Closest Point Turbulence for Liquid Surfaces We propose a method of increasing the apparent spatial resolution of an existing liquid simulation. Previous approaches to this "up-resing" problem have focused on increasing the turbulence of the underlying velocity field. Motivated by measurements in the free surface turbulence literature, we observe that past certain frequencies, it is sufficient to perform a wave simulation directly on the liquid surface, and construct a reduced-dimensional surface-only simulation. We sidestep the considerable problem of generating a surface parameterization by employing an embedding technique known as the Closest Point Method (CPM) that operates directly on a 3D extension field. The CPM requires 3D operators, and we show that for surface operators with no natural 3D generalization, it is possible to construct a viable operator using the inverse Abel transform. We additionally propose a fast, frozen core closest point transform, and an advection method for the extension field that reduces smearing considerably. Finally, we propose two turbulence coupling methods that seed the high-resolution wave simulation in visually expected regions.

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

algorithms
design
performance
theory
fluid simulation
wave turbulence
physically based modeling


Exploring video content structure for hierarchical summarization In this paper, we propose a hierarchical video summarization strategy that explores video content structure to provide the users with a scalable, multilevel video summary. First, video-shot- segmentation and keyframe-extraction algorithms are applied to parse video sequences into physical shots and discrete keyframes. Next, an affinity (self-correlation) matrix is constructed to merge visually similar shots into clusters (supergroups). Since video shots with high similarities do not necessarily imply that they belong to the same story unit, temporal information is adopted by merging temporally adjacent shots (within a specified distance) from the supergroup into each video group. A video-scene-detection algorithm is thus proposed to merge temporally or spatially correlated video groups into scenario units. This is followed by a scene-clustering algorithm that eliminates visual redundancy among the units. A hierarchical video content structure with increasing granularity is constructed from the clustered scenes, video scenes, and video groups to keyframes. Finally, we introduce a hierarchical video summarization scheme by executing various approaches at different levels of the video content hierarchy to statically or dynamically construct the video summary. Extensive experiments based on real-world videos have been performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

hierarchical video summarization
video content hierarchy

video group detection
video scene detection
hierarchical clustering


Stability analysis of adaptive filters with regression vector nonlinearities We present a unified framework to analyze the mean and mean-square stability of a large class of adaptive filters. We do this without obtaining a full transient model, allowing us to acquire sufficient conditions on the stability without assuming a given statistical distribution for the input regressors. We also apply the proposed framework to some popular adaptive filtering schemes, showing that in some cases the sufficient conditions derived are very tight and even necessary too.

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

mean stability
mean-square stability
step-size parameter


hierarchical classification of web content This paper explores the use of hierarchical structure for classifying a large, heterogeneous collection of web content. The hierarchical structure is initially used to train different second-level classifiers. In the hierarchical case, a model is learned to distinguish a second-level category from other categories within the same top level. In the flat non-hierarchical case, a model distinguishes a second-level category from all other second-level categories. Scoring rules can further take advantage of the hierarchy by considering only second-level categories that exceed a threshold at the top level. We use support vector machine (SVM) classifiers, which have been shown to be efficient and effective for classification, but not previously explored in the context of hierarchical classification. We found small advantages in accuracy for hierarchical models over flat models. For the hierarchical approach, we found the same accuracy using a sequential Boolean decision rule and a multiplicative decision rule. Since the sequential approach is much more efficient, requiring only 14\%-16\% of the comparisons used in the other approaches, we find it to be a good choice for classifying text into large hierarchical structures.

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

use
web
context
hierarchical models
case
paper
model
threshold
classification
structure
accuracy
text
rules

efficiency
collect
web hierarchies
text catergorization
hierarchies
heterogeneity
training
contention
hierarchic
machine learning
classifiation
text classification
effect
support vector machines


Realization of an Adaptive Memetic Algorithm Using Differential Evolution and Q-Learning: A Case Study in Multirobot Path Planning Memetic algorithms (MAs) are population-based meta-heuristic search algorithms that combine the composite benefits of natural and cultural evolutions. An adaptive MA (AMA) incorporates an adaptive selection of memes (units of cultural transmission) from a meme pool to improve the cultural characteristics of the individual member of a population-based search algorithm. This paper presents a novel approach to design an AMA by utilizing the composite benefits of differential evolution (DE) for global search and Q-learning for local refinement. Four variants of DE, including the currently best self-adaptive DE algorithm, have been used here to study the relative performance of the proposed AMA with respect to runtime, cost function evaluation, and accuracy (offset in cost function from the theoretical optimum after termination of the algorithm). Computer simulations performed on a well-known set of 25 benchmark functions reveal that incorporation of Q-learning in one popular and one outstanding variants of DE makes the corresponding algorithm more efficient in both runtime and accuracy. The performance of the proposed AMA has been studied on a real-time multirobot path-planning problem. Experimental results obtained for both simulation and real frameworks indicate that the proposed algorithm-based path-planning scheme outperforms the real-coded genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and DE, particularly its currently best version with respect two standard metrics defined in the literature.

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

adaptive memetic algorithm (ma)
differential evolution (de)
q-learning


Evaluating capture-recapture models with two inspectors Capture-recapture (CR) models have been proposed as an objective method for controlling software inspections. CR models were originally developed to estimate the size of animal populations. In software, they have been used to estimate the number of defects in an inspected artifact. This estimate can be another source of information for deciding whether the artifact requires a reinspection to ensure that a minimal inspection effectiveness level has been attained. Little evaluative research has been performed thus far on the utility of CR models for inspections with two inspectors. In this paper, we report on an extensive Monte Carlo simulation that evaluated capture-recapture models suitable for two inspectors assuming a code inspections context. We evaluate the relative error of the CR estimates as well as the accuracy of the reinspection decision made using the CR model. Our results indicate that the most appropriate capture-recapture model for two inspectors is an estimator that allows for inspectors with different capabilities. This model always produces an estimate (i.e., does not fail), has a predictable behavior (i.e., works well when its assumptions are met), will have a relatively high decision accuracy, and will perform better than the default decision of no reinspections. Furthermore, we identify the conditions under which this estimator will perform best.

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

fault estimation
capture-recapture
software inspection
quality control


The dynamics of adaptive behavior: A research program This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the motivations, methodology and current status of an ongoing research program whose long-term goal is to elucidate the essential principles of a theory of adaptive behavior. The thoroughly dynamical nature of both adaptive behavior itself and the causal mechanisms that support it is emphasized throughout. An initial mapping of the basic concepts of adaptive behavior into the language of dynamical systems theory is proposed, and some of the general consequences of this preliminary theoretical framework are discussed. The two key ideas of this framework are (1) that an agent and its environment should be understood as two coupled dynamical systems whose mutual interaction is jointly responsible for the agent's behavior, and (2) that an agent's need to maintain its existence in its environment defines a viability constraint on its behavioral dynamics. A constructive research methodology involving the use of evolutionary algorithms to evolve continuous-time recurrent neural networks for controlling the behavior of model agents is described, and several examples of this methodology are presented, including models of chemotaxis, walking, sequential decision-making and learning. Finally, a detailed dynamical analysis of one evolved walking circuit is presented. This analysis illustrates the kinds of insights that can be obtained by treating agents as dynamical systems and applying the tools of dynamical systems theory to their behavior.

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

adaptive behavior
dynamical systems theory
evolutionary algorithms

autonomous agents
dynamical neural networks


Social learning in a multi-agent system In a persistent multi-agent system; it should be possible for new agents to benefit from the accumulated learning of more experienced agents. Parallel reasoning can be applied to the case of newborn animals, and thus the biological literature on social learning may aid in the construction of effective multi-agent systems. Biologists have looked at both the functions of social learning and the mechanisms that enable it. Many researchers have focused on the cognitively complex mechanism of imitation; we will also consider a range of simpler mechanisms that could snore easily be implemented in robotic or software agents. Research in artificial life shows that complex global phenomena can arise from simple local rules. Similarly; complex information sharing at the system level may result from quite simple individual learning rules. We demonstrate in simulation that simple mechanisms can outperform imitation in a multi-agent system, and that the effectiveness of any social learning strategy will depend on the agents' environment. Our simple mechanisms have obvious advantages in terms of robustness and design costs.

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

social learning
imitation
artificial life


using multiple combined ranker for answering definitional questions This paper presents a Multiple Combined Ranker (MCR) approach for answering definitional questions. Generally, our MCR approach first extracts question target-related knowledge as much as possible, then using this knowledge to pick up appropriate question answers. The knowledge includes both online definitions and related terms (RT). In our system, extraction of related terms is different from traditional methods which are largely based on calculating the co-occurred frequency of target words. We adopted the significance of sentences and documents, from which RT were extracted. The MCR approach shows state-in-art performance in handling with increasingly complex definitional questions

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

related terms extraction
definitional question answering


Bayesian Minimax Estimation of the Normal Model With Incomplete Prior Covariance Matrix Specification This work addresses the issue of Bayesian robustness in the multivariate normal model when the prior covariance matrix is not completely specified, but rather is described in terms of positive semi-definite bounds. This occurs in situations where, for example, the only prior information available is the bound on the diagonal of the covariance matrix derived from some physical constraints, and that the covariance matrix is positive semi-definite, but otherwise arbitrary. Under the conditional Gamma-minimax principle, previous work by DasGupta and Studden shows that an analytically exact solution is readily available for a special case where the bound difference is a scaled identity. The goal in this work is to consider this problem for general positive definite matrices. The contribution in this paper is a theoretical study of the geometry of the minimax problem. Extension of previous results to a more general case is shown and a practical algorithm that relies on semi-definite programming and the convexity of the minimax formulation is derived. Although the algorithm is numerically exact for up to the bivariate case, its exactness for other cases remains open. Numerical studies demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed algorithm and the robustness of the minimax solution relative to standard and recently proposed methods.

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

bayesian point estimate
gamma-minimax
minimax estimator
prior uncertainty
robust bayesian analysis
shrinkage method


supervised query modeling using wikipedia We use Wikipedia articles to semantically inform the generation of query models. To this end, we apply supervised machine learning to automatically link queries to Wikipedia articles and sample terms from the linked articles to re-estimate the query model. On a recent large web corpus, we observe substantial gains in terms of both traditional metrics and diversity measures.

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

machine learning
wikipedia
query modeling


Visual attention guided video copy detection based on feature points matching with geometric-constraint measurement Focus of interests in videos is localized by 3D spatiotemporal visual attention modeling. Salient feature points are detected in visual attention regions. Geometric constraint measurement is used for conducting bi-directional point matching. Video matching is transformed to frame-based time-series linear search problem. Our proposed approach achieves promising high detection rate.

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 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

visual attention
video copy detection
geometric constraint

feature point
spatiotemporal analysis
delaunay triangulation
video copy attacks
similarity measurement


The boundedness of high-order Hopfield neural networks with variable delays In this paper, the uniformly boundedness and uniformly ultimately boundedness of high-order neural networks with time-varying delays are studied. Proper Lyapunov functionals and some analytic techniques are employed to derive the sufficient conditions under which the networks proposed are uniformly bounded and uniformly ultimately bounded. The results are shown to improve the results derived in [1] (Arik, 2004). Some examples are given to illustrate the correctness of our results.

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

neural networks
uniformly ultimately boundedness


Radiation characteristics of microstrip rectangular patch antenna fabricated on LiTiMg ferrite substrate A microstrip rectangular patch antenna fabricated on LiTiMg ferrite substrate is presented which has also been compared with same structure of antenna on dielectric (RT duroid) substrate for the X band (10GHz). The structure of antenna has been optimized with IE3D and lithographed on 2mm thickness ferrite substrate. The radiation patterns are measured in anechoic chamber and plotted for both E-plane and H-plane. Using ferrite material the patch size reduced to 37% compare to antenna printed on dielectric substrate. If we can compare the values of return loss radiation power, gain, quality factor and VSWR for antenna on ferrite substrate which is better than the antenna on dielectric substrate but the bandwidth and directivity of antenna was much affected negatively. For this work we have synthesized the polycrystalline LiTiMg ferrite by the solid state reaction technique (SSRT) and characterized their electric and magnetic properties.

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

substituted ferrite
x-band frequency range


Information technology workforce skills: Does size matter? Changes in information technology (IT) services and their delivery have shifted the need for non-IT firms' (i.e., firms whose primary business is something other than providing IT goods and services) IT skills and capabilities to emphasize a business focus while integrating more outsourcing options from both domestic and global third-party providers. This paper explores how organizations of different sizes value critical IT skills and investigates firms' needs for entry-level and mid-level capabilities. The results show that smaller organizations consider more in-house hiring than their counterparts. Although desired entry-level skills differed among organizations of varying sizes, they all valued project management skills highly for mid-level IT staff.

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


Analytical solutions to 1-D horizontal and vertical water infiltration in saturated/unsaturated soils considering time-varying rainfall Analytical solutions to 1-D horizontal and vertical water infiltration in saturated/unsaturated soils are developed that can consider the variation of rainfall with time. In this model, water content and the permeability coefficient are assumed to be exponential functions of the pressure head, and diffusivity is constant. By means of Fourier integral transformation, the analytical solutions are expressed as infinite series. The steady-state solutions for horizontal and vertical infiltration in unsaturated soils are then derived. The solutions can consider both flux and pressure head boundaries. The solutions are easy to implement compared with numerical solutions, although the restricted assumptions may limit their applicability in some ways. The analytical solutions provide a reliable tool for checking the accuracy of various numerical methods under the condition of constant diffusivity. Finally, the analysis carried out in a case study indicates that the pressure head differences caused by the transient infiltration in both the horizontal and vertical directions can be estimated using the steady-state solutions, and the effect of gravity on water infiltration mainly depends on the boundary conditions.

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

unsaturated soil
richards equation
analytical solution


Measuring enterprise IT capability: A total IT capability perspective The information technology (IT) capability of an enterprise is very important for the efficient execution of its management activities and to improve task performance in an IT environment. Appropriate measures are necessary for a firm to gauge, manage and improve enterprise IT capability. This research presents a 17-item scale that can efficiently measure enterprise IT capability, and verifies its validity and reliability. The theoretical and practical applications of the measure are discussed, including how it can be effectively utilized to improve enterprise IT capability.

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

information technology
it capability
measures

measurement factor and item measurement construct


The application of UML to the design of processes supporting product configuration management Product configuration management (PCM) is an important issue for complex products with long life cycles. In this paper a unified-modelling-language (UML)-based approach is introduced to de. ne a PCM process model developed, as part of the Framework V DIECoM project, for use in the aerospace and automotive industries. This paper presents an integrated modelling methodology that extends the semantics of UML to support the automated generation of workflow management coalition (WfMC) XML process definition language (XPDL) work flow templates from XML metadata interchange (XMI) definitions. As a result work flow definition is achieved by transforming the XMI metadata, representing the serialized UML model, into XPDL by the application of a customized extensible stylesheet language (XSL) stylesheet. The modelling methodology is illustrated using the change configuration management process. The process model is defined using Rational Rose and transformed into XPDL for workflow enactment using ENOVIA LCA.

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

product configuration management
workflow
uml
xml


Pseudorandom number generators based on random covers for finite groups Random covers for finite groups have been introduced in Magliveras et al. (J Cryptol 15:285-297, 2002), Lempken et al. (J Cryptol 22:62-74, 2009), and Svaba and van Trung (J Math Cryptol 4:271-315, 2010) for constructing public key cryptosystems. In this article we describe a new approach for constructing pseudorandom number generators using random covers for large finite groups. We focus, in particular, on the class of elementary abelian 2-groups and study the randomness of binary sequences generated from these generators. We successfully carry out an extensive test of the generators by using the NIST Statistical Test Suite and the Diehard battery of tests. Moreover, the article presents argumentation showing that the generators are suitable for cryptographic applications. Finally, we include performance data of the generators and propose a method of using them in practice.

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

pseudorandom number generator
random cover
finite group
statistical test of randomness


Case studies in evolutionary experimentation and computation 14 examples prove the potency of the evolution strategy. The exemplary compilation starts with the drag-minimization of a wing-like construction in a wind tunnel and ends with the creation of an extraordinary magic square on a computer. Prerequisite for a successful evolutionary optimization is the validity of strong (or at least piecemeal strong) causality for the quality function. The problem solution fails without any inherent order of the quality function. Euler's extension of Fermat's last theorem cannot be disproved with an evolutionary algorithm, because the design of a piecemeal causal pay-off function is not in sight.

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

evolutionary algorithms (ga
es
ep)
noisy fitness data
design out fear
optimization under noise
convergence improvement techniques
self-adaptation


Application of the Filippov Method for the Stability Analysis of a Photovoltaic System This paper describes bifurcation phenomena of a photovoltaic system. The studied photovoltaic (PV) system includes a solar panel, a boost converter, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller and a storage device. Computer simulations are performed to capture the effects of variation of some chosen parameters on the qualitative behavior of the system. The impact of the maximum power point (MPP) current and voltage variations due to luminosity changes is determinate, as well as the load variation. The stability of the system is analyzed using the state transition matrix over one switching cycle (the monodromy matrix) including the state transition matrices during each switching (the saltation matrices). This investigation is important to predict nonlinear phenomena and for the components dimensioning for a proper functioning.

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

photovoltaic systems
dc-dc power converters
nonlinear dynamical systems
chaos
saltation matrix


Variance minimization for constrained discounted continuous-time MDPs with exponentially distributed stopping times This paper deals with minimization of the variances of the total discounted costs for constrained Continuous-Time Markov Decision Processes (CTMDPs). The costs consist of cumulative costs incurred between jumps and instant costs incurred at jump epochs. We interpret discounting as an exponentially distributed stopping time. According to existing theory, for the expected total discounted costs optimal policies exist in the forms of randomized stationary and switching stationary policies. While the former is typically unique, the latter forms a finite set whose number of elements grows exponentially with the number of constraints. This paper investigates the problem when the process stops immediately after the first jump. For costs up to the first jump we provide an index for selection of actions by switching stationary policies and show that the indexed switching policy achieves a smaller variance than the randomized stationary policy. For problems without instant costs, the indexed switching policy achieves the minimum variance of costs up to the first jump among all the equivalent switching policies.

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

variance
total discounted costs
stopping time
discounting


Group based Swarm evolution algorithm (GSEA) driven mental task classifier Brain computer interface (BCI) system is based on non-invasive electroencephalographic signals. It is an augmented communication channel for disabled persons which translates neural activity from the brain into control signals. In this paper, a novel group based Swarm evolution algorithm (GSEA) driven neural classifier has been proposed to classify mental tasks. These mental tasks consists of left and right hand movement imagination and thinking of word generation. GSEA is a hybrid of swarm intelligence based computational methods with differential evolution based techniques. Hybridization of both algorithms ensures that pitfalls of both are overcome thus enhancing results. A concept of grouping has also been introduced to increase both exploration and exploitation performance of the algorithm. GSEA has been tested on publicly available BCI Competition 3 dataset 5. Experimental results shows that the proposed algorithm exhibits better result than individual swarm or differential search based algorithms and many other algorithms.

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

swarm intelligence computations
evolutionary algorithms
brain computer interface (bci)
electroencephalographic (eeg)
neural network (nn)


Adjoint algorithms for the Navier-Stokes equations in the low Mach number limit This paper describes a derivation of the adjoint low Mach number equations and their implementation and validation within a global mode solver. The advantage of using the low Mach number equations and their adjoints is that they are appropriate for flows with variable density, such as flames, but do not require resolution of acoustic waves. Two versions of the adjoint are implemented and assessed: a discrete-adjoint and a continuous-adjoint. The most unstable global mode calculated with the discrete-adjoint has exactly the same eigenvalue as the corresponding direct global mode but contains numerical artifacts near the inlet. The most unstable global mode calculated with the continuous-adjoint has no numerical artifacts but a slightly different eigenvalue. The eigenvalues converge, however, as the time-step reduces. Apart from the numerical artifacts, the mode shapes are very similar, which supports the expectation that they are otherwise equivalent. The continuous-adjoint requires less resolution and usually converges more quickly than the discrete-adjoint but is more challenging to implement. Finally, the direct and adjoint global modes are combined in order to calculate the wavemaker region of a low density jet. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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


Using a system-diagnostic approach to solve information and operation issues in shop-floor integration systems In order to improve the operation performances of enterprises, managers generally introduce relevant information systems to management, but as the production and operating procedures of enterprises differ, so the composition of the necessary system will also be different. Most research discusses system models and modules in a computer integrated manufacture system (CIMS), but less likely to discuss the problem and settlement method to actually implement. This research focuses on the shop-floor integration system (SFIS) as a real time management system using neural network technology to do the system diagnosis against system operational errors. Furthermore, the approach will discuss and improve the system efficiency by analyzing the questionable information detected. A real case is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented approach. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

shop-floor integration system
operation approach
system-diagnostic


Quantum complexity of parametric integration We study parametric integration of functions from the class C-r([0, 1](d1+d2)) to C([0, 1](d1)) in the quantum model of computation. We analyze the convergence rate of parametric integration in this model and show that it is always faster than the optimal deterministic rate and in some cases faster than the rate of optimal randomized classical algorithms. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

quantum computing
information-based complexity


Fair coalitions for power-aware routing in wireless networks Several power-aware routing schemes have been developed for wireless networks under the assumption that nodes are willing to sacrifice their power reserves in the interest of the network as a whole. But, in several applications of practical utility, nodes are organized in groups, and as a result, a node is willing to sacrifice in the interest of other nodes in its group but not necessarily for nodes outside its group. Such groups arise naturally as sets of nodes associated with a single owner or task. We consider the premise that groups will share resources with other groups only if each group experiences a reduction in power consumption. Then, the groups may form a coalition in which they route each other's packets. We demonstrate that sharing between groups has different properties from sharing between individuals and investigate fair, mutually beneficial sharing between groups. In particular, we propose a pareto-efficient condition for group sharing based on max-min fairness called fair coalition routing. We propose distributed algorithms for computing the fair coalition routing. Using these algorithms, we demonstrate that fair coalition routing allows different groups to mutually beneficially share their resources.

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

wireless communication
algorithm design and analysis
energy-aware systems and routing


the program dependence web: a representation supporting control-, data-, and demand-driven interpretation of imperative languages The Program Dependence Web (PDW) is a program representation that can be directly interpreted using control-, data-, or demand-driven models of execution. A PDW combines a single-assignment version of the program with explicit operators that manage the flow of data values. The PDW can be viewed as an augmented Program Dependence Graph . Translation to the PDW representation provides the basis for projects to compile Fortran onto dynamic dataflow architectures and simulators. A second application of the PDW is the construction of various compositional semantics for program dependence graphs.

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

translation
values
web
interpretation
dynamic
flow
data
version
program dependence graph
representation
dataflow
control

applications dependencies simulation semantic architecture language assignment project operability model management


Defect detection in X-ray images using fuzzy reasoning Since X-ray images contain sensory noise, and objects in X-ray images are often distorted by various effects such as uneven lighting, classical image processing techniques and methods based on ordinary crisp set theory are poor at detecting small low contrast objects. In this paper, we propose a more effective method based on fuzzy theory. With the proposed algorithm, images are filtered by applying fuzzy reasoning using local image characteristics. The proposed algorithm was applied to detect internal weld defects from radiographic films, which are taken from steel butt weld parts. Results show success in detecting defects at a similar level to human vision. A comparison between a visual and an automatic evaluation demonstrates the efficiency of this method.

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

non-destructive testing
visual inspection
x-ray radiography
weld defect


Endocardial boundary estimation and tracking in echocardiographic images using deformable templates and Markov Random Fields We present a new approach to shape-based segmentation and tracking of deformable anatomical structures in medical images, and validate this approach by detecting and tracking the endocardial contour in an echocardiographic image sequence. To this end, some global prior shape knowledge of the endocardial boundary is captured by a prototype template with a set of predefined global and local deformations to take into account its inherent natural variability over time. In this deformable model-based Bayesian segmentation, the data likelihood model relies on an accurate statistical modelling of the grey level distribution of each class present in the ultrasound image. The parameters of this distribution mixture are given by a preliminary iterative estimation step. This estimation scheme relies on a Markov Random Field prior model, and takes into account the imaging process as well as the distribution shape of each class present in the image. Then the detection and the tracking problem is stated in a Bayesian framework, where it ends up as a cost function minimisation problem for each image of the sequence. In our application, this energy optimisation problem is efficiently solved by a genetic algorithm combined with a steepest ascent procedure. This technique has been successfully applied on synthetic images, and on a real echocardiographic image sequence.

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

boundary estimation
deformable templates
markov random fields
tracking


An optimal resource control scheme under fidelity and energy constraints in sensor networks To control congestion, either the traffic from sources should be "reduced" (traffic controlling) or the available resources should be "increased" (resource controlling). Compared to the wired and other wireless counterparts, wireless sensor networks usually have elastic resource availability, and the applications require a certain level of throughput called fidelity. As a result, resource control strategies cannot only alleviate congestion but also ensure the required fidelity level during congestion by accommodating higher incoming traffic. In this paper, we first attempt to formally define the resource control framework that adjusts the resource provisioning at the hotspot nodes during congestion. In an effort to find the optimal resource control under the fidelity and energy constraints, we present a resource increase and decrease algorithm called Early Increase/Early Decrease (EIED) that tries to adjust the effective channel capacity quickly to suit the incoming traffic volume in an energy-efficient manner, thereby increasing the fidelity level observed by the application. Under the energy-constrained optimization, we prove this algorithm incurs the lowest overhead of energy consumption for the given fidelity level that is required by the application. We also prove that the EIED algorithm performed in a distributed manner also lowers the energy consumption per packet at an end-to-end level. The effectiveness of the EIED algorithm is verified by simulations based on realistic sensor network configurations.

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

sensor networks
resource control
fidelity


The snowblower problem ? We introduce the snowblower problem (SBP), a new optimization problem that is closely related to milling problems and to some material-handling problems. The objective in the SBP is to compute a short tour for the snowblower to follow to remove all the snow from a domain (driveway, sidewalk, etc.). When a snowblower passes over each region along the tour, it displaces snow into a nearby region. The constraint is that if the snow is piled too high, then the snowblower cannot clear the pile. We give an algorithmic study of the SBP. We show that in general, the problem is NP-complete, and we present polynomial-time approximation algorithms for removing snow under various assumptions about the operation of the snowblower. Most commercially available snowblowers allow the user to control the direction in which the snow is thrown. We differentiate between the cases in which the snow can be thrown in any direction, in any direction except backwards, and only to the right. For all cases, we give constant-factor approximation algorithms; the constants increase as the throw direction becomes more restricted. Our results are also applicable to robotic vacuuming (or lawnmowing) with bounded-capacity dust bin.

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

motion planning
robotics
vehicle routing
tsp
nc-machining


Multinomial logistic regression and product unit neural network models: Application of a new hybrid methodology for solving a classification problem in the livestock sector This work presents a new approach for multi-class pattern recognition based on the hybridization of a linear and nonlinear model. We propose multinomial logistic regression where some new covariates are defined by a product unit neural network, where in turn, the nonlinear basis functions are constructed with the product of the inputs raised to arbitrary powers. The application of this methodology involves, first of all, training the coefficients and the basis structure of product unit models using techniques based on artificial neural networks and evolutionary algorithms, followed by the application of multinomial logistic regression to both the new derived features and the original ones. To evaluate the efficacy of our technique we pose a difficult problem, the classification of sheep with respect to their milk production in different lactations, using covariates that only involve the first weeks of lactation. This enables the productive capacity of the animal to be identified more rapidly and leads to a faster selection process in determining the best producers. The results obtained with our approach are compared to other classification methodologies. Although several of these methodologies offer good results, the percentage of cases correctly classified was higher with our approach, which shows how instrumental the potential use of this methodology is for decision making in livestock enterprises, a sector relatively untouched by the technological innovations in business management that have been appearing in the last few years.

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

evolutionary computation
product units
livestock application


Interaction Design for and with the Lived Body: Some Implications of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology In 2001, Paul Dourish proposed the term embodied interaction to describe a new paradigm for interaction design that focuses on the physical, bodily, and social aspects of our interaction with digital technology. Dourish used Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception as the theoretical basis for his discussion of the bodily nature of embodied interaction. This article extends Dourish's work to introduce the human-computer interaction community to ideas related to Merleau-Ponty's concept of the lived body. It also provides a detailed analysis of two related topics: (1) embodied perception: the active and embodied nature of perception, including the body's ability to extent its sensory apparatus through digital technology; and (2) kinaesthetic creativity: the body's ability to relate in a direct and creative fashion with the "feel" dimension of interactive products during the design process.

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

interaction design
embodied interaction
embodied perception
kinaesthetic creativity
phenomenology
the lived body


Regularised analytical constant modulus algorithm for spacetime coded systems Spacetime coding is an effective approach to increase the data rate and capacity of a wireless communication system that employs multiple transmit and multiple receive antennas. It involves coding techniques that are designed for multiple transmit antennas. We apply the analytical constant modulus algorithm (ACMA) for blind channel estimation (no use of training sequences) of spacetime coded systems and explore the constant modulus (CM) constraints of the transmitted spacetime codes (STCs). A regularised scheme that gives good performance in Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise environments is proposed. Computer simulation results in both single-user and multiuser cases show the improvement in error performance.

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

spacetime coding
blind channel estimation
analytical constant modulus algorithm


Adomian decomposition method with orthogonal polynomials: Legendre polynomials This paper illustrates the using of orthogonal polynomials to modify the Adomian decomposition method. The method of employing Legendre polynomials to improve the Adomian decomposition method is presented here and compared to the method of using Chebyshev polynomials. The presented modified Adomian decomposition method is validated through an example and advantage as well as efficiency of this method is verified through investigating and comparing the results. In this paper, it is concluded that both orthogonal polynomials: Chebyshev and Legendre polynomials can be successfully used for the Adomian decomposition method and comparatively the Chebyshev expansion provides the better estimation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

adomian decomposition method
orthogonal polynomials
legendre polynomials
chebyshev polynomials


Discrete Rayleigh fading channel modeling In order to understand the behaviour of upper-layer protocols and to design or fine tune their parameters over wireless networks, it is common to assume that the underlying channel is a flat Rayleigh fading channel. Such channels are commonly modeled as finite state Markov chains. Recently, hidden Markov models have also been employed to characterize these channels. In this paper, we study the different models that have been proposed along with the analysis of their validity. We start by presenting some preliminary concepts related to the modeling of the wireless communications channel. We then proceed to introduce finite state Markov channel models (FSMCs) along with the relations between them and the modulation schemes, error control protocols and channel coding. We propose and study the effects of taking into account the fading process in its characterization. We finish with a discussion on hidden Markov models for Rayleigh fading channel modeling. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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


Detecting repeats for video structuring Television daily produces massive amounts of videos. Digital video is unfortunately an unstructured document in which it is very difficult to find any information. Television streams have however a strong and stable but hidden structure that we want to discover by detecting repeating objects in the video stream. This paper shows that television streams are actually highly redundant and that detecting repeats can be an effective way to detect the underlying structure of the video. A method for detecting these repetitions is presented here with an emphasis on the efficiency of the search in a large video corpus. Very good results are obtained both in terms of effectiveness (98% in recall and precision) as well as efficiency since one day of video is queried against a 3 weeks dataset in only 1 s.

O O O B I B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 structuring
television
repetitions


New quasi-symmetric designs constructed using mutually orthogonal Latin squares and Hadamard matrices Using Hadamard matrices and mutually orthogonal Latin squares, we construct two new quasi-symmetric designs, with parameters 2 - (66,30,29) and 2 - (78,36,30). These are the first examples of quasi-symmetric designs with these parameters. The parameters belong to the families 2 - (2u(2) - u,u (2) -u,u(2) - u - 1) and 2 - (2u(2) + u,u(2), u(2) - u), which are related to Hadamard parameters. The designs correspond to new codes meeting the Grey-Rankin bound.

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

binary code
grey-rankin bound
hadamard matrix
quasi-symmetric


software architecture directed behaviour analysis A Software Architecture is the overall structure of a system in terms of its constituent components and their interconnections. In this position paper, we discuss an approach to using architectural description for the behavioural analysis of distributed software systems and some of the issues which arise in providing tool support. The approach is based on the use of finite state automata to specify behaviour and Compositional Reachability Analysis to check composite system models. The architecture description of a system is used directly to generate the model used for analysis.

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

software use structure systems analysis architecture model paper distributed reachability automata

direct
interconnect
tool-support
software architecture
compositing
system modeling
behaviour analysis
component
posit


the role of peripheral energy management for wireless health applications Several body worn medical sensing and physiological monitoring devices are currently on the market or are under development. For portable body worn sensor systems battery life is a critical issue. We demonstrate how intelligent energy management techniques that utilize contextual information can be used for extending battery life of wearable health monitoring devices

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

physiological monitoring
energy management


Linearized behavior of a dissipative rubber with large static preloads The dynamic behavior of filled rubber has been intensively studied during the last 20years and a large number of finite strain models have been developed. However, many industrial applications involve small vibrations superimposed on large static preloads. In this specific case, the dynamic problem can be treated as a small amplitude problem near a finite strain state. In this paper, we discuss how to extend previous approaches by taking arbitrary (large) dynamic rotations into account. A general approach is proposed as well as a finite element implementation. Results show that large rotations are required in some tests, even at small dynamic amplitudes.

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


learning domain-independent string transformation weights for high accuracy object identification The task of object identification occurs when integrating information from multiple websites. The same data objects can exist in inconsistent text formats across sites, making it difficult to identify matching objects using exact text match. Previous methods of object identification have required manual construction of domain-specific string transformations or manual setting of general transformation parameter weights for recognizing format inconsistencies. This manual process can be time consuming and error-prone. We have developed an object identification system called Active Atlas [18], which applies a set of domain-independent string transformations to compare the objects' shared attributes in order to identify matching objects. In this paper, we discuss extensions to the Active Atlas system, which allow it to learn to tailor the weights of a set of general transformations to a specific application domain through limited user input. The experimental results demonstrate that this approach achieves higher accuracy and requires less user involvement than previous methods across various application domains.

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

task
user involvement
order
input
domain
object
tailor
general
attributes
paper
user
accuracy
identification
matching
text
data
process
demonstrate
learning

activation applications website extensibility timing informal errors strings sharing method experimentation systems


Optimum tracking with evolution strategies Evolutionary algorithms are frequently applied to dynamic optimization problems in which the objective varies with time. It is desirable to gain an improved understanding of the influence of different genetic operators and of the parameters of a strategy on its tracking performance. An approach that has proven useful in the past is to mathematically analyze the strategy's behavior in simple, idealized environments. The present paper investigates the performance of a multiparent evolution strategy that employs cumulative step length adaptation for an optimization task in which the target moves linearly with uniform speed. Scaling laws that quite accurately describe the behavior of the strategy and that greatly contribute to its understanding are derived. It is shown that in contrast to previously obtained results for a randomly moving target, cumulative step length adaptation fails to achieve optimal step lengths if the target moves in a linear fashion. Implications for the choice of population size parameters are discussed.

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

evolution strategies
cumulative step length adaptation
dynamic optimization

genetic and evolutionary computation
tracking problem


CONTROLLING GEOMETRIC PHASE IN DISSIPATIVE SYSTEM BY DIRECT FEEDBACK We calculate the geometric phase associated to a dissipative system which is influenced by system's state (feedback). The dependence of the geometric phase on the control feedback parameters is calculated and discussed. This direct feedback procedure can overcome spontaneous emission effect and generate a fluctuation on the geometric phase.

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

geometric phase
feedback
control
dissipative system


Concurrent design and evaluation based on structural optimization using structural and function-oriented elements at the conceptual design phase Computer-aided engineering (CAE) has been successfully used in mechanical industries such as automotive industries. CAE enables us to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical performances of products and to propose an effective way to improve their performances using optimization techniques without building physical prototypes. However, CAE tools are usually utilized not at the conceptual design phase, but at the evaluation phase following the detailed design phase. This is because current CAE tools require detailed design data that does not yet exist at the conceptual design phase, and such tools also inhibit the provision of useful design suggestions that, ideally, match the way of thinking and insight of design engineers. Thus, at present, no CAE tools exist that can assist the conceptual design decision making process of design engineers. On the other hand, conceptual design processes are of great significance when seeking to create innovative and high-performance products and to shorten their development time. In order to fulfill the designer's needs during the conceptual design phase, a new type of CAE method must be constructed, one that enables concurrent design support and evaluation, and fits the way design engineers think and explore design insights. This article presents a new structural optimization method that supports concurrent decision making so that design engineers can work to obtain innovative designs and evaluate the mechanical design details of mechanical structures at the conceptual design phase. This method is developed based on the concept of product-oriented analysis and discrete, function-oriented elements, such as beam and panel elements, since these can provide design suggestions concerning the structural evaluation of reasons as to why certain design ideas obtained are reasonable or optimal in the design sense. The basic ideas and specifications needed to construct the method are explained and the construction of the structural optimization design method is discussed. The optimization algorithm is developed using the ground structure approach and CONLIN sequential convex programming. The examples provided demonstrate the utility of the proposed methodology for supporting design engineers' concurrent decision making, so that innovative mechanical designs can be evaluated at the conceptual design phase.

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

conceptual design
structural optimization

decision support system
computer-aided engineering
structural analysis
topology optimization
computer-aided design


Real-time merging traffic control with applications to toll plaza and work zone management There is a number of highway transportation infrastructures where traffic flow arriving on a higher number of lanes must merge into a lower number of lanes within a limited space, e.g., merging highways, merging on-ramps, toll plazas, work zones. When the arriving traffic flow exceeds the downstream capacity, congestion is formed, and the outflow is reduced due to the congestion-induced capacity drop. A general conceptual framework for real-time merging traffic control is developed in the paper, aiming at throughput maximization or, equivalently, delay minimization. To this end, an algorithm known from local ramp metering operations is employed (ALINEA). The proposed framework is applied to new and innovative traffic control applications for real-time toll plaza and work zone management. Microscopic simulation results demonstrate the potentially achievable benefits. Further significant applications of the developed concept are outlined.

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

merging traffic control
alinea
work zone management

toll plaza management
bottleneck control


Safety assessment of AltaRica models via symbolic model checking AltaRica is a language used to describe safety critical systems that has become a de-facto European industrial standard for Model-Based Safety Assessment (MBSA). However, even the most mature tool for the support for MBSA of AltaRica models, i.e. Dassault's OCAS, has several limitations. The most important ones are its inability to perform many analyses exhaustively, severe scalability issues, and the lack of model checking techniques for temporal properties. In this paper we present a novel approach for the analysis of AltaRica models, based on a translation into an extended version of the model checker NuSMV. The translation relies on a novel formal characterization of the Dataflow dialect of AltaRica used in OCAS. The translation is formally defined, and its correctness is proved. Based on this formal characterization, a toolset has been developed and integrated within OCAS, thus enabling functional verification and safety assessment with the state of the art techniques of NuSMV. The whole approach is validated by an experimental evaluation on a set of industrial case studies, which demonstrates the advantages of the proposed technique over the currently available tools.

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

model checking
safety assessment
altarica


Improvement sets and vector optimization ? In this paper we focus on minimal points in linear spaces and minimal solutions of vector optimization problems, where the preference relation is defined via an improvement set E. To be precise, we extend the notion of E-optimal point due to Chicco et al. in [4] to a general (non-necessarily Pareto) quasi ordered linear space and we study its properties. In particular, we relate the notion of improvement set with other similar concepts of the literature and we characterize it by means of sublevel sets of scalar functions. Moreover, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for E-optimal solutions of vector optimization problems through scalarization processes by assuming convexity assumptions and also in the general (nonconvex) case. By applying the obtained results to certain improvement sets we generalize well-known results of the literature referred to efficient, weak efficient and approximate efficient solutions of vector optimization problems.

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

improvement set
vector optimization
scalarization


Handwritten address interpretation: A task of many pattern recognition problems A gradation of pattern discrimination problems is encountered in interpreting handwritten postal addresses. There are several multiclass discrimination problems, including handwritten numeral recognition with 10 classes, alphanumeral recognition with 36 classes, and touching-digit pair recognition with 100 classes. Word recognition with a lexicon is a problem where the number of classes varies from a few to about a thousand. Some of the discrimination techniques, particularly those with few classes, lend themselves well to neural network classification, while others are better handled by Bayesian polynomial and nearest-neighbor methods. This paper describes each of the discrimination problems and the performances of each of the subsystems in a handwritten address interpretation system developed at CEDAR.

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

character recognition
handwriting recognition


An efficient algorithm for solving fifth-order boundary value problems In this paper, we apply the homotopy perturbation method for solving the fifth-order boundary value problems. The analytical results of the equations have been obtained in terms of convergent series with easily computable components. Several examples are given to illustrate the efficiency and implementation of the homotopy perturbation method. Comparisons are made to confirm the reliability of the method. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

homotopy perturbation
boundary value problems

nonlinear problems
integral equations
comparison


A new morphology method for enhancing power quality monitoring system By means of mathematical morphology (MM), power quality monitoring systems can detect disturbances very soon. However, the signal under investigation is often corrupted by noises, and the performance of the MM would be greatly degraded. This paper proposed a new fast approach to detection of transient disturbances in a noisy environment. In the proposed approach, the appropriate morphologic structure element, new proper combination of the erosion and the dilation morphologic operators can enhance the MMs capability. Furthermore, the soft-threshold de-noising method based on the wavelet transform (WT) was used for reference. In this way, the abilities of the MM can hence be restored. This method possesses the following advantages: high calculation speed, easy implementation of hardware and better use value. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by the results of the simulation and the actual field tests.

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

power quality
mathematical morphology
wavelet transform


Pinning exponential synchronization of complex networks via event-triggered communication with combinational measurements Two novel event-triggered control strategies are proposed for pinning synchronization of complex networks. The convergence rates for complex networks under such two event-triggered control strategies are estimated. The proposed event-triggered control strategies are proved to be Zeno-free.

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

event-triggered synchronization
pinning control
combinational measurement
convergence rate


Collective spectral pattern complexity analysis of voicing in normal males and larynx cancer patients following radiotherapy Normal male voicing is defined, and voicing recovery after radiotherapy for larynx cancer quantified, using spectral domain complexity analysis of electro-glottogram conductance variations measured across the larynx during vowel phonation. These variations directly correlate with vocal fold vibrations that drive voice production. Approximate entropy is shown to concisely quantify the collective spectral pattern of the sustained impedance waveform after normalisation with respect to the varying fundamental frequency and power. It reveals a double banded reference standard in normal males. Forty-eight male larynx cancer patients were studied in parallel with an unrestricted perceptual analysis before and 1 year after radiotherapy. Two-thirds of patients had spectral approximate entropy values close to normal approximate entropy reference standards after 1 year. A quarter of patients showed reduced approximate entropy, predominantly in the most aberrant perceptual categories. Collective spectral pattern complexity analysis of vowel phonation has the potential to be a reliable, single parameter measure of voicing quality in these cancer patients.

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


audio-based methods for navigating and browsing educational multimedia documents We present several approaches to audio-centered browsing and navigation of multimedia documents in educational contexts. Such methods are required when the purely visual information is not sufficient to locate parts of interest within a document because the dominant information is contained in the audio stream, as is often the case in recorded talks or presentations. Reference implementations as well as an integration of selected approaches in a state-of-the-art lecture player are demonstrated.

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


Deterministic 7/8-approximation for the metric maximum TSP We present the first 7/8-approximation algorithm for the maximum Traveling Salesman Problem (MAX-TSP) with triangle inequality. Our algorithm is deterministic. This improves over both the randomized algorithm of Hassin and Rubinstein [R. Hassin, S. Rubinstein, A 7/8-approximation algorithm for metric Max TSP, Inf Process. Lett. 81 (5) (2002) 247-251] with an expected approximation ratio of 7/8 - O(n(-1/2)) and the deterministic (7/8 - O(n(-1/3)))-approximation algorithm of Chen and Nagoya [Z.-Z. Chen, T. Nagoya, Improved approximation algorithms for metric max TSP, in: Proc. ESA'05, 2005, pp. 179-190]. In the new algorithm, we extend the approach of processing local configurations using the so-called loose-ends. which we introduced in [L Kowalik, M. Mucha, 35/44-approximation for asymmetric maximum TSP with triangle inequality, in: Proc. 10th Workshop on Algorithms and Data Structures, WADS'07, 2007, pp. 590-601]. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 traveling salesman problem
deterministic algorithm


The degree resistance distance of cacti Graph invariants, based on the distances between the vertices of a graph, are widely used in theoretical chemistry. The degree resistance distance of a graph G G is defined as DR(G)=?{u,v}?V(G)[d(u)+d(v)]R(u,v) D R ( G ) = ? { u , v } ? V ( G ) [ d ( u ) + d ( v ) ] R ( u , v ) , where d(u) d ( u ) is the degree of the vertex u u , and R(u,v) R ( u , v ) the resistance distance between the vertices u u and v v . Let Cact(n;t) C a c t ( n ; t ) be the set of all cacti possessing n n vertices and t t cycles. The elements of Cact(n;t) C a c t ( n ; t ) with minimum degree resistance distance are characterized.

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


Loafing in the digital age: The role of computer mediated communication in the relation between perceived loafing and group affective outcomes Lo-fi (chat) virtual teams show less work satisfaction than collocated groups. Perceived co-worker loafing negatively predicts satisfaction with the work process. Perceived co-worker loafing negatively predicts satisfaction with the work results. Perceived co-worker loafing negatively predicts group cohesion. The negative effect of co-worker loafing is stronger in lo-fi (chat) virtual work.

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

virtual teams
perceived loafing
work satisfaction


A new class of sequential circuits with combinational test generation complexity We introduce a new class of sequential circuits with combinational test generation complexity which we call internally balanced structures. It is shown that sequential circuits can be classified by their structure as follows: {sequential circuits of acyclic structure} superset of {sequential circuits of internally balanced structure} superset of {sequential circuits of balanced structure} and that internally balanced structures allow test generation with combinational test generation complexity. On the other hand, if finite state machines (FSMs) are classified by their realization possibility, it can be shown that {FSMs which can be realized as a sequential circuit of acyclic structure} = {FSMs which can be realized as a sequential circuit of internally balanced structure} superset of {FSMs which can be realized as a sequential circuit of balanced structure}. Hence, any FSM realizable with acyclic structure can be also realized with internally balanced structure which allows test generation with combinational test generation complexity. In addition, we discuss the definition of test generation possibility with combinational test generation complexity and introduce a new definition which covers the previous narrow definition. Finally, we study applications to design for testability based on the partial scan and to test generation time reduction for sequential circuits in general, using characteristics of the internally balanced structures. The experimental results shows the effectiveness of this approach.

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

balanced structure
complexity
design for testability
partial scan
sequential circuits
test generation


The usability of videophones for seniors and hospice providers: a brief report of two studies ? This article uses a human factors evaluation framework to assess the usability of commercially available videophone technology. One study focuses on minimally functionally impaired seniors living in an assisted living facility. The second study focuses on usability for hospice staff. Seniors found the technology easy to use and were willing to accept the equipment in their homes, especially if requested by a healthcare provider. Administrators and hospice care providers also reported that the videophones were easy to use and would be of benefit to the patients they care for. The results indicate that videophones are a promising intervention with identifiable limitations.

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

usability seniors videophones hospice technology

telemedicine
telehospice
human factors model


An effective GRASP and tabu search for the 0-1 quadratic knapsack problem As a generalization of the classical 0-1 knapsack problem, the 0-1 Quadratic Knapsack Problem (QKP) that maximizes a quadratic objective function subject to a linear capacity constraint is NP-hard in strong sense. In this paper, we propose a memory based Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedures (GRASP) and a tabu search algorithm to find near optimal solution for the QKP. Computational experiments on benchmarks and on randomly generated instances demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed algorithms, which outperforms the current state-of-the-art heuristic Mini-Swarm in computational time and in the probability to achieve optimal solutions. Numerical results on large-sized instances with up to 2000 binary variables have also been reported. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

0-1 quadratic knapsack problem
meta-heuristic


Real-time video event detection in crowded scenes using MPEG derived features: A multiple instance learning approach ? Investigate multiple instance learning and motion features for event detection. A novel trajectory feature descriptor from the MPEG domain is proposed. A novel multiple instance learning approach using sparse approximation is proposed. Real time performance is achieved.

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

event detection
multiple instance learning
mpeg domain
sparse approximation


Envisioning e-logistics developments: Making spare parts in situ and on demand - State of the art and guidelines for future developments The work aims at thinking over a concept of spare parts manufacturing on request and in a short time. This concept will concern 'isolated systems' in which the part supplying is made difficult because of the specific environment which is not really adapted and for which the storage of spare parts implies space constraints incompatible with the size of such systems. The quick spare parts manufacturing is made possible by developing new quick manufacturing technologies about to be mature today and using e-maintenance supports. The implementation of those technologies allows reproducing the defective unit, which needs to be replaced in a short time and according to the requirements. (C) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

distant system
logistic support
e-maintenance


Process interoperability in healthcare systems with dynamic semantic web services Healthcare systems are very complex due to extreme heterogeneity in their data and processes. Researchers and practitioner need to make systems interoperable and integrate for the benefit of all the stakeholders including hospitals, clinicians, medical support staff, and patients. The broader goal of interoperability can only be achieved when standards are practiced.Two different healthcare systems can earn HL7 conformance and compliance but at the same time can be incompatible for interoperability because of varying implementation of HL7 interaction model. This is mainly because workflows in healthcare systems are very complex. Interoperability on one hand requires flexible mechanism for the mapping of business processes to a standard, HL7 in our example. On the other hand it requires deeper understanding of the standard interaction model and gaps created by their incompatible implementations. In this paper we propose a novel technique of dynamically creating semantic web services as overlay on top of the existing services. We used Web Service Modeling Framework as an underlying architecture for HL7 process artifacts implementation as semantic web services. These semantic services are mapped to our proposed interaction ontology. Integrated reasoning mechanism provides necessary execution semantics for more effective and seamless end-to-end communication.The prototype we tested on different processes from the laboratory domain at a local diagnostic laboratory with uninterrupted process flow. The scenario of Result Query Placer interaction flow and its associated process artifacts are executed for the proof of concept.The proposed solution complements the existing data interoperability in HL7 and leads to semantic process interoperability. The achievement of semantic interoperability results in timely delivery of healthcare services to patients saving precious lives.

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

interoperability
ontology
hl7
web services

68q55 [computer science]: theory of computing: semantics


A New Prediction Algorithm for Embedded Real-Time Applications In this research a new prediction algorithm based on a Fuzzy Mix of Filters (FMF) is developed. The use of a fuzzy mix is a good solution because it makes intuitive the difficult design task of combining several types of filters, so that the outputs of the filters that work closer to their optimal behavior have higher influence in the predicted values. Therefore the FMF adapts, according to the motion of the tracked object or target, the filter weights to reduce the estimation error. The paper develops the theory about the FMF and uses it for applications with hard real-time requirements. The improvement of the proposed FMF is shown in simulation and an implementation on a parallel processor (FPGA) is presented. As a practical application of the FMF, experimental results are provided for a visual servoing task.

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


EVEN PERIODIC AND ODD PERIODIC COMPLEMENTARY SEQUENCE PAIRS FROM GENERALIZED BOOLEAN FUNCTIONS A pair of two sequences is called the even periodic (odd periodic) complementary sequence pair if the sum of their even periodic (odd periodic) correlation function is a delta function. The well-known Golay aperiodic complementary sequence pair (Golay pair) is a special case of even periodic (odd periodic) complementary sequence pair. In this paper, we presented several classes of even periodic and odd periodic complementary pairs based on the generalized Boolean functions, but which do not form Gloay pairs. The proposed sequences could be used to design signal sets, which have been applied in direct sequence code division multiple (DS-CDMA) cellular communication systems.

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

odd periodic complementary sequence pair

even periodic complementary sequence pair


Neural network modeling for near wall turbulent flow A neural network methodology is developed in order to reconstruct the near wall field in a turbulent flow by exploiting flow fields provided by direct numerical simulations. The results obtained from the neural network methodology are compared with the results obtained from prediction and reconstruction using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Using the property that the POD is equivalent to a specific linear neural network, a nonlinear neural network extension is presented. It is shown that for a relatively small additional computational cost nonlinear neural networks provide us with improved reconstruction and prediction capabilities for the near wall velocity fields. Based on these results advantages and drawbacks of both approaches are discussed with an outlook toward the development of near wall models for turbulence modeling and control. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

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

turbulent flows
machine learning
adaptive systems


a framework for building reality-based interfaces for wireless-grid applications The pervasive adoption of wireless technologies is creating a growing demand for seamless interaction with wireless services. By sharing resources across devices such as PDA's, sensors and cameras, Wireless Grids provide the opportunity to allow users seamless access to services via a new generation of user interfaces. These interfaces draw upon users existing skills of interaction with objects in the real physical world thus, we refer to them as reality-based interfaces. Although these interfaces offer the promise of ease of use, they are currently more difficult to build than traditional ones. The aim of this research is to simplify the task of developing reality-based interfaces and adapting them to a changing landscape of resources. This goal will be accomplished by providing developers with a high level user interface description language (UIDL) and a user interface management system (UIMS) which describes and enables to develop these interfaces given the uncertainty of the input-output devices they will employ.

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

user interface management system (uims)
reality-based interaction


Performance of Planning Support Systems: What is it, and how do we report on it? Planning Support Systems (PSSs) are a family of computer based instruments specifically designed to support actors in their complex tasks in the field of planning. There is a gap between the high expectations that PSS developers have about the usefulness of their instruments and the instruments application in daily planning practice. PSS academics have proposed several ways to close this so-called implementation gap through a range of software, hardware and orgware approaches. Several of these approaches have been applied in practical planning settings. There is however a lack of consistent and structured reporting on the effectiveness of these approaches in improving PSS performance. Therefore, it is hard to distinguish between successful and less successful strategies, and it is difficult to draw overall lessons. This paper (1) proposes a comprehensive multidimensional framework that operationalizes PSS performance, and (2) analyses how recent PSS implementation studies have reported on this performance. The developed framework, based on literature from Group Model Building and group psychology, is sensitive to a wide variety of performance dimensions and therefore forms a useful guideline for assessing PSS implementation strategies. Studying these in a common framework supports the potential transfer of lessons to other PSS implementations. Most of the analyzed studies only posed hypotheses about which dimensions are improved through a specific strategy, but did not report on measuring impacts. By structurally measuring the effectiveness of a range of strategies to improve PSS implementation, lessons can be exchanged and a consistent body of knowledge can be built.

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

usability
strategy making
planning process performance
metastudy


A genetic algorithm for the two-dimensional strip packing problem with rectangular pieces Given a set of rectangular pieces and a container of fixed width and variable length, the two-dimensional strip packing problem (2D-SPP) consists of orthogonally placing all the pieces within the container, without overlapping, such that the overall length of the layout is minimised. Until now mainly heuristics, for example genetic algorithms (GA), were proposed for the 2D-SPP which use encoded solutions that are manipulated by standard operators. In this paper a GA for the 2D-SPP is suggested that works without any encoding of solutions. Rather fully defined layouts are manipulated as such by means of specific genetic operators. Two additional constraints, namely the orientation constraint and the guillotine constraint, can be taken into account. The GA is subjected to a comprehensive test using benchmark instances with up to 5000 pieces. Compared to eleven competing methods from the literature the GA performs best.

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

packing
rectangular pieces
genetic algorithm


Passive dynamic walker controller design employing an RLS-based natural actor-critic learning algorithm A passive dynamic walker belongs to a class of bipedal walking robots that are able to walk stably down a small decline without using any actuators. The purpose of this research is to design a controller in order to build actuated robots capable of walking on a flat terrain based on passive dynamic walking. To achieve this objective, a control algorithm was used based on reinforcement learning (RL). The RL method is a goal-directed learning of a mapping from Situations to actions without relying on exemplary supervision or complete models of the environment. The goal of the RL method is to maximize a reward, which is an evaluative feedback from the environment. In the process of constructing the reward of the actuated passive dynamic walker, the control objective, which is stable walking on level ground. is directly included. In this study, an RL algorithm based on the actor-critic architecture and the natural gradient method is applied. Also. the recursive least-squares (RLS) method was employed for the learning process in order to improve the efficiency of the method. The control algorithm was verified With computer simulations based on the eigenvalue analysis for stable locomotion. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

reinforcement learning (rl)
actor-critic architecture
recursive least-squares (rls)