Controlling adverse effect on work in process inventory while reducing machine setup time Earlier research has found that the presence of setup time variance can cause an adverse effect on waiting time and inventory as one reduces setup time for a product on a single machine that processes a number of products in a cyclic production system [Sarkar, D., Zangwill, W.I., 1991. Variance effects in cyclic production systems. Management Science 37 (4) 444453; Zangwill, W.I., 1987. From EOQ towards ZI. Management Science 33 (10) 12091223]. This finding validates what other researchers had believed from a rather anecdotal perspective: variability reduction is extremely important for improving overall effectiveness of a pull or JIT system [Schonberger, Richard J., 1982. Japanese Manufacturing Techniques: Nine Hidden Lessons in Simplicity. The Free Press, New York]. In this paper, we offer explicit mathematical equations that characterize the variance levels in order to offer exact conditions under which WIP improves or worsens when one reduces setup time. Specifically, we offer explicit conditions that find how much variance to reduce and when it is meaningful to reduce. Furthermore, it is found that variance reduction in any product setup, not necessarily the one whose setup time is being reduced, can be beneficial for the purpose. By using a queuing model of a two product cyclic production, this paper shows that in addition to variance, the amount of reduction in setup time also influences its effect on waiting time. The procedures developed in this research find (1) how much reduction in setup time is safe for a given situation, and (2) what to do if more reduction is desired.

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


An efficient deterministic heuristic for two-dimensional rectangular packing This paper proposes a deterministic heuristic, a best fit algorithm (BFA), for solving the NP-hard two-dimensional rectangular packing problem to maximize the filling rate of a rectangular sheet. There are two stages in this new approach: the constructive stage and the tree search stage. The former aims to rapidly generate an initial solution by employing the concepts of action space and fit degree in evaluating different placements. The latter seeks to further improve the solution and searches for promising placements by a partial tree search procedure. We then compare BFA with other approaches in terms of solution quality and computing time. We carry out computational experiments on two sets of well-known benchmark instances, C21 proposed by Hopper and Turton, and N13 proposed by Burke et al. BFA gained an average filling rate of 100% for the C21 instances within short times, indicating that all the layouts obtained are optimal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that optimal layouts on all the 21 instances were obtained by a deterministic algorithm. As for the N13 instances, to date, researchers have found optimal solutions to the first three instances, whereas BFA solved seven, including the first three, within a reasonable period. An additional work is to adapt BFA to solve a relevant problem, the constrained two-dimensional cutting (or packing) problem (CTDC). Though BFA is not for the CTDC in the original design such that some specific characteristics of CTDC are not considered, the adapted algorithm still performed well on 21 public CTDC instances.

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

heuristic
rectangular packing
action space
fit degree


Testing, parametric assumptions on band- or time-limited signals under noise This paper considers the problem of testing parametric assumptions on signals f from which only noisy observations y(k) = f (tau k) + is an element of(k) are available, and where the signal is assumed to be either band-limited or time-limited. To this end, the signal is reconstructed by an estimator based on the Whittaker-Shannon (WS) sampling theorem with oversampling. As test statistic, the minimal L-2 distance between the estimated signal and the parametric model is used. To construct appropriate tests, the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is derived both under the hypothesis of the validity of the parametric model and under fixed local alternatives. As a byproduct, the asymptotic distribution of the integrated square error of the estimator is computed, which is of interest by itself, e.g., for the analysis of a cross-validated bandwidth selector.

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

asymptotic normality
band-limited signals
goodness of fit
non-band-limited signals
rate of convergence
signal recovery
whittaker-shannon (ws) sampling theorem


Robust wavelet-based adaptive neural controller design with a fuzzy compensator In this paper, a robust wavelet-based adaptive neural control (RWANC) with a PI type learning algorithm is proposed. The proposed RWANC system is composed of a wavelet neural controller and a fuzzy compensation controller. The wavelet neural control is utilized to approximate an ideal controller and the fuzzy compensation controller with a fuzzy logic system in it is used to remove the chattering phenomena of conventional sliding-mode control completely. In the RWANC, the learning algorithm is derived based on the Lyapunov function, thus the closed-loop system's stability can be guaranteed. The chaotic system control has become an emerging topic in engineering community since the uncontrolled system displays complex, noisy-like and unpredictable behavior. Therefore, the proposed RWANC approach is applied to a second-order chaotic nonlinear system to investigate the effectiveness. Through the simulation results, the proposed RWANC scheme can achieve favorable tracking performance and the convergence of the tracking error and control parameters can be accelerated by the developed PI adaptation learning algorithm.

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

neural control
chaotic system
fuzzy compensation


SeiVis: An Interactive Visual Subsurface Modeling Application The most important resources to fulfill today's energy demands are fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. When exploiting hydrocarbon reservoirs, a detailed and credible model of the subsurface structures is crucial in order to minimize economic and ecological risks. Creating such a model is an inverse problem: reconstructing structures from measured reflection seismics. The major challenge here is twofold: First, the structures in highly ambiguous seismic data are interpreted in the time domain. Second, a velocity model has to be built from this interpretation to match the model to depth measurements from wells. If it is not possible to obtain a match at all positions, the interpretation has to be updated, going back to the first step. This results in a lengthy back and forth between the different steps, or in an unphysical velocity model in many cases. This paper presents a novel, integrated approach to interactively creating subsurface models from reflection seismics. It integrates the interpretation of the seismic data using an interactive horizon extraction technique based on piecewise global optimization with velocity modeling. Computing and visualizing the effects of changes to the interpretation and velocity model on the depth-converted model on the fly enables an integrated feedback loop that enables a completely new connection of the seismic data in time domain and well data in depth domain. Using a novel joint time/depth visualization, depicting side-by-side views of the original and the resulting depth-converted data, domain experts can directly fit their interpretation in time domain to spatial ground truth data. We have conducted a domain expert evaluation, which illustrates that the presented workflow enables the creation of exact subsurface models much more rapidly than previous approaches.

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

seismic visualization
volume deformation
exploded views
seismic interpretation


Performance modeling of n n -dimensional mesh networks Mesh-based interconnection networks are the most popular inter-processor communication infrastructures used in current parallel supercomputers. Although many analytical models of n n -D torus interconnection networks have been reported in the literature over the last decade, few analytical models have been proposed for the 2-D mesh case (and not for the general n n -D mesh network) using inaccurate approximations as they have not fully incorporated the asymmetry effects of the mesh topology, in order to reduce the model complexity. There has not been reported, to the best of our knowledge, a performance model that can deal with the n n -D mesh network. To fill this gap, in this paper, we propose the first analytical performance model of the n n -D mesh using adaptive wormhole routing. To this end, we calculate the exact traffic rates over different network channels and determine the average message latency by averaging over the message latency values corresponding to all possible sourcedestination pairs of nodes in the network. Simulation results show that the proposed model can predict the message latency fairly accurately under various working conditions.

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

interconnection networks
adaptive wormhole routing

multicomputers
n n -d meshes n n n n n
analytical modeling
performance evaluation


Laser Doppler perfusion monitoring and imaging: novel approaches Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is a non invasive method enabling the monitoring of microvascular blood flow, a very important marker of tissue health. This article gives an overview on the concept of LDF for microvascular perfusion monitoring and imaging. It first describes the theoretical background of the technique. Then, the benefits of LDF signal processing are shown through clinical examples: use of timefrequency representations and wavelets. Afterwards, the paper introduces novel approaches of velocity components. For that purpose, a work providing the determination of the velocities relative contribution in physiologically relevant units (mm/s) is presented. Imaging perfusion is also reviewed through methods based on laser speckle. The most prominent disadvantage of the latter devices being the time needed to produce a perfusion image, solutions are proposed in the last part of the paper.

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

laser doppler flowmetry
perfusion
monitoring
imaging


sharing and discussing uml modeling exercises in a ple We present courseware for UML/SysML modelling that supports collaborative learning at a distance. Learners can solve interactive modelling exercises and discuss their solutions. First evaluations show promising results.

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


indexing and retrieval of scientific literature The web has greatly improved access to scientific literature. However, scientific articles on the web are largely disorganized, with research articles being spread across archive sites, institution sites, journal sites, and researcher homepages. No index covers all of the available literature, and the major web search engines typically do not index the content of Postscript/PDF documents at all. This paper discusses the creation of digital libraries of scientific literature on the web, including the efficient location of articles, full-text indexing of the articles, autonomous citation indexing, information extraction, display of query-sensitive summaries and citation context, hubs and authorities computation, similar document detection, user profiling, distributed error correction, graph analysis, and detection of overlapping documents. The software for the system is available at no cost for non-commercial use.

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

use
analysis
web
computation
error correction
context
digital libraries
paper
access
indexing
software
research
detection
retrieval
graph
information extraction
distributed
cost

sensitive
efficiency
autonomic
archival
contention
systems
author
locatability
web search engine
text
documentation
user-profile
query


Component transfer path analysis method with compensation for test bench dynamics ? In this article a component transfer path analysis (TPA) procedure is proposed. The method allows one to calculate the total system response resulting from a subcomponent's source excitation. It is based on the knowledge of the frequency response functions (FRFs) of the total system and on a measurement of the stand-alone subcomponent on a test bench. As the true source excitation, for example an engines combustion, is not measurable, equivalent forces at the subcomponent interface are found. The equivalent forces are multiplied with the total system FRFs from the subcomponent interface to response nodes of interest. The resulting responses at and in front of the subcomponent interface are shown to be physically exact for linear, time invariant and stationary operating systems. However, for the method to succeed, the source forces will have to be independent of the global dynamics. In addition, the test bench needs to be rigid in the frequency range of interest. This is typically hard to achieve for analysis in the mid frequency range (1001000Hz in vehicle acoustics). Therefore, a way to compensate for the test bench dynamics is also discussed. It is shown that one needs the receptance matrix of the free component at its interfaces and the operational motions of the interface on the test bench. Knowledge of the test bench dynamics is not needed. Measuring excitation and response at the source interface may not be feasible in practice due to space restrictions. In this case, the proposed TPA method can be extended with substitute nodes on the subsystem which are reachable on the test setup and the total system. With the knowledge of the free subcomponent FRFs, physically exact responses at and in front of the gearbox interface can also be calculated.

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

transfer path analysis
vehicle acoustics

experimental dynamics
test bench dynamics compensation
gear noise propagation
drive train dynamics


Probabilistic control of chaos: Chaotic maps under control Recently, we have proposed a new probabilistic method for the control of chaotic systems [1]. In this paper, we apply our method to characteristic cases of chaotic maps (one-and two-dimensional examples). As these chaotic maps are structurally stable, they cannot be controlled using conventional control methods without significant change of the dynamics. Our method consists in the probabilistic coupling of the original system with a controlling system. This coupling can be understood as a feedback control. of probabilistic nature. The chosen periodic orbit of the original system is a global attractor for the probability densities. The generalized spectral decomposition of the associated Frobenius-Perron operator provides a spectral condition of controllability for chaotic dynamical systems.

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


Transformation radial basis neural network for relevant feature selection Radial basis neural networks are excellent candidates for selecting relevant features in pattern recognition problems. By a slight change in the traditional three-layer architecture of a radial basis neural network, we can obtain a quantitative method, which allows us to get a ranking within the features. We present a new neural network concept, combining at the same time two different skills: classification and detection of relevant features in the input vector.

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 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

relevant feature extraction
multidimensional data


A method for generating reliable atomistic models of amorphous polymers based on a random search of energy minima A method for generating atomistic models of dense amorphous polymers is presented. The method is organized in a two-steps procedure. First, structures are generated using an algorithm that minimizes the torsional strain. After this, a relaxation algorithm is applied to minimize the non-bonding interactions. Two alternative relaxation methods, which are based simple minimization and Concerted Rotation techniques, have been implemented. The performance of the method has been checked by simulating polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon 6, poly(L,D-lactic acid) and polyglycolic acid.

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

atomistic simulation
monte carlo
generation algorithm
conrot
susi


Optimal time borrowing analysis and timing budgeting optimization for latch-based designs An interesting property of a latch-based design is that the combinational path delay is allowed to be longer than the clock cycle as long as it can "borrow" time from the shorter paths in the subsequent logic stages. This gives designers a lot of flexibility in designing circuits, especially high performance ones. However, it also increases the complexity in timing analysis. Finding the best clock period or determining how much time to borrow from the subsequent logic stages is difficult especially for designs containing multiple clocks, mixed-clock paths, user-specified multicycle paths, and false paths. In this article, we formulate the time borrowing problem as a linear programming problem. An optimal time borrowing solution can be found by solving the formulation. Based on this time borrowing solver, algorithms are proposed for timing optimization to achieve the optimal clock period. Experimental results show our algorithm is efficient and yields very good results.

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

verification
cycle stealing
latch-based design
static timing analysis


TFH - transverse flux induction heating of non-ferrous and precious metal strips In the years 1999 and 2000 the Universities of Hannover and Padua and four industrial partners from Italy and Germany have developed a common research project on TFH financed by the EU (Project JOE3-CT98-7023). In this paper, the main results obtained are shortly described.

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


Queues in DOCSIS cable modem networks In this paper we determine the optimal fraction c* c * of the uplink channel capacity that should be dedicated to the contention channel in a DOCSIS cable network in order to minimize its mean response time. For this purpose, we have developed an open queueing network with a non-standard form of blocking consisting of tens to hundreds of nodes. The network contains several types of customers that enter the network at various points according to a Markovian arrival process with marked customers. One of the main building blocks of the model exists in capturing the behavior of the conflict resolution algorithm by means of a single processor sharing queue. To assess the performance characteristics of this open queueing network we rely on an advanced decomposition technique that is specifically designed to deal with the Markovian nature of the arrival pattern. Several simulations are run to confirm the accuracy of the decomposition technique. We also explore the impact of a variety of systems parameters, e.g., the number of cable modems, the initial backoff window size, the correlation structure of the arrival process, the mean packet sizes, etc., on the optimal fraction c* c * .

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

docsis cable networks
performance evaluation
queueing networks
decomposition algorithm


Analyzing Probabilistic Models in Hierarchical BOA The hierarchical Bayesian optimization algorithm (hBOA) can solve nearly decomposable and hierarchical problems of bounded difficulty in a robust and scalable manner by building and sampling probabilistic models of promising solutions. This paper analyzes probabilistic models in hBOA on four important classes of test problems: concatenated traps, random additively decomposable problems, hierarchical traps and two-dimensional Ising spin glasses with periodic boundary conditions. We argue that although the probabilistic models in hBOA can encode complex probability distributions, analyzing these models is relatively straightforward and the results of such analyses may provide practitioners with useful information about their problems. The results show that the probabilistic models in hBOA closely correspond to the structure of the underlying optimization problem, the models do not change significantly in consequent iterations of BOA, and creating adequate probabilistic models by hand is not straightforward even with complete knowledge of the optimization problem.

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

estimation of distribution algorithms
model structure
model complexity
probabilistic model


elucidating the short term loss behavior of a dmap process in random early detection queue with background dbmap Given the increasing prominent role of multimedia applications in Internet-based services, elucidating the per-stream short term loss behavior of multimedia traffic in the routers is of priority concern. This work attempts to model both tagged multimedia and background traffic by a discrete-time Markovian arrival process (DMAP) and discrete-time batch Markovian arrival process (DBMAP), respectively. A queuing model is developed for a router with a random early detection (RED) mechanism with both tagged multimedia and background traffic. The queuing model of the router with RED scheme is modeled as DMAP+DBMAP/D/1/K. The short-term characteristics of per-stream multimedia packet drop are then examined through means of conditional statistics with respect to congested and non-congested periods that occur in an alternating manner. Such performance measures refer to the quality of service provided by the router for a particular multimedia traffic stream in the presence of background traffic.

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

dmap+dbmap/d/1/k
matrix-analytic method
per-stream short term drop probability
random early detection (red)


Histone Acetylation and Gastrointestinal Carcinogenesis The importance of altered histone acetylation in gastrointestinal carcinogenesis, especially in relation to invasion and metastasis, is described. Histone acetylation and chromatin remodeling linked with CpG island methylation play a major role in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Acetylation of histones through an imbalance of histone acetyltransferases and deacetylases disrupts nucleosome structure, which leads to DNA relaxation and subsequent increase in accessibility to transcription factors. The expression of acetylated histone H4 is reduced in a majority of gastric and colorectal cancers, indicating the low level of global histone acetylation in tumor cells. Moreover, reduced histone acetylation is significantly associated with depth of tumor invasion and nodal metastasis of gastrointestinal cancers. A histone deacetylase inhibitor, trichostatin A (TSA), induces growth arrest and apoptosis and suppresses invasion of cancer cells. Treatment with TSA, which is followed by increased histone acetylation in the promoters, induces the expression of many genes that are suppressors of invasion and metastasis, including tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase and nm23H1/H2, in addition to negative cell cycle regulators and apoptosis-related molecules. Our approach, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), enabled us to identify a gene that is a novel candidate for a metastasis suppressor, whose expression is induced by histone acetylation. These findings suggest that, by modifying gene expression, histone deacetylation may participate not only in tumorigenesis but also in invasion and metastasis. Therefore, histone acetylation should be a promising target for cancer therapy, especially against invasive and metastatic disease, but also for cancer prevention.

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

histone acetylation
metastasis
invasion
serial analysis of gene expression


A MEMS Brownian ratchet A Brownian ratchet is a device that can rectify the random Brownian motion of particles to yield a directed steady-state flow. We can imagine a thermofluid field of particles, which interact with the ratchet. The laws of thermodynamics imply that the ratchet must use energy from some other source. The dynamics of continuous-time Brownian ratchets are determined by a stochastic partial differential equation. We have used a simplified discrete-time model of a Brownian ratchet called Parrondo's games, which are governed by a difference equation. In their original form, Parrondo's games are a finite set of simple games of chance. An indefinite pure sequence of any single game is neutral or even losing. A periodic or randomised sequence of mixed games can be winning. There is a steady state flow of probability in the preferred direction. We have been able to design a feasible and consistent device, by mapping the conservation law of total probability onto the law of conservation of charge. This device can absorb energy from a mechanical field to produce a directed flow of charge. The fundamental architecture is based on a bucket-brigade device. The capacitors are 2-port MEMS devices. We use CMOS transmission gates to connect the capacitors in the required topology. We present an analysis and simulation of the MEMS Brownian ratchet and suggest some possible applications.

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


Providing developmental feedback to individuals from different ethnic minority groups using expert systems The paper is an account of a commercially successful and viable expert system entitled FRED (Feedback Reporter Evaluating Development). Expert systems offer a consistent approach to providing feedback to individuals that people with personal biases and emotions may find difficult to achieve. The text used in the expert system is sensitive and carefully worded by a team of skilled professionals, many of whom were from ethnic and cultural minorities. This is especially important when dealing with internal applicants from ethnic minorities as feedback given is consistent, fair, non-judgemental and devoid of possible ethnic prejudices and emotional statements. FRED offers a sensitive, comprehensive and cost-effective method of producing feedback reports for individuals from an ethnic minority and the paper details FRED's design, use and evaluation in an organizational setting. Future research is recommended in utilizing expert systems to provide feedback in assessment and development settings.

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

personal development
applicant reactions to selection


on the benefits of synchronized playout in peer-to-peer streaming In this paper we examine the impact of the adopted playout policy on the overall performance of a P2P streaming system. It is argued and showed that adopting (popular) playout policies that result in a divergence of the playout points drastically deteriorates the performance of P2P streaming and that policies that keep these points "near-in-time" should be adopted.

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

peer to peer
video streaming
playout schemes


Semi-supervised learning based on high density region estimation In this paper, we consider local regression problems on high density regions. We propose a semi-supervised local empirical risk minimization algorithm and bound its generalization error. The theoretical analysis shows that our method can utilize unlabeled data effectively and achieve fast learning rate.

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

semi-supervised learning
local risk minimization
density estimation
error analysis


Transparent Transmission of a Secure Time Domain Spectral Phase Encoding/Decoding DPSK-OCDM Signal Over a DWDM Network We propose and experimentally demonstrate a transparent optical-code-division multiplexing (OCDM) overlay public dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) network architecture enabled by a passive spectral notch filter for extracting and detecting a secure OCDM signal, which employs a time domain spectral phase encoding/decoding scheme that can simultaneously generate differential-phase-shift-keying (DPSK) data and optical code patterns using only a single phase modulator. The time domain encoded OCDM signal has been scrambled bit-by-bit by a prime hopping pattern and concealed in the public DWDM channels to significantly improve the OCDM channel security. The effect of optical code patterns, the channel number, and bandwidth of the spectral notch filters on the system performance has been theoretically simulated and experimentally validated. In the experiment, error-free transmission of a 2.5-Gb/s time domain spectral phase encoded DPSK-OCDM signal with three 8-chip, 20-Gchip/s optical codes and a scrambled code pattern in the transparent OCDM overlay two-channel 10-Gb/s DWDM network has been successfully demonstrated.

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

fiber optics and optical communications
optical-code-division multiple access
phase modulation


On the disturbance model in the robustification of explicit predictive control This article deals with the predictive control for linear systems, described in a explicit form as piecewise affine (PWA) state feedback laws. The main goal is to reduce the sensitivity of these schemes with respect to the model uncertainties. This objective can be attained by considering worst-case (minmax) formulations, optimisation over the control policies or tube predictive control. Such comprehensive approaches may lead to fastidious on-line optimisation, thus reducing the range of application. In the present note, a two-stage predictive strategy is proposed, which in the first place synthesises an analytical (continuous and piecewise linear) control law based on the nominal model and secondly robustifies the control law in the neighbourhood of the equilibrium point (the feedback gain obtained for the unconstrained control problem most often assimilated to the LQR gain). How the disturbance model corresponding to the unconstrained control robustification can be used to improve the robustness of the PWA control law is also shown.

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

piecewise controllers
controller parameterisation
uncertainty


Migrating product structure bill of materials Excel files to STEP PDM implementation Export product structure bill of materials Excel file to STEP Part 21 file for standard product data exchange. From mass customization perspective, the most similar product designs were distributed using STEP Part 21 files. C# program is written to decode STEP Part 21 file into BOM information to update PDM databases for product data management. SAS code is written to generate tree diagram of a product and export to PDM databases for product data structural view. This paper shows very promising outcome in achieving research objectives, main contributions and further research.

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 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 I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

iso 10303
product data management (pdm)
bill of materials (bom)


A remark on the MOV algorithm for non-supersingular elliptic curves In recent years, the study of the security of Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECCs) have been received much at attention. The MOV algorithm, which reduces the elliptic curve discrete log problem (ECDLP) to the discrete log problem in finite fields with the Well pairing, is a representative attack on ECCs. Recently Kanayama et ai. observed a realization of the MOV algorithm for non-supersingular elliptic curves under the weakest condition. Shikata et al. independently considered a realization of the MOV algorithm for non-supersingular elliptic curves and proposed a generalization of the MOV algorithm. This short note explicitly shows that, under a usual cryptographical condition, me can apply the MOV algorithm to non-supersingular elliptic curves by using the multiplication by constant maps as in the case of supersingular. Namely, it is explicitly showed that we don't need such a generalization in order to realize the MOV algorithm for non-supersingular elliptic curves under a usual cryptographical condition.

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

elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem


Unequal error protection for data partitioned H.264/AVC video broadcasting Application Layer Forward Error Correction (AL-FEC) is becoming a popular addition to protocols for real-time video delivery over IP-based wireless networks. In particular, rateless codes are identified as suitable solution for AL-FEC due to their flexibility and capacity-approaching performance. Since each part of video data is not equally important for video reconstruction, it is beneficial to group it based on its importance, and then provide different degree of protection using Unequal Error Protection (UEP). Data partitioning (DP) is one such low-cost feature in H.264/AVC enabling partitioning of video data based on its importance. We propose schemes for the DP H.264/AVC video transmission using Raptor and Random Linear Codes (RLC) and investigate their performance as AL-FEC solutions in Digital Video Broadcasting. We provide comparisons between optimized Non-Overlapping Window RLC and Expanding Window (EW) RLC, which are two effective UEP RLC strategies. The results using realistic channel traces show viability of the EW RLC as a promising solution for multimedia broadcast applications.

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

video compression
rateless coding
joint source-channel coding


The complexity of minimizing and learning OBDDs and FBDDs ? Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs) and Free Binary Decision Diagrams (FBDDs) are data structures for Boolean functions. They can efficiently be manipulated if only OBDDs respecting a fixed variable ordering or FBDDs respecting a fixed graph ordering are considered. In this paper, it is shown that the existence of polynomial time approximation schemes for optimizing variable orderings or graph orderings implies NP=P, and so such algorithms are quite unlikely to exist. Similar hardness results are shown for the related problems of computing minimal size OBDDs and FBDDs that are consistent with a given set of examples. The latter result implies that size bounded OBDDs and FBDDs are not PAC-learnable unless NP=RP.

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

binary decision diagram
branching program
approximation scheme
nonapproximability
pac-learning


Rotor anisotropy as a blade damage indicator for wind turbine structural health monitoring systems We propose a novel damage indicator for a wind turbine structural health monitoring system. The indicator is based on loss of rotor isotropy due to a blade damage. The experimental technique for extracting the damage indicator from measured vibration data is proposed. We demonstrate the damage indicator using a simple rotor model, on data from simulated wind turbine and finally, on experimentally obtained data.

B I 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 B I O O O O O O

floquet analysis
linear periodic time variant system
operational modal analysis


A MATLAB toolbox for Self Organizing Maps and supervised neural network learning strategies Kohonen maps and Counterpropagation Neural Networks are two of the most popular learning strategies based on Artificial Neural Networks. Kohonen Maps (or Self Organizing Maps) are basically self-organizing systems which are capable to solve the unsupervised rather than the supervised problems, while Counterpropagation Artificial Neural Networks are very similar to Kohonen maps, but an output layer is added to the Kohonen layer in order to handle supervised modelling. Recently, the modifications of Counterpropagation Artificial Neural Networks allowed introducing new supervised neural network strategies, such as Supervised Kohonen Networks and XY-fused Networks. In this paper, the Kohonen and CP-ANN toolbox for MATLAB is described. This is a collection of modules for calculating Kohonen maps and derived methods for supervised classification, such as Counterpropagation Artificial Neural Networks, Supervised Kohonen Networks and XY-fused Networks. The toolbox comprises a graphical user interface (GUI), which allows the calculation in an easy-to-use graphical environment. It aims to be useful for both beginners and advanced users of MATLAB. The use of the toolbox is discussed here with an appropriate practical example. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

self organizing maps
artificial neural networks
matlab
kohonen maps


multi-path routing protocol using cross-layer congestion-awareness in wireless mesh network Recently, the WMNs (Wireless Mesh Network) have increased their popularity and kept the interest of the most important research groups all over the world due to their self-configuring, self-healing capabilities, as well as their low equipment and deployment cost. Most of research work carried out in WMN is prone to be simple, practical to build up confidence in commercial implementation of these networks. In this paper, we present a multi-path routing protocol using Hop-Count metric that can be aware of congestion by collecting information from MAC layer. The primary advantage of our paper is to provide a simple and stable multi-path routing algorithm that can provide better than best-effort to real-time applications in wireless environment but need much less overhead compared to QoS-aware routing with two kinds of metrics: bandwidth and WCETT (Weighted Cumulative Expected Transmission Time).

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

multi-path routing
traffic engineering
congestion avoidance


A comment on The domination number of exchanged hypercubes This note presents a technical improvement to an upper bound in The domination number of exchanged hypercubes [Inf. Process. Lett. 114 (4) (2014) 159162] by Klavar and Ma.

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

exchanged hypercubes
interconnection networks


Gesture recognition for control of rehabilitation robots This paper describes the development of a control user interface for a wheelchair-mounted manipulator for use by severely disabled persons. It explains the construction of the interface using tasks to define the user interface architecture. The prototype robot used several gesture recognition systems to achieve a level of usability better than other robots used for rehabilitation at the time. The use of neural networks and other procedures is evaluated. It outlines the experiments used to evaluate the user responses and draws conclusions about the effectiveness of the whole system. It demonstrates the possibility of control using a head mouse.

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

user interface
gesture recognition
neural networks


Tailored motivational message generation: A model and practical framework for real-time physical activity coaching We identified 11 key concepts in generating health behavior change messages. We defined a comprehensive model of motivational messages. A software framework design is shown to demonstrate practical applicability. Physical activity promotion is used as an example to show simple tailoring rules. Future work is discussed in validating the framework for robustness and completeness.

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


Tradeoff decisions in the design of a backbone computer network using visualization Visualization provides a useful tool for analyzing large, complex data sets. In the design of backbone computer networks, rough-cut design decisions can gain from a visual analysis of the generated solution with respect to design parameters such as average message delay, delay cost, average message length and total network operating costs. In this paper, we show how two-dimensional and three-dimensional surface and glyph representations can be used for understanding the costdelay tradeoffs involved in the network design problem, and an idea of the efficient frontier where the user may choose to operate. It provides an opportunity to revisit relationships that exist between the different network design parameters as well as discover new ones.

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 O O O O O

computer network design
mathematical programming


Simulation of ellipsoidal particle-reinforced materials with eigenstrain formulation of 3D BIE Based on the concepts of eigenstrain and equivalent inclusion of Eshelby for inhomogeneity problems, a computational model and its solution procedure are presented using the proposed three-dimensional (3D) eigenstrain formulation of boundary integral equations (BIE) for simulating ellipsoidal particle-reinforced (and/or void-weakened) inhomogeneous materials. In the model, the eigenstrains characterizing deformation behaviors of each particle embedded in the matrix are determined using an iterative scheme with the aid of the corresponding Eshelby tensors, which can be obtained beforehand either analytically or numerically. With the proposed numerical model, the unknowns of the problem appear only on the boundary of the solution domain, since the interface condition between particles/voids and the matrix is satisfied naturally. The solution scale of the inhomogeneity problem can thus be significantly reduced. Using the algorithm, the stress distribution and the overall elastic properties are identified for ellipsoidal particle-reinforced/void-weakened inhomogeneous materials over a representative volume element (RVE). The effects of a variety of factors on the overall properties of the materials as well as the convergence behavior of the algorithm are studied numerically, showing the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

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 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 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

eigenstrain
representative volume element

eshelby tensor
ellipsoidal particle
boundary integral equation
iterative method


Efficient and Scalable Starvation Prevention Mechanism for Token Coherence Token Coherence is a cache coherence protocol that simultaneously captures the best attributes of the traditional approximations to coherence: direct communication between processors (like snooping-based protocols) and no reliance on bus-like interconnects (like directory-based protocols). This is possible thanks to a class of unordered requests that usually succeed in resolving the cache misses. The problem of the unordered requests is that they can cause protocol races, which prevent some misses from being resolved. To eliminate races and ensure the completion of the unresolved misses, Token Coherence uses a starvation prevention mechanism named persistent requests. This mechanism is extremely inefficient and, besides, it endangers the scalability of Token Coherence since it requires storage structures (at each node) whose size grows proportionally to the system size. While multiprocessors continue including an increasingly number of nodes, both the performance and scalability of cache coherence protocols will continue to be key aspects. In this work, we propose an alternative starvation prevention mechanism, named priority requests, that outperforms the persistent request one. This mechanism is able to reduce the application runtime more than 20 percent (on average) in a 64-processor system. Furthermore, thanks to the flexibility shown by priority requests, it is possible to drastically minimize its storage requirements, thereby improving the whole scalability of Token Coherence. Although this is achieved at the expense of a slight performance degradation, priority requests still outperform persistent requests significantly.

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

cache coherence
token coherence
starvation prevention
scalability


Exposing mobile malware from the inside (or what is your mobile app really doing?) It is without a doubt that malware especially designed for modern mobile platforms is rapidly becoming a serious threat. The problem is further multiplexed by the growing convergence of wired, wireless and cellular networks, since virus writers can now develop sophisticated malicious software that is able to migrate across network domains. This is done in an effort to exploit vulnerabilities and services specific to each network. So far, research in dealing with this risk has concentrated on the Android platform and mainly considered static solutions rather than dynamic ones. Compelled by this fact, in this paper, we contribute a fully-fledged tool able to dynamically analyze any iOS software in terms of method invocation (i.e., which API methods the application invokes and under what order), and produce exploitable results that can be used to manually or automatically trace softwares behavior to decide if it contains malicious code or not. By employing real life malware we assessed our tool both manually, as well as, via heuristic techniques and the results we obtained seem highly accurate in detecting malicious code.

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

dynamic analysis
behavior-based detection
smartphone


multi-level annotation of natural scenes using dominant image components and semantic concepts Automatic image annotation is a promising solution to enable semantic image retrieval via keywords. In this paper, we propose a multi-level approach to annotate the semantics of natural scenes by using both the dominant image components (salient objects) and the relevant semantic concepts. To achieve automatic image annotation at the content level, we use salient objects as the dominant image components for image content representation and feature extraction. To support automatic image annotation at the concept level, a novel image classification technique is developed to map the images into the most relevant semantic image concepts. In addition, Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers are used to learn the detection functions for the pre-defined salient objects and finite mixture models are used for semantic concept interpretation and modeling. An adaptive EM algorithm has been proposed to determine the optimal model structure and model parameters simultaneously. We have also demonstrated that our algorithms are very effective to enable multi-level annotation of natural scenes in a large-scale image dataset.

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

adaptive em algorithm
use
image classification
concept
salient objects
model
paper
representation
structure
detection
semantic
support vector machine
image annotation
interpretation
annotation
image
support
feature extraction

large-scale
mixture model
object
relevance
imaging
component
contention
optimality
automatic image annotation
image retrieval
learning
algorithm
classifiation
effect


Distributed Iterative Optimal Resource Allocation With Concurrent Updates of Routing and Flow Control Variables Consider a set of active elastic sessions over a network. Session traffic is routed at each hop ( potentially through multiple network paths) based only on its destination. Each session is associated with a concave increasing utility function of its transfer rate. The transfer rates of all sessions and the routing policy define the operating point of the network. We construct a metric of the goodness of this operating point. is an increasing function of the session utilities and a decreasing function of the extent of congestion in the network. We define "good" operating points as those that maximize, subject to the capacity constraints in the network. This paper presents a distributed, iterative algorithm for adapting the session rates and the routing policy across the network so as to converge asymptotically to the set of "good" operating points. The algorithm updates session rates and routing variables concurrently and is, therefore, amenable to distributed online implementation. The convergence of the concurrent update scheme is proved rigorously.

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

multipath routing
optimal rate control
optimal routing
two timescale iterations


Control situations in supervisory control It is widely acknowledged that the safe and efficient supervisory control of complex dynamic systems requires that human operators are capable of checking the state of the controlled system against given performance criteria. In addition, it is important to consider how changes in the state of the controlled system and its environment influence the control situation: the possibility of bringing about system state changes by performing control actions on the controlled system (the control possibilities), and the requirements for bringing about appropriate state changes in the controlled system (the control requirements). This paper addresses fundamental problems related to the design of human-machine systems that can track changes in control situations. Based on a theoretical analysis of control actions, a generic structure is proposed for control situations. The issues of how to specify control situations and how to derive changes in the control situation, based on a representation of the work domain, are also addressed, using examples.

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

human-machine systems
context-sensitivity
modeling


A crossing sensitivity filter for structural topology optimization with chamfering, rounding, and checkerboard-free patterns Chamfering and rounding are the most common features of structures and mechanisms. Introducing these features is another way to make material usage more efficient by lowering or avoiding stress con centrations and making the structure even stronger. In this brief note, a new crossing sensitivity filter is proposed for structural topology optimization with chamfering and rounding. This method also ensures the final optimal solution without checkerboard patterns or mesh-dependency. It can also partially prevent one-node hinges. Numerical examples that include both design of stiffest/strongest structures and synthesis of compliant mechanisms are provided.

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

topology optimization
chamfering and rounding
crossing sensitivity filter


Lower Bounds on the Aperiodic Hamming Correlations of Frequency Hopping Sequences with Low Hit Zone In order to evaluate the goodness of frequency hopping sequence design, the aperiodic Hamming correlation function is used as an important measure. In this letter, the aperiodic Hamming correlation lower bounds for frequency hopping sequences with low hit zone which have not yet been reported previously are established.

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

frequency hopping sequences
aperiodic hamming correlation
low hit zone


closed-form solution for timing analysis of process variations on swcnt interconnect In this paper, a comprehensive and fast method is presented for the timing analysis of process variations on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles. Unlike previous works that based on SPICE tools to estimate the delay, this paper proposes a closed-form solution for SWCNT interconnect timing analysis. With the assumption that the process variations are independent random variables, the delay of SWCNT bundles are mapped to a linear function of the variation variables, and efficiently calculated in the form of probability density functions (PDFs). Compared to SPICE-based solutions, this approach not only saves considerable computation time, but also provides a more comprehensive result, for it shows a compound impact of all variations, and covers all of the potential cases with their corresponding probabilities, rather than only one parameter can vary at a time, and only a worst case estimation is considered. The experiment results show that this solution bears little loss while providing the above mentioned advantages. Compared with SPICE-based Monte Carlo simulations, the experiments report the error in mean and standard deviation of delay to be 1.5\% and 1.7\% respectively.

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

carbon nanotube
timing analysis
interconnect


Creating Reference Datasets for Systems Biology Applications Using Text Mining High-throughput experimental techniques are generating large data collections with the aim of identifying novel entities involved in fundamental cellular processes as well as drawing a systematic picture of the relationships between individual components. Determining the accuracy of the resulting data and the selection of a subset of targets for more careful characterizations often requires relying on information provided by manually annotated data repositories. These repositories are incomplete and cover only a small fraction of the knowledge contained in the literature. We propose in this paper the use of text-mining technologies to extract, organize, and present information relevant for a particular biological topic. The aims of the resulting approach are (1) to enable topic-centric biological literature navigation, (2) to assist in the construction of manually revised data repositories, (3) to provide prioritization of biological entities for experimental studies, and (4) to enable human interpretation of large-scale experiments by providing direct links of bio-entities to relevant descriptions in the literature.

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

high-throughput evaluation
text categorization


State BL-algebras The concept of a state MV-algebra was firstly introduced by Flaminio and Montagna (An algebraic approach to states on MV-algebras. In: Novk V (ed) Fuzzy logic 2, proceedings of the 5th EUSFLAT conference, September 1114, Ostrava, vol II, pp 201206, 2007; Int J Approx Reason 50:138152, 2009) as an MV-algebra with internal state as a unary operation. Di Nola and Dvure?enskij (Ann Pure Appl Logic 161:161173, 2009a; Math Slovaca 59:517534, 2009b) gave a stronger version of a state MV-algebra. In the present paper, we introduce the notion of a state BL-algebra, or more precisely, a BL-algebra with internal state. We present different types of state BL-algebras, like strong state BL-algebras and state-morphism BL-algebras, and we study some classes of state BL-algebras. In addition, we give a sample of important examples of state BL-algebras and present some open problems.

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

bl-algebra
mv-algebra
state bl-operator
state-operator
strong state-operator
state-morphism-operator


The use of collaborative electronic media for information sharing: an exploratory study of determinants This article reports an exploratory investigation of individual perceptions of factors that underlie the use of collaborative electronic media (electronic mail, World Wide Web, list serves, and other collaborative systems) for sharing information in a large state university in Australia. The model builds on the Constant et al.'s theory of information sharing. We propose that perceptions of information culture, attitudes regarding information ownership and propensity to share, as well as task and personal factors influence people's use of collaborative media. We found that task characteristics (task interdependence), perceived information usefulness and the user's computer comfort were most strongly associated with the person's use of collaborative media. Consistent with Constant et al.'s earlier findings, views of information ownership and propensity to share were significantly related to use. Interestingly, use of electronic media for sharing information and contacting people was weakly associated with a more structured, closed information culture. This implies that heavy users and sharers want more structured information flow in place, possibly due to their need to have reliable access to other individual's knowledge and information. Contrary to suggestions in the literature, a fully open, organic information culture may not always be most desirable. Implications for knowledge managers, practitioners and researchers are suggested.

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


The generalised Sylvester matrix equations over the generalised bisymmetric and skew-symmetric matrices A matrix P is called a symmetric orthogonal if P = P-T = P-1. A matrix X is said to be a generalised bisymmetric with respect to P if X = X-T = PXP. It is obvious that any symmetric matrix is also a generalised bisymmetric matrix with respect to I (identity matrix). By extending the idea of the Jacobi and the Gauss-Seidel iterations, this article proposes two new iterative methods, respectively, for computing the generalised bisymmetric (containing symmetric solution as a special case) and skew-symmetric solutions of the generalised Sylvester matrix equation Sigma(l)(i=1) A(i)YB(i) = C, (including Sylvester and Lyapunov matrix equations as special cases) which is encountered in many systems and control applications. When the generalised Sylvester matrix equation has a unique generalised bisymmetric (skew-symmetric) solution, the first (second) iterative method converges to the generalised bisymmetric (skewsymmetric) solution of this matrix equation for any initial generalised bisymmetric (skew-symmetric) matrix. Finally, some numerical results are given to illustrate the effect of the theoretical results.

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

generalised sylvester matrix equation
iterative method
generalised bisymmetric matrix

convergence
skew-symmetric matrix
symmetric orthogonal matrix


Computer-aided diagnosis of mass-like lesion in breast MRI: Differential analysis of the 3-D morphology between benign and malignant tumors This study aimed to evaluate the value of using 3-D breast MRI morphologic features to differentiate benign and malignant breast lesions. The 3-D morphological features extracted from breast MRI were used to analyze the malignant likelihood of tumor from ninety-five solid breast masses (44 benign and 51 malignant) of 82 patients. Each mass-like lesion was examined with regards to three categories of morphologic features, including texture-based gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) feature, shape, and ellipsoid fitting features. For obtaining a robust combination of features from different categories, the biserial correlation coefficient (|rpb|)?0.4 was used as the feature selection criterion. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate performance and Student's t-test to verify the classification accuracy. The combination of the selected 3-D morphological features, including conventional compactness, radius, spiculation, surface ratio, volume covering ratio, number of inside angular regions, sum of number of inside and outside angular regions, showed an accuracy of 88.42% (84/95), sensitivity of 88.24% (45/51), and specificity of 88.64% (39/44), respectively. The AZ value was 0.8926 for these seven combined morphological features. In conclusion, 3-D MR morphological features specified by GLCM, tumor shape and ellipsoid fitting were useful for differentiating benign and malignant breast masses.

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

3-d morphology
co-occurrence matrix
ellipsoid-fitting
computer-aided diagnosis


Computing two penetration measures for curved 2D objects We develop algorithms to compute two measures of penetration between a pair of curved objects in the plane described algebraically. We present implementation details and indicate extensions to three dimensions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Single Image Realism Assessment and Recoloring by Color Compatibility In this paper, we investigate the assessment of image realism by focusing our attention on the color compatibility between an inserted object and the background in an image composite. We propose a technique based on two color compatibility properties to achieve realistic image composition. The first property is related to the color similarity, and the second one to the consistence of color tendency between image regions. We further propose algorithms based on these two properties for image realism assessment and recoloring. These algorithms only require information from the image to be tested, making them suitable for practical applications where real images are unavailable. Effectiveness of the algorithms is demonstrated through various images and verified by ground truth.

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

color compatibility
color similarity
color tendency
image composition
image realism


Comparisons of finite element and Rayleigh methods for the study of conical Bloch waves in arrays of metallic cylinders This paper investigates new technological devices to be utilised in future optical communications, by means of variational method (FEM and multipole scattering approach (Rayleigh method). This last one provides interesting asymptotic results in the long-wavelength Emit The so-called photonic crystal fibres (PCF)possess radically different guiding properties due to photonic band gap guidance: removing a hole within a macro-cell leads to a defect state within the gap. In the case of multi-core PCF, the localised modes start talking to each other which possibly leads to a new generation of multiplexer/demultiplexers.

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

communication technologies
finite element analysis
numerical analysis


PipeRoute: A pipelining-aware router for reconfigurable architectures We present a pipelining-aware router for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The problem of routing pipelined signals is different from the conventional FPGA routing problem. The two-terminal N-D pipelined routing problem is to find the lowest cost route between a source and sink that goes through at least N (N >= 1) distinct pipelining resources. In the case of a multiterminal pipelined signal, the problem is to find a minimum spanning tree (MST) that contains sufficient pipelining resources such that pipelining constraints at each sink are satisfied. In this paper, we first present an optimal algorithm for finding a lowest cost 1(D) route. The optimal 1(D) algorithm is then used as a building block for a greedy two-terminal N-D router. Next, we discuss the development of a multiterminal routing algorithm (PipeRoute) that effectively leverages both the 1(D) and N-D routers. Finally, we present a preprocessing heuristic that enables the application of PipeRoute to pipelined FPGA architectures. PipeRoute's performance is evaluated by routing a set of benchmark netlists on the reconfigurable pipelined datapath (RaPiD) architecture. Our results show that the architecture overhead incurred in routing netlists on RaPiD is less than 20%. Further, the results indicate a possible trend between the architecture overhead and the percentage of pipelined signals in a netlist.

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

design automation
field-programmable gate arrays (fpga)


Improvements on the Johnson bound for ReedSolomon codes For ReedSolomon codes with block length n n and dimension k k , the Johnson theorem states that for a Hamming ball of radius smaller than n ? n k , there can be at most O(n2) O ( n 2 ) codewords. It was not known whether for larger radius, the number of codewords is polynomial. The best known list decoding algorithm for ReedSolomon codes due to Guruswami and Sudan [Venkatesan Guruswami, Madhu Sudan, Improved decoding of ReedSolomon and algebraic-geometry codes, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 45 (6) (1999) 17571767] is also known to work in polynomial time only within this radius. In this paper we prove that when k 0 c > 0 ) there can be at most O ( n c 2 ? ( 1 ? ? ) 2 + c + 2 ) number of codewords. For any constant c c , we describe a polynomial time algorithm for enumerating all of them, thereby also improving on the GuruswamiSudan algorithm. Although the improvement is modest, this provides evidence for the first time that the n ? n k bound is not sacrosanct for such a high rate. We apply our method to obtain sharper bounds on a list recovery problem introduced by Guruswami and Rudra [Venkatesan Guruswami, Atri Rudra, Limits to list decoding ReedSolomon codes, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 52 (8) (2006) 36423649] where they establish super-polynomial lower bounds on the output size when the list size exceeds ? n k ? . We show that even for larger list sizes the problem can be solved in polynomial time for certain values of k k .

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


Synergies of simulation, agents, and systems engineering Simulation, software agents, and systems engineering are three important disciplines; each of which support many application areas. In this article it is pointed out that their usefulness and efficacy can be significantly improved by first and higher order synergies.

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


Customer requirement prioritization on QFD: a new proposal based on the generalized Yagers algorithm The focus of this paper is on the prioritization of customer requirements (CRs) in the quality function deployment (QFD) process. There are numerous techniques for this task, which are based on different types of judgements (e.g., in the form of preference orderings, relative importance ratings, paired comparisons), generally collected by questionnaires/interviews. Unfortunately, many of these techniques violate some properties of the scales on which judgements are defined and/or are not flexible and user-friendly for respondents. This paper introduces a prioritization technique based on a recent algorithmdenominated as generalized Yagers algorithmaimed at fusing the preference orderings by multiple respondents into a single ordering. This technique can be applied even when (1) some CRs are tied or omitted in the individual preference orderings, and (2) respondents have a hierarchical importance ranking. Also, the procedure is automatable and relatively robust and provides a solution which is consistent with the preference orderings. The description is supported by a realistic application example, concerning the prioritization of QFDs CRs in the design of an aircraft seat.

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

qfd
customer requirements
prioritization
relative importance ratings

generalized yagers algorithm (gya)
preference ordering
fusion


system-level co-simulation of integrated avionics using polychrony The design of embedded systems from multiple views and heterogeneous models is ubiquitous in avionics as, in particular, different high-level modeling standards are adopted for specifying the structure, hardware and software components of a system. The system-level simulation of such composite models is necessary but difficult task, allowing to validate global design choices as early as possible in the system design flow. This paper presents an approach to the issue of composing, integrating and simulating heterogeneous models in a system co-design flow. First, the functional behavior of an application is modeled with synchronous data-flow and statechart diagrams using Simulink/Gene-Auto. The system architecture is modeled in the AADL standard. These highlevel, synchronous and asynchronous, models are then translated into a common model, based on a polychronous model of computation, allowing for a Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) interpretation of the composed models. This translation is implemented as an automatic model transformation within Polychrony, a toolkit for embedded systems design. Simulation, including profiling and value change dump demonstration, has been carried out based on the common model within Polychrony. An avionic case study, consisting of a simplified doors and slides control system, is presented to illustrate our approach.

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

gals simulation aadl polychrony avionics


A highly modular and extensible architecture for an integrated IMS-based authoring system: the experience The (e-Aula) platform is a new experimental e-learning environment that adheres closely to IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. e-learning standards in order to facilitate their applicability in different learning scenarios. (e-Aula) is equipped with an integrated modular and extensible architecture for the authoring of IMS-compliant learning materials focused on the IMS manifest. This manifest-driven architecture facilitates maintenance and promotes the evolution of the authoring system in (e-Aula), both of which are mandatory requirements in the successful production and maintenance of content for many different specialized learning domains. In this paper, we describe this authoring system, its manifest-driven architecture and its implementation using well-known and robust Java-based Web technologies. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

e-learning
ims-based experimental platform
ims-based authoring system
j2ee
struts


Development of the nursing problem list subset of SNOMED CT (R) Objective: To create an interoperable set of nursing diagnoses for use in the patient problem list in the EHR to support interoperability. Design: Queries for nursing diagnostic concepts were executed against the UMLS Metathesaurus to retrieve all nursing diagnoses across four nursing terminologies where the concept was also represented in SNOMED CT. A candidate data set was retrieved and included the nursing diagnoses and corresponding SNOMED a concepts from the UMLS Metathesaurus. The team members identified the concepts that met the semantic selection criteria for inclusion in the nursing problem list. Results: 1320 concepts were returned in the initial UMLS Metathesaurus query of nursing diagnostic concepts. Further analysis was conducted to identify those nursing diagnostic concepts mapped to SNOMED CT and duplicate concepts were removed resulting in 591 unique UMLS Metathesaurus concepts. The query extracted all concepts from two of the nursing terminologies that contained interventions and outcomes. After cleaning the dataset, the final count of SNOMED CT concepts in the nursing problem list subset is 369. Conclusions: The problem list is a key component of the patient care and has been acknowledged as critical by the EHR Meaningful Use criteria. Nursing diagnoses on the problem list are foundational for constructing a nursing care plan. A multidisciplinary patient problem list will facilitate communication and evaluation of the contribution of nursing care to the patient's clinical care experiences and outcomes. (c) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

nursing informatics
healthcare terminology
health informatics
systemized nomenclature of medicine
unified medical language system


Heterogeneous database integration in biomedicine The rapid expansion of biomedical knowledge, reduction in computing costs, and spread of internet access have created an ocean of electronic data. The decentralized nature of our scientific community and healthcare system, however, has resulted in a patchwork of diverse, or heterogeneous, database implementations, making access to and aggregation of data across databases very difficult. The database heterogeneity problem applies equally to clinical data describing individual patients and biological data characterizing our genome. Specifically, databases are highly heterogeneous with respect to the data models they employ, the data schemas they specify, the query languages they support, and the terminologies they recognize. Heterogeneous database systems attempt to unify disparate databases by providing uniform conceptual schemas that resolve representational heterogeneities, and by providing querying capabilities that aggregate and integrate distributed data. Research in this area has applied a variety of database and knowledge-based techniques, including semantic data modeling, ontology definition, query translation, query optimization, and terminology mapping, Existing systems have addressed heterogeneous database integration in the realms, of molecular biology, hospital information systems, and application portability. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).

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

heterogeneous database
federated database
database integration
data warehouse


Analysis of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR) with the AHP-ANP: A critical validation This paper shows that the usual multiplicative synthesis of alternative priorities for benefits, opportunities, costs and risks, obtained from separate Analytic Hierarchy or Network models, can be ambiguous. The ratio of benefit and opportunity priorities to cost and risk priorities can be misleading when assessing the profitability of a project. The same holds for their additive synthesis. Both types of synthesis have been advocated in AHP/ANP literature. A quotient of these priorities with weights as coefficients, not powers. will however produce sound results, provided that the four separate models are properly related to each other by weights that make the priorities on the four factors commensurate and are obtained from magnitude comparisons. Similarly, additive synthesis with properly weighted factor priorities based on relative magnitudes will produce sound results, although use of reciprocal values of costs and risks, as often advocated in the literature, is not recommended; negative costs and risks priorities should be used instead. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

multiple criteria analysis
analytic hierarchy/network process
bocr analysis
commensurability


Estimation algorithm of the bowel motility based on regression analysis of the jitter and shimmer of bowel sounds Bowel sound (BS) signals can be used clinically as useful indicators of bowel motility. In this study, we devised a modified iterative kurtosis-based detector algorithm, in order to enhance the de-noising performance of BS signals, and an estimation algorithm of bowel motility based on the regression modeling of the jitter and shimmer of BS signals obtained by auscultation. The correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination and errors between the colon transit times measured by a conventional radiograph and the corresponding values estimated by our method were 0.987, 0.974 and 3.53.3h, respectively. These results demonstrated that our method could be used as a complementary tool for the non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of bowel motility, instead of conventional radiography.

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

bowel sound
jitter
shimmer
regression analysis


Augmenting topology-based maps with geometric information Topology-based maps are a new representation of the workspace of a mobile robot, which capture the structure of the free space in the environment in terms of the basic topological notions of connectivity and adjacency. A topology-based map can represent the environment in terms of open spaces (rooms and corridors) connected by narrow passages (doors and junctions). In this paper, we show how to enrich a topology-based map with geometric information useful for the generation and execution of navigation plans. Both the topology-based map and its geometric information are automatically extracted from sensor data. We illustrate the use of topology-based maps for planned behavior-based navigation on a real robot.

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

environment modeling
topological maps
occupancy grids
behavior-based navigation
mathematical morphology


Rescue of Cells from Apoptosis by Antioxidants Occurs Downstream from GSH Extrusion Antioxidants-that is, scavengers of free radicals and anaerobic conditions (5%CO2, 95% N2)-protect monocytic U937 cells from damage-induced apoptosis. Antioxidants rescue the cells acting on the apoptotic pathway at a step downstream from gluthatione extrusion. Reducing agents, such as DTT, also reduce stress-induced apoptosis. Thus, apoptotic GSH extrusion triggers the downstream events of apoptosis by leaving cells unprotected against thiols oxidation and radical production.

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 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 B O O O O O O O O O O


Efficient techniques for improved QoS performance in WDM optical burst switched networks In this paper, we address the problems of burst scheduling, network fairness, and service differentiation in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical burst switched (OBS) networks. We propose two approaches-time-slotting and burst fragmentation-to provide efficient solutions for the above problems. We also propose a path selection algorithm to distribute label switched paths (LSP) based on load balancing. Time slotting refers to the quantization of time into slots of fixed sizes. Time slotting aids fast implementation of scheduling algorithms. Further, the slotting is local to the nodes and they need not be synchronized across the network. In burst fragmentation, a burst is fragmented instead of being dropped if it cannot be accommodated on any wavelength as a whole. These fragments are then sent on different wavelengths on the same path. Only in the event, that a fragment cannot be scheduled on any wavelength of the link, is the burst dropped. We develop a new scheduling algorithm based on time-slotting and fragmentation. This algorithm has several attractive features such as fast and simple implementation and improved burst dropping performance. Using the hop-based shortest path algorithm to route a burst without accounting for the link load results in poor burst dropping performance. This is because, some links could be heavily loaded forming a bottleneck for network performance. Load balancing approach aims at reducing the bottleneck of data traffic in the network. We develop a path selection algorithm based on load balancing with the objectives of improving network performance in terms of burst dropping probability and improve fairness among bursts traversing paths of different lengths. We then develop an offset-based algorithm to provide inter-class service differentiation and intra-class fairness for the bursts belonging to classes with different levels of priority. An attractive feature of this algorithm is that it works with a constraint of maximum permissible initial offset time in order to reduce the burst transfer delay and also to reduce the buffer requirements at the ingress edge routers. It also ensures that shorter-hop bursts of a low-priority class does not perform better than the longer-hop bursts belonging to a high-priority class. Extensive simulation results have been used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and algorithms for various identical and non-identical traffic demand scenarios. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

network fairness
service differentiation
fragmentation
load balancing

wavelength division multiplexing (wdm)
optical burst switching (obs)
time-slotting


New constructions of OSBE schemes and their applications in oblivious access control Oblivious signature-based envelope (OSBE) schemes have demonstrated their potential applications in the protection of users privacy and rights. In an OSBE protocol, an encrypted message can only be decrypted by the receiver who holds a valid signature on a public message, while the sender (encrypter) does not know whether the receiver has the signature or not. Our major contributions in this work lie in the following aspects. We improve the notion of OSBE so that a valid credential holder cannot share his/her credential with other users (i.e., all-or-nothing non-transferability). We clarify the relationship between one-round OSBE and identity-based encryption (IBE) and show that one-round OSBE and semantically secure IBE against the adaptively chosen identity attack (IND-ID-CPA) are equivalent, if the signature in the OSBE scheme is existentially unforgeable against adaptively chosen message attacks. We propose an oblivious access control scheme to protect user privacy without the aid of any zero-knowledge proof. Finally, we also highlight some other novel applications of OSBE, such as attributed-based encryption.

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

oblivious signature-based envelope
oblivious transfer