A study of results overlap and uniqueness among major Web search engines The performance and capabilities of Web search engines is an important and significant area of research. Millions of people world wide use Web search engines very day. This paper reports the results of a major study examining the overlap among results retrieved by multiple Web search engines for a large set of more than 10,000 queries. Previous smaller studies have discussed a lack of overlap in results returned by Web search engines for the same queries. The goal of the current study was to conduct a large-scale study to measure the overlap of search results on the first result page (both non-sponsored and sponsored) across the four most popular Web search engines, at specific points in time using a large number of queries. The Web search engines included in the study were MSN Search, Google, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves. Our study then compares these results with the first page results retrieved for the same queries by the metasearch engine Dogpile.com. Two sets of randomly selected user-entered queries, one set was 10,316 queries and the other 12,570 queries, from Infospaces Dogpile.com search engine (the first set was from Dogpile, the second was from across the Infospace Network of search properties were submitted to the four single Web search engines). Findings show that the percent of total results unique to only one of the four Web search engines was 84.9%, shared by two of the three Web search engines was 11.4%, shared by three of the Web search engines was 2.6%, and shared by all four Web search engines was 1.1%. This small degree of overlap shows the significant difference in the way major Web search engines retrieve and rank results in response to given queries. Results point to the value of metasearch engines in Web retrieval to overcome the biases of individual search engines.

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

overlap
google
yahoo
msn search
ask jeeves
dogpile


Detecting object boundaries using low-, mid-, and high-level information Object boundary detection is an important task in computer vision. Recent work suggests that this task can be achieved by combining low-, mid-, and high-level cues. But it is unclear how to combine them efficiently. In this paper, we present a learning-based approach which learns cues at different levels and combines them. This learning occurs in three stages. At the first stage, we learn low-level cues for object boundaries and regions. At the second stage, we learn mid-level cues by using the short and long range context of the low-level cues. Both these stages contain object-specific information about the texture and local geometry of the object but this information is implicit. In the third stage we use explicit high-level information about the object shape in order to further improve the quality of the object boundaries. The use of the high-level information also enables us to parse the object into different parts. We train and test our approach on two popular datasets Weizmann horses [3] and ETHZ cows [24] and obtain encouraging results. Although we have illustrated our approach on horses and cows, we emphasize that it can be directly applied to detect, segment, and parse other types of objects.

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

low-level information
high-level information
shape matching
cue integration


Linear-speed interior-path algorithms for distributed control of information networks Many network-based problems are naturally distributed optimization problems. Examples include routing and flow control in wireless sensor networks, congestion pricing on the Internet, and resource allocation in distributed data-processing systems. Most of the distributed solutions provided by existing work utilize algorithms based on the sub-gradient method. Although stability and asymptotic optimality of these algorithms have been extensively studied and confirmed in the literature, the practical convergence speed of these algorithms attracted little attention. Our simulation results show that sometimes it is far below what it is expected to be. This paper presents a generic formulation for distributed optimization that can model all above-mentioned problems, and proposes two classes of distributed algorithms: one using a simple coordinator and the other using network consensus. These algorithms are based on the barrier method and are closely related to the interior-point method for non-distributed optimization problems. Using new techniques, we prove that our distributed algorithms converge linearly to the optimal solution. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the actual convergence speed of these algorithms is much faster than existing distributed algorithms. We further investigate how their algorithmic parameters affect the convergence speed.

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


GAUDI - A software architecture and framework for building HEP data processing applications We present a software architecture and framework that can be used to facilitate the development of data processing applications for High Energy Physics experiments. The development strategy follows an architecture-centric approach as a way of creating a resilient software framework that can withstand changes in requirements and technology over the long lifetimes of experiments. The software architecture, called GAUDI, supports event data processing applications that run in different processing environments, from the high level triggers in the on-line system to the final physics analysis. We present our major architectural design choices and outline the arguments that led to these choices. Several iterations of a software framework based on this architecture have been released and the framework is now being used by the physicists of the collaboration to facilitate the development of data processing algorithms. Object oriented technologies have been used throughout. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Empirical evaluation of a privacy-focused threat modeling methodology Via 3 empirical studies, we evaluate LINDDUN, a privacy threat modeling methodology. We assess the correctness, completeness, productivity and ease of use of LINDDUN. The results are satisfying and enable future, evidence-based improvements.

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


Finite element analysis of a 'smart' damper for seismic structural control A 'smart' mild steel damper is proposed in this paper to provide active damping for seismic control of structures. Smart material, which is bonded to the surface of hysteric dampers, is employed as actuator to exert active control force to increase damping effect for the vibration reduction of structural systems. 'Smart' finite element formulation is outlined for the numerical analysis of the proposed control device. Two control algorithms were adopted to regulate active control forces. The results of numerical simulation with two example models show the effectiveness of smart material used for active damping. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

finite element
structural control
damper


Run Probabilities of Seed-Like Patterns and Identifying Good Transition Seeds Transition seeds exhibit a good tradeoff between sensitivity and specificity for homology search in both coding and non-coding regions. However, identifying good transition seeds is intractable. This work studies the hit probability of high-order seed patterns. Based on our theoretical results, we propose an efficient method for ranking transition seeds for seed design and list good seeds in different Bernoulli sequence models.

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

run statistics
sequence alignment
spaced seeds


Interactive 3D medical data cutting using closed curve with arbitrary shape We mix octree and quad-tree to make cutting operation in real-time. 2D mask image and coordinate transformation make users cut 3D volume data in 2D space. The cutting method could improve the accuracy of image segmentation algorithms. The cardiac images segmented results can be used to evaluate cardiac function quantitatively and be more conducive for diagnosis and treatment of cardiac disease.

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

coordinate transformation
image segmentation

interactive 3d cutting
binary mask image
octree decomposition


Role Engineering via Prioritized Subset Enumeration Today, role-based access control (RBAC) has become a well-accepted paradigm for implementing access control because of its convenience and ease of administration. However, in order to realize the full benefits of the RBAC paradigm, one must first define the roles accurately. This task of defining roles and associating permissions with them, also known as role engineering, is typically accomplished either in a top-down or in a bottom-up manner. Under the top-down approach, a careful analysis of the business processes is done to first define job functions and then to specify appropriate roles from them. While this approach can help in defining roles more accurately, it is tedious and time consuming since it requires that the semantics of the business processes be well understood. Moreover, it ignores existing permissions within an organization and does not utilize them. On the other hand, under the bottom-up approach, existing permissions are used to derive roles from them. As a result, it may help automate the process of role definition. In this paper, we present an unsupervised approach, called RoleMiner, for mining roles from existing user-permission assignments. Since a role, when semantics are unavailable, is nothing but a set of permissions, the task of role mining is essentially that of clustering users having the same (or similar) permissions. However, unlike the traditional applications of data mining that ideally require identification of nonoverlapping clusters, roles will have overlapping permissions and thus permission sets that define roles should be allowed to overlap. It is this distinction from traditional clustering that makes the problem of role mining nontrivial. Our experiments with real and simulated data sets indicate that our role mining process is quite accurate and efficient. Since our role mining approach is based on subset enumeration, it is fairly robust to reasonable levels of noise.

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


Evaluation of the energy change due to presence of multiple irregularly shaped inclusions in hyperelastic solids In this paper, an Mc-integral is presented for evaluation of the energy change due to presence of multiple irregularly shaped inclusions in 2-D hyperelastic solids. The integral is shown to be path-independent and so can be accurately evaluated by using finite elements. The formulation is considered to be feasible for problems subjected to large deformation. The energy change can be exactly evaluated by Mc when the hyperelastic solids are homogeneously stressed (i.e. the material characteristic), and effectively approximated when the solids are nonhomogeneously stressed (i.e. the structural characteristic). It is thus suggested that Mc be used as an energy parameter that quantitatively measures the change of material and/or structural integrity due to presence of the inclusions. The applicability of the proposed integral is illustrated by using it for identifying the associated effective material properties.

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

multiple inclusions
hyperelasticity
mc-integral
path-independence
material/structural characteristic


Experiments with hybrid genetic algorithm for the grey pattern problem Recently, genetic algorithms (GAs) and their hybrids have achieved great success in solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, the issues related to the performance of the genetic search in the context of the grey pattern problem (GPP) are discussed. The main attention is paid to the investigation of the solution recombination, i.e., crossover operators which play an important role by developing robust genetic algorithms. We implemented seven crossover operators within the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) framework, and carried out the computational experiments in order to test the influence of the recombination operators to the genetic search process. We examined the one point crossover, the uniform like crossover, the cycle crossover, the swap path crossover, and others. A so-called multiple parent crossover based on a special type of recombination of several. solutions was tried, too. The,results; obtained from the experiments on the GPP test instances demonstrate promising efficiency of the swap path and multiple parent crossovers.

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

combinatorial optimization
genetic algorithms
crossover operators
grey pattern problem

heuristic algorithms
quadratic assignment problem


efficient plane sweeping in parallel We present techniques which result in improved parallel algorithms for a number of problems whose efficient sequential algorithms use the plane-sweeping paradigm. The problems for which we give improved algorithms include intersection detection, trapezoidal decomposition, triangulation, and planar point location. Our technique can be used to improve on the previous time bound while keeping the space and processor bounds the same, or improve on the previous space bound while keeping the time and processor bounds the same. We also give efficient parallel algorithms for visibility from a point, 3-dimensional maxima, multiple range-counting, and rectilinear segment intersection counting. We never use the AKS sorting network in any of our algorithms.

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

network processor decomposition sorting point intersection use detection triangulation space parallel visibility

efficiency
locatability
parallel algorithm
segmentation
timing
algorithm


Balancing virtual channel utilization for deadlock-free routing in torus networks Torus networks have been widely used by modern commercial supercomputers due to low node degree and linear scalability cost. Meanwhile, the ring in each dimension of a torus creates cyclic channel dependencies, which pose challenges to the design of deadlock-free routing and virtual channel allocation schemes. Existing virtual channel allocation schemes such as dateline employ two virtual channels to avoid deadlock in a ring. While the unbalanced utilization of virtual channels caused by these deadlock avoidance schemes brings lots of performance pathologies. This paper focuses on improving deadlock-free routing algorithms in torus by balancing virtual channel utilization. First, we propose BVCU, a novel virtual channel allocation scheme that can balance the utilization of the two virtual channels used to prevent deadlock. The technique is deadlock free and can achieve almost perfect balanced utilization. Second, we propose a balanced dimension-order routing (BDOR) to provide deadlock-free deterministic routing for \(n\)-D torus by combining BVCU with dimension-order routing. Also, a balanced fully adaptive routing (BFAR) is proposed. These routing algorithms yield higher performance than existing solutions as they achieve a proper balanced utilization of virtual channels. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed methods achieve up to 16% throughput improvement.

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

torus
virtual channel allocation
fully adaptive

balance utilization
deadlock-free routing


a plan-based mission control center for autonomous vehicles Teams of autonomous vehicles (AVs) carry out missions in a number of fields such as space exploration and search-and-rescue. However, human supervision is still required to monitor the status of the team to ensure that the mission is being carried out as planned. To reduce information overload on these supervisors, we have developed an application, the Mission Control Center (MCC), that aggregates and abstracts status information from AVs using a plan-based view of the mission. Using this model, the MCC presents mission status at the level of goals and plans and directs operator attention to the AVs that require the most attention.

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


using anchor texts with their hyperlink structure for web search As a good complement to page content, anchor texts have been extensively used, and proven to be useful, in commercial search engines. However, anchor texts have been assumed to be independent, whether they come from the same Web site or not. Intuitively, an anchor text from unrelated Web sites should be considered as stronger evidence than that from the same site. This paper proposes two new methods to take into account the possible relationships between anchor texts. We consider two relationships in this paper: links from the same site and links from related sites. The importance assigned to the anchor texts in these two situations is discounted. Experimental results show that these two new models outperform the baseline model which assumes independence between hyperlinks.

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 O O O O O O O


Halogenated ligands and their interactions with amino acids: Implications for structureactivity and structuretoxicity relationships The properties of chemicals are rooted in their molecular structure. It follows that structural analysis of specific interactions between ligands and biomolecules at the molecular level is invaluable for defining structureactivity relationships (SARs) and structuretoxicity relationships (STRs). This study has elucidated the structural and molecular basis of interactions of biomolecules with alkyl and aryl halides that are extensively used as components in many commercial pesticides, disinfectants, and drugs. We analyzed the protein structures deposited in Protein Data Bank (PDB) for structural information associated with interactions between halogenated ligands and proteins. This analysis revealed distinct patterns with respect to the nature and structural characteristics of halogen interactions with specific types of atoms and groups in proteins. Fluorine had the highest propensity of interactions for glycine, while chlorine for leucine, bromine for arginine, and iodine for lysine. Chlorine, bromine and iodine had the lowest propensity of interactions for cysteine, while fluorine had a lowest propensity for proline. These trends for highest propensity shifted towards the hydrophobic residues for all the halogens when only interactions with the side chain were considered. Halogens had equal propensities of interaction for the halogen bonding partners (nitrogen and oxygen atoms), albeit with different geometries. The optimal angle for interactions with halogens was ?120 for oxygen atoms, and ?96 for nitrogen atoms. The distance distributions of halogens with various amino acids were mostly bimodal, and the angle distributions were unimodal. Insights gained from this study have implications for the rational design of safer drugs and commercially important chemicals.

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

structureactivity relationship and structuretoxicity relationship


Transitory behaviors in diffusively coupled nonlinear oscillators We study collective behaviors of diffusively coupled oscillators which exhibit out-of-phase synchrony for the case of weakly interacting two oscillators. In large populations of such oscillators interacting via one-dimensionally nearest neighbor couplings, there appear various collective behaviors depending on the coupling strength, regardless of the number of oscillators. Among others, we focus on an intermittent behavior consisting of the all-synchronized state, a weakly chaotic state and some sorts of metachronal waves. Here, a metachronal wave means a wave with orderly phase shifts of oscillations. Such phase shifts are produced by the dephasing interaction which produces the out-of-phase synchronized states in two coupled oscillators. We also show that the abovementioned intermittent behavior can be interpreted as in-out intermittency where two saddles on an invariant subspace, the all-synchronized state and one of the metachronal waves play an important role.

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

diffusively coupled systems of oscillators


Impact of errors in operational spreadsheets ? All users of spreadsheets struggle with the problem of errors. Errors are thought to be prevalent in spreadsheets, and in some instances they have cost organizations millions of dollars. In a previous study of 50 operational spreadsheets we found errors in 0.8% to 1.8% of all formula cells, depending on how errors are defined. In the current study we estimate the quantitative impacts of errors in 25 operational spreadsheets from five different organizations. Within these 25 spreadsheets we identified 381 potential errors, of which 117 (31%) were confirmed as errors by the developers of the spreadsheet. Among these confirmed errors, 47 (40%) had no quantitative impact on the results. Among the remaining 70 confirmed errors, the largest error was $100million; however, 9 of the 25 spreadsheets tested had no errors at all.

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

error classification
decision support
end-user computing


An exploratory study of secondary students' judgments of the relevance and reliability of information This qualitative investigation is situated in the field of information seeking and use, and decision-making theory provided a framework for the study. In a naturalistic setting and across a range of curriculum areas, it investigated the behavior of secondary school students undertaking information search tasks. Research questions focused on students' criteria for assessing the relevance and reliability of information. Thirty-seven students between 14 and 17 years of age from a southeastern Australian school participated. The study collected data from journals; interviews, including video-stimulated recall interviews; think-aloud reports; video screen captures; and questionnaires. Data analysis culminated in grounded theory. Initial judgments of an item's relevance were based on comprehensibility, completeness of source, whether the item needed to be purchased, whether video sources were suitable, and whether factual or opinionative material met students' needs. Participants preferred information that provided topic overviews, information that linked to prior knowledge, and sources that treated topics in acceptable depth and were structured to facilitate accessibility. Students derived clues about reliability from URLs and considered the reputation of sources. The ability of an item to corroborate prior knowledge, its graphic design, its style of writing, and the perceived authority of its creators influenced participants' decisions about reliability.

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


Analysis and synthesis of laser forming process using neural networks and neuro-fuzzy inference system To apply laser forming process in reality, it is required to know the relationships between the deformed shape and scanning paths along with heating conditions. The deformation due to laser scanning depends on various factors, namely laser power, scan speed, spot diameter, scan position, number of scans, and many others. This article presents soft computing-based methods to predict deformations for a set of heating conditions, and also to determine the heating lines and heat conditions, in order to get a desired shape (i.e., inverse analysis). A novel attempt has been made in this paper to carry out analysis and synthesis (inverse analysis) of laser forming process using both genetic-neural network (GA-NN) and genetic adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (GA-ANFIS). During the analysis, laser power, scan speed, spot diameter, scan position and number of scans are taken as inputs and bending angle is considered as the output. A batch mode of training has been used for both the approaches with the help of some experimental data. The performances of the developed approaches have been tested on some real experimental data. Both the approaches are found to be effective to predict the bending angles and carry out the process synthesis successfully. GA-NN approach is found to perform better than the GA-ANFIS approach in predicting the bending angles, and both the approaches are able to provide comparable predictions in inverse analysis.

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

laser forming
analysis
synthesis
neural networks

neuro-fuzzy inference system
genetic algorithm


The surviving rate of an infected network Let G be a connected network. Let k >= 1 be an integer. Suppose that a vertex upsilon of G becomes infected. A program is then installed on k-nodes not yet infected. Afterwards, the virus spreads to all its unprotected neighbors in each time interval. The virus and the network administrator take turns until the virus can no longer spread further. Let sn(k)(upsilon) denote the maximum number of vertices in G the network administrator can save when a virus infects upsilon. The k-surviving rate rho(k)(G) of G is defined to be the average value Sigma(upsilon is an element of V(G))sn(k)(upsilon)/n(2). In particular, we write rho(G) = rho(1)(G). In this paper, we first use a probabilistic method to show that almost all networks have k-surviving rate arbitrarily close to 0. Then, we prove the following results: (1) rho(G) >= 2/35 for a planar network G of girth at least 9; (2) rho(2)(G) >= 1/16 for a series-parallel network G; and (3) rho(2d-1)(G) >= 2/5d for a d-degenerate network G. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

firefighter problem
planar graph
k(4)-minor free graph
degenerate graph


Hardware Design of Multi Gbps RC4 Stream Cipher Thanks to the achievements in wireless technology, maximum data rate of wireless LAN systems was rapidly increased recently. As a key part of the WEP and the WPA security for the wireless LAN system, throughput of RC4 must be significantly improved also. This paper proposes two high throughput RC4 architectures. The first one is a RAM-based RC4 using a single of 256-byte tri-port RAM to store the S-box. The core generates 4 bits of ciphering key per clock cycle. This paper also proves that 4 bits/cycle is the maximum throughput can be achieved by a RAM-based RC4 circuit. The second architecture is a Register-based M-byte RC4 that uses a set of registers to store the S-box. It is able to generate multiple bytes of ciphering key per clock cycle, and is proposed as a novel solution for designing extremely high throughput RC4 core for future WLAN systems. Base on this proposal, a 4-byte RC4 core is developed (M = 4). The synthesis results in 90 nm ASIC show that: As the same throughput's requirement, the proposed RAM-based and Register-based RC4 can respectively save 60% and 50% of power consumption as compare to that of the most recently works. Moreover, the proposed Register-based design is the best candidate for achieving high throughput at low frequency.

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


Approximating Functions on a Mesh with Restricted Voronoi Diagrams We propose a method that computes a piecewise constant approximation of a function defined on a mesh. The approximation is associated with the cells of a restricted Voronoi diagram. Our method optimizes an objective function measuring the quality of the approximation. This objective function depends on the placement of the samples that define the restricted Voronoi diagram and their associated function values. We study the continuity of the objective function, derive the closed-form expression of its derivatives and use them to design a numerical solution mechanism. The method can be applied to a function that has discontinuities, and the result aligns the boundaries of the Voronoi cells with the discontinuities. Some examples are shown, suggesting potential applications in image vectorization and compact representation of lighting.

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

7 [computer graphics]: three-dimensional graphics and realismcolor


Realization of K-Nearest-Matches search capability in fully-parallel associative memories The realization of k-nearest-matches search capability in fully-parallel mixed digital-analog associative memories by a sequential autonomous search mode is reported. The proposed concept and circuit implementation can be applied with all types of distance measures such as Hamming, Manhattan or Euclidean distance search, and the k value can be freely selected during operation. A test chip for concept verification has been designed in 0.35 mu m CMOS technology with two-poly, three-metal layers, realizes k-nearest-matches Euclidean distance search and consumes 5.12 mm(2) of the chip area for 64 reference patterns each with 16 units of 5-bit.

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

associative memory
pattern matching
fully-parallel search
k-nearest-matches


An adaptive algorithm for least squares piecewise monotonic data fitting ? The number of peaks and troughs of measurements of smooth function values can be unacceptably larger than the number of turning points of the function, when the measurements are too rough. It is proposed to make the least sum of squares change to the data subject to a limit on the number of sign changes of their first divided differences, but usually a suitable value of this limit is not known in advance. It is shown how to obtain automatically an adequate value for it. A test is included that attempts to distinguish between genuine trends and data errors. Specifically, if there are trends, then the monotonic sections of a tentative approximation are increased by one, otherwise this approximation seems to meet the trends and the calculation terminates. The numerical work required per iteration, beyond the second one, is quadratic in the number of data. Details for establishing the underlying algorithm are specified, numerical results from a simulation are included and the test is compared to some well-known residual tests. An application of the algorithm on identifying turning points and trends of data from the Dow Jones stock exchange index is presented. A Fortran implementation of our algorithm provides shorter computation times in practice than the complexity indicates in theory. Further, the single monotonicity problem has found many applications in statistical data analyses within various contexts. More generally, piecewise monotonicity is a property that occurs in a wide range of underlying functions and some important applications of it may be found in detrending data for identifying periodicities (eg. business cycles), or in estimating turning points of a function that is known only by some measurements of its values.

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

approximation
data fitting
least squares
piecewise monotonic

divided difference
dynamic programming
isotonic
peak
residual test
smoothing
trend test
turning point


Similarity and prototype-based approach for classification of microcalcifications Our aim is to show the utility of a formal framework of measures of comparison, especially for a similarity based classification. We present both theoretical and practical arguments and we apply this approach to a real world problem.

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


Measurement of CD8+ T Cell Responses in Human Type 1 Diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a T cellmediated autoimmune disease targeting pancreatic ?-cells. Despite this textbook definition, it is quite striking that neither the diagnosis nor the therapy nor the follow-up of T1D belong to immunologists, but rather to endocrinologists whose only option is to limit the consequences of the disease. Immune therapies would seem better suited to correct the causes of T1D, but critical laboratory tools are missing for early diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and therapeutic follow-up. The immune markers routinely available are limited to autoantibodies, which have some intrinsic limitations. Because T cells are central pathogenic actors of T1D, the quest for their measurement appeared to offer a path towards new autoimmune markers. Given the strong association between T1D susceptibility and the HLA class II locus, investigators have long been focused on CD4+ T cells. However, data gathered in the NOD mouse and the examination of human insulitis point to a critical role of CD8+ T cells in the pathogenesis of T1D. These observations have revived interest in trying to measure CD8+ T cell responses in human T1D. Achievement of this goal mainly depends on two factors. First, the relevant epitopes need to be identified. Second, appropriate readouts and measurement techniques need to be selected. This review summarizes recent advances on both of these battlefronts, and discusses the potential clinical applications of T cell assays.

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

dna immunization
elispot
epitope
follow-up
gad
ia-2
igrp
prognosis
proinsulin
proteasome


Effects of computer-assisted instruction on performance of senior high school biology students in Ghana This study investigated the comparative efficiency of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and conventional teaching method in biology on senior high school students. A science class was selected in each of two randomly selected schools. The pretest-posttest non equivalent quasi experimental design was used. The students in the experimental group learned science concepts (cell cycle) through the CAI, whereas the students in the control group were taught the same concepts by the conventional approach. The conventional approach consisted of lecture, discussions and question and answer teaching methods. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze students' pretest and posttests scores. The results indicated that students that were instructed by the conventional approach performed better on the posttest than those instructed by the CAI. However, the performance of low achievers within the experimental group improved after they were instructed by the CAI. Even though the CAI group did not perform better than the conventional approach group, the students in the CAI group perceived CAI to be interesting when they were interviewed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

achievement
computer-assisted instruction
ict and senior high school


An efficient secure distributed anonymous routing protocol for mobile and wireless ad hoc networks An ad hoc wireless network is a temporary and dynamic environment where a group of mobile nodes with radio frequency transceivers communicate with each other without the intervention of any centralized administration or established infrastructure. Due to the limited transmission range of each mobile node, communication sessions between two nodes are usually established through a number of intermediate nodes, which are supposed to be willing to cooperate while forwarding the messages they receive to their destination. Unfortunately, some of these intermediate nodes might not be trustworthy and might be malicious, thereby forming a threat to the security and/or confidentiality of the exchanged data between the mobile nodes. While data encryption can protect the content exchanged between nodes, analysis of communication patterns may reveal valuable information about end users and their relationships. Using anonymous paths for communication provides security and privacy against traffic analysis. To establish these anonymous paths, in a traditional wired network, nodes build a global view of the network by exchanging routing information, whereas in an ad hoc wireless network, building this global view is not an option. In this paper, we propose a novel distributed routing protocol which guarantees security, anonymity and high reliability of the established route in a hostile environment, such as ad hoc wireless network, by encrypting routing packet header and abstaining from using unreliable intermediate node. The major objective of our protocol is to allow trustworthy intermediate nodes to participate in the path construction protocol without jeopardizing the anonymity of the communicating nodes. We describe our protocol, and provide its proof of correctness. (c) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

wireless networks
mobile ad hoc networks
routing algorithms
wireless security


On the use of plate-type normal pressure cells in silos Part 2: Validation for pressure measurements This paper deals with a specific plate-type normal pressure cell to be used in the study of loads in silos. An evaluation of the pressure cells and their installation in a silo wall revealed the need for a validation of their performance when measuring pressures in silos. The pressure cells were mounted along a vertical line of the wall of the silo with a concentric hopper in order to be able to measure pressure distributions, which may be considered well-known, especially during the filling processes. Tests were carried out with two commonly stored agricultural granular materials: wheat and maize. Analyses based on a Discrete Element Model were performed to contribute to the validation. The result of the validation was that measuring errors should be expected and that the measuring errors changed with the stiffness of the stored material and therefore with the flow conditions. This knowledge is essential for a later proper interpretation of pressure measurements in test silos. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

silo
pressure cells
discrete element model


Antibacterial resistance in sub-Saharan Africa: an underestimated emergency Antibacterial resistanceassociated infections are known to increase morbidity, mortality, and cost of treatment, and to potentially put others in the community at higher risk of infections. In high-income countries, where the burden of infectious diseases is relatively modest, resistance to first-line antibacterial agents is usually overcome by use of second- and third-line agents. However, in developing countries where the burden of infectious diseases is high, patients with antibacterial-resistant infections may be unable to obtain or afford effective second-line treatments. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the situation is aggravated by poor hygiene, unreliable water supplies, civil conflicts, and increasing numbers of immunocompromised people, such as those with HIV, which facilitate both the evolution of resistant pathogens and their rapid spread in the community. Because of limited capacity for disease detection and surveillance, the burden of illnesses due to treatable bacterial infections, their specific etiologies, and the awareness of antibacterial resistance are less well established in most of SSA, and therefore the ability to mitigate their consequences is significantly limited.

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


Verified bytecode verification and type-certifying compilation This article presents a type certifying compiler for a subset of Java and proves the type correctness of the bytecode it generates in the proof assistant Isabelle. The proof is performed by defining a type compiler that emits a type certificate and by showing a correspondence between bytecode and the certificate which entails well-typing. The basis for this work is an extensive formalization of the Java bytecode type system, which is first presented in an abstract, lattice-theoretic setting and then instantiated to Java types. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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


Determination of amino acid pairs in human p53 protein sensitive to mutations/variants by means of a random approach This is the continuation of our studies using random approaches to analyse the p53 protein family. In this data-based theoretical analysis, we use the random approach to analyse the amino acid pairs in human p53 protein in order to determine which amino acid pairs are more sensitive to 190 human p53 mutations/variants. The rationale of this study is based on our hypothesis and findings that a harmful mutation is more likely to occur at randomly unpredictable amino acid pairs, and a harmless mutation is more likely to occur at randomly predictable amino acid pairs. This is because we argue that the randomly predictable amino acid pairs should not be deliberately evolved, whereas the randomly unpredictable amino acid pairs should be deliberately evolved with a connection to protein function. The results show, for example, that 93.16% of 190 mutations/variants occur at randomly unpredictable amino acid pairs. Thus, the randomly unpredictable amino acid pairs are more sensitive to mutations/variants in human p53 protein. The results also suggest that the human p53 protein has a tendency for the occurrence of mutation/variants.

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

mutations
probability randomness
randomness


Methods for modeling and predicting mechanical deformations of the breast under external perturbations Currently, high field (1.5 T) superconducting MR imaging does not allow live guidance during needle breast procedures. The current procedure allows the physician only to calculate approximately the location and extent of a cancerous tumor in the compressed patient breast before inserting the needle. It can then become relatively uncertain that the tissue specimen removed during the biopsy actually belongs to the lesion of interest. A new method for guiding clinical breast biopsy is presented, based on a deformable finite element model of the breast. The geometry of the model is constructed from MR data, and its mechanical properties are modeled using a non-linear material model. This method allows imaging the breast without or with mild compression before the procedure, then compressing the breast and using the finite element model to predict the tumors position during the procedure. A silicon phantom containing a stiff inclusion was imaged uncompressed then compressed. A model of the phantom was constructed and compressed using custom-written software, and also using a commercial FEM simulation package. The displacement of the inclusions corners was recorded both in the real phantom and in the two compressed models. A patients breast was imaged uncompressed then compressed. A deformable model of the uncompressed breast was constructed, then compressed. The displacement of a cyst and of two vitamin E pills taped to the surface of the breast were recorded both in the real and in the modeled breast. The entire procedure lasted less than a half-hour, making it clinically useful. The results show that it is possible to create a deformable model of the breast based on finite elements with non-linear material properties, capable of modeling and predicting breast deformations in a clinically useful amount of time.

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

mri
finite element modeling
breast cancer
soft tissue modeling


Distributed video coding with progressive significance map A distributed video coding (DVC) system based on wavelet transform and set partition coding (SPC) is presented in this paper. Conventionally the significance map (sig-map) of SPC is not conducive to SlepianWolf (SW) coding, because of the difficulty of generating a side information sig-map and the sensitivity to decoding errors. The proposed DVC system utilizes a higher structured significance map, named progressive significance map (prog-sig-map), which structures the significance information into two parts: a high-level summation significance map (sum-sig-map) and a low-level complementary significance map (comp-sig-map). This prog-sig-map alleviates the above difficulties and thus makes part of the prog-sig-map (specifically, the fixed-length-coded comp-sig-map) suitable for SW coding. Simulation results are provided showing the improved rate-distortion performance of the DVC system even with a simple system configuration.

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

distributed video coding
set partition coding
significance map
wavelet transform

spiht coding
slepianwolf coding
ldpca codes
error resilience


Interactions between the Orbitofrontal Cortex and the Hippocampal Memory System during the Storage of Long-Term Memory It has been proposed that long-term declarative memories are ultimately stored through interactions between the hippocampal memory system and the neocortical association areas that initially processed the to-be-stored information. One association neocortex, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is strongly and reciprocally connected with the hippocampal memory system and plays an important role in odor recognition memory in rats. We will report data from two studie

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

rat
neurophysiology
hippocampus
parahippocampal region
declarative memory


Composition of parametrizations, using the paired algebras of forms and sites An elegant mathematical setting for Bezier curves and surfaces, proposed by Lyle Ramshaw, consists of two copies of a polynomial algebra and a pairing between them. One copy is used for the component functions of the parametrization. The other, in dimension one, represents the domain points. Elements of higher degree in the second algebra are called sites and are useful for explaining blossoming and other constructions performed on Bezier curves and surfaces. This paper extends these definitions to mixed polynomials in two sets of variables, to give an elegant description of the composition of two Bezier parametrizations. In case the first transformation is linear, the construction is related to a classical group representation. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

bezier curves
blossoming
composition
sites
mixed polynomials


virtual machine aware communication libraries for high performance computing As the size and complexity of modern computing systems keep increasing to meet the demanding requirements of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications, manageability is becoming a critical concern to achieve both high performance and high productivity computing. Meanwhile, virtual machine (VM) technologies have become popular in both industry and academia due to various features designed to ease system management and administration. While a VM-based environment can greatly help manageability on large-scale computing systems, concerns over performance have largely blocked the HPC community from embracing VM technologies. In this paper, we follow three steps to demonstrate the ability to achieve near-native performance in a VM-based environment for HPC. First, we propose Inter-VM Communication (IVC), a VM-aware communication library to support efficient shared memory communication among computing processes on the same physical host, even though they may be in different VMs. This is critical for multi-core systems, especially when individual computing processes are hosted on different VMs to achieve fine-grained control. Second, we design a VM-aware MPI library based on MVAPICH2 (a popular MPI library), called MVAPICH2-ivc, which allows HPC MPI applications to transparently benefit from IVC. Finally, we evaluate MVAPICH2-ivc on clusters featuring multi-core systems and high performance InfiniBand interconnects. Our evaluation demonstrates that MVAPICH2-ivc can improve NAS Parallel Benchmark performance by up to 11\% in VM-based environment on eight-core Intel Clover-town systems, where each compute process is in a separate VM. A detailed performance evaluation for up to 128 processes (64 node dual-socket single-core systems) shows only a marginal performance overhead of MVAPICH2-ivc as compared with MVAPICH2 running in a native environment. This study indicates that performance should no longer be a barrier preventing HPC environments from taking advantage of the various features available through VM technologies.

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

inter-vm communication
virtual machines (vm)
xen
vmm-bypass


Conjugate Unscented FastSLAM for Autonomous Mobile Robots in Large-Scale Environments Map learning and self-localization based only on a perception of an environments structure are fundamental cognitive capacities required for intelligent robots to realize true autonomy. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is an effective technique for such robots, as it addresses the problem of incrementally building an environment map from noisy sensory data and tracking the robots pose with the built map. While the Rao-Blackwellized particle filter (RBPF) is a popular SLAM technique, it tends to accumulate errors introduced by inaccurate linearization of the SLAM nonlinear function. Accordingly, RBPF-SLAM will usually fail to close large loops when applied to large-scale environments. To overcome this drawback, a new Jacobian-free RBPF-SLAM algorithm is derived in this paper. The main contribution of the algorithm lies in the utilization of the 5th-order conjugate unscented transform, which calculates the SLAM transition density up to the 5th order, to give a better distribution of the particle filter and discover local features and landmarks. The performance of the proposed SLAM is investigated and compared with that of FastSLAM2.0 and UFastSLAM in both indoor and outdoor experiments. The results verify that the proposed algorithm improves the SLAM performance in large-scale environments.

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

simultaneous localization and mapping
particle filter
conjugate unscented transform


Online prognosis for priority power supply restoration Automatic monitoring of the vulnerability of the power supply to a high-priority facility has important practical considerations. As opposed to the well studied optimization task for power supply restoration which is carried out after a fault has happened, the task of analyzing the restorability of a high-priority line under possible fault conditions is a decision problem that has to be solved periodically as the load conditions in the network change. The outcome of this decision problem may be used to alert the high-priority facility about the vulnerability of the state of the network, in the sense that some faults may cause a non-restorable outage to the line supplying that facility. This paper studies the prognosis of a high-priority line in a network in terms of power supply restorability and proposes the first method for this problem.

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 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

smart electrical grids
vulnerability analysis


A quasi-experiment approach to study the effect of e-mail management training This study investigates the question as to whether e-mail management training can alleviate the problem of time pressure linked to inadequate use of e-mail. A quasi-experiment was devised and carried out in an organizational setting to test the effect of an e-mail training program on four variables, e-mail self-efficacy, e-mail-specific time management, perceived time control over e-mail use, and estimated time spent in e-mail. With 175 subjects in the experimental group, and 105 subjects in the control group, data were collected before and after the experiment. ANCOVA analysis of the data demonstrated possible amount of time saving with an e-mail management training program. In addition, better perceived time control over e-mail use was observed. Since the change of e-mail-specific time management behavior was not significant, but e-mail self-efficacy improved substantially, it suggested that the major mediating process for better perceived time control over e-mail use and less estimated time spent in e-mail was through improved e-mail self-efficacy rather than a change of e-mail-specific time-management behavior.

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

time management
time control
time pressure

e-mail management training
quasi-experiment
e-mail self-efficacy


Deriving optical properties of Mahakam Delta coastal waters, Indonesia using in situ measurements and ocean color model inversion The development of an operational water quality monitoring method based on remote sensing data requires information on the apparent and inherent optical properties of water (AOP and IOP respectively). This study was performed to determine the apparent and inherent optical properties of coastal waters of the Mahakam Delta, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Inherent optical properties (IOPs) were derived from above-water radiometric measurements and ocean color model inversion. Retrieved IOPs and measured concentrations show good agreement both for total suspended matter (TSM) and chlorophyll a (Chl a) (R2=0.72 and 0.80 respectively). The linear relationship between the retrieved IOPs and the measured concentrations was then used to estimate the specific inherent optical properties (SIOPs) using the basic equation of the LambertBeer law. The specific backscattering coefficient of TSM ( b b , TSM ? ( 550 ) ) was found to be 0.0087m2g?1, and the specific absorption coefficient of Chl a ( a Chl ? ( 440 ) ) was found to be 0.023m2g?1 in the Mahakam Delta. The estimated values of SIOP for TSM and Chl a could be considered spatially constant for the Mahakam Delta, and resulted in reliable estimates of TSM and Chl a concentrations (R2=0.84 and 0.85 respectively). The specific backscattering coefficient of TSM found in this study is similar to that of the Barito Estuary (in the southern part of Kalimantan) but lower than that of the Berau Estuary (in the northern part of Kalimantan), whereas the specific backscattering coefficient of Chl a is similar to that found in the Berau Estuary. This study contributes to the development of an operational method based on remote sensing data to map water constituent concentrations in the Mahakam Delta, as well as to enrich the information about the optical properties of Indonesian waters.

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

inherent optical properties
total suspended matter
chlorophyll a

apparent optical properties
specific inherent optical properties
tropical waters


using ada on microcomputers in the undergraduate curriculum Currently, many Computer Science Departments are considering the use of a language other than Pascal either for an entire Computer Science curriculum, or at least for some courses, such as data structures. At Georgia State University, where our program is primarily based on IBM PC compatible microcomputers, we have converted our data structures course from Pascal to Ada, and use Ada in several other courses. In this paper I will discuss the rationale behind our choice and our experience with using Ada on microcomputers.

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

computer science
experience
use
paper
language
data structures
curriculum

computer science curriculum
microcomputer


The Adaptive Backstepping Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Supplied by Current Source Inverter The sensorless control system of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) fed by current source inverter is presented in this paper. The adaptive backstepping control system and the backstepping speed observer are presented. The control systems are based on multiscalar variables. The control variables are dc-link voltage and the output current vector pulsation. The control system was named the voltage control system because of the fact that the first control variable is voltage in dc-link. The machine inverter is treated as a commutator. It works with constant modulation index. The proposed control system is robust on mechanical and electromagnetical parameters of the motor. The adaptive estimator of the stator resistance is introduced. Such an approach to control of the PMSM motor gives better performance. It is robust to dynamic uncertainties and does not require knowledge of the system parameters. The mathematical equation was introduced. Simple method limitation of control variables is explained. The reference variables must be limited to a constant or various value if the motor system has to be used in the industrial applications. The simulation and experimental test are shown.

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

backstepping control
control system
current source inverter

permanent magnet synchronous motor (pmsm)


A Depth-optimal Low-complexity Distributed Wireless Multicast Algorithm This paper presents a wireless multicast tree construction algorithm, SWIM (Source-initiated WIreless Multicast). SWIM constructs a tree on which each multicast destination has the minimum possible depth (number of hops from the nearest source). It is proved that SWIM is fully distributed, with a worst case complexity upper-bounded by O(N-3), and an empirically found average complexity of only O(N-2). SWIM forms one shared tree from source(s) to the multicast destinations; yet, as a by-product, it creates a multicast mesh structure by maintaining alternative branches at every tree node, thus providing robustness to link failures. This makes it suitable for both ad hoc networks and access networks with multiple gateways. In terms of minimizing the number of forwarding nodes, SWIM is optimal for unicast and competitive with the state of the art for multicast, outperforming the best known distributed approaches from the literature except for the multicast ad hoc on demand distance vector (MAODV) algorithm. However, simulations of the MAODV algorithm alongside SWIM on a large set of network instances show that the depth minimality of SWIM leads to lower average delay per multicast destination. It is also shown that the delay performance of SWIM is virtually unaffected by the presence of low mobility in the network.

O O O O B I 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 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

wireless multicast
number of forwarding nodes

multicast tree
minimum depth
wireless broadcast problem
greedy set cover
mesh network


Common needs and different agendas: How trainee teachers make progress in their ability to use ICT in subject teaching. Some lessons from the UK The paper reports on the outcomes of a British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) funded study which explored the views of teacher trainees and their mentors in two different school subjects on what strategies, interventions and resources had a positive impact on their ability to use ICT effectively in their subject teaching. The research aimed to explore both commonalities in trainees' views of which strategies and interventions had a positive influence on their ability to use ICT effectively in subject teaching, and subject discipline dimensions of ICT use, i.e. the ways in which training needs might vary between trainees in different school subjects. The study focused on the views of two successive cohorts of science and history trainees (133 trainees in all), and 21 of their supervising mentors. The outcomes showed that some important determinants of progression in the ability to deploy ICT confidently and effectively in subject teaching were common to both subject groups, but that there were differing views on which ICT applications offered most potential for enhancing teaching and learning in their subject and differences in their preferred priorities for investment in ICT. The study also revealed that trainees felt that many of the experiences and resources which they had encountered in the course of their training had not been helpful. A follow up survey was undertaken of 114 trainees across six subject areas to further explore some of the findings from the initial survey. The concluding section of the paper suggests ways in which trainee teachers might be prepared more effectively for using ICT in their subject teaching. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

applications in subject areas
cooperative/collaborative learning
country specific developments
teaching/learning strategies
teacher education


Halogen bonding and the design of new materials: organic bromides, chlorides and perhaps even fluorides as donors In some halides RX, the halogen X has a region of positive electrostatic potential on its outermost portion, centered around the extension of the R-X bond. The electrostatic attraction between this positive region and a lone pair of a Lewis base is termed halogen bonding. The existence and magnitudes of such positive potentials on some covalently bonded halogens, and the characteristic directionality of the interaction, can be explained in terms of the degree of sp hybridization and polarizability of X and the electronegativity of R. Halogen bonding increases in strength in the order Cl < Br < I; fluorine is frequently said to not form halogen bonds, although a notable result of the present study is computational evidence that it does have the capability of doing so, if R is sufficiently electron withdrawing. An increasingly important application of halogen bonding is in the design of new materials (e.g., crystal engineering). In this paper, we present the calculated energies of a series of halogen-bonding interactions that could be the basis for forming linear chains, of types X----X----X---- or X----Y----X----Y----. We focus upon chlorides and bromides, and nitrogen bases. The B3PW91/6-311G(3df,2p) and MP2/6-311++G(3df,2p) procedures were used. We show how the computed electrostatic potentials (B3PW91/6-31G**) can provide guidance in selecting appropriate halide/base pairs.

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

electrostatic potentials
halogen bonding
crystal engineering


Spatial transformation of motion and deformation fields using nonrigid registration In this paper, we present a technique that can be used to transform the motion or deformation fields defined in the coordinate system of one subject into the coordinate system of another subject. Such a transformation accounts for the differences in the coordinate systems of the two subjects due to misalignment and size/shape variation, enabling the motion or deformation of each of the subjects to be directly quantitatively and qualitatively compared. The field transformation is performed by using a nonrigid registration algorithm to determine the intersubject coordinate system mapping from the first subject to the second subject. This fixes the relationship between the coordinate systems of the two subjects, and allows us to recover the deformation/motion vectors of the second subject for each corresponding point in the first subject. Since these vectors are still aligned with the coordinate system of the second subject, the inverse of the intersubject coordinate mapping is required to transform these vectors into the coordinate system of the first subject, and we approximate this inverse using a numerical line integral method. The accuracy of our numerical inversion technique is demonstrated using a synthetic example, after which we present applications of our method to sequences of cardiac and brain images.

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

atlas
brain deformation
cardiac motion
conjugate map
diffeomorphism
numerical inverse


Efficient algorithms for running type-I and type-III discrete sine transforms Fast algorithms for computing the running type-I discrete sine transform (DST-I) and type-III discrete sine transform (DST-III) are proposed. The algorithms are based on a recursive relationship between three subsequent local discrete sine spectra. The computational complexity of the algorithms is compared with that of fast DST-I and DST-III algorithms. Fast inverse algorithms for signal processing in the running discrete sine transform domains are also proposed.

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


sustainable technology transfer In this position paper we address the issue of transferring a technology from research into an industrial organization by presenting a refined process for technology transfer. Based on over two decades of industrial experience, we identified the need for a dedicated technology engineering phase for that process. Although little attention has been paid to this technology engineering phase in the academic world, we believe it to be essential for sustainable technology transfer.

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

transfer process
technology embedding
evidence-based software engineering


Testing spatial autocorrelation in weighted networks: the modes permutation test In a weighted spatial network, as specified by an exchange matrix, the variances of the spatial values are inversely proportional to the size of the regions. Spatial values are no more exchangeable under independence, thus weakening the rationale for ordinary permutation and bootstrap tests of spatial autocorrelation. We propose an alternative permutation test for spatial autocorrelation, based upon exchangeable spatial modes, constructed as linear orthogonal combinations of spatial values. The coefficients obtain as eigenvectors of the standardized exchange matrix appearing in spectral clustering and generalize to the weighted case the concept of spatial filtering for connectivity matrices. Also, two proposals aimed at transforming an accessibility matrix into an exchange matrix with a priori fixed margins are presented. Two examples (inter-regional migratory flows and binary adjacency networks) illustrate the formalism, rooted in the theory of spectral decomposition for reversible Markov chains.

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

bootstrap
permutation test
spatial autocorrelation
spatial filtering
weighted networks


On the equivalence of four definitions of compactness of LF subsets In this paper, the equivalence of four definitions of fuzzy compactness, strong fuzzy compactness, N-compactness and ultra-fuzzy compactness of L-fuzzy subsets is discussed systematically. A series of good results is obtained. (C) 2001. Elsevier Science 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

fuzzy compact
strong fuzzy compact
n-compact
ultra-fuzzy compact
hausdorff space
weakly induced space


Analytical transmission electron microscopy observation of aluminiumtungsten interaction in thermally stressed Al/Ti/W/TiN interconnections In this communication, we used a modern analytical TEMSTEM fully equipped to carry out a complete physical and chemical study of Al/Ti/W/TiN interconnection evolution after 450C annealing. Using energy filtered TEM, compositional mapping, scanning TEM (STEM) Z contrast imaging, EDX and EELS spectrum imaging and micro-diffraction, we evidence at the Al/W top contacts interface a reaction between Al and W leading to the growth of AlxW inclusions inside the Al grains.

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

aluminium tungsten interconnection
eels spectroscopy
edx spectroscopy


Improved support vector machine algorithm for heterogeneous data We propose an algorithm to map nominal features to a numerical space via minimizing estimated generalization errors. We integrate the mapping algorithm with support vector machines and result in an improved learning algorithm from heterogeneous data. Experiments show the proposed technique is effective for learning with heterogeneous data and also help deal with imbalanced tasks.

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

support vector machine
heterogeneous data

nominal attribute
numerical attribute
classification learning


user response to two algorithms as a test of collaborative filtering The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether recommendations based on collaborative filtering (CF) are perceived as superior to recommendations based on user population averages. The test vehicle was a movie recommender. 29 subjects were divided into 2 groups, each group using one of these systems. The recommneder systems suggested movies which subjects later viewed. Each subject filled out pre and post-questionnaires about their experience. Subjects using the CF algorithm rated more movies. Subjects placed slightly more confidence in the recommendations of the population averages algorithm. Both algorithms were over-confident compared to subjects ratings. Subjects found both recommender systems to be an effective source of finding entertainment. User responses did not reveal a noticeable difference between the two algorithms.

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


Estimation of reliability from a bivariate log-normal data It has been established that the bivariate log-normal distribution is appropriate for modelling certain paired observations. In this paper, we have developed large-sample confidence intervals of the dependence and reliability R=P(X>Y) parameters from a bivariate log-normal distribution with equal log-normal means. The parameter R provides a general measure of difference between the two populations and has applications in many areas. The performance of these confidence intervals has been examined by extensive simulation studies. The results are illustrated with an example dealing with a quantitative assay problem.

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

bivariate log-normal
maximum likelihood
bootstrapping
confidence interval
simulations


Simultaneous Camera Pose and Correspondence Estimation with Motion Coherence Traditionally, the camera pose recovery problem has been formulated as one of estimating the optimal camera pose given a set of point correspondences. This critically depends on the accuracy of the point correspondences and would have problems in dealing with ambiguous features such as edge contours and high visual clutter. Joint estimation of camera pose and correspondence attempts to improve performance by explicitly acknowledging the chicken and egg nature of the pose and correspondence problem. However, such joint approaches for the two-view problem are still few and even then, they face problems when scenes contain largely edge cues with few corners, due to the fact that epipolar geometry only provides a "soft" point to line constraint. Viewed from the perspective of point set registration, the point matching process can be regarded as the registration of points while preserving their relative positions (i.e. preserving scene coherence). By demanding that the point set should be transformed coherently across views, this framework leverages on higher level perceptual information such as the shape of the contour. While thus potentially allowing registration of non-unique edge points, the registration framework in its traditional form is subject to substantial point localization error and is thus not suitable for estimating camera pose. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm which jointly estimates camera pose and correspondence within a point set registration framework based on motion coherence, with the camera pose helping to localize the edge registration, while the "ambiguous" edge information helps to guide camera pose computation. The algorithm can compute camera pose over large displacements and by utilizing the non-unique edge points can recover camera pose from what were previously regarded as feature-impoverished SfM scenes. Our algorithm is also sufficiently flexible to incorporate high dimensional feature descriptors and works well on traditional SfM scenes with adequate numbers of unique corners.

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


SQP algorithms in balancing rotating machinery Increased running speeds and the requirement for rotating machinery to operate within specified levels of vibration mean that the control of machinery vibration is essential in today's industry. In this paper, the flexible rotor balancing problem based on the influence coefficient method and holospectrum technique is formulated as a minimax optimisation problem. This formulation can solve the minimax high-speed rotating machinery's balancing problem under practical balancing constraints effectively while ensuring the balancing machinery runs up safely. Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) method is employed to solve the minimax balancing problem. An experimental and a real world balancing example are given to demonstrate the effect of this formulation. The performance of SQP is compared with that of other established approaches; some conclusions are derived.

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


Comparing smart card adoption in Singapore and Australian universities College and university environments offer one of the best opportunities for the adoption of smart card technology. This study explores the possibility of developing smart card as a university application and investigates whether it will help to reduce the university business administration procedures as well as increase their service efficiency. This involved investigating the response of two groups (experienced and non-experienced) towards the adoption or the intention to embrace the technology of a university smart card. Studying the experiences gained by Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore) students using smart card application in their university may provide an insightful picture for a university that is considering adopting such a technological innovation. Results show that compatibility pre-adoption construct is the key element that plays the most influential factor in motivating local students for adoption. This suggests that to ensure adoption, it is important to guarantee that the university smart cards are socially acceptable among the university students (fit well with the students norm and environment). Another implication of this study is that Murdoch University (MU, Australia) students would most probably be willing to accept the adoption of a university smart card given that the results show MU students response of (probability=168/200) and NTU students response of 100% (probability=50/50) acceptance toward using their university smart card. The results also show a significant culture difference between MU students and NTU students, indicating that smart card manufacturer should take note of the ranking of user preference when designing a university smart card in order to optimize the adoption process.

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


Proportional derivative fuzzy control supplied with second order sliding mode differentiation The fuzzy logic controller (FLC) has the ability of handling parametric uncertainties and external perturbations for unknown systems. A regular structure for a FLC is the proportional derivative (PD) form. The proportional derivative fuzzy controller (PDF) could be seen as a variable gain PD controller. Despite this characteristic, the most common drawback for any PD controller, with unknown dynamics or even with unmodeled dynamics is the error signal differentiation. In this manuscript this disadvantage was overtaken implementing the super-twisting algorithm (STA) as a robust exact differentiator (RED). The information provided by the STA was injected into the PDF to enhace its performance. In this study, the stability of the nonlinear system under the fuzzy super twisting PD controller (FSTPD) in closed loop was analyzed using the concept of the second Lyapunov?s method. Numerical simulations were designed to show the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed FSTPD over the classical PD structure supplied with the STA and a PDF with the derivative part obtained by a linear filter. A first example to stabilize a simple pendulum was developed applying the FSTPD. A second example for solving a tracking control problem was designed for a robot manipulator with six degrees of freedom. In both cases, the FSTPD showed better performance and a significant reduction of the control energy.

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

signal differentiation
fuzzy control
pd controller

second order sliding modes
robust exact differentiation


A distribution of impact factors of journals in the area of software: An empirical study Data from two bibliographic databases i.e. COMPENDEX and INSPEC have been collected on the broad subject software and related topics. The titles of the journals were extracted from the database. The impact factors of the titles were also collected in order to study the distribution of impact factors. An attempt has been made to identify a suitable model to describe a distribution of impact factors. It has been observed that a Gamma distribution fits the observed data very well with one of the parameters as mean of the distribution and other parameter as 1. Further it has been observed that the researchers are now publishing their articles in high impact factor journals.

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

distribution of impact factors
gamma distribution


coherent reaction Side effects are both the essence and bane of imperative programming. The programmer must carefully coordinate actions to manage their side effects upon each other. Such coordination is complex, error-prone, and fragile. Coherent reaction is a new model of change-driven computation that coordinates effects automatically. State changes trigger events called reactions that in turn change other states. A coherent execution order is one in which each reaction executes before any others that are affected by its changes. A coherent order is discovered iteratively by detecting incoherencies as they occur and backtracking their effects. Unlike alternative solutions, much of the power of imperative programming is retained, as is the common sense notion of mutable state. Automatically coordinating actions lets the programmer express what to do, not when to do it. Coherent reactions are embodied in the Coherence language, which is specialized for interactive applications like those common on the desktop and web. The fundamental building block of Coherence is the dynamically typed mutable tree. The fundamental abstraction mechanism is the virtual tree, whose value is lazily computed, and whose behavior is generated by coherent reactions.

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

bidirectional functions
trees
synchronous reactive programming
reactive systems
functional reactive programming
interactive systems


Hyperspectral Imagery Denoising Using a Spatial-Spectral Domain Mixing Prior By introducing a novel spatial-spectral domain mixing prior, this paper establishes a Maximum a posteriori (MAP) framework for hyperspectral images (HSIs) denoising. The proposed mixing prior takes advantage of different properties of HSI in the spatial and spectral domain. Furthermore, we propose a spatially adaptive weighted prior combining smoothing prior and discontinuity-preserving prior in the spectral domain. The weights can be defined as a function of the spectral discontinuity measure (DM). For minimizing the objective function, a half-quadratic optimization algorithm is used. The experimental results illustrate that our proposed model can get a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than using only smoothing prior or discontinuity-preserving prior.

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

hyperspectral image
spectral continuity
image denoising