disjoint essential sets, is NP N P -hard under various restrictions on the function and on its input representation.

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


Toward an Axiomatic Definition of Conflict Between Belief Functions Recently, the problem of measuring the conflict between two bodies of evidence represented by belief functions has known a regain of interest. In most works related to this issue, Dempster's rule plays a central role. In this paper, we propose to study the notion of conflict from a different perspective. We start by examining consistency and conflict on sets and extract from this settings basic properties that measures of consistency and conflict should have. We then extend this basic scheme to belief functions in different ways. In particular, we do not make any a priori assumption about sources (in) dependence and only consider such assumptions as possible additional information.

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

evidence theory
information fusion
transferable belief model (tbm)


Assessment of the quality of decisions worked out by an artificial neural network (DIAG) which diagnoses a technical object The issues of the examination and determination of the ambiguity of the identification of the states of a technical object in a diagnostic system with an artificial neural network are presented in this article. It is an important problem in the operation of each inference (decision) system, in which various types of decisions are worked out, particularly including ones for diagnostic systems. For this purpose, a diagnostic system including its elements, in which an artificial neural network is used, is characterized and described. The structure together with the algorithm of a diagnostic neural network is presented. A diagram was drawn up, and the circulation of information in the diagnostic system was described in the perspective of errors brought into decision information by the individual elements of this system. A formula for the general error during working out of decisions in the system is put forward. It was also indicated that a number of factors including interferences and influence of the environment, errors during the measurement of the values of the properties of diagnostic signals, errors at the determination of the ranges of possible (permissible and limiting) changes of the properties of diagnostic signals defined in the inference rules and the accuracy of the drawing up of diagnostic inference rules have all a direct impact on the ambiguity level of the identification of the states of a technical object. In the present article, it is also the possibilities that are put forward for the determination and optimization of the ambiguity of the identification of the states of a technical object. For this purpose, the function that determines the quality of the identification and non-identification of the objects state was defined in this article. A practical assessment method of the ambiguity level of the identification of the states of a technical object in the examined diagnostic system is additionally presented in an example with the use of a radar system.

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

technical operation
control systems
technical diagnostics
neural networks
development of decisions
knowledge bases
diagnostic information


Incremental rate control for H.264 AVC scalable extension The emerging H.264 Scalable Video Coding (H.264/SVC) requires the rate control algorithm to regulate the output bit rate of all the coarse-grain-scalability, temporal, spatial and combined enhancement layers. In order to address this topic, in this research, we propose an incremental rate control algorithm for H.264/SVC to control each layers encoding rate close to the target bit rate. The proposed algorithm introduces a number of efficient methods. First, based on our previous work on H.264/AVC rate control, a Rate-Complexity-Quantization (R-C-Q) model is extended in scalable video coding. Second, a complexity measure for Intra-frames based on their gradient and histogram information is used to precisely determine Quantization Parameters (QPs) for Intra-frames using the R-C-Q model. Third, we adopt an incremental approach to compute QPs of inter-frames. Fourth, a Proportional + Integral + Derivative (PID) buffer controller is presented to provide robust buffer control for each layer of H.264/SVC bitstream. Finally the QPs for hierarchical B-frames are adaptively decided by their neighbor inter-frames. Our extensive simulation results demonstrate that, our algorithm outperforms JVT-W043 rate control algorithm, adopted in the H.264/SVC reference software, by providing more accurate output bit rate for each layer, maintaining stable buffer fullness, reducing frame skipping finally, improving the overall coding quality.

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

scalable video coding (svc)
h.264 compression standard
quantization parameter


Workload bounds in fluid models with priorities In this paper we establish upper and lower bounds on the steady-state per-class workload distributions in a single-server queue with multiple priority classes. Motivated by communication network applications, the model has constant processing rate and general input processes with stationary increments. The bounds involve corresponding quantities in related models with the first-come first-served discipline. We apply the bounds to support a new notion of effective bandwidths for multi-class systems with priorities. We also apply the lower bound to obtain sufficient conditions for the workload distributions to have heavy tails.

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

priority queues
stochastic fluid models
admission control
large-buffer asymptotics
atm
heavy-tailed distributions
long-tailed distributions


Probabilistic modeling and recognition of 3-D objects This paper introduces a uniform statistical framework for both 3-D and 2-D object recognition using intensity images as input data. The theoretical part provides a mathematical tool for stochastic modeling. The algorithmic part introduces methods for automatic model generation, localization, and recognition of objects. 2-D images are used for learning the statistical appearance of 3-D objects; both the depth information and the matching between image and model features are missing for model generation. The implied incomplete data estimation problem is solved by the Expectation Maximization algorithm. This leads to a novel class of algorithms for automatic model generation from projections. The estimation of pose parameters corresponds to a non-linear maximum likelihood estimation problem which is solved by a global optimization procedure. Classification is done by the Bayesian decision rule. This work includes the experimental evaluation of the various facets of the presented approach. An empirical evaluation of learning algorithms and the comparison of different pose estimation algorithms show the feasibility of the proposed probabilistic framework.

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

pose estimation
expectation maximization algorithm
global optimization

statistical object recognition
mixture densities
hidden markov models
marginalization
adaptive random search


Intelligent multi-objective control and management for smart energy efficient buildings Multi-agent control system developed with intelligent optimization algorithm. Evolutionary optimization techniques implemented for energy and comfort balance. Ample boost in energy efficiency and environmental comfort of smart buildings.

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

energy efficiency
comfort
control system
optimization


An automated design tool for analog layouts In this paper, a layout synthesis tool for the design of analog integrated circuits (ICs) is presented. This tool offers great flexibility that allows analog circuit designers to bring their special design knowledge and experiences into the synthesis process to create high-quality analog circuit layouts. Different from conventional layout systems that are limited to the optimization of single devices, our layout generation tool attempts to optimize more complex modules. This tool includes a complete tool suite that covers the following three major analog physical designs stages. 1) Module Generation: designers can develop and maintain their own technology- and application-independent module generators for subcircuits using an in-house developed description language. 2) Placement: a two-stage placement technique, tailored or the analog placement design, is proposed. In particular, this placement algorithm features a novel genetic placement stage followed by a fast simulated reannealing scheme. 3) Routing: the minimum-Steiner-tree-based global routing is developed, and it is actually integrated into the placement procedure to improve reliability and routability of the placement solutions. Following the global routing, a compaction-based constructive detailed routing finally completes the interconnection of the entire layout. Several testing circuits have been applied to demonstrate the design efficiency and the effectiveness of this tool. Experimental results show that this new layout tool is capable of producing high quality layouts comparable to those manually done by layout experts but with much less design time.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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
analog integrated circuits (ics)
design automation
integrated circuit layout


The dynamic representation of protection systems This paper presents a dynamic model of a protection system based on a differential feeder protection along with the primary power system. A commercially available relay is modelled and its functions explained. A general primary power system model structure that includes a fully integrated protection system model is discussed. The protection system model contains dynamic models of both the relays and the transducers. A technique will be described for developing an accurate dynamic model of a numerical protection relay using actual microprocessor codes from a commercially available relay. Finally, the practical application of the analysis under abnormal system conditions is demonstrated. Different faults are applied to the internal and the external regions of the feeder, and the response of the relays examined.

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

power system relaying
power system protection
current transformer


Unified Capture Scheme for Small Delay Defect Detection and Aging Prediction Small delay defect (SDD) and aging-induced circuit failure are both prominent reliability concerns for nanoscale integrated circuits. Faster-than-at-speed testing is effective on SDD detection in manufacturing testing, which is always implemented by designing a suite of test signal generation circuits on the chip. Meanwhile, the integration of online aging sensors is becoming attractive in monitoring aging-induced delay degradation in the runtime. These design requirements, if implemented in separate ways, will increase the complexity of a reliable design and consume more die area. In this paper, a unified capture scheme is proposed to generate programmable clock signals for the detection of both SDDs and circuit aging. Our motivation arises from the observations that SDD detection and online aging prediction both need to capture circuit response ahead of the functional clock. The proposed aging-resistant design method enables the offline test circuit to be reused in online operations. Reversed short channel effect is also exploited to make the underlying circuit resilient to process variations. The proposed scheme is validated by intensive HSPICE simulations. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness in terms of low area, power, and performance overheads.

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

reversed short channel effect unified capture scheme


A micromachined RF low phase noise voltage-controlled oscillator for wireless communications An RF low phase noise voltage-controlled oscillator is implemented with micromachined IC-compatible variable capacitors and three-dimensional coil inductor. Unlike conventional on-chip passive devices, the micromachined variable capacitors achieve a high-Q value above 60 at 1 GHz; with a 15% tuning range for a nominal 2 pF capacitance with 3 V tuning voltage. Three-dimensional inductors minimize the substrate loss and achieve a Q of 30 at 1 GHz with a 4.8 nH inductance. Both passive components are fabricated on silicon substrates and thus amenable to monolithic integration with standard IC process. The prototype VCO exhibits -136 dBc/Hz phase noise at 3 MHz offset frequency from the carrier, suitable for most wireless communication applications, in particular GSM. The VCO is tunable from 855 Mhz to 863 MHz, limited by the test set-up. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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

rf mems
micromachining
micromachined passive components
high-q rf devices
tunable capacitors
three-dimensional devices
coil inductors
rf vcos
low phase noise vcos


Electroless deposition in nanotechnology and ULSI The technology of electroless metallization was developed enabling one to adequately replace Au and Ag with NiP or NiB alloys in industry and to significantly simplify the metallization process. Other proposed nanotechnologies for the first time allow one to produce photomasks and microdevices with nano-sized adjacent elements of different thicknesses made of various materials by single conventional optical photolithography. These advantages significantly extend functional capabilities of the device and simplify removal of undesirable gases and heat dissipation. The proposed nanotechnologies are much more advantageous and simpler than other expensive and complicated methods such as e-beam, X-ray lithography or production of the devices using light phase shift photomasks. Methods of fabricating the ultra-thin void-free and pore-free electroless coatings on micro-, meso- and nano-sized particles (carbides, borides, nitrides, oxides, diamond, graphite, etc.) are also proposed. These methods allow one to obtain nanostructured composite materials and coatings with the specified properties. The developed technologies have been implemented in industry.

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

microelectronics
piezoegineering
composites
antiterrorism means


Some remarks on codes defined by Petri nets Wit any Petri net we associated its CPN language which consists of all sequences of transitions which reach a marking with an empty place whereas all proper prefixes of the sequence lead to positive markings. We prove that any CPN language can be accepted by a partially blind multicounter machine, and that any partially blind multicounter language is the morphic image of some CPN language. As a corollary we obtain the decidability of membership, emptiness and finiteness problem for CPN languages. We characterize the very strictly bounded regular languages, which are CPN languages, and give a condition for a Petri net, which ensures that its generated language is regular. We give a dense CPN language and prove that no dense regular language is a CPN language.

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


Practical Modeling: Making the Invisible Visible EDITOR'S SUMMARY

information architecture
organization of information
information models
knowledge modeling
mental visualization


autonomic software product lines (aspl) We describe ongoing work on a variability mechanism for Autonomic Software Product Lines (ASPL). The autonomic software product lines have self-management characteristics that make product line instances more resilient to context changes and some aspects of product line evolution. Instances sense the context, selects and bind the best component variants to variation-points at run-time. The variability mechanism we describe is composed of a profile guided dispatch based on off-line and on-line training processes. Together they form a simple, yet powerful variability mechanism that continuously learns, which variants to bind given the current context and system goals.

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

autonomic elements
mape-k
on-line
variation-points
off-line training


Histogram-Based Calibration of Capacitor Mismatch and Comparator Offset for 1-Bit/Stage Pipelined ADCs An efficient two-phase calibration technique for 1-bit/stage pipelined AnalogtoDigital Converters (ADCs) is presented in this paper. The proposed technique employs linear histogram testing to collect the required information to calibrate the non-ideal ADC output behavior induced by capacitor mismatch and comparator offset. In the first phase, it calibrates the missing-decision-level errors by amplification gain reduction. Unlike previous works, which require large capacitor arrays, only few switches are added to the circuit. The second phase eliminates missing-transition levels (missing codes). It achieves better calibrated linearity and provides better mismatch tolerance than the traditional digital calibration technique. Simulation results show that the proposed technique effectively improves both static and dynamic performances.

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

capacitor mismatch
comparator offset
calibration
histogram testing

analogtodigital conversion
pipelined adc


Electronic health record implementation and hospitals' total factor productivity The adoption and implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems have been widely promoted as a means for improving health care delivery and controlling costs in U.S. hospitals. To date, the results of efforts to adopt such systems have been mixed and often unsuccessful. This paper uses frontier analysis to measure hospitals' Total Factor Productivity (TFP) during 20062008 and compare it to nine different stages of EHR implementation. Overall, we find that hospitals implementing EHR systems have lower TFP gains relative to those facilities that have as yet to adopt. In particular, hospitals that attempt to fully implement an EHR in one year, the Big Bang strategy, have relatively low TFP levels. Therefore, the anticipated savings from increased EHR use may not be realized in the near-term for EHR system adopters. Moreover, an evidence-based approach to developing the Meaningful Use incentive and reward program for EHR implementation is warranted.

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

hit implementation
data envelopment analysis


Imidazole-containing farnesyltransferase inhibitors: 3D quantitative structure-activity relationships and molecular docking One of the most promising anticancer and recent antimalarial targets is the heterodimeric zinc-containing protein farnesyltransferase (FT). In this work, we studied a highly diverse series of 192 Abbott-initiated imidazole-containing compounds and their FT inhibitory activities using 3D-QSAR and docking, in order to gain understanding of the interaction of these inhibitors with FT to aid development of a rational strategy for further lead optimization. We report several highly significant and predictive CoMFA and CoMSIA models. The best model, composed of CoMFA steric and electrostatic fields combined with CoMSIA hydrophobic and H-bond acceptor fields, had r (2) = 0.878, q (2) = 0.630, and r (pred) (2) = 0.614. Docking studies on the statistical outliers revealed that some of them had a different binding mode in the FT active site based on steric bulk and available active site space, explaining why the predicted activities differed from the experimental activities.

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

farnesyltransferase inhibitors
comfa
comsia
docking
outliers


Hybrid simultaneous localization and map building: a natural integration of topological and metric In this paper the metric and topological paradigms are integrated in a hybrid system for both localization and map building. A global topological map connects local metric maps, allowing a compact environment model, which does not require global metric consistency and permits both precision and robustness. Furthermore, the approach handles loops in the environment during automatic mapping by means of the information of the multimodal topological localization. The system uses a 360 laser scanner to extract corners and openings for the topological approach and lines for the metric method. This hybrid approach has been tested in a m portion of the institute building with the fully autonomous robot Donald Duck. Experiments are of four types: maps created by a complete exploration of the environment are compared to estimate their quality; test missions are randomly generated in order to evaluate the efficiency of the approach for both the localization and relocation; the fourth type of experiments shows the practicability of the approach for closing the loop.

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

mobile robot navigation
hybrid (metrictopological)
kalman filtering
pomdp


RL-Glue: Language-Independent Software for Reinforcement-Learning Experiments RL-Glue is a standard, language-independent software package for reinforcement-learning experiments. The standardization provided by RL-Glue facilitates code sharing and collaboration. Code sharing reduces the need to re-engineer tasks and experimental apparatus, both common barriers to comparatively evaluating new ideas in the context of the literature. Our software features a minimalist interface and works with several languages and computing platforms. RL-Glue compatibility can be extended to any programming language that supports network socket communication. RL-Glue has been used to teach classes, to run international competitions, and is currently used by several other open-source software and hardware projects.

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

reinforcement learning
empirical evaluation
open source


Performance evaluation: An integrated method using data envelopment analysis and fuzzy preference relations In a multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) context, the decision maker needs to provide his preferences over a set of decision alternatives and constructs a preference relation and then use the derived priority vector of the preference to rank various alternatives. This paper proposes an integrated approach to rate decision alternatives using data envelopment analysis and preference relations. This proposed approach includes three stages. First, pairwise efficiency scores are computed using two DEA models: the CCR model and the proposed cross-evaluation DEA model. Second, the pairwise efficiency scores are then utilized to construct the fuzzy preference relation and the consistent fuzzy preference relation. Third, by use of the row wise summation technique, we yield a priority vector, which is used for ranking decision-making units (DMUs). For the case of a single output and a single input, the preference relation can be directly obtained from the original sample data. The proposed approach is validated by two numerical examples.

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

performance evaluation
preference relations

data envelopment analysis (dea)
cross evaluation


Shape from Shading Using Probability Functions and Belief Propagation Shape-from-shading (SFS) aims to reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of an object from a single shaded image. This article proposes an improved framework based on belief propagation for computing SFS. The implementation of the well-known brightness, integrability and smoothness constraints inside this framework is shown. We implement the constraints as probability density functions. For example, the brightness constraint is a two-dimensional probability density function that relates all possible surface gradients at a pixel to their probability given the pixel intensity. A straightforward extension of the framework to photometric stereo is presented, where multiple images of the same scene taken under different lighting conditions are available. The results are promising, especially since the solution is obtained by iteratively applying simple operations on a regular grid of points. The presented framework therefore can be implemented in parallel and is a reasonably likely biological scheme.

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


A systematic review of software development cost estimation studies This paper aims to provide a basis for the improvement of software estimation research through a systematic review of previous work. The review identifies 304 software cost estimation papers in 76 journals and classifies the papers according to research topic, estimation approach, research approach, study context and data set. A Web-based library of these cost estimation papers is provided to ease the identification of relevant estimation research results. The review results combined with other knowledge provide support for recommendations for future software cost estimation research, including 1) increase the breadth of the search for relevant studies, 2) search manually for relevant papers within a carefully selected set of journals when completeness is essential, 3) conduct more studies on estimation methods commonly used by the software industry, and 4) increase the awareness of how properties of the data sets impact the results when evaluating estimation methods.

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

systematic review
software cost estimation

software effort estimation
software cost prediction
software effort prediction
research methods


Provably Secure Steganography Steganography is the problem of hiding secret messages in "innocent-looking" public communication so that the presence of the secret messages cannot be detected. This paper introduces a cryptographic formalization of steganographic security in terms of computational indistinguishability from a channel, an indexed family of probability distributions on cover messages. We use cryptographic and complexity-theoretic proof techniques to show that the existence of one-way functions and the ability to sample from the channel are necessary conditions for secure steganography. We then construct a steganographic protocol, based on rejection sampling from the channel, that is provably secure and has nearly optimal bandwidth under these conditions. This is the first known example of a general provably secure steganographic protocol. We also give the first formalization of "robust" steganography, where an adversary attempts to remove any hidden messages without unduly disrupting the cover channel. We give a necessary condition on the amount of disruption the adversary is allowed in terms of a worst case measure of mutual information. We give a construction that is provably secure and computationally efficient and has nearly optimal bandwidth, assuming repeatable access to the channel distribution.

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


Mobile cloud computing framework for a pervasive and ubiquitous environment The increasing use of wireless Internet and smartphone has accelerated the need for pervasive and ubiquitous computing (PUC). Smartphones stimulate growth of location-based service and mobile cloud computing. However, smartphone mobile computing poses challenges because of the limited battery capacity, constraints of wireless networks and the limitations of device. A fundamental challenge arises as a result of power-inefficiency of location awareness. The location awareness is one of smartphone's killer applications; it runs steadily and consumes a large amount of power. Another fundamental challenge stems from the fact that smartphone mobile devices are generally less powerful than other devices. Therefore, it is necessary to offload the computation-intensive part by careful partitioning of application functions across a cloud. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient location-based service (LBS) and mobile cloud convergence. This framework reduces the power dissipation of LBSs by substituting power-intensive sensors with the use of less-power-intensive sensors, when the smartphone is in a static state, for example, when lying idle on a table in an office. The substitution is controlled by a finite state machine with a user-movement detection strategy. We also propose a seamless connection handover mechanism between different access networks. For convenient on-site establishment, our approach is based on the end-to-end architecture between server and a smartphone that is independent of the internal architecture of current 3G cellular networks.

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

connection handover
pervasive and ubiquitous computing
cloud computing

low-power location awareness
location-based service
mobile cloud offloading


Controllability of the wavefunction localization in an asymmetrical bi-periodic GaAs/AlAs superlattice Electroabsorption properties of a novel asymmetric double-well superlattice are studied experimentally and theoretically. Room temperature photocurrent spectra show an enhanced level anticrossing with energy splitting as large as 80 meV and a distinct blue shift of the optical absorption edge due to suppressed indirect Stark-ladder transitions. By using the transfer matrix method, we show that these electro-optical properties are caused by the wavefunction localization which is well-controlled by the well width asymmetry and the barrier sequence bi-periodicity.

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


Hyperboloidal layers for hyperbolic equations on unbounded domains We show how to solve hyperbolic equations numerically on unbounded domains by compactification, thereby avoiding the introduction of an artificial outer boundary. The essential ingredient is a suitable transformation of the time coordinate in combination with spatial compactification. We construct a new layer method based on this idea, called the hyperboloidal layer. The method is demonstrated on numerical tests including the one dimensional Maxwell equations using finite differences and the three dimensional wave equation with and without nonlinear source terms using spectral techniques.

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

transparent (non reflecting
absorbing) boundary conditions
perfectly matched layers
hyperboloidal compactification
wave equations


Persuasive messages on information system acceptance: A theoretical extension of elaboration likelihood model and social influence theory Firms invest millions of dollars in the introduction of new information systems for long-term benefit. If employees are not willing to accept a new information system, such investments may be wasted. Employee acceptance of a new information system is in part determined by external influences. However, previous research has neglected the paths of persuasive strategies and external social influences on information system acceptance. Linkages between persuasive strategies and external social influences are also scarce. By integrating social influence theory and an elaboration likelihood model, this study explores the influence of persuasive messages (source credibility and argument quality) on social influence, affective response and cognitive response. This study also investigates the interrelationships among affective response, cognitive response and behavior intention. Furthermore, the moderating roles of social influences on the impact of affective response and cognitive response on behavior intention are identified.

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

source credibility
argument quality
cognitive response
affective response

informational social influence
normative social influence


model-based face and lip animation for interactive virtual reality applications In this paper, we describe an experimental performance-driven animation system for an avatar face using model-based video coding and audio-track driven lip animation.

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

voice-image synchronization
and compression
multi-modal interaction and integration
audio/image/video processing


Knowledge creation: individual and organizational perspectives A comprehensive model that delineates the interrelationships among 'user involvement', 'knowledge cognition', 'organizational mechanisms', and 'knowledge creation' is absent. This study aims to fill this void. Unlike previous research, this study examined the issues of effective knowledge management from two perspectives: individuals, i.e. user involvement and knowledge cognition, and organizations, i.e. organizational mechanisms. In our framework, we argued that the composite effect of 'user involvement', 'knowledge cognition', and 'organizational mechanisms' influences the result of knowledge creation. In order to test the feasibility of this framework, we conducted an empirical study. This study employed a survey instrument to collect data from 500 organizations in manufacturing, trade, transportation, service industries, and academic institutions. A total of 271 useable responses were analyzed. The major contributions of this research are to: (a) develop a knowledge management framework based on individual and organizational perspectives; and (b) identify the impact of user involvement, knowledge cognition, and organizational mechanisms on knowledge creation. The implications of the study are provided, and further research directions are proposed.

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

knowledge creation
knowledge cognition
user involvement
organizational mechanisms
knowledge management
organizations


summary evaluation and text categorization In general terms the evaluation of a summary depends on how close it is to the chief points in the source text. This begets the question as to what are the chief points in the source text and how is this information used in itself in identifying the source text. This is crucially important when we discuss automatic evaluation of summaries. So the question of main points is the source text. Typically, this would be around a nucleus of keywords. However, the salience, the frequency, and the relationship of the text with other texts in the collection (of these keywords is perhaps) are important. Text categorisation using neural networks explicates these points well and also has a practical impact.

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


Predictive connectionist approach for VoD bandwidth management This paper describes a step-by-step improvement process of a predictive connectionist module applied in the context of Video on Demand Service Providers (VDSP) applications. The aim at the end is to provide a methodology based on estimation to right size bandwidth usage. The improvement methodology [G. Gomes, Un Modole Connexioniste pour la Prediction e l'Optimization de la Bande Passante: Approche Basee sur la Nature Autosimulaire du Trafic Video IP, doctorat thesis presented at Universite d'Evry - Val d'Essonne, France (2004)] consists of three phases named examples-based level, modular solution and HVS (Heuristic for Variable Selection) [Y. Bennani, M. Yacoub, Features selection and architecture optimization in connectionist systems, International Journal of Neural Systems 10(5) (2000) 379-395]. In the first phase the "sliding and overlaying" technique is used for enabling the Predictive Connectionist Module (PCM) to be aware of dynamic input. In the second phase a new connectionist network is added to the first one so that the proactive function with prediction could be achieved through a modular architecture. Finally, the HVS method is used in the third phase for identifying optimized connectionist models with higher accuracy. Simulations results are provided which cover learning, prediction and evaluation phases. (c) 2007 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 O 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 O O O O

connectionist learning
self-similar traffic
video on demand providers


Approximability and inapproximability of the minimum certificate dispersal problem Given an n-vertex directed graph G = (V, E) and a set R subset of V x V of requests, we consider assigning a set of edges to each vertex in G so that for every request (u, v) in R the union of the edge sets assigned to u and u contains a path from u to v. The Minimum Certificate Dispersal Problem (MCD) is defined as one to find an assignment that minimizes the sum of the cardinalities of the edge sets assigned to each vertex. This problem has been shown to be NP-hard in general, though it is polynomially solvable for some restricted classes of graphs and restricted request structures, such as bidirectional trees with requests of all pairs of vertices. In this paper, we give an advanced investigation about the difficulty of MCD by focusing on the relationship between its (in)approximability and request structures. We first show that MCD with general R has Theta (log n) lower and upper bounds on approximation ratio under the assumption P not equal NP. We then assume R forms a clique structure, called Subset-Full, which is a natural setting in the context of the application. Interestingly, under this natural setting, MCD becomes 2-approximable, though it has still no polynomial time approximation algorithm whose factor is better than 677/676 unless P = NP. Finally, we show that this approximation ratio can be improved to 3/2 for the undirected variant of MCD with Subset-Full. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

graph theory
approximation algorithms
combinatorial optimization


Evolutionary Artificial Neural Network Design and Training for wood veneer classification This study addresses the design and the training of a Multi-Layer Perceptron classifier for identification of wood veneer defects from statistical features of wood sub-images. Previous research utilised a neural network structure manually optimised using the Taguchi method with the connection weights trained using the Backpropagation rule. The proposed approach uses the evolutionary Artificial Neural Network Generation and Training (ANNGaT) algorithm to generate the neural network system. The algorithm evolves simultaneously the neural network topology and the weights. ANNGaT optimises the size of the hidden layer(s) of the neural network structure through genetic mutations of the individuals. The number of hidden layers is a system parameter. Experimental tests show that ANNGaT produces highly compact neural network structures capable of accurate and robust learning. The tests show no differences in accuracy between neural network architectures using one and two hidden layers of processing units. Compared to the manual approach, the evolutionary algorithm generates equally performing solutions using considerably smaller architectures. Moreover, the proposed algorithm requires a lower design effort since the process is fully automated.

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

artificial neural networks
evolutionary algorithms
pattern classification
automated visual inspection


BDD-based safety-analysis of concurrent software with pointer data structures using graph automorphism symmetry reduction Dynamic data-structures with pointer links, which are heavily used in real-world software, cause extremely difficult verification problems. Currently, there is no practical framework for the efficient verification of such software systems. We investigated symmetry reduction techniques for the verification of software systems with C-like indirect reference chains like x->y->z->w. We formally defined the model of software with pointer data structures and developed symbolic algorithms to manipulate conditions and assignments with indirect reference chains using BDD technology. We relied on two techniques, inactive variable elimination and process-symmetry reduction in the data-structure configuration, to reduce time and memory complexity. We used binary permutation for efficiency, but we also identified the possibility of an anomaly of false image reachability. We implemented the techniques in tool Red 5.0 and compared performance with Murphi and SMC against several benchmarks.

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

symbolic model checking
pointers
data structure
address manipulation
experiments


Texture-based descriptors for writer identification and verification In this work, we discuss the use of texture descriptors to perform writer verification and identification. We use a classification scheme based on dissimilarity representation, which has been successfully applied to verification problems. Besides assessing two texture descriptors (local binary patterns and local phase quantization), we also address important issues related to the dissimilarity representation, such as the impact of the number of references used for verification and identification, how the framework performs on the problem of writer identification, and how the dissimilarity-based approach compares to other feature-based strategies. In order to meet these objectives, we carry out experiments on two different datasets, the Brazilian forensic letters database and the IAM database. Through a series of comprehensive experiments, we show that both LBP- and LPQ-based classifiers are able to surpass previous results reported in the literature for the verification problem by about 5 percentage points. For the identification problem, the proposed approach using LPQ features is able to achieve accuracies of 96.7% and 99.2% on the BFL and IAM and databases respectively.

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

writer identification
writer verification
texture


Agility through scenario development and continuous implementation: a global aftermarket logistics case This paper examines a business and IS/IT initiative at Volvo that involves managing the development and implementation of an agile aftermarket supply chain. The case is based on Volvo's global initiative to create a platform, Web services, and a Web portal for selling spare parts over the Internet. Creating and integrating a new platform is difficult, and establishing new relations in global aftermarket logistics is even more challenging. Agility relates to an organisation's ability to sense and respond rapidly to unpredictable events in order to satisfy changing customer demands. Volvo's effort illustrates agility as achieved by working continuously with scenario development and keeping implementation projects to a comprehendible size in order to nurture learning. The effort involved direct actions to manage both the technology and the relations among supply chain actors. As this case shows, continuous implementation projects can deliver innovation in new relations and through new channels particularly if projects address agility from the start.

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

scenario development
agility
web services
supply chain
global aftermarket logistics


Cryptographic and Physical Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems for Solutions of Sudoku Puzzles We consider cryptographic and physical zero-knowledge proof schemes for Sudoku, a popular combinatorial puzzle. We discuss methods that allow one party, the prover, to convince another party, the verifier, that the prover has solved a Sudoku puzzle, without revealing the solution to the verifier. The question of interest is how a prover can show: (i) that there is a solution to the given puzzle, and (ii) that he knows the solution, while not giving away any information about the solution to the verifier. In this paper we consider several protocols that achieve these goals. Broadly speaking, the protocols are either cryptographic or physical. By a cryptographic protocol we mean one in the usual model found in the foundations of cryptography literature. In this model, two machines exchange messages, and the security of the protocol relies on computational hardness. By a physical protocol we mean one that is implementable by humans using common objects, and preferably without the aid of computers. In particular, our physical protocols utilize items such as scratch-off cards, similar to those used in lotteries, or even just simple playing cards. The cryptographic protocols are direct and efficient, and do not involve a reduction to other problems. The physical protocols are meant to be understood by "lay-people" and implementable without the use of computers.

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 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


isolating relevant component interactions with jinsi When a component in a large system fails, developers encounter two problems: (1) reproducing the failure, and (2) investigating the causes of such a failure. Our JINSI tool lets developers capture and replay the interactions between a component and its environment, thus allowing for reproducing the failure at will. In addition, JINSI uses delta debugging to automatically isolate the subset of the interactions that is relevant for the failure. In a first study, JINSI has successfully isolated the relevant interaction of a JAVA component: "Out of the 32 interactions with the (BOB - wasn't sure about this one)component, seven interactions suffice to produce the failure.

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

interaction tool replay debugging failure component

relevance
automated debugging
systems
environments
capture and replay techniques
developer


Computational models of reinforcement learning: the role of dopamine as a reward signal Reinforcement learning is ubiquitous. Unlike other forms of learning, it involves the processing of fast yet content-poor feedback information to correct assumptions about the nature of a task or of a set of stimuli. This feedback information is often delivered as generic rewards or punishments, and has little to do with the stimulus features to be learned. How can such low-content feedback lead to such an efficient learning paradigm? Through a review of existing neuro-computational models of reinforcement learning, we suggest that the efficiency of this type of learning resides in the dynamic and synergistic cooperation of brain systems that use different levels of computations. The implementation of reward signals at the synaptic, cellular, network and system levels give the organism the necessary robustness, adaptability and processing speed required for evolutionary and behavioral success.

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


Cubical local partial orders on cubically subdivided spaces - Existence and construction The geometric models of higher dimensional automata (HDA) and Dijkstra's PV-model are cubically subdivided topological spaces with a local partial order. If a cubicalization of a topological space is free of immersed cubic Mobius bands, then there are consistent choices of direction in all cubes, such that any n-cube in the cubic subdivision is dihomeomorphic to [0, 1](n) with the induced partial order from R-n. After subdivision once, any cubicalized space has a cubical local partial order. In particular, all triangularized spaces have a cubical local partial order. This implies in particular that the underlying geometry of an HDA may be quite complicated. (C) 2006 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 B I 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 B I I O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

higher dimensional automaton
cubical complex


A note on the modelling and analysis of vector ARMA processes with nonstationary innovations This paper considers the modelling and analysis of nonstationary vector ARMA processes from the theoretical point of view. Some extensions to the existing work (see, for example [1,2]) incorporating the nonstationarity of the underlying process are given using models with nonstationary innovations. It is shown that this class of models provides a very strong framework for many practical situations. The estimation procedures are discussed. Various prediction results are also given. Some examples are added to illustrate the theory. Crown copyright (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

nonstationary prediction innovations estimation

hilbert space
vector processes
uniformly bounded
regularity conditions
white-noise
multivariate
yule-walker equations
arima process


Application of the Topological Gradient Method to Color Image Restoration The aim of this paper is to generalize to color images the topological gradient method for the restoration problem. First, we consider a simple extension from grey-level to color images, by considering a channel by channel method. Then, as there should be some coupling between the different channels, we propose considering a tensorial approach: the Di Zenzo gradient. We derive an asymptotic expansion of this gradient with respect to the insertion of a small crack in the image, and we propose a new algorithm based on the topological gradient for the color image restoration problem. Finally, we illustrate these two approaches with numerical results.

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

topological gradient
image restoration
di zenzo gradient

topological asymptotic expansion
color vision


a fine-grained, controllable, user-to-user delegation method in rbac This paper addresses the issues surrounding user-to-user delegation in RBAC. We show how delegations can be incorporated into the RBAC model in a simple and straightforward manner. A special feature of the model is that it allows fine-grained control over what rights a user wishes to delegate as opposed to delegation at the role level where all the rights of a role must be delegated. In addition, the model provides a rich set of controls regarding further delegations of a right, generic constraints that further control delegations, and an innovative model for revocations. Properties of both delegation and revocation are discussed, and our work is compared with other related research.

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


Reflection on research methodologies for ubicomp in developing contexts As the user base for ubiquitous technology expands to developing regions, the likelihood of disparity between the lived experience of design team members (developers, designers, researchers, etc.) and end users has increased. Human-centered design (HCD) provides a toolkit of research methods aimed at helping bridge the distance between technology design teams and end users. However, we have found that traditional approaches to HCD research methods are difficult to deploy in developing regions. In this paper, we share our experiences of adapting HCD research methodologies to the Central Asia context and some lessons we have learned. While our lessons are many, reconsidering the unit of analysis from the individual to larger social units was an early discovery that provided a frame for later research activities that focused on ubicomp development. We argue that lessons and challenges derived from our experience will generalize to other research investigations in which researchers are trying to adapt common HCD data collection methods to create ubiquitous technologies for and/or with distant audiences in developing regions.

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

ubicomp
developing regions
unit of analysis

communication and technology for development


On higher Arthur-Merlin classes We study higher Arthur-Merlin classes defined via several natural probabilistic operators BP, R and coR. We investigate the complexity classes they define, and a number of interactions between these operators and the standard polynomial time hierarchy. We prove a hierarchy theorem for these higher Arthur-Merlin classes involving interleaving operators, and a theorem giving non-trivial upper bounds to the intersection of the complementary classes in the hierarchy.

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

arthur-merlin games
polynomial-time hierarachy


Fuzzy control for pneumatic muscle tracking via evolutionary tuning This paper studies the evolutionary design of a fuzzy P+ID controller for an actual pneumatic muscle actuator system. The control of pneumatic muscles is a challenging problem because of their high degree of nonlinearity, time-varying parameters, and uncertainty. A fuzzy P+ID controller is constructed using an incremental fuzzy logic controller in place of the proportional term in a conventional PID controller. Several controller parameters arc optimized via an evolutionary algorithm. The optimization is performed using a recurrent neuro-fuzzy dynamic model of the muscle rather than the muscle itself. Control results arc presented, where the control objective is to force muscle length to follow a reference signal under a load. After evolutionary design, excellent tracking performance is obtained with the real muscle without the need for further tuning of controller parameters. The tracking performance is compared to that of another fuzzy controller.

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

evolutionary algorithms
neurofuzzy modeling
pneumatic actuators