Reliability, equivalence and respondent preference of computerized versus paper-and-pencil mental health questionnaires The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability, equivalence and respondent preference of a computerized version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOSSSS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Utrecht Coping List (UCL) in comparison with the original version in a general adult population. Internal consistency, equivalence and preference between both administration modes was assessed in a group of participants (n=130) who first completed the computerized questionnaire, followed by the traditional questionnaire and a post-assessment evaluation measure. Testretest reliability was measured in a second group of participants (n=115), who completed the computerized questionnaire twice. In both groups, the interval between first and second administration was set at one week. Reliability of the PC versions was acceptable to excellent; internal consistency ranged from ?=0.520.98, ICCs for testretest reliability ranged from 0.580.92. Equivalence was fair to excellent with ICCs ranging from 0.540.91. Interestingly, more subjects preferred the computerized instead of the traditional questionnaires (computerized: 39.2%, traditional: 21.6%, no preference: 39.2%). These results support the use of computerized assessment for these five instruments in a general population of adults.

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

assessment reliability equivalence questionnaire


A line balancing and productivity improvement method for surface mounting machines In this paper, we propose a hierarchical optimization technique of the PCB assembly line including multi-head non-identical surface mounting machines. The optimization problem related to the PCB assembly line is generally divided into three sub-problems: a line balancing problem, a reel assignment problem and a pick-and-place sequencing problem. Since each problem is known to be combinatorial and NP-hard, we propose a meta-heuristic algorithm such as genetic algorithm. Computer simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the heuristic algorithm that is commonly used in industry.

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

pcb assembly line
optimization
line balancing
genetic algorithm


Dynamic parameter estimation for a street canyon air quality model We compared two methods to estimate parameters in a street-scale air quality model. These were tested by modelling pollutant levels at five urban streets in Denmark. The use of parameter estimation reduced biases in modelled hourly concentrations. However it slightly increased biases in modelled daily maximum concentrations. There is limited scope for applying such parameter estimation to on-line forecasts.

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

urban air quality
street-scale air quality modelling
ensemble kalman filter
data assimilation


research on lesk-c-based wsd and its application in english-chinese bi-directional clir Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR) combines the traditional Information Retrieval technique and Machine Translation technique. There are many aspects related to the problem of polysemy, which are good cut-in points for the application of WSD in CLIR. Therefore, an attempt in this paper is to apply WSD in English-Chinese Bi-Directional CLIR. The query expansion and the proposed Lesk-C WSD strategy are explored. Although limited improvement on WSD can be obtained, query expansion and disambiguation based on the related strategies of WSD are beneficial to CLIR, and can improve the whole retrieval performance. Specially, by considering the "Coordinate Terms", the Lesk-C algorithm shows the better performance and has more extensive applicability on CLIR.

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

lesk-c algorithm
word sense disambiguation (wsd)
wordnet


The EPS method: A new method for constructing pseudospectral derivative operators We develop a new type of derivative matrix for pseudospectral methods. The norm of these matrices grows at the optimal rate O(N2) for N-by-N matrices, in contrast to standard pseudospectral constructions that result in O(N4) growth of the norm. The smaller norm has a big advantage when using the derivative matrix for solving time dependent problems such as wave propagation. The construction is based on representing the derivative operator as an integral kernel, and does not rely on the interpolating polynomials. In particular, we construct second derivative matrices that incorporate Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions on an interval and on the disk, but the method can be used to construct a wide variety of commonly used operators for solving PDEs and integral equations. The construction can be used with any quadrature, including traditional GaussLegendre quadratures, but we have found that by using quadratures based on prolate spheroidal wave functions, we can achieve a near optimal sampling rate close to two points per wavelength, even for non-periodic problems. We provide numerical results for the new construction and demonstrate that the construction achieves similar or better accuracy than traditional pseudospectral derivative matrices, while resulting in a norm that is orders of magnitude smaller than the standard construction. To demonstrate the advantage of the new construction, we apply the method for solving the wave equation in constant and discontinuous media and for solving PDEs on the unit disk. We also present two compression algorithms for applying the derivative matrices in O(NlogN) operations.

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

pseudospectral methods
prolate spheroidal wave functions
wave propagation


A knowledge-oriented meta-framework for integrating sensor network infrastructures In this paper, we describe a meta-framework that helps guide development of sensor network (SN) cyberinfrastructure in a way that enables emerging sensor infrastructures, including advances in sensor hardware, communication, monitoring applications, and knowledge representation, to interoperate. This framework is guided by the DAST principle. That is, the overall goal of any SN infrastructure is essentially the same: to acquire the right Data from the right Area using the right Sensors at the right Time. In conformity with this principle, our meta-framework integrates SN infrastructures along axes related to the answers to five questions: Why has processing been requested? What are the goals of the processing? Where is it carried out? How is it carried out? And, when will the results be provided? The infrastructure components are integrated by using various data standards and technologies currently available from various SN research groups, and mapping them to an overarching knowledge-based meta-framework. In concrete terms, we show in this paper how four distinct sensor technology projects under development in our research lab are used to fit these five axes of SN infrastructure and how they can be indirectly integrated through the use of software agent-based tools, which embody the meta-framework: an ontology-based decision support system that applies models of SN infrastructure to its evaluation techniques; SN configuration tools that enable network configurations to be exported into common geospatial standards; a transformation engine that converts these SN configurations, along with collected data, into a representation that meshes with our infrastructure models so that they may be used within our decision support environment; and a Virtual SN to handle many of the management and control aspects of SNs.

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

sensor webs
sensor network integration
agent-based software
interoperability


Importance of realistic LVAD profiles for assisted aortic simulations: evaluation of optimal outflow anastomosis locations Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are carefully designed, but the significance of the implantation configuration and interaction with the vasculature is complex and not fully determined. The present study employs computational fluid dynamics to investigate the importance of applying a realistic LVAD profile when evaluating assisted aortic flow fields and subsequently compares a number of potential anastomosis locations in a patient-specific aortic geometry. The outflow profile of the Berlin Heart INCOR (R) device was provided by Berlin Heart GmbH (Berlin, Germany) and the cannula was attached at a number of locations on the aorta. Simulations were conducted to compare a flat profile against the real LVAD profile. The results illustrate the importance of applying an LVAD profile. It not only affects the magnitude and distribution of oscillatory shear index, but also the distribution of flow to the great arteries. The ascending aorta was identified as the optimal location for the anastomosis.

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

left ventricular assist device
cfd
outflow cannula


Bootstrapping comparison on availability of parallel systems with non-identical components Purpose - In order to develop a feasible and efficient method to acquire the long-run availability of a parallel system with distribution-free up and down times, the purpose of this paper is to perform the simulation comparisons on the interval estimations of system availability using four bootstrapping methods. Desigri/methodology/approach - By using four bootstrap methods; standard bootstrap (SB) confidence interval, percentile bootstrap (PB) confidence interval, bias-corrected percentile bootstrap (BCPB) confidence interval, and bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) confidence interval. A numerical simulation study is carried out in order to demonstrate performance of these proposed bootstrap confidence intervals. Especially, we investigate the accuracy of the four bootstrap confidence intervals by calculating the coverage percentage, the average length, and the relative coverage of confidence intervals. Findings - Among the four bootstrap confidence intervals, the PB method has the largest relative coverage in most situations. That is, the PB method is the best one made by practitioners who want to obtain an efficient interval estimation of availability. Originality/value - It is the first time that the relative coverage is introduced to evaluate the performance of estimation method, which is more efficient than the existing measures.

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

computer bootstrapping
parallel machines


GRADIS The multiagent environment supported by graph transformations The specification and simulation of a complex multiagent system needs an abstract representation that is powerful enough to describe a solved problem and sufficiently abstract to understand and illustrate its behavior. Complementary graphs concept enables the distribution of a graph representation of a system knowledge and allows its independent modifications by agents, in such a way that this representation remains consistent. A problem representation from the centralized and distributed point of view makes the partial graphs the useful tool for a multiagent system designer. It also creates an environment capable of verifying the features of multiagent systems (represented by graph metrics) by simulation of a multiagent system behavior.

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


A two-stage heuristic for multi-activity and task assignment to work shifts The multi-activity assignment problem consists of assigning interruptible activities to given work shifts so as to match as much as possible for each activity a demand curve in function of time. In this paper we consider an extension to this problem, called the multi-activity and task assignment problem, that additionally considers the assignment of uninterruptible pieces of work, called tasks. These possess properties such as worker qualifications, time windows for completion, fixed lengths and precedence relationships. We propose a mixed-integer programming formulation and a two-stage method to solve this problem. The first stage consists of an approximation mixed-integer programming model to assign tasks approximately taking into account the activities and the second involves a column generation heuristic for assigning activities and reassigning tasks at the same time. We suggest four different strategies for reassigning tasks. We conducted extensive computational tests on randomly generated instances in order to validate our method and to compare the various strategies. One strategy proved universally best when compared to the other three policies. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

work shifts
tasks
precedence relationships
column generation


simple garbage-collector-safety A conservative garbage collector can typically be used with conventionally compiled programs written in C or C++. But two safety issues must be considered. First, the source code must not hide pointers from the garbage collector. This primarily requires stricter adherence to existing restrictions in the language definition. Second, we must ensure that the compiler will not perform transformations that invalidate this requirement.We argue that the same technique can be used to address both issues. We present an algorithm for annotating source or intermediate code to either check the validity of pointer arithmetic in the source, or to guarantee that under minimal, clearly defined assumptions about the compiler, the optimizer cannot "disguise" pointers. We discuss an implementation based on a preprocessor for the GNU C compiler (gcc), and give some measurements of program slow down.

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

program language code definition implementation algorithm pointers minimal

measurement requirements optimality addressing validation compilation source-code


Drosophila Gene Expression Pattern Annotation through Multi-Instance Multi-Label Learning In the studies of Drosophila embryogenesis, a large number of two-dimensional digital images of gene expression patterns have been produced to build an atlas of spatio-temporal gene expression dynamics across developmental time. Gene expressions captured in these images have been manually annotated with anatomical and developmental ontology terms using a controlled vocabulary (CV), which are useful in research aimed at understanding gene functions, interactions, and networks. With the rapid accumulation of images, the process of manual annotation has become increasingly cumbersome, and computational methods to automate this task are urgently needed. However, the automated annotation of embryo images is challenging. This is because the annotation terms spatially correspond to local expression patterns of images, yet they are assigned collectively to groups of images and it is unknown which term corresponds to which region of which image in the group. In this paper, we address this problem using a new machine learning framework, Multi-Instance Multi-Label (MIML) learning. We first show that the underlying nature of the annotation task is a typical MIML learning problem. Then, we propose two support vector machine algorithms under the MIML framework for the task. Experimental results on the FlyExpress database (a digital library of standardized Drosophila gene expression pattern images) reveal that the exploitation of MIML framework leads to significant performance improvement over state-of-the-art approaches.

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

gene expression pattern
machine learning
support vector machine
drosophila

multi-instance multi-label (miml) learning


One port contour-mode ZnO piezoelectric MEMS resonator This paper reports on design, fabrication and experimental testing of one port ZnO contour-mode resonant MEMS. The devices are fabricated from silicon wafers using a 4-mask process. The use of contour modes, whose frequencies are set by lithographically defined dimensions, permits the fabrication of multiple filters at arbitrary frequencies on the same chip. The one port ZnO contour mode resonator is compared with the AlN structure.

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

mems resonators
piezoelectric resonators
zinc-oxide
aluminium nitride


Multiclass feature learning for hyperspectral image classification: Sparse and hierarchical solutions In this paper, we tackle the question of discovering an effective set of spatial filters to solve hyperspectral classification problems. Instead of fixing a priori the filters and their parameters using expert knowledge, we let the model find them within random draws in the (possibly infinite) space of possible filters. We define an active set feature learner that includes in the model only features that improve the classifier. To this end, we consider a fast and linear classifier, multiclass logistic classification, and show that with a good representation (the filters discovered), such a simple classifier can reach at least state of the art performances. We apply the proposed active set learner in four hyperspectral image classification problems, including agricultural and urban classification at different resolutions, as well as multimodal data. We also propose a hierarchical setting, which allows to generate more complex banks of features that can better describe the nonlinearities present in the data.

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

hyperspectral imaging
feature selection
hierarchical feature extraction
deep learning


using static analysis to validate the saml single sign-on protocol Previous studies have successfully used static analysis to automatically validate authentication and confidentiality properties of classical key distribution protocols. In this paper we show how the very same technique can be used to validate modern web-based protocols, in particular, we study the SAML Single Sign-On protocol. The description of the protocol does not supply any security analysis but only lists various recommendations. One of these is to use versions of the TLS protocol for establishing secure connections between the principals. Using our static analysis tool we illustrate how some instantiations of the Single Sign-On protocol are flawed whereas others are not.

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


evaluating large-scale distributed vertical search Aggregating search results from a variety of distributed heterogeneous sources, i.e. so-called verticals, such as news, image, video and blog, into a single interface has become a popular paradigm in large-scale web search. As various distributed vertical search techniques (also as known as aggregated search ) have been proposed, it is crucial that we need to be able to properly evaluate those systems on a large-scale standard test set. A test collection for aggregated search requires a number of verticals, each populated by items (e.g. documents, images, etc) of that vertical type, a set of topics expressing information needs relating to one or more verticals, and relevance assessments, indicating the relevance of the items and their associated verticals to each of the topics. Building a large-scale test collection for aggregate search is costly in terms of time and resources. In this paper, we propose a methodology to build such a test collection reusing existing test collections, which allows the investigation of aggregated search approaches. We report on experiments, based on twelve simulated aggregated search systems, that show the impact of misclassification of items into verticals to the evaluation of systems.

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

distributed vertical search
aggregated search
test collection


GABA Regulates the Rat Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Axis via Different GABA-A Receptor ?-Subtypes The control of the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is balanced by excitatory and inhibitory inputs. The GABA-A receptor, which is a major target for the inhibitory control, is composed of five subunits. The presence of an ?1-, ?2-, ?3-, or ?5-subunit in the GABA-A receptor protein complex is necessary for benzodiazepines to exert their potentiating effect on the receptor. We postulate that the effect of nonselective benzodiazepines on the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis is critically dependent on the composition of the GABA-A receptor subunits through which they act. We show here that positive modulators of ?1-subtype containing GABA-A receptors with zolpidem (10 mg/kg) increase HPA activity in terms of increase in plasma corticosterone and induction of Fos in the PVN, whereas activation of non-?1-subtype GABA-A receptors using L-818,417 (10 mg/kg) likely inhibits the activity. We also show that the ?2-subunit gene is highly expressed in the PVN, but its expression is not affected by chronic mild stress. These results show that the stimulatory effect on HPA activity after positive modulation of GABA-A receptors composed of ?1-subunit(s) affects a selective afferent system than the PVN, which is distinct from another afferent system(s) activated by non ?1-containing GABA-A receptors.

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

corticosterone
paraventricular nucleus
fos
stress


Application of the fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methodology to edible bird nest processing A new application for fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methodology. A real case study on edible bird nest in Sarawak, Malaysia. Edible bird nest production processes.

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

failure mode and effect analysis
edible bird nest


A stable and convergent scheme for viscoelastic flow in contraction channels We present a new algorithm to simulate unsteady viscoelastic flows in abrupt contraction channels. In our approach we split the viscoelastic terms of the Oldroyd-B constitutive equation using Duhamels formula and discretize the resulting PDEs using a semi-implicit finite difference method based on a LaxWendroff method for hyperbolic terms. In particular, we leave a small residual elastic term in the viscous limit by design to make the hyperbolic piece well-posed. A projection method is used to impose the incompressibility constraint. We are able to compute the full range of unsteady elastic flows in an abrupt contraction channel from the viscous limit to the elastic limit in a stable and convergent manner. We demonstrate the range of our method for unsteady flow of a Maxwell fluid with and without viscosity in planar contraction channels. We also demonstrate stable and convergent results for benchmark high Weissenberg number problems at We=1 and We=10.

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


Coalition formation for task allocation: theory and algorithms This paper focuses on coalition formation for task allocation in both multiagent and multi-robot domains. Two different problem formalizations are considered, one for multi-agent domains where agent resources are transferable and one for multi-robot domains. We demonstrate complexity theoretic differences between both models and show that, under both, the coalition formation problem, with m tasks, is NP-hard to both solve exactly and to approximate within a factor of O(m(1-epsilon)) for all epsilon > 0. Two natural restrictions of the coalition formation problem are considered. In the first situation agents are drawn from a set of j types. Agents of each type are indistinguishable from one another. For this situation a dynamic programming based approach is presented, which, for fixed j finds the optimal coalition structure in polynomial time and is applicable in both multi-agent and multi-robot domains. We then consider situations where coalitions are restricted to k or fewer agents. We present two different algorithms. Each guarantees the generated solution to be within a constant factor, for fixed k, of the optimal in terms of utility. Our algorithms complement Shehory and Kraus' algorithm (Artif Intell 101(1-2):165-200, 1998), which provides guarantee's on solution cost, as ours provides guarantees on utility. Our algorithm for general multi-agent domains is a modification of and has the same running time as Shehory and Kraus' algorithm, while our approach for multi-robot domains runs in time O(n(3/2) m), much faster than Vig and Adams (J Intell Robot Syst 50(1):85-118, 2007) modifications to Shehory and Kraus' algorithm for multi-robot domains, which ran in time O(n(k)m), for n agents and m tasks.

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


Optimal reference subset selection for nearest neighbor classification by tabu search This paper presents an approach to select the optimal reference subset (ORS) for nearest neighbor classifier. The optimal reference subset, which has minimum sample size and satisfies a certain resubstitution error rate threshold, is obtained through a tabu search (TS) algorithm. When the error rate threshold is set to zero, the algorithm obtains a near minimal consistent subset of a given training set, While the threshold is set to a small appropriate value. the obtained reference Subset may have reasonably good generalization capacity. A neighborhood exploration method and an aspiration criterion are proposed to improve the efficiency of TS. Experimental results based on a number of typical data sets are presented and analyzed to illustrate the benefits of the proposed method. The performances of the result consistent and non-consistent reference subsets are evaluated. (C) 2002 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

nearest neighbor classifications
reference set
prototype selection


A Bezier curve based path planning in a multi-agent robot soccer system without violating the acceleration limits This paper proposes an efficient, Bezier curve based approach for the path planning of a mobile robot in a multi-agent robot soccer system. The boundary conditions required for defining the Bezier curve are compatible with the estimated initial state of the robot and the ball. The velocity of the robot along the path is varied continuously to its maximum allowable levels by keeping its acceleration within the safe limits. An obstacle avoidance scheme is incorporated for dealing with the stationary and moving obstacles. When the robot is approaching a moving obstacle in the field, it is decelerated and deviated to another Bezier path leading to the estimated target position. The radius of curvature of the path at its end points is determined from the known terminal velocity constraint of the robot.

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

path planning
acceleration limits
obstacle avoidance


ICT use in the teaching of mathematics: Implications for professional development of pre-service teachers in Ghana Included in the contemporary mathematics curricula in Ghana is the expectation that mathematics teachers will integrate technology in their teaching. However, importance has not been placed on preparing teachers to use ICT in their instruction. This paper reports on a study conducted to explore the feasibility of ICT use in mathematics teaching at senior high school levels in Ghana. Interviews and survey data were used for data collection. Preliminary results showed that mathematics teachers in Ghana do not integrate ICT in their mathematics instruction. Among the major perceived barriers identified were: Lack of knowledge about ways to integrate ICT in lesson and Lack of training opportunities for ICT integration knowledge acquisition. To overcome some of these barriers, opportunities of a professional development arrangement for pre-service mathematics teachers were explored. Findings from the study revealed specific features of a professional development scenario that matters for ICT integration in mathematics teaching in the context of Ghana.

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

computer competencies
mathematics education
computer attitude


Design for two-pattern testability of controller-data path circuits This paper introduces a design for testability (DFT) scheme for delay faults of a controller-data path circuit. The scheme makes use of both scan and non-scan techniques. First, the data path is transformed into a hierarchically two-pattern testable (HTPT) data path based on a non-scan approach. Then an enhanced scan (ES) chain is inserted on the control lines and the status lines. The ES chain is extended via the state register of the controller. If necessary, the data path is further modified. Then a test controller is designed and integrated to the circuit. Our approach is mostly based on path delay fault model. However the multiplexer (MUX) select lines and register load lines are tested as register transfer level (RTL) segments. For a given circuit, the area overhead incurred by our scheme decreases substantially with the increase in bit-width of the data path of the circuit. The proposed scheme supports hierarchical test generation and can achieve fault coverage similar to that of the ES approach.

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

hierarchical testability
delay testing
controller-data path circuit
two-pattern testability


evaluating recovery aware components for grid reliability Failure in grids is costly and inevitable. Existing fault tolerance (FT) mechanisms are typically defensive and reactive, thus unnecessarily costly. In this paper we propose a hybrid FT approach, recovery aware component (RAC), combining reactive and proactive FT, with failure recovery or aversion of user-defined granularity, by component-orientation and architecture-level reasoning about FT, to increase reliability and availability without needless performance sacrifices. We model and analyse a parameterised RAC implementation combining prediction, proactive rejuvenation and reactive restarting to varying extents, calculating cost savings, reliability improvements and cost-benefit, under parameters such as prediction frequency and accuracy.

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


beacon certificate push revocation Authentication information is best localized. Local sources of authentication information are better able to physically identify users, provide authoritative information on them, adequately protect authentication information and infrastructure, and ato provide high quality authentication at an affordable cost. We consider here the problem of public key authentication using a potentially large number of local Certificate Authorities (CAs). The information provided by these CAs is federated together to create a large-scale distributed authentication base. One of the key problems in doing so is certificate revocation. Efficient mechanisms are described for certificate revocation when there are many CAs and we provide some measures on their efficiency.

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


Service Independent Access Control Architecture for User Generated Content (UGC) and Its Implementation Using Web-based content management systems such as Blog, an end user can easily publish User Generated Content (UGC). Although publishing of UGCs is easy, controlling access to them is a difficult problem for end users. Currently. most of Blog sites offer no access control mechanism, and even when it is available to users, it is not sufficient to control users who do not have an account at the site, not to mention that it cannot control accesses to content hosted by other UGC sites. In this paper, we propose new access control architecture for UGC in which third party entities can offer access control mechanism to users independently of UGC hosting sites. With this architecture, a user can control accesses to his content that might be spread over many different UGC sites, regardless of whether those sites have access control mechanism or not. The key idea to separate access control mechanism from UGC sites is to apply cryptographic access control and we implemented the idea in such a way that it requires no modification to UGC sites and Web browsers. Our prototype implementation shows that the proposed access control architecture can be easily deployed in the current Web-based communication environment and it works quite well With Popular Blog sites.

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

user generated content (ugc)
blog and cryptographic access control


Development of a customer satisfaction index model - An application to the Turkish mobile phone sector Purpose - The purpose of this study is to develop and test a new customer satisfaction index model for Turkish mobile phone sector (TMPS). Design/methodology/approach - Based on relevant literature and theoretical considerations on customer satisfaction, a new measurement model was developed. A survey based on the proposed model was conducted to 700 mobile phone users in Istanbul. Partial least squares method was employed to estimate the proposed structural equation model (SEM). Findings - The general applicability of a SEM depends on the reliability and validity of the modeling results. The proposed satisfaction model exhibits strong explanatory power with its satisfactory reliability and validity results. Research limitations/implications - The proposed model was tested for the TMPS. It should ideally be tested periodically for different sectors with more data, and the index results should be compared. Practical implications - The results of this study provide very important information for the managers in formulating competitive marketing strategies. The results show the critical points where the limited resources of the firms should be allocated to improve satisfaction and loyalty. Independent and uniform measurement characteristics of the studied model provide a useful tool for tracking performance and systematic benchmarking over time. It also provides information about the weaknesses and strengths of the company from the eyes of its customers. Originality/value - This study is an attempt to develop and implement a satisfaction model for the TMPS. The proposed model consists of well-established theories and approaches in customer behavior.

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

modelling
mobile communication systems
turkey


Energy decay rate for a quasi-linear wave equation with localized strong dissipation The purpose of this paper is to derive a sharp energy decay estimate for a quasi-linear wave equation with localized strong dissipation of the type ???(a(x)?ut) ? ? ? ( a ( x ) ? u t ) in a domain ? ? of RN R N , where a(x) a ( x ) is a nonnegative function supported only on a part of the boundary ?? ? ? . We note that the index of algebraic decay depends on dimension N N and no geometrical condition is imposed on the boundary ?? ? ? .

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

energy decay
localized strong dissipation


The indexing for one-dimensional proportionally-scaled strings Related problems of scaled matching and indexing, which aim to determine all positions in a text T that a pattern P occurs in its scaled form, are considered important because of their applications to computer vision. However, previous results only focus on enlarged patterns, and do not allow shrunk patterns since they may disappear. In this paper, we give the definition and an efficient indexing algorithm for proportionally-scaled patterns that can be visually enlarged or shrunk. The proposed indexing algorithm takes O(vertical bar T vertical bar) time in its preprocessing phase, and achieves O(vertical bar P vertical bar+ U-p + logm) time in its answering phase, where vertical bar T vertical bar, vertical bar P vertical bar, U-p, and m denote the length of T, the length of P. the number of reported positions, and the length of T under run-length representation, respectively. (C) 2010 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

design of algorithms
string matching
scale
proportional


Proof rules for the correctness of quantum programs We apply the notion of quantum predicate proposed by D'Hondt and Panangaden to analyze a simple language fragment which may describe the quantum part of a future quantum computer in Knill's architecture. The notion of weakest liberal precondition semantics, introduced by Dijkstra for classical deterministic programs and by McIver and Morgan for probabilistic programs, is generalized to our quantum programs. To help reasoning about the correctness of quantum programs, we extend the proof rules presented by Morgan for classical probabilistic loops to quantum loops. These rules are shown to be complete in the sense that any correct assertion about the quantum loops can be proved using them. Some illustrative examples are also given to demonstrate the practicality of our proof rules. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

quantum predicate
quantum loops
proof rules


A new constraint test-case generator and the importance of hybrid optimizers ? In the past decade, significant progress has been made in understanding problem complexity of discrete constraint problems. In contrast, little similar work has been done for constraint problems in the continuous domain. In this paper, we study the complexity of typical methods for non-linear constraint problems and present hybrid solvers with improved performance. To facilitate the empirical study, we propose a new test-case generator for generating non-linear constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and constrained optimization problems (COPs). The optimization methods tested include a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method, a penalty method with a fixed penalty function, a penalty method with a sequence of penalty functions, and an augmented Lagrangian method. For hybrid solvers, we focus on the form that combines two or more optimization methods in sequence. In the experiments, we apply these methods to solve a series of continuous constraint problems with increasing constraint-to-variable ratios. The test problems include artificial benchmark problems from the test-case generator and problems derived from controlling a hyper-redundant modular manipulator. We obtain novel results on complexity phase transition phenomena of the various methods. Specifically, for constraint satisfaction problems, the SQP method is the best on weakly constrained problems, whereas the augmented Lagrangian method is the best on highly constrained ones. Although the static penalty method performs poorly by itself, by combining it with the SQP method, we show a hybrid solver that is significantly better than any of the individual methods on problems with moderate to large constraint-to-variable ratios. For constrained optimization problems, the hybrid solver obtains much better solutions than SQP, while spending comparable amount of time. In addition, the hybrid solver is flexible and can achieve good results on time-bounded applications by setting parameters according to the time limits.

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

constrained optimization problems (cops)


Optimizing database architecture for the new bottleneck: memory access In the past decade, advances in the speed of commodity CPUs have far out-paced advances in memory latency. Main-memory access is therefore increasingly a performance bottleneck for many computer applications, including database systems, in this article, we use a simple scan test to show the severe impact of this bottleneck. The insights gained are translated into guidelines for database architecture, in terms of both data structures and algorithms. We discuss how vertically fragmented data structures optimize cache performance on sequential data access. We then focus on equi-join, typically a random-access operation, and introduce radix algorithms for partitioned hash-join. The performance of these algorithms is quantified using a detailed analytical model that incorporates memory access cost. Experiments that validate this model were performed on the Monet database system. We obtained exact statistics on events such as TLB misses and L1 and L2 cache misses by using hardware performance counters found in modern CPUs. Using our cost model, we show how the carefully tuned memory access pattern of our radix algorithms makes them perform well, which is confirmed by experimental results.

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

main-memory databases
query processing
memory access optimization
decomposed storage model
join algorithms
implementation techniques


An operator-difference scheme for abstract Cauchy problems An abstract Cauchy problem for second-order hyperbolic differential equations containing the unbounded self-adjoint positive linear operator A(t) with domain in an arbitrary Hilbert space is considered. A new second-order difference scheme, generated by integer powers of A(t), is developed. The stability estimates for the solution of this difference scheme and for the first- and second-order difference derivatives are established in Hilbert norms with respect to space variable. To support the theoretical statements for the solution of this difference scheme, the numerical results for the solution of one-dimensional wave equation with variable coefficients are presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

second-order hyperbolic equation
unconditionally stable
initial-value problem
variable coefficient
numerical solution


using examples to describe categories The successful use of menu-based information retrieval systems depends critically on users understanding the category names and partitions used by system designers. Some of the problems in this endeavor are psychological and have to do with naming large and ill-defined categories so that users can understand their contents, and effectively partitioning large sets of objects. Systems of interest (like home information systems) often consist of new and frequently changing content in large and varied domains, and are particularly prone to these problems. We explored several ways in which one might name categories in one such domain (Yellow Page category headings) - category names, category names plus examples, and examples alone. We found that three examples alone were essentially as good a way to name these categories as either an expertly chosen name or a name plus examples. Examples provide a promising possibility both as a means of flexibly naming menu categories and as a methodological tool to study certain categorization problems.

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

use
home
examples
systems
users
domain
tool
information retrieval

understandability
partition
contention
paging
methodology
object
categorical
information system


multimodal corpus of multi-party meetings for automatic social behavior analysis and personality traits detection This paper describes an automatically annotated multimodal corpus of multi-party meetings. The corpus provides for each subject involved in the experimental sessions information on her/his social behavior and personality traits, as well as audiovisual cues (speech rate, pitch and energy, head orientation, head, hand and body fidgeting). The corpus is based on the audio and video recordings of thirteen sessions, which took place in a lab setting equipped with cameras and microphones. Our main concern in collecting this corpus was to investigate the possibility of creating a system capable of automatically analyzing social behaviors and predicting personality traits using audio-visual cues.

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

multi-party meetings
automatic annotation


An effective multilevel tabu search approach for balanced graph partitioning Graph partitioning is one of the fundamental NP-complete problems which is widely applied in many domains, such as VLSI design, image segmentation, data mining, etc. Given a graph G=(V,E), the balanced k-partitioning problem consists in partitioning the vertex set V into k disjoint subsets of about the same size, such that the number of cutting edges is minimized. In this paper, we present a multilevel algorithm for balanced partition, which integrates a powerful refinement procedure based on tabu search with periodic perturbations. Experimental evaluations on a wide collection of benchmark graphs show that the proposed approach not only competes very favorably with the two well-known partitioning packages METIS and CHACO, but also improves more than two thirds of the best balanced partitions ever reported in the literature.

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

balanced partitioning
multilevel approach
iterated tabu search


subwebs for specialized search We describe a method to define and use subwebs, user-defined neighborhoods of the Internet. Subwebs help improve search performance by inducing a topic-specific page relevance bias over a collection of documents. Subwebs may be automatically identified using a simple algorithm we describe, and used to provide highly-relevant topic-specific information retrieval. Using subwebs in a Help and Support topic, we see marked improvements in precision compared to generic search engine results.

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


An ordinal approach to computing with words and the preferenceaversion model ? Computing with words (CWW) explores the brains ability to handle and evaluate perceptions through language, i.e., by means of the linguistic representation of information and knowledge. On the other hand, standard preference structures examine decision problems through the decomposition of the preference predicate into the simpler situations of strict preference, indifference and incomparability. Hence, following the distinctive cognitive/neurological features for perceiving positive and negative stimuli in separate regions of the brain, we consider two separate and opposite poles of preference and aversion, and obtain an extended preference structure named the Preferenceaversion (PA) structure. In this way, examining the meaning of words under an ordinal scale and using CWWs methodology, we are able to formulate the PA model under a simple and purely linguistic approach to decision making, obtaining a solution based on the preference and non-aversion order.

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

language
meaning
preference predicate
preference structures
preferenceaversion


A Hierarchical Bitmap Indexing Method for Similarity Search in High-Dimensional Multimedia Databases This paper proposes an efficient indexing mechanism for similarity search in high-dimensional multimedia database that quickly filter-outs the irrelevant objects using a novel indexing structure, called HBI (Hierarchical Bitmap Index). In this bitmap index, the feature (or attribute) value of object at each dimension is represented with a set of two bits each of which indicates whether it is relatively high ('11'), low ('00'), or neither ('01') compared to the feature values of other objects at a hierarchical organized interval. This approximation helps to reduce the CPU time of filtering process because many irrelevant objects could be simply excluded by just XORing the bitmaps of two objects. Upon experimental results, we find that there is an optimal number of bitmaps that keeps the filtering rate as high as possible while keeping the search time as short as possible. Furthermore, we also find that the similarity search using the proposed indexing mechanism is about 2-3 times fluster than VA-File while guaranteeing the exact solutions.

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

similarity search
hierarchical bitmap indexing

multimedia retrieval
high dimensional indexing
curse of dimensionality


A new design optimization framework based on immune algorithm and Taguchi's method This paper describes an innovative optimization approach that offers significant improvements in performance over existing methods to solve shape optimization problems. The new approach is based on two-stages which are (1) Taguchi's robust design approach to find appropriate interval levels of design parameters (2) Immune algorithm to generate optimal solutions using refined intervals from the previous stage. A benchmark test problem is first used to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach. Finally, it is applied to the shape design optimization of a vehicle component to illustrate how the present approach can be applied for solving shape design optimization problems. The results show that the proposed approach not only can find optimal but also can obtain both better and more robust results than the existing algorithm reported recently in the literature. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

shape optimization
immune algorithm
robust design


A note on the improved LMI-based criterion for global asymptotic stability of 2-D state-space digital filters described by Roesser model using two?s complement overflow arithmetic We focus on critical issues in a recent approach for stability of 2-D digital filter. It is hard to conceive any situation where the reported approach can be applied. Implication of the approach in the context of 1-D digital filter is discussed.

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

finite wordlength effect
lyapunov method
nonlinear system
2-d discrete system


Triangular representation of Fornasini-Marchesini systems We further develop the study of Fornasini-Marchesini linear systems with upper triangular state operators, addressing the problem of constructing a triangular Fornasini-Marchesini model equivalent (under a proper definition) to a given system. In particular, we are interested in the problem of determining when such a system can be constructed, without losing the information about the state of the original 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

fornasini-marchesini model
triangular realization
weak triangularization


Annihilators of Artinian modules compatible with a Frobenius map In this paper we consider Artinian modules over power series rings endowed with a Frobenius map. We describe a method for finding the set of all prime annihilators of submodules which are preserved by the given Frobenius map and on which the Frobenius map is not nilpotent. This extends the algorithm by Karl Schwede and the first author, which solved this problem for submodules of the injective hull of the residue field. The Matlis dual of this problem asks for the radical annihilators of quotients of free modules by submodules preserved by a given Frobenius near-splitting, and the same method solves this dual problem in the F-finite case.

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


e-citizen capability development This paper argues that access to public e-services encourages citizen engagement in the e-government policy making processes and the further empowerment of citizens through participation in the democratic processes of developing/transitional countries like Tajikistan. It presents e-citizenship, with e-participation as its driving force, as a phenomenon concerned with the transformation of the citizen's role and status from the e-government periphery to the e-democracy core. This transformation is mainly based on three models of e-participation, namely: push, pull and interactive. To find evidence of this transformation the five distinct types of individual instrumental freedom, identified by Amartya Sen, were tested against these models. An analytical framework, adapted from the Sen's capability approach theory, was applied to analyse the revealed evidence. A profile of e-citizens and their attributes were identified to evaluate their role in Tajikistan.

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

e-citizenship
functionings
individual instrumental freedoms
e-government
e-participation


Application of the homotopy analysis method to determine the analytical limit state functions and reliability index for large deflection of a cantilever beam subjected to static co-planar loading In this paper, the Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM) is applied to obtain the limit state function, probability of failure and reliability index based on all stochastic and deterministic variables for a cantilever beam subjected to co-planar loading for the first time. First, it is established that a few iterations in the series expansion are sufficient to obtain highly accurate results and a substantial convergence region. After showing the effectiveness of HAM, two limit state functions are introduced as the maximum deflection in the y y direction and maximum allowable stress, respectively. Then the first order reliability method (FORM) is employed to obtain reliability index, and omission sensitivity factor analytically. It is shown that HAM is a promising tool to obtain limit state function, probability of failure and reliability index analytically for nonlinear problems. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done to show that which parameters could be considered deterministic or stochastic variables.

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

reliability index
omission sensitivity factor
homotopy analysis method

failure function
geometrical nonlinearity


Fuzzy color histogram-based video segmentation We present a fuzzy color histogram-based shot-boundary detection algorithm specialized for content-based copy detection applications. The proposed method aims to detect both cuts and gradual transitions (fade, dissolve) effectively in videos where heavy transformations (such as cam-cording, insertions of patterns, strong re-encoding) occur. Along with the color histogram generated with the fuzzy linking method on L*a*b* color space, the system extracts a mask for still regions and the window of picture-in-picture transformation for each detected shot, which will be useful in a content-based copy detection system. Experimental results show that our method effectively detects shot boundaries and reduces false alarms as compared to the state-of-the-art shot-boundary detection algorithms.

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

shot boundary detection
fuzzy color histogram
cut/gradual transition
content-based copy detection
video analysis


Scheduling efficiency of distributed greedy scheduling algorithms in wireless networks We consider the problem of distributed scheduling in wireless networks subject to simple collision constraints. We define the efficiency of a distributed scheduling algorithm to be the largest number (fraction) such that the throughput under the distributed scheduling policy is at least equal to the efficiency multiplied by the maximum throughput achievable under a centralized policy. For a general interference model, we prove a lower bound on the efficiency of a distributed scheduling algorithm by first assuming that all of the traffic only uses one hop of the network. We also prove that the lower bound is tight in the sense that, for any fraction larger than the lower bound, we can find a topology and an arrival rate vector within the fraction of the capacity region such that the network is unstable under a greedy scheduling policy. We then extend our results to a more general multihop traffic scenario and show that similar scheduling efficiency results can be established by introducing prioritization or regulators to the basic greedy scheduling algorithm.

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

multihop wireless networks
greedy algorithms
resource allocation


An empirical study of automatic event reconstruction systems Reconstructing the sequence of computer events that led to a particular event is an essential part of the digital investigation process. The ability to quantify the accuracy of automatic event reconstruction systems is an essential step in standardizing the digital investigation process thereby making it resilient to tactics such as the Trojan horse defense. In this paper, we present findings from an empirical study to measure and compare the accuracy and effectiveness of a suite of such event reconstruction techniques. We quantify (as applicable) the rates of false positives and false negatives, and scalability in terms of both computational burden and memory-usage. Some of our findings are quite surprising in the sense of not matching a priori expectations, and whereas other findings qualitatively match the a priori expectations they were never before quantitatively put to the test to determine the boundaries of their applicability. For example, our results show that automatic event reconstruction systems proposed in literature have very high false-positive rates (up to 96%). (c) 2006 DFRWS. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

intrusion analysis
digital forensics
incident response


Accurate evaluation of divided differences for polynomial interpolation of exponential propagators In this paper, we propose an approach to the computation of more accurate divided differences for the interpolation in the Newton form of the matrix exponential propagator phi(hA) v, phi(z) = (e(z)-1)/z. In this way, it is possible to approximate.( hA) v with larger time step size h than with traditionally computed divided differences, as confirmed by numerical examples. The technique can be also extended to "higher" order phi(k) functions, k >= 0.

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

newton interpolation
exponential integrators


Interactive segmentation of non-star-shaped contours by dynamic programming In this paper we present the Rack algorithm for the detection of optimal non-star-shaped contours in images. It is based on the combination of a user-driven image transformation and dynamic programming. The fundamental idea is to interactively specify and edit the general shape of the desired object by using a rack. This rack is used to model the image as a directed acyclic weighted graph that contains a path corresponding to the expected contour. In this graph, the shortest path with respect to an adequate cost function can be calculated efficiently via dynamic programming. The experimental results indicate the algorithm's ability of combining an acceptable amount of user interaction with generally good segmentation results.

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

contour detection
non-convex
non-star-shaped


the relational/network hybrid data model for design automation databases The three traditional database data models (relational, network and hierarchical) fail to satisfy certain real world database problems, particularly in large engineering applications. A Hybrid relational/network data model is proposed based on certain requirements of an example Design Automation (CAD/CAM) application.

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

requirements
network
data models
applications
database
automation
hybrid
design


Video coding using geometry based block partitioning and reordering discrete cosine transform Geometry based block partitioning (GBP) has been shown to achieve better performance than the tree structure based block partitioning (TSBP) of H.264. However, the residual blocks of GBP mode after motion compensation still present some non-vertical/non-horizontal orientations, and the conventional discrete cosine transform (DCT) may generate many high-frequency coefficients. To solve this problem, in this paper we propose a video coding approach by using GBP and reordering DCT (RDCT) techniques. In the proposed approach, GBP is first applied to partition the macroblocks. Then, before performing DCT, a reordering operation is used to adjust the pixel positions of the residual macroblocks based on the partition information. In this way, the partition information of GBP can be used to represent the reordering information of RDCT, and the bitrate can be reduced. Experimental results show that, compared to H.264/AVC, the proposed method achieves on average 6.38% and 5.69% bitrate reductions at low and high bitrates, respectively.

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

geometry based block partitioning
reordering dct
motion compensation
video coding


Combine crossing matching scores with conventional matching scores for bimodal biometrics and face and palmprint recognition experiments In this paper, we define for the first time the crossing matching score of two biometrics traits and combine it with the conventional matching scores to perform personal authentication. The proposed method is very suitable for the bimodal biometrics systems with two similar biometrics traits such as the system with visible light and infrared face images and the system with palm images captured at two bands. The proposed method first runs for the first and biometrics traits, respectively. For each of these two biometrics traits, the proposed method calculates the matching scores between the testing sample and each training sample. The matching scores generated from the first and second traits are referred to as the first and second matching scores, respectively. Second, the proposed method calculates the crossing matching scores, i.e. the matching scores between the testing sample of the second biometrics trait and the training samples of the first biometrics trait. Finally, we use a weighted fusion scheme to combine the first, second and crossing matching scores for personal authentication.

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

pattern recognition
matching score level fusion


A universal method of information retrieval evaluation: the missing link M and the universal IR surface The paper shows that the present evaluation methods in information retrieval (basically recall R and precision P and in some cases fallout F) lack universal comparability in the sense that their values depend on the generality of the IR problem. A solution is given by using all parts of the database, including the non-relevant documents and also the not-retrieved documents. It turns out that the solution is given by introducing the measure M being the fraction of the not-retrieved documents that are relevant (hence the miss measure). We prove thatindependent of the IR problem or of the IR actionthe quadruple (P,R,F,M) belongs to a universal IR surface, being the same for all IR-activities. This universality is then exploited by defining a new measure for evaluation in IR allowing for unbiased comparisons of all IR results. We also show that only using one, two or even three measures from the set {P,R,F,M} necessary leads to evaluation measures that are non-universal and hence not capable of comparing different IR situations.

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

universal ir surface
miss measure
precision
recall
fallout
evaluation


Automatic identification of heart failure diagnostic criteria, using text analysis of clinical notes from electronic health records Early detection of Heart Failure (HF) could mitigate the enormous individual and societal burden from this disease. Clinical detection is based, in part, on recognition of the multiple signs and symptoms comprising the Framingham HF diagnostic criteria that are typically documented, but not necessarily synthesized, by primary care physicians well before more specific diagnostic studies are done. We developed a natural language processing (NLP) procedure to identify Framingham HF signs and symptoms among primary care patients, using electronic health record (EHR) clinical notes, as a prelude to pattern analysis and clinical decision support for early detection of HF. We developed a hybrid NLP pipeline that performs two levels of analysis: (1) At the criteria mention level, a rule-based NLP system is constructed to annotate all affirmative and negative mentions of Framingham criteria. (2) At the encounter level, we construct a system to label encounters according to whether any Framingham criterion is asserted, denied, or unknown. Precision, recall, and F-score are used as performance metrics for criteria mention extraction and for encounter labeling. Our criteria mention extractions achieve a precision of 0.925, a recall of 0.896, and an F-score of 0.910. Encounter labeling achieves an F-score of 0.932. Our system accurately identifies and labels affirmations and denials of Framingham diagnostic criteria in primary care clinical notes and may help in the attempt to improve the early detection of HF. With adaptation and tooling, our development methodology can be repeated in new problem settings.

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

natural language processing
heart failure
electronic health records
diagnostic criteria


a new algorithm for detecting corners in digital images Corners and vertices are important features in images, which are frequently used for scene analysis, stereo matching and object tracking. Many algorithms for detecting the corners have been reported up to now. In this paper, a new algorithm is presented. The algorithm is based on measuring the variance of the directions of the gradient of brightness. The probability of the event that a point belongs to the approximation of a straight segment of the isoline of brightness passing through the point being tested is computed using the technique of Bayesian estimations and used as a weight. The algorithm is presented both from the theoretical and from the practical point of view. The results of tests show that the algorithm is better than other known algorithms that are usually used for solving the problem.

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

digital image processing
bayers' theorem
corner detection


A plan-based agent architecture for interpreting natural language dialogue This paper describes a plan-based agent architecture for modelling NL cooperative dialogue; in particular, the paper focuses on the Interpretation of dialogue and on the explanation of its coherence by means of the recognition of the speakers' underlying intentions. The approach we propose makes it possible to analyze an explain in a uniform way several apparently unrelated linguistic phenomena, which have been often studied separately and treated via ad-hoc methods in the models of dialogue presented in the literature. Our model of linguistic interaction is based on the idea that dialogue can be seen as any other interaction among agents: therefore, domain-level and linguistic actions are treated in a similar way. Our agent architecture is based on a two-level representation of the knowledge about acting: at the metalevel, the agent modelling (AM) plans describe the recipes for plan formation and execution (they are a declarative representation of a reactive planner); at the object level, the domain and communicative actions are defined. The AM plans are used to identify the goals underlying the actions performed by an observed agent; the recognized plans constitute the dialogue context, where the intentions of all participants are stored in a structured way, in order to be used in the interpretation of the subsequent dialogue turns. (C) 2000 Academic Press.

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

dialogue processing
plan and goal recognition
natural language interpretation


High resolution electron beam lithography of PMGI using solvent developers We report in this paper that typical solvent developers for PMMA can be used to develop PMGI (polydimethyl glutarimide) with a contrast much higher than that reported using base developers. Three developers were studied: methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), 2-ethoxyethanol (cellosolve), and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). MIBK developer results in the highest contrast of 6.7 which is comparable to that of PMMA, followed by MEK (4.0) and then by cellosolve (2.6). The sensitivity is around 1000?C/cm2, roughly four times that of PMMA and almost independent of the developers. Higher resist baking temperature leads to higher contrast for MEK and cellosolve, whereas for MIBK the optimum baking temperature is 200C. Both MIBK and MEK (but not cellosolve) developers can resolve 50nm pitch grating with slight line distortion which is similar to that achievable by PMMA. Using a single step development, a double layer of PMMA and PMGI could be employed to facilitate the liftoff process or to fabricate a T-shaped gate structure, while a multilayer stack can be used to produce 3D metal structures by electroplating.

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

pmgi
electron beam lithography
resist
high resolution


Comparing interpersonal interactions with a virtual human to those with a real human This paper provides key insights into the construction and evaluation of interpersonal simulators-systems that enable interpersonal interaction with virtual humans. Using an interpersonal simulator, two studies were conducted that compare interactions with a virtual human to interactions with a similar real human. The specific interpersonal scenario employed was that of a medical interview. Medical students interacted with either a virtual human simulating appendicitis or a real human pretending to have the same symptoms. In Study I (n = 24), medical students elicited the same information from the virtual and real human, indicating that the content of the virtual and real interactions were similar. However, participants appeared less engaged and insincere with the virtual human. These behavioral differences likely stemmed from the virtual human's limited expressive behavior. Study II (n = 58) explored participant behavior using new measures. Nonverbal behavior appeared to communicate lower interest and a poorer attitude toward the virtual human. Some subjective measures of participant behavior yielded contradictory results, highlighting the need for objective, physically-based measures in future studies.

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

intelligent agents
virtual reality
human-centered computing
user interfaces
interaction styles
evaluation/methodology
computer graphics
medicine


improving the performance of multi-hop wireless networks using frame aggregation and broadcast for tcp acks As data rates supported by the physical layer increase, PHY and especially MAC overheads increasingly dominate the throughput achievable by wireless networks. A promising approach for reducing these overheads is to aggregate a number of frames together into a single transmission. The 802.11n standard uses such an approach for unicast frames. We present the design of a system that can aggregate both unicast and broadcast frames. Further, the system can classify TCP ACK segments so that they can be aggregated with TCP data flowing in the opposite direction. A novel aspect of our work is that we implement and validate our design not through simulation, but rather using our wireless node prototype, Hydra, which supports a high performance PHY based on 802.11n. Our validation shows significant improvements in throughput for each kind of aggregation we support.

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

transmission control protocol (tcp)
802.11n
wireless multi-hop networks
protocols


A maximum entropy type test of fit In this paper, we propose a test of fit based on maximum entropy. The asymptotic distribution of the proposed test statistic is established and a corrected form for small and medium sample sizes is furnished. The performance of the test is investigated through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Real examples are also presented and analyzed.

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

maximum entropy measure
goodness of fit test
reliability
brownian bridge


Impact of an ERP systems capabilities upon the realisation of its business value: a resource-based perspective Using the resource-based view as a frame of reference, this study seeks to explore the potential link between the essential characteristics of an ERP system, defined as ERP capabilities, and its contribution to organisational performance. This contribution is conceptualised and measured through the value added by automational, informational and transformational effects of ERP capabilities upon the firms operational and managerial processes. Empirical data were obtained for the studys purpose from three case studies of manufacturing firms, through 25 in-depth interviews of various managers, including the firms CIO. In addition to proposing an instrument to characterise an ERP system as installed in terms of three capabilities (ERP integration, ERP flexibility, ERP transversality), the study confirms that these capabilities are crucial in determining the contribution of an ERP system to organisational performance. The study also highlights different ERP effects on organisational processes and their relative importance in providing business value. While exploratory in nature, this study derives interesting implications from the data analysis in the form of propositions that may serve as research hypotheses in future studies.

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

erp integration
erp flexibility
erp transversality
organisational performance


Topological structure of fuzzy soft sets In this paper, the concept of fuzzy soft topology is introduced and some of its structural properties such as neighborhood of a fuzzy soft set, interior fuzzy soft set, fuzzy soft basis, fuzzy soft subspace topology are studied.

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

soft set
fuzzy soft topology
fuzzy soft subspace topology
fuzzy soft basis


A Markov Model for Indoor Ultra-wideband Channel with People Shadowing For an indoor ultra-wideband (UWB) communication system, the line-of-sight (LOS) between the transmitter and receiver may be frequently blocked by moving people. Blocking of LOS may significantly affect the quality of service of on-going UWB communications. Based on the Angular Power Spectrum Density and the human blocking models, we build a packet-level UWB channel model considering the shadowing processes based on a Finite-state Markov Chain. The model is simple enough to be incorporated into existing network simulators like NS-2 and it can be used to facilitate protocol design and quality of service analysis for UWB based wireless personal area networks.

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

channel model
uwb
angular power spectrum density


An efficient anycast scheme for discovering k services in cluster-based mobile ad hoc networks Anycast is a one-to-any bidirectional transmission scheme that can be used to provide various service-oriented applications. However, traditional anycast cannot support some distributed applications that need to locate multiple servers such as network time protocols and threshold cryptography. Although there are some extended anycast schemes that can support the discovery of k services, they may cause high control overhead, low satisfaction ratio, or high searching latency when there are more service requesters and providers. The main reasons for these shortcomings are unknown service information and limited hierarchical structure. This work proposes an efficient anycast scheme, called AnyKast, for discovering k services in cluster-based mobile ad hoc networks. In the AnyKast scheme, an anycast tree based on the clustering and virtual backbone is established to reduce unnecessary message transmission. In the anycast tree, anycast clusterheads disseminate their information to certain specific nodes that take the service information and perform the service selection task instead of blindly searching. Furthermore, to decrease the cost of service information collection and maintenance, scope flooding is used to limit the information transmission, and information piggybacking and periodical inquiry mechanism are used to increase the service information accuracy. The experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can effectively discover services, reduce request and reply message control overhead, and lower the searching latency. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

mobile ad hoc networks
anycast
virtual backbone
clustering


Artificial immune system for parameter estimation of induction motor The conventional method of determining the steady state equivalent circuit parameters of an induction motor utilizes no-load and locked rotor tests. The values so determined may not give satisfactory results for a wide variation in the operating conditions. This paper presents a new algorithm based on the immune algorithm (IA) to optimize the parameters of three different induction motor models from the manufacturer data and/or from the tests. The non-linear equations of induction motor to be solved for the parameter estimation are formulated as a minimization problem. The equivalent circuit parameters are obtained as the solution of minimization of a normalized square error function of the difference between estimated and manufacturer data. The proposed IA approach has been tested and examined on two different sample motors. The proposed approach results have been compared with the classical parameter estimation technique and the genetic algorithm (GA). The results show the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed approach.

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

genetic algorithm
immune algorithm
induction motor
parameter estimation


Execution Assurance for Massive Computing Tasks Consider a client who intends to perform a massive computing task comprsing a number of sub-tasks, while both storage and computation are outsourced by a third-party service provider. How could the client ensure the integrity and completeness of the computation result? Meanwhile, how could the assurance mechanism incur no disincentive, e.g., excessive communication cost, for any service provider or client to participate in such a scheme? We detail this problem and present a general model of execution assurance for massive computing tasks. A series of key features distinguish our work from existing ones: a) we consider the context wherein both storage and computation are provided by untrusted third parties, and client has no data possession; b) we propose a simple yet effective assurance model based on a novel integration of the machineries of data authentication and computational private information retrieval (cPIR); c) we conduct an analytical study on the inherent trade-offs among the verification accuracy, and the computation, storage, and communication costs.

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


An improved procedure for detection of heart arrhythmias with novel pre-processing techniques The objective of this study is to develop an algorithm to detect and classify six types of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal beats including normal beats (N), atrial pre-mature beats (A), right bundle branch block beats (R), left bundle branch block beats (L), paced beats (P), and pre-mature ventricular contraction beats (PVC or V) using a neural network classifier. In order to prepare an appropriate input vector for the neural classifier several pre-processing stages have been applied. Initially, a signal filtering method is used to remove the ECG signal baseline wandering. Continuous wavelet transform is then applied in order to extract features of the ECG signal. Next, principal component analysis is used to reduce the size of the data. A well-known neural network architecture called the multi-layered perceptron neural network is then utilized as the final classifier to classify each ECG beat as one of six groups of signals under study. Finally, the MIT-BIH database is used to evaluate the proposed algorithm, resulting in 99.5% sensitivity, 99.66% positive predictive accuracy and 99.17% total accuracy.

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

electrocardiogram
heart arrhythmias
neural network
continuous wavelet transform
principal component analysis