Y-rotation in k-minimal quadrangulations on the projective plane Let G be a quadrangulation on a surface, and let f be a face bounded by a 4-cycle abcd. A face-contraction of f is to identify a and c (or b and d) to eliminate f. We say that a simple quadrangulation G on the surface is k-minimal if the length of a shortest essential cycle is k(?3), but any face-contraction in G breaks this property or the simplicity of the graph. In this article, we shall prove that for any fixed integer k?3, any two k-minimal quadrangulations on the projective plane can be transformed into each other by a sequence of Y-rotations of vertices of degree 3, where a Y-rotation of a vertex v of degree 3 is to remove three edges vv1, vv3, vv5 in the hexagonal region consisting of three quadrilateral faces vv1v2v3, vv3v4v5, and vv5v6v1, and to add three edges vv2, vv4, vv6. Actually, every k-minimal quadrangulation (k?4) can be reduced to a (k?1)-minimal quadrangulation by the operation called Mbius contraction, which is mentioned in Lemma 13. 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 69: 301313, 2012

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


Application of a modified fuzzy ARTMAP with feature-weight learning for the fault diagnosis of bearing Considering different importance of the feature parameters to the fault conditions of bearing, a modified fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) network model based on the feature-weight learning is presented in this paper. The features in time-domain, frequency-domain and wavelet-domain are extracted from the vibration signals to characterize the information relevant to the fault conditions of bearing. By the improved distance evaluation technique the optimal features are selected and the corresponding feature-weights which are assigned to the features to indicate their different importance to the fault conditions of bearing are obtained. Then they are combined with the modified FAM which is described by the weighted Manhattan distance and applied to the seven-class fault diagnosis of bearing. To assess the effectiveness and stability of the modified FAM network, bootstrapping method is employed to quantify the stability of the network performance statistically. Diagnosis results show that the modified FAM can more reliably and accurately recognize different fault classes.

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

modified fuzzy artmap
improved distance evaluation technique
bootstrapping
fault diagnosis


a c-based synthesis system, bach, and its application (invited talk) In system LSI design, a desirable system is one that allows the designer to describe, partition, and verify systems, and to generate circuits efficiently. In this paper, we describe a C-based system LSI design system called Bach which we have developed. Using the example of an MEPG-4 video codec design, we summarize its design flow, effects and current issues.

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

codec flow partition video synthesis paper systems design circuits

summarization applications examples effect


power consumption evaluation in a wireless man using cooperative diversity when both sources and relays are randomly located Most previous work on cooperative cellular networks has considered homogeneous relaying architectures where all nodes act as both sources and relays or considered heterogeneous relaying architecture where relays are fixed. In this paper, we examine the power consumption performance of heterogeneous cooperative cellular networks with two classes of nodes: source nodes (subscriber stations, SS's) that do not act as relays, and relaying agents (relays station, RS) that are dedicated to relaying functions with little concern about power consumption. In this architecture, source nodes are able to reap the benefits of cooperative communication, such as improvements in the achievable data rate and reductions in the transmit power, while reducing the overall power consumption since they do not act as a relay. We consider a geometry of a cell. Then we consider random locations of SS and RS, respectively, to analyze the average power consumption over the region of interest under the assumption that the SS and RS are distributed uniformly over the cell region.

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

cooperative cellular network
energy efficiency


Long-term information collection with energy harvesting wireless sensors: a multi-armed bandit based approach This paper reports on the development of a multi-agent approach to long-term information collection in networks of energy harvesting wireless sensors. In particular, we focus on developing energy management and data routing policies that adapt their behaviour according to the energy that is harvested, in order to maximise the amount of information collected given the available energy budget. In so doing, we introduce a new energy management technique, based on multi-armed bandit learning, that allows each agent to adaptively allocate its energy budget across the tasks of data sampling, receiving and transmitting. By using this approach, each agent can learn the optimal energy budget settings that give it efficient information collection in the long run. Then, we propose two novel decentralised multi-hop algorithms for data routing. The first proveably maximises the information throughput in the network, but can sometimes involve high communication cost. The second algorithm provides near-optimal performance, but with reduced computational and communication costs. Finally, we demonstrate that, by using our approaches for energy management and routing, we can achieve a 120% improvement in long-term information collection against state-of-the-art benchmarks.

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

information collection
energy management

multi-armed bandit based learning
wireless sensor networks
longterm performance
optimal data routing


Decomposable algorithms for nearest neighbor computing Privacy and security concerns can prevent sharing of data, derailing many data projects. Distributed knowledge computing, if done correctly, can alleviate this problem. The key is to obtain valid results, while providing guarantees on the (non)disclosure of data. In the present study, two novel algorithms have been developed to find the nearest neighbor from known points, and a pair of nearest neighbors in a given set data points in d d -dimensional space in distributed databases. These algorithms preserve the privacy and security of the data at individual sites by requiring transmission of only minimal information to other sites.

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

decomposable algorithms
distributed databases
nearest neighbor

nearest pair
vertically and horizontally partitioned
stationary agents
mobile agents


FSVM-CIL: Fuzzy Support Vector Machines for Class Imbalance Learning Support vector machines (SVMs) is a popular machine learning technique, which works effectively with balanced datasets. However, when it comes to imbalanced datasets, SVMs produce suboptimal classification models. On the other hand, the SVM algorithm is sensitive to outliers and noise present in the datasets. Therefore, although the existing class imbalance learning (CIL) methods can make SVMs less sensitive to class imbalance, they can still suffer from the problem of outliers and noise. Fuzzy SVMs (FSVMs) is a variant of the SVM algorithm, which has been proposed to handle the problem of outliers and noise. In FSVMs, training examples are assigned different fuzzy-membership values based on their importance, and these membership values are incorporated into the SVM learning algorithm to make it less sensitive to outliers and noise. However, like the normal SVM algorithm, FSVMs can also suffer from the problem of class imbalance. In this paper, we present a method to improve FSVMs for CIL (called FSVM-CIL), which can be used to handle the class imbalance problem in the presence of outliers and noise. We thoroughly evaluated the proposed FSVM-CIL method on ten real-world imbalanced datasets and compared its performance with five existing CIL methods, which are available for normal SVM training. Based on the overall results, we can conclude that the proposed FSVM-CIL method is a very effective method for CIL, especially in the presence of outliers and noise in datasets.

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

class imbalance learning (cil)
fuzzy support vector machines (fsvms)
support vector machines (svms)


On solving the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem via beam search ? Certain types of manufacturing processes can be modelled by assembly line balancing problems. In this work we deal with a specific assembly line balancing problem that is known as the assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem (ALWABP). This problem appears in settings where tasks must be assigned to workers, and workers to work stations. Task processing times are worker specific, and workers might even be incompatible with certain tasks. The ALWABP was introduced to model assembly lines typical for sheltered work centers for the Disabled. In this paper we introduce an algorithm based on beam search for solving the ALWABP with the objective of minimizing the cycle time when given a fixed number of work stations, respectively, workers. This problem version is denoted as ALWABP-2. The experimental results show that our algorithm is currently a state-of-the-art method for the ALWABP-2. In comparison to results from the literature, our algorithm obtains better or equal results in all cases. Moreover, the algorithm is very robust for what concerns the application to problem instances of different characteristics.

O O O B I I I 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 B I 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 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


predicting successful completion of online collaborative animation projects Online creative collaboration projects are started every day, but many fail to produce new artifacts of value. In this poster, we address the question of why some of these projects succeed and others fail. Our quantitative analysis of 892 online collaborative animation projects, or "collabs," indicates that the early presence of organizational and structural elements, particularly those of a technical nature, can predict successful completion.

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

social computing
predicting success
online communities
leadership


Channel capacity of OFDM systems employing diversity in fading environments This paper derives capacity of a fading channel with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission employing diversity techniques and adaptive policies involving (i) power and rate, (ii) optimal rate and (iii) channel inversion with fixed rate. Two major diversity techniques are considered (i) maximal ratio combining (MRC) and (ii) selective combining (SC). Closed-form expressions and/or bounds on various channel capacity with OFDM transmission under different scenarios are derived. Simulation results are given. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

adaptive policies
capacity
diversity
maximal ratio combining
ofdm
selective combining


A GENERALIZED INSERTION ALGORITHM FOR THE SERIATION PROBLEM Given a binary matrix E, the Seriation Problem consists of determining a permutation of the rows of E minimizing the sum over all columns of the differences between the last and first nonzero element. This problem is derived from an archaeological context, but has applications in several other fields. We present a new generalized insertion heuristic for this problem. The proposed heuristic outperforms other methods on a series of benchmark problems.

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


interactive anonymization of sensitive data There has been much recent work on algorithms for limiting disclosure in data publishing, however they have not been put to use in any toolkit for practicioners. We will demonstrate CAT, the Cornell Anonymization Toolkit, designed for interactive anonymization. CAT has an interface that is easy to use; it guides users through the process of preparing a dataset for publication while limiting disclosure through the identification of records that have high risk under various attacker models.

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


A fully conservative second-order finite difference scheme for incompressible flow on nonuniform grids A second-order-accurate finite difference discretization of the incompressible Navier-Stokes is presented that discretely conserves mass, momentum, and kinetic energy (in the inviscid limit) in space and time. The method is thus completely free of numerical dissipation and potentially well suited to the direct numerical simulation or large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow. The method uses a staggered arrangement of velocity and pressure on a structured Cartesian grid and retains its discrete conservation properties for both uniform and nonuniform gird spacing. The predicted conservation properties are confirmed by inviscid simulations on both uniform and nonuniform grids. The capability of the method to resolve turbulent flow is demonstrated by repeating the turbulent channel flow simulations of H. Choi and P. Moin (1994, J. Comput. Phys. 113, 1), where the effect of computational time step on the computed turbulence was investigated. The present fully conservative scheme achieved turbulent flow solutions over the entire range of computational time steps investigated (Deltat(+) = Deltatu(tau)(2/v)) = 0.4 to 5.0). Little variation in statistical turbulence quantities was observed up to Deltat(+) = 1.6. The present results differ significantly from those reported by Choi and Moin, who observed significant discrepancies in the turbulence statistics above Deltat(+) = 0.4 and the complete laminarization of the flow at and above Deltat(+) = 1.6. (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 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 O O O O O O O


Clustering-oriented privacy-preserving data publishing Privacy-preserving data publishing has attracted considerable research interests in recent years. One of the problems in such practices is how to trade-off between data utility and privacy protection. This problem heavily deteriorates when the published data are used to do cluster analysis; clustering demands differences between singles for grouping while privacy preserving aims to hide single identifications. In this paper, a mixed mode data obfuscation method AENDO is proposed, which provides a tradeoff strategy from a novel view. The underlying principle is to keep nearest neighborhood structures of data points while data are obfuscated. In particular, for each data point, AENDO differentiates its attributes into neighboring dispersed attributes and neighboring concentrated ones. Furthermore, pertinent statistical data substitution and data swapping strategies are applied to these attributes, respectively. An extensive set of experiments on UCI data sets are provided to assess the effectiveness of our solution, including comparing AENDO with RBT which is one of the best methods on maintaining data usability for clustering. Our results demonstrate that AENDO behaves similarly with RBT on maintaining data utility for clustering, while it outperforms NeNDS by a factor of approximate 10%. Meanwhile, it delivers better anti-inferring effect compared with RBT and NeNDS.

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

neighboring dispersed attribute
neighboring concentrated attribute
k nearest neighborhood
entropy


Programming through spreadsheets and tabular abstractions The spreadsheet metaphor has, over the years, proved itself valuable for the definition and use of computations by non-programmers. However, the computation model adopted in commercial spreadsheets is still limited to non-recursive computations and lacks abstraction mechanisms that would provide modularization and better reuse ( beyond copy and paste). We investigate these problems by identifying a minimal set of requirements for recursive computations, designing a spreadsheet-based language with an abstraction definition mechanism, prototyping an interpreter and evaluating it with examples.

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

spreadsheet languages
end-user programming
call-by-need
lazy structures
recursion


Toll-like Receptors in Multiple Sclerosis Mouse Experimental Models Certain pathogen molecules trigger innate immune responses and drive subsequent adaptive immune responses toward an antigen presented simultaneously. Such bacterial or viral molecules constitute pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that bind to pattern-recognition receptors such as toll-like receptors (TLRs). Recently, endogenous molecules were identified that ligate the same receptors. The role of these receptors' response to complete Freund's adjuvant during initiation of CD4 T cell responses in EAE, the animal model for multiple sclerosis, is here discussed. Myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88) is necessary for the induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), and it is required for the activation of myeloid dendritic cells and differentiation of T helper 17 cells. The role of individual TLR, in particular TLR3, TLR4, and TLR9, signaling in modulation of EAE inflammation varies with the experimental model employed and the immune cells that drive pathology. The TLR-dependent production of proinflammatory cytokines is regulated by mechanisms that dampen the pathway and prevent excess damage. Development of TLR antagonists to treat autoimmune diseases must acknowledge the possibility of interference with regulatory mechanisms.

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


A standardized method for measuring the force required to join wire harnesses and sparkplugs Understanding the forces required to insert a sparkplug wire (wire) onto a sparkplug (plug), independent of worker variation, is important for ergonomists, engineers, and designers. This paper describes a methodology for measuring the forces required to seat a wire onto a plug. A three-axis programmable mill was used to insert wires onto plugs mounted on a force transducer. Inflection points and slopes of the forcedisplacement curves were found to correspond to mechanical events as the plug and wire were joined. These events were further isolated by dissecting the wires to better understand the force contribution of each wire component. Liner superposition was then used to show that each of these force elements may be added to estimate the total force required to seat a wire onto a plug. This methodology may be used to quantify the effects of design choices, lubricants (wet and dry), and pre-working on axial insertion forces associated with sparkplugs and other insertions. This paper does not address worker abilities or variation, however, the methodology and equipment described may provide a foundation for the exploration of worker ability, variation and work techniques.

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


making tuple spaces physical with rfid tags In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a tuple-based distributed memory realized with the use of RFID technology. The key idea - rooted in a more general scenario of pervasive and mobile computing - is that our everyday environments will be soon pervaded by RFID-tagged objects. By accessing in a wireless way the re-writable memory of such RFID tags according to a tuple-based access model, it is possible to enforce mobile and pervasive coordination and improve our interactions with the physical world. An application example is presented to outline the potential of the approach.

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

tuple-based coordination
pervasive computing


Existence results and numerical simulation of magnetohydrodynamic viscous flow over a shrinking sheet with suction This paper presents an analysis and a semi-analytical study of the boundary value problem resulting from a self-similar transformation of the partial differential equations governing the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) viscous flow due to a shrinking sheet with suction. Existence of a solution is shown using the fixed point argument and the boundary value problem is solved. Galerkin-Legendre spectral method with domain truncation is used to obtain approximate analytical solutions. The approximate solutions computed confirm the theoretical analysis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

boundary layer
mhd flow
schauder theory
galerkin-legendre spectral method


Three-dimensional dynamic analysis for bridge-vehicle interaction with roadway roughness fA three-dimensional means of analysis is proposed for the bridge-vehicle interaction to investigate the dynamic responses of a steel girder bridge and vehicles. The governing equations of motion for a three-dimensional bridge-vehicle interaction system taking the roadway surface into account are derived using the Lagrange equation of motion while the coupled bridge-vehicle interaction system is solved using Newmark's beta method. A cargo truck, dump truck and steel girder bridge are considered numerical models and measured roadway roughness profiles are used for analyses. The analytical dynamic wheel loads and acceleration responses of the heavy vehicles and responses of the bridge are compared with data from field tests to verify the validity of the proposed procedure. The correlation between the analytical and experimental results is satisfactory. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

bridge-vehicle interaction
dynamic wheel load
field test
three-dimensional dynamic analysis
traffic-induced vibration of bridge


Towards topological analysis of high-dimensional feature spaces Algorithms in Computational topology. Topological analysis of feature spaces using persistent homology. Application in text-mining: texts represented within a vector space model. Application in pattern-recognition: topology of labeled images. Multidimensional extensions of similarity measures.

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

computational topology
persistent homology


A coupled cavity micro-fluidic dye ring laser We present a laterally emitting, coupled cavity micro-fluidic dye ring laser, suitable for integration into lab-on-a-chip micro-systems. The micro-fluidic laser has been successfully designed, fabricated, characterized and modelled. The resonator is formed by a micro-fluidic channel bounded by two isosceles triangle mirrors. The micro-fluidic laser structure is defined using photo lithography in 10?m thick SU-8 polymer on a glass substrate. The micro-fluidic channel is sealed by a glass lid, using PMMA adhesive bonding. The laser is characterized using the laser dye Rhodamine 6G dissolved in ethanol or ethylene glycol as the active gain medium, which is pumped through the micro-fluidic channel and laser resonator. The dye laser is optically pumped normal to the chip plane at 532 nm by a pulsed, frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser and lasing is observed with a threshold pump pulse energy flux of around 55?J/mm2. The lasing is multi-mode, and the laser has switchable output coupling into an integrated polymer planar waveguide. Tuning of the lasing wavelength is feasible by changing the dye/solvent properties.

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


Estimating Information from Image Colors: An Application to Digital Cameras and Natural Scenes The colors present in an image of a scene provide information about its constituent elements. But the amount of information depends on the imaging conditions and on how information is calculated. This work had two aims. The first was to derive explicitly estimators of the information available and the information retrieved from the color values at each point in images of a scene under different illuminations. The second was to apply these estimators to simulations of images obtained with five sets of sensors used in digital cameras and with the cone photoreceptors of the human eye. Estimates were obtained for 50 hyperspectral images of natural scenes under daylight illuminants with correlated color temperatures 4,000, 6,500, and 25,000 K. Depending on the sensor set, the mean estimated information available across images with the largest illumination difference varied from 15.5 to 18.0 bits and the mean estimated information retrieved after optimal linear processing varied from 13.2 to 15.5 bits (each about 85 percent of the corresponding information available). With the best sensor set, 390 percent more points could be identified per scene than with the worst. Capturing scene information from image colors depends crucially on the choice of camera sensors.

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 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

color vision
color information
digital color cameras
color processing
information theory
kth-nearest-neighbor statistics
color constancy


A fully resolved active musculo-mechanical model for esophageal transport Esophageal transport is a physiological process that mechanically transports an ingested food bolus from the pharynx to the stomach via the esophagus, a multi-layered muscular tube. This process involves interactions between the bolus, the esophagus, and the neurally coordinated activation of the esophageal muscles. In this work, we use an immersed boundary (IB) approach to simulate peristaltic transport in the esophagus. The bolus is treated as a viscous fluid that is actively transported by the muscular esophagus, and the esophagus is modeled as an actively contracting, fiber-reinforced tube. Before considering the full model of the esophagus, however, we first consider a standard benchmark problem of flow past a cylinder. Next a simplified version of our model is verified by comparison to an analytic solution to the tube dilation problem. Finally, three different complex models of the multi-layered esophagus, which differ in their activation patterns and the layouts of the mucosal layers, are extensively tested. To our knowledge, these simulations are the first of their kind to incorporate the bolus, the multi-layered esophagus tube, and muscle activation into an integrated model. Consistent with experimental observations, our simulations capture the pressure peak generated by the muscle activation pulse that travels along the bolus tail. These fully resolved simulations provide new insights into roles of the mucosal layers during bolus transport. In addition, the information on pressure and the kinematics of the esophageal wall resulting from the coordination of muscle activation is provided, which may help relate clinical data from manometry and ultrasound images to the underlying esophageal motor function.

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

fluidstructure interaction
immersed boundary method


Regularly irregular: how groups reconcile cross-cutting agendas and demand in healthcare The flow of technical work in acute healthcare varies unpredictably, in patterns that occur regularly enough that they can be managed. Acute care organizations develop ways to hedge resources so that they are available if they are needed. This pragmatic approach to the distribution of work among and across groups shows how rules can be used to manage a response to irregular demands for care. However, no rule set can be complete enough to cover this settings variety of care demands. Expertise is also needed to tie together the loose ends of conflicts that remain where rules no longer suffice. Many informal solutions to systemic problems go unnoticed unless they are the subjects of study. Naturalistic decision making (NDM) methods such as observational study, interviews, and process tracing reveal the activities of workers in their natural settings. Results of findings from such explorations of technical work can improve understanding of large scale work processes and, ultimately, patient safety. We have explored how practitioners cope with the demands that the system presents to them. While not all succeed, successful initiatives workers have developed demonstrate how their solutions create resilience at large scale.

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


Design of robust H? fault detection filter for uncertain time-delay systems using canonical form approach Problem of fault detection for uncertain time-delay systems is considered in this work. Firstly, uncertain time-delay system with delay in state, input and output is converted into delay-free system using canonical form transformation approach. Secondly, a fault detection scheme is devised for the delay-free system using H1 model matching approach, which is to be implemented on original time-delay system. Thirdly, To make the fault detection system more effcient adaptive threshold is also computed for the considered problem. Finally, simulation study is presented which shows the effectiveness of proposed framework for detection of faults in original time-delay system. Abrupt and incipient fault types are successfully detected using the proposed framework.

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

canonical form transformation
model matching

robust fault detection filter
state time-delay systems.


On Some Generalized Difference Sequence Spaces of Invariant Means Defined by a Sequence of Orlicz Functions The purpose of this paper is to introduce and study some sequence spaces which axe defined by combining the concepts of a sequence of Orlicz functions, invariant mean and lacunary convergence. We also examine some topological properties of these sequence spaces and establish some elemantary connections between them. These axe generalizations of those defined and studied by Savs and Rhoades [22] and Bataineh and Azar [2] and some others before.

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


On periodicity of generalized two-dimensional infinite words A generalized two-dimensional word is a function oil Z(2) with a finite number of values. The main problem we are interested in is periodicity of two-dimensional words satisfying some local conditions. Let A be a matrix of order n. The function phi : Z(2) -> R-n is a generalized centered function of radius r with the matrix A if Sigma(y is an element of z2:0 1 with a finite number of values is periodic. For r = 1 the existence of non-periodic generalized centered functions depends oil the spectrum of the matrix A. Similar results are obtained for the infinite triangular and hexagonal grids. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

bidimensional word
perfect coloring
equitable partition
nivat's conjecture


A flexible content repository to enable a peer-to-peer-based wiki Wikis-being major applications of the Web 2.0-are used for a large number of purposes, such as encyclopedias, project documentation, and coordination, both in open communities and in enterprises. At the application level, users are targeted as both consumers and producers of dynamic content. Yet, this kind of peer-to-peer (P2P) principle is not used at the technical level being still dominated by traditional client server architectures. What lacks is a generic platform that combines the scalability of the P2P approach with, for example, a wiki's requirements for consistent content management in a highly concurrent environment. This paper presents a flexible content repository system that is intended to close the gap by using a hybrid P2P overlay to support scalable, fault-tolerant, consistent, and efficient data operations for the dynamic content of wikis. On the one hand, this paper introduces the generic, overall architecture of the content repository. On the other hand, it describes the major building blocks to enable P2P data management at the system's persistent storage layer, and how these may be used to implement a P2P-based wiki application: (i) a P2P back-end administrates a wiki's actual content resources. (ii) On top, P2P service groups act as indexing groups to implement a wiki's search index. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


What is beautiful is usable An experiment was conducted to test the relationships between users' perceptions of a computerized system's beauty and usability. The experiment used a computerized application as a surrogate for an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Perceptions were elicited before and after the participants used the system. Pre-experimental measures indicate strong correlations between system's perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. Post-experimental measures indicated that the strong correlation remained intact. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that the degree of system's aesthetics affected the post-use perceptions of both aesthetics and usability, whereas the degree of actual usability had no such effect. The results resemble those found by social psychologists regarding the effect of physical attractiveness on the valuation of other personality attributes. The findings stress the importance of studying the aesthetic aspect of human-computer interaction (HCI) design and its relationships to other design dimensions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 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 B O B O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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
apparent usability
hci design considerations
hci perceptions


Implicit rule-based fuzzy-neural networks using the identification algorithm of GA hybrid scheme based on information granulation This paper proposes an identification method for nonlinear models realized in the form of implicit rule-based fuzzy-neural networks (FNN). The design of the model dwells on the technologies of computational intelligence (CI), namely fuzzy sets, neural networks, and genetic algorithm. The FNN modeling and identification environment realizes parameter estimation through a synergistic usage of clustering techniques, genetic optimization and a complex search method. An HCM (Hard C-Means) clustering algorithm helps determine an initial location (parameters) of the membership functions of the information granules to be used in this fuzzy model. The parameters such as apexes of membership functions, learning rates, and momentum coefficients are then adjusted using the optimization algorithm of a GA hybrid scheme. The proposed GA hybrid scheme combines GA with the improved complex method to guarantee both global optimization and local convergence. An aggregate objective function (performance index) is used in the model design in order to achieve a sound balance between its approximation and generalization abilities. The proposed type of the model is experimented with several time series data (gas furnace, sewage treatment process, and NOx emission process data of gas turbine power plant).

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

computational intelligence
ga hybrid scheme
genetic algorithm
improved complex method


on the modes and meaning of feedback to transaction designers An analysis of database transactions in the presence of database integrity constraints can lead to several modes of feedback to transaction designers. The different kinds of feedback include tests and updates that could be added to the transaction to make it obey the integrity constraints, as well as predicates representing post-conditions guaranteed by a transaction's execution. We discuss the various modes, meanings, and uses of feedback. We also discuss methods of generating feedback from integrity constraints, transaction details and theorems constituting both generic knowledge of database systems and specific knowledge about a particular database. Our methods are based on a running system that generates tailored theories about database systems from their schemas and uses these theories to prove that transactions obey integrity constraints.

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

systems analysis presence feedback knowledge transaction database generic

method
database system
mean
theory
schema
integrity constraint
update


Seizure-like afterdischarges simulated in a model neuron To explore non-synaptic mechanisms in paroxysmal discharges, we used a computer model of a simplified hippocampal pyramidal cell, surrounded by interstitial space and a glial-endothelial buffer system. Ion channels for Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Cl? , ion antiport 3Na/Ca, and active ion pumps were represented in the neuron membrane. The glia had leak conductances and an ion pump. Fluxes, concentration changes and cell swelling were computed. The neuron was stimulated by injecting current. Afterdischarge (AD) followed stimulation if depolarization due to rising interstitial K+ concentration ([K+]o) activated persistent Na+ current (I Na,P). AD was either simple or self-regenerating; either regular (tonic) or burst-type (clonic); and always self-limiting. Self-regenerating AD required sufficient I Na,P to ensure re-excitation. Burst firing depended on activation of dendritic Ca2+ currents and Ca-dependent K+ current. Varying glial buffer function influenced [K+]o accumulation and afterdischarge duration. Variations in Na+ and K+ currents influenced the threshold and the duration of AD. The data show that high [K+]o and intrinsic membrane currents can produce the feedback of self-regenerating afterdischarges without synaptic input. The simulated discharge resembles neuron behavior during paroxysmal firing in living brain tissue.

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

epilepsy
persistent current
ion distribution
potassium concentration
firing pattern


Application of the replacement method as novel variable selection in QSPR. 2. Soil sorption coefficients We predict the soil sorption coefficients of 163 non-ionic organic pesticides performing a QSPR treatment. A pool containing 1247 theoretical descriptors is explored simultaneously encoding different aspects of the topological, geometrical, and electronic molecular structure. The application of Forward Stepwise Regression, Genetic Algorithms and the Replacement Method leads to an optimal six-parameter equation characterized with R = 0.949 and that also exhibits good cross-validated predictive ability, R(1-25%-O) = 0.916. This model compares fairly well with a previously reported QSPR on the same data set with R=0.904. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Finite-Length Scaling for Iteratively Decoded LDPC Ensembles We investigate the behavior of iteratively decoded low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel in the so-called "waterfall region." We show that the performance curves in this region follow a simple scaling law. We conjecture that essentially the same scaling behavior applies in a much more general setting and we provide some empirical evidence to support this conjecture. The scaling law, together with the error floor expressions developed previously, can be used for a fast finite-length optimization.

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

density evolution
error probability curve
finite-length analysis
iterative decoding
low-density parity-check (ldpc) codes


African information revolution: a balance sheet This paper provides a policy and institutional framework to describe and analyze the diffusion of information technology and the global information revolution (IR) in Sub-Saharan Africa and the major factors that influence this diffusion. We begin by examining regional diffusion and find substantial cross-national diffusion differences across the continent, with considerable variation in regional diffusion of telephone, internet, radio, and television. This pattern undermines technologic and economic explanations as sole determinants of variation in diffusion. Then we conduct an analysis of the IR in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a policy framework. This framework identifies four key policy balances (1. public and private initiatives, 2. monopoly and competition markets, 3. domestic and foreign ownership or control, and 4. centralized and de-centralized administrative controls) as important elements to a better understanding of the diffusion of the IR. We find that a necessary condition for an explanation of the diffusion of the IR is a policy and institutional framework that incorporates these four balances.

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


A hybrid approach to fuzzy name search incorporating language-based and text-based principles Name Search is an important search function in various types of information retrieval systems, such as online library catalogs and electronic yellow pages. It is also difficult, because of the high degree of fuzziness required in matching name variants. Previous approaches to name search systems use ad hoc combinations of search heuristics. This paper first discusses two approaches to name modeling - the natural language processing (NLP) and information retrieval (IR) models - and proposes a hybrid approach. The approach demonstrates a critical combination of complementary NLP and IR features that produces more effective fuzzy name matching. Two principles, position-as-attribute and position-transition-likelihood, are introduced as the principles for integrating the advantageous aspects of both approaches. They have been implemented in an NLP- and IR-hybrid model system called Friendly Name Search (FNS) for real world applications in multilingual directory searches on the Singapore Yellow pages website.

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

fuzzy name search
natural language processing
information retrieval


Circuit-switched "network capacity" under QoS constraints Usually the network-throughput maximization problem for constant-bit-rate (CBR) circuit-switched traffic is posed for a fixed offered load profile. Then choices of routes and of admission control policies are sought to achieve maximum throughput (usually under QoS constraints). However, similarly to the notion of channel "capacity," it is also of interest to determine the "network capacity;" i.e., for a given network we would like to know the maximum throughput it can deliver (again subject to specified QoS constraints) if the appropriate traffic load is supplied. Thus, in addition to determining routes and admission controls, we would like to specify the vector of offered loads between each source/destination pair that "achieves capacity." Since the combined problem of choosing all three parameters (i.e., offered load, admission control, and routing) is too complex to address, we consider here only the optimal determination of offered load for given routing and admission control policies. We provide an off-line algorithm, which is based on Lagrangian techniques that perform robustly in this rigorously formulated nonlinear optimization problem with nonlinear constraints. We demonstrate that significant improvement is obtained, as compared with simple uniform loading schemes, and that fairness mechanisms can be incorporated with little loss in overall throughput.

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

communication network
performance evaluation
circuit-switched
quality of service (qos)


A general approach to robust web metering We consider the problem of metering access to web sites..Many services, such as web advertising, have a need for accurate counts of the number of visits to a web site. We consider the robust approach to web metering by looking at techniques that provide secure proofs of visit. We refine a number of previous models for metering schemes and provide a general construction for secure and efficient schemes that meter the interaction of a web site with a targeted audience. We generalise a technique for determining the minimum information that clients in the web site audience heed to secure in order to supply proofs of visit. We also show how our metering schemes can be made robust against corrupt clients who attempt to prevent web servers constructing legitimate proofs of visit.

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

information theoretic bounds
geometric constructions


Roving bugnet: Distributed surveillance threat and mitigation Advanced mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones make convenient hiding places for surveillance spyware. They commonly have a microphone and camera built-in, are increasingly network accessible, frequently within close proximity of their users, and almost always lack mechanisms designed to prevent unauthorized microphone or camera access. In order to explore surveillance intrusion and detection methods, we present a modernized version of a microphone hijacker for Windows and Mac OS X. The Windows attack can be executed as soon as the target connects to the Internet from anywhere in the world without requiring interaction from victimized users and the Mac OS X attack involves a trojaned installation routine. As the attacker compromises additional machines they are organized into a botnet so the attacker can maintain stealthy control of the systems and launch later surveillance attacks. We then use the attack to show how common elements of microphone hijacker programs can be used against them. From there we present a mechanism to detect the threat on Windows, as well as a novel method to deceive an attacker in order to permit traceback. As a result of the detection mechanism we address a missing segment of resource control, decreasing the complexity of privacy concerns as exploitable devices become more pervasive.

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

surveillance
spyware
botnet
mobile devices
mac os x

anti-spyware
roving bug
microphone hijack
bot
win xp


A conceptual model of an intelligent meeting-scheduler This research proposes a conceptual model for an intelligent meeting-scheduler (IMS) [1, 2] that is capable of assisting organizations in the scheduling of meetings. The IMS is an integrated software system. It combines scheduling tools and organizational knowledge to support various activities within the scheduling process, such as meeting-content planning and group composition. Our model is based on the notion of software agents [3] and consists of the following functional agents: communication manager, scheduling manager, and calendar manager. These agents are coordinated by a control manager and work in cooperation to assist a host and invitees in negotiating an acceptable time slot during a scheduling session. We also describe the knowledge architecture of the IMS, which consists of a set of knowledge-base agents supporting the above functional agents. We developed a prototype to explore the feasibility of the conceptual model. The prototype was used in 2 real-life case scenarios, and a simple questionnaire was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the model. Our architecture was found to be useful and innovative by the users; however, they raised concerns about several issues, such as calendar maintenance and privacy. Future integration of our model into real business organizations will need to address these concerns. In addition, evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the model in such organizations is expected to be a major challenge.

O O O O O O O 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 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

group tasks
meeting scheduling
decision support systems
human resource management
calendars
prototyping
case based


Text data extraction for a prospective, research-focused data mart: implementation and validation Translational research typically requires data abstracted from medical records as well as data collected specifically for research. Unfortunately, many data within electronic health records are represented as text that is not amenable to aggregation for analyses. We present a scalable open source SQL Server Integration Services package, called Regextractor, for including regular expression parsers into a classic extract, transform, and load workflow. We have used Regextractor to abstract discrete data from textual reports from a number of machine generated sources. To validate this package, we created a pulmonary function test data mart and analyzed the quality of the data mart versus manual chart review.

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

medical informatics
information storage and retrieval
information systems
automatic data processing


Generalized joint Procrustes analysis In this paper, we propose a generalized version of Adachis (Psychometrika 74:667683, 2009) Joint Procrustes Analysis (GJPA), in order to transform the principal component score and loading matrices obtained for multiple data sets of the same size. The transformation is made so that multiple score and loading matrices are optimally matched to two unknown target matrices, respectively, without affecting the fit of the score and loading matrices to data sets, and without any constraint imposed on the transformation, except for its being nonsingular. The resulting transformed score and loading matrices can reasonably be compared across data sets. A simulation study is performed for assessing an alternate least-squares algorithm for GJPA. Additional procedures for interpreting GJPA solutions are also presented and they are illustrated with a real data example. Finally, GJPA is reconsidered in the contexts of three-way data analysis and canonical correlation analysis.

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

procrustes analysis
canonical correlation analysis
multiple data sets

principal component analysis
nonsingular transformation


An Alternating-Direction Sinc-Galerkin method for elliptic problems A new Alternating-Direction Sinc-Galerkin (ADSG) method is developed and contrasted with classical Sinc-Galerkin methods. It is derived from an iterative scheme for solving the Lyapunov equation that arises when a symmetric Sinc-Galerkin method is used to approximate the Solution of elliptic partial differential equations. We include parameter choices (derived from numerical experiments) that simplify existing alternating-direction algorithms. We compare the new scheme to a standard method employing Gaussian elimination on a system produced using the Kronecker product and Kronecker sum, as well as to a more efficient algorithm employing matrix diagonalization. We note that the ADSG method easily Outperforms Gaussian elimination on the Kronecker sum and, while competitive with matrix diagonalization, does not require the computation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

sinc-galerkin method
alternating-direction method


A hybrid finite element and integral equation domain decomposition method for the solution of the 3-D scattering problem A domain decomposition method (DDM) is presented for the solution of the time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering problem by inhomogeneous 3-D objects. The computational domain is partitioned into concentric subdomains on the interfaces of which Robin-type transmission conditions are prescribed. On the outer boundary terminating the computational domain, the radiation condition is accounted for by employing an integral equation (IE) formulation. The DDM decouples the interior problems, that correspond to the solution of Maxwell's equations inside each subdomain and are formulated by using a finite element method, from the exterior problem solved by employing the IE. It has been shown that the solutions of this DDM algorithm converge to those of the original problem. A particular IE is used that allows the implementation of a very simple and fully iterative solver. The main advantage offered by this technique is a reduction in memory requirements. Various numerical examples are presented that illustrate its potential. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

domain decomposition method
integral equation

electromagnetism
maxwell
absorbing boundary conditions
finite elements
numerical methods


On optimal bilinear quadrilateral meshes The novelty of this work is in presenting interesting error properties of two types of asymptotically 'optimal' quadrilateral meshes for bilinear approximation. The first type of mesh has an error equidistributing property, where the maximum interpolation error is asymptotically the same over all elements. The second type has faster than expected 'super-convergence' property for certain saddle-shaped data functions. The 'super-convergent' mesh may be an order of magnitude more accurate than the error equidistributing mesh. Both types of mesh are generated by a coordinate transformation of a regular mesh of squares, are coordinate transformation is derived by interpreting the Hessian matrix of a data function as a metric tensor. The insights in this work may have application in mesh design near known corner or point singularities.

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

anisotropic mesh
mesh generation
quadrilateral mesh
super-convergence


VPR 5.0: FPGA CAD and Architecture Exploration Tools with Single-Driver Routing, Heterogeneity and Process Scaling The VPR toolset has been widely used in FPGA architecture and CAD research, but has not evolved over the past decade. This article describes and illustrates the use of a new version of the toolset that includes four new features: first, it supports a broad range of single-driver routing architectures, which have superior architectural and electrical properties over the prior multidriver approach (and which is now employed in the majority of FPGAs sold). Second, it can now model, for placement and routing a heterogeneous selection of hard logic blocks. This is a key (but not final) step toward the incluion of blocks such as memory and multipliers. Third, we provide optimized electrical models for a wide range of architectures in different process technologies, including a range of area-delay trade-offs for each single architecture. Finally, to maintain robustness and support future development the release includes a set of regression tests for the software. To illustrate the use of the new features, we explore several architectural issues: the FPGA area efficiency versus logic block granularity, the effect of single-driver routing, and a simple use of the heterogeneity to explore the impact of hard multipliers on wiring track count.

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

fpga vpr placement routing heterogeneous

algorithms
design
experimentation
reliability
field-programmable gate arrays
hard blocks


multimodal chinese text entry with speech and keypad on mobile devices Chinese text entry is challenging on mobile devices which rely on keypad input. Entering one character may require many key presses. This paper proposes a multimodal text entry technique for Chinese. In this method, Chinese user can enter Chinese text by simultaneously using the simplified phonemic input method named Jianpin with keypad and speech utterance. The key of the technique is a multimodal fusion algorithm, which synchronizes speech and keypad input and fuses redundant information from two modalities to get the best candidate. A preliminary evaluation shows that users appreciate this technique and it could reduce key presses and enhance the input efficiency.

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

speech
chinese text entry
mobile devices
multimodal
keypad


admission control in 802.15.4 beacon enabled clusters The problem of admission control at the sensor cluster coordinator is considered in a beacon enabled 802.15.4 network. The admission control algorithm is based on analytical modeling of the packet service time, using the number of nodes in a cluster, packet arrival rate, and packet size as independent variables. Simulation experiments confirm the validity of the chosen admission control algorithm, which is shown to provide a slightly conservative estimate with respect to the ideal condition.

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


A demand-based slot assignment algorithm for energy-aware reliable data transmission in wireless sensor networks This paper proposes a new demand-based slot assignment (DSA) algorithm that allocates time slots based on the bandwidth demand of each node in a tree topology. DSA is basically different from SDA, DAS, or WIRES that assigns one large slot for each sensor node, but is similar to the frame-slot pair assignment (FSA) algorithm used in TreeMAC in that it assigns multiple small size slots for sensor nodes per each data collection round. DSA tackles the shortcomings of FSA in terms of the capability of packet aggregation and filtering, the balance of energy consumption, and bandwidth utilization. In general, nodes at lower tree depths process more packets and consume more energy than ones at higher tree depths, and thus the imbalanced energy consumption shortens network lifetime. The proposed algorithm allocates a sequence of receiving slots and then a sequence of sending slots to each node. This approach not only reduces the power consumption of nodes at lower depths significantly by allowing efficient data aggregation and filtering, but also it improves bandwidth utilization by removing wasted slots. In addition, the RTS and CTS messages are used within a slot for ensuring the reliability of data transmission and updating sync time between a child and its parent. Simulation results show that DSA far outperforms FSA in energy consumption and bandwidth utilization.

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


A smart TV system with body-gesture control, tag-based rating and context-aware recommendation Smart TV, which enables viewers to conveniently access different multimedia contents and interactive services in a single platform, is currently becoming popular. The work presented here develops three new ways to enhance the performance of a smart TV. The first is to design a body control system that recognizes and interprets human gestures as machine commands to control the TV. The second is to create a new social tag-based method to recommend the most suitable multimedia contents for users. Finally, a context-aware platform is implemented to consider different environmental situations to make the best recommendations.

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

social tagging
collaborative filtering
context-awareness
mobile multimedia


purpose and usability of digital libraries A preliminary study was conducted to help understand the purpose of digital libraries (DLs) and to investigate whether meaningful results could be obtained from small user studies of digital libraries. Results stress the importance of mental models, and of "traditional" library support.

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

&ldquo
lost in hyperspace&rdquo
used models


recognizing engagement in human-robot interaction Based on a study of the engagement process between humans, we have developed and implemented an initial computational model for recognizing engagement between a human and a humanoid robot. Our model contains recognizers for four types of connection events involving gesture and speech: directed gaze, mutual facial gaze, conversational adjacency pairs and backchannels. To facilitate integrating and experimenting with our model in a broad range of robot architectures, we have packaged it as a node in the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS) framework. We have conducted a preliminary validation of our computational model and implementation in a simple human-robot pointing game.

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

nonverbal communication
dialogue
conversation


Image warping for compressing and spatially organizing a dense collection of images Image-based rendering (IBR) systems create photorealistic views of complex 3D environments by resampling large collections of images captured in the environment. The quality of the resampled images increases significantly with image capture density. Thus, a significant challenge in interactive IBR systems is to provide both fast image access along arbitrary viewpoint paths and efficient storage of large image data sets. We describe a spatial image hierarchy combined with an image compression scheme that meets the requirements of interactive IBR walkthroughs. By using image warping and exploiting image coherence over the image capture plane, we achieve compression performance similar to traditional motion-compensated schema, e.g., MPEG, yet allow image access along arbitrary paths. Furthermore, by exploiting graphics hardware for image resampling, we can achieve interactive rates during IBR walkthroughs.

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

image-based rendering
spatial hierarchy
hierarchical
random access


One line and n points We analyze a randomized pivoting process involving one line and n points in the plane. The process models the behavior of the RANDOM-EDGE simplex algorithm on simple polytopes with it facets in dimension n - 2. We obtain a tight O(log(2) n) bound for the expected number of pivot steps. This is the first nontrivial bound for RANDOM-EDGE, which goes beyond bounds for specific polytopes. The process itself can be interpreted as a simple algorithm for certain 2-variable linear programming problems, and we prove a tight Theta(n) bound for its expected runtime. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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


Numerical diffusion for flow-aligned unstructured grids with application to estuarine modeling The benefits of unstructured grids in hydrodynamic models are well understood but in many cases lead to greater numerical diffusion compared with methods available on structured grids. The flexible nature of unstructured grids, however, allows for the orientation of the grid to align locally with the dominant flow direction and thus decrease numerical diffusion. We investigate the relationship between grid alignment and diffusive errors in the context of scalar transport in a triangular, unstructured, 3-D hydrodynamic code. Analytical results are presented for the 2-D anisotropic numerical diffusion tensor and verified against idealized simulations. Results from two physically realistic estuarine simulations, differing only in grid alignment, show significant changes in gradients of salinity. Changes in scalar gradients are reflective of reduced numerical diffusion interacting with the complex 3-D structure of the transporting flow. We also describe a method for utilizing flow fields from an unaligned grid to generate a flow-aligned grid with minimal supervision. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


Application of data mining. technique for diagnosis of posterior uveal melanoma Application of knowledge discovery in databases (data mining) for medical decision support is discussed in this work. The aim of the study was to use decision support algorithm for the differential diagnosis of intraocular tumors using parameters from eye images obtained by the ultrasound examination. Application of predictive modeling algorithm. for decision tree formation using See.5.0/C5.0 data mining system is presented. The decision tree was build using tumor geometry and microstructure parameters. The use of decision tree allows to differentiate tumors from other tumor-like formations. Low percentage of diagnostic errors shows that decision tree is reliable enough to offer it as "second opinion" for physician's decision support.

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

posterior uveal melanoma
data mining
decision tree

ophthalmic oncology
ophthalmic ultrasound


Ore subresultant coefficients in solutions The subresultants play a fundamental role in elimination theory and computer algebra. Recently they have been extended to Ore polynomials. They are defined by an expression in the coefficients of Ore polynomials. In this paper, we provide another expression for them. This expression is written in terms of the solutions of Ore polynomials (in generic case). It is a generalization of our previous paper where we gave expressions for the principal (formal leading) coefficients of subresultants. In this paper, we give expressions for all the other coefficients.

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


A Semitransparency-Based Optical-Flow Method With a Point Trajectory Model for Particle-Like Video This paper proposes a new semitransparency-based optical-flow model with a point trajectory (PT) model for particle-like video. Previous optical-flow models have used ranging from image brightness constancy to image brightness change models as constraints. However, two important issues remain unsolved. The first is how to track/match a semitransparent object with a very large displacement between frames. Such moving objects with different shapes and sizes in an outdoor scene move against a complicated background. Second, due to semitransparency, the image intensity between frames can also violate a previous image brightness- based optical-flow model. Thus, we propose a two-step optimization for the optical-flow estimation model for a moving semitransparent object, i.e., particle. In the first step, a rough optical flow between particles is estimated by a new alpha constancy constraint that is based on an image generation model of semitransparency. In the second step, the optical flow of a particle with a continuous trajectory in a definite temporal interval based on a PT model can be refined. Many experiments using various falling-snow and foggy scenes with multiple moving vehicles show the significant improvement of the optical flow compared with a previous optical-flow model.

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

large displacement
optical flow
particle
semitransparency


Telomeres and life histories: the long and the short of it Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of eukaryote chromosomes. Telomere loss limits the number of times cells can divide and is intimately involved in cell loss and renewal. Average telomere length in cell samples generally declines with donor age but shows substantial intraspecific variation. Telomeres are potentially of great interest to evolutionary biologists since the balance of fitness costs and benefits associated with loss and restoration is linked to the biology of life span. Most telomere research is done in the context of human disease. Recently, however, there has been a burgeoning of interest in telomere dynamics in healthy organisms. The extent to which variation in telomere loss might be involved in the evolution of life histories, and constrain or underpin life history trade-offs, is a growing field of research. I discuss what we do and do not know about the links between telomere length and life histories and the extent to which variations in telomere length and loss rate are useful indicators of aging-related changes and/or the biological state of individuals.

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


Free-surface flows under impacting droplets A numerical method which fulfils the free-surface boundary conditions and extrapolates the fluid velocity into empty grid cells outside the fluid region on a fixed Cartesian grid system is presented. The complex, three-dimensional, vortex structures formed via surface/vortex interaction and induction between vortices have been computed using the proposed technique implemented within a level-set method for both vertical and oblique droplet impacts in incompressible fluids. The present results have been validated through numerical tests which confirm zero tangential shear at the free-surface and comparisons with experimental observations of cavity and vortex ring formation underneath the impact location. In some cases, transitions from a concentric vortex ring to a fully three-dimensional vortex structure has been confirmed. Whilst the primary vortex ring is initiated at the highly curved contact surface between the droplet and receiving surface, azimuthal instabilities are manifested in the shear layer around the cavity crater developing after the vertical impact, resulting in axial counter-rotating vorticity between the cavity and descending vortex ring. Underlying mechanisms which induce local deformation of the free-surface, creating a so-called scar, due to the sub-surface vortices at the oblique impacts are also discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

droplet impact
free-surface boundary condition
level-set method


Artificial bee colony algorithm for dynamic deployment of wireless sensor networks As the usage and development of wireless sensor networks increases, problems related to these networks are being discovered. Dynamic deployment is one of the main issues that directly affect the performance of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, an artificial bee colony algorithm, is applied to the dynamic deployment of mobile sensor networks to gain better performance by trying to increase the coverage area of the network. The good performance of the algorithm shows that it can be utilized in the dynamic deployment of wireless sensor networks.

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

artificial bee colony
wireless sensor networks
dynamic deployment


Deployment of a fully distributed system for improving urban traffic flows: A simulation-based performance analysis Distributed, cooperative systems dedicated to road traffic self-organization are very attractive, but present some drawbacks. In particular, their cooperative nature makes them fairly inefficient when working with a reduced number of partners. This situation typically corresponds to the deployment stage, during which only a few vehicles cooperate. This time period cannot be avoided when pushing a new system to the market. We are interested in two features that are important for this kind of system: traffic jam detection and traffic alert transmission. For the first feature, we present a theoretical model that anticipates the proportion of equipped vehicles that allows an acceptable level of traffic jam detection, and we validate this model by simulation. For the second feature, we examine two ways to improve the system behaviour when the proportion of equipped vehicles is very low; their efficiency is tested through simulation. This study is innovative because the simulation platform we developed can take into account the directional behaviour of wireless communications in urban context for a low computational cost.

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

distributed traffic information system
self-organized systems deployment
inter-vehicle communications
traffic simulator
mobile ad hoc network simulator


Study of protection scheme for transmission line based on wavelet transient energy Wavelet transient energy is proposed to be the criterion of protection for distinguishing internal or external fault on transmission line in this paper. The modal voltage and current are decomposed by Daubechies 4 wavelet in both time and frequency. The different decomposition coefficients on different scales reflecting different frequency information are used to calculate the transient characteristic of voltage and current. The transient characteristic is then utilized to obtain the transient energy of the fault that is employed to identify the fault position. Simulation results show that the proposed protection scheme based on transient energy is applicable and encouraging. It is independent of fault type, switching angle and generation mode; not influenced by recloser and lightning surge. Single-line ground fault with high fault resistance can also be detected correctly. The proposed protection scheme has good selectivity, reliability and sensitivity.

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

power system protection
wavelet analysis
modal transform


SIFT based iris recognition with normalization and enhancement SIFT is a novel and promising method for iris recognition. However, some shortages exist in many related methods, such as difficulty of feature extraction, feature loss, and noise point introduction. In this paper, a new method named SIFT-based iris recognition with normalization and enhancement is proposed for achieving better performance. In Comparison with other SIFT-based iris recognition algorithms, the proposed method can overcome the difficulties of extreme point extraction and exclude the noise points without feature loss. Experimental results demonstrate that the normalization and enhancement steps are crucial for SIFT-based iris recognition, and the proposed method can achieve satisfactory recognition performance.

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

iris recognition
sift
enhancement
normalization


Clustering-Based Energy-Efficient Broadcast Tree in Wireless Networks The characteristics of wireless networks present formidable challenges to the study of broadcasting problem. A crucial issue in wireless networks is the energy consumption, because of the nonlinear attenuation properties of radio signals. Another crucial issue is the trade-off between reaching more nodes in a single hop by using higher power versus reaching fewer nodes in that single hop by using lower power. Given a wireless network with a specified source node that broadcasts messages to all other nodes in the network, the minimum energy broadcast (MEB) problem is NP-hard. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach CBEEB(clustering-based energy-efficient broadcast) for the MEB problem based on clustering. Theoretical analysis indicates the efficiency and effectiveness of CBEEB. Simulation results show that CBEEB has better performance compared with the existing heuristic approaches.

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


Effect of bilateral facetectomy of thoracolumbar spine T11L1 on spinal stability Spinal stenosis can be found in any part of the spine, though it is most commonly located on the lumbar and cervical areas. It has been documented in the literature that bilateral facetectomy in a lumbar motion segment to increase the space induces an increase in flexibility at the level at which the surgery was performed. However, the result of bilateral facetectomy on the stability of the thoracolumbar spine has not been studied. A nonlinear three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of thoracolumbar T11L1 was built to explore the influence of bilateral facetectomy. The FE model of T11L1 was validated against published experimental results under various physiological loadings. The FE model with bilateral facetectomy was evaluated under flexion, extension, lateral bending and axial rotation to determine alterations in kinematics. Results show that bilateral facetectomy causes increase in motion, considerable increase in axial rotation and least increase in lateral bending. Removal of facets did not result in significant change in the sagittal motion in flexion and extension.

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

thoracolumbar spine
bilateral facetectomy
spinal stability


Immune signaling and regulation in esophageal cancer The following, from the 12th OESO World Conference: Cancers of the Esophagus, includes commentaries on signaling pathways that can be targeted with immunotherapy; the role of micro-RNAs in the immune response to esophageal cancer; and the association between obesity, the immune system, and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

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

esophageal adenocarcinoma
immune system
obesity
oeso

esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
monoclonal antibody
mirna
adiponectin


preemptive quality of service infrastructure for wireless mobile ad hoc networks The infrastructureless nature of mobile ad hoc networks poses an extreme challenge for the design of conventional and Quality of Service (QoS) routing protocols. To the best of our knowledge, current QoS routing protocols have primarily been designed to meet QoS metric(s) without concentrating on the robustness of the proposed routing solution. This paper proposes a QoS virtual backbone (QoS-VBB) that can be used for robust QoS routing and monitoring. The proposed QoS-VBB nodes are mainly selected based on individual node stability and available bandwidth for each node. This QoS-VBB has proactive maintenance capability which makes it suitable for dynamic network MANETs' environs. We conducted simulation experiments and analytical studies for the proposed algorithm. In addition to its preemptive behavior, the proposed QoS-VBB demonstrates several salient features.

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

mobile ad hoc networks
node stability
routing
quality of service
virtual backbone


Robust Modified Policy Iteration Robust dynamic programming (robust DP) mitigates the effects of ambiguity in transition probabilities on the solutions of Markov decision problems. We consider the computation of robust DP solutions for discrete-stage, infinite-horizon, discounted problems with finite state and action spaces. We present robust modified policy iteration (RMPI) and demonstrate its convergence. RMPI encompasses both of the previously known algorithms, robust value iteration and robust policy iteration. In addition to proposing exact RMPI, in which the "inner problem" is solved precisely, we propose inexact RMPI, in which the inner problem is solved to within a specified tolerance. We also introduce new stopping criteria based on the span seminorm. Finally, we demonstrate through some numerical studies that RMPI can significantly reduce computation time.

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

control processes
markov processes
optimization
robust optimization


guiding visitors of web3d worlds through automatically generated tours Many Web3D sites do not offer sufficient assistance to (especially novice) users in navigating the virtual world, find objects/places of interests, and learn how to interact with them. This paper aims at helping the Web3D content creator to face this problem by: (i) proposing the adoption of guided tours of virtual worlds as an effective user aid and (ii) describing a novel tool that provides automatic code generation for adding such guided tours to VRML worlds. Finally, we will show how the tool has been used in the development of an application concerning a 3D computer science museum.

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

computer science
users
tool
3d
vrml
museum
paper
novice
code generation
user
virtual world

place
h-anim
contention
applications
developer
animated characters
navigation aids
object
adopt
learning
virtual museums
navigation
effect


rdf metadata for xml access control In this paper we present an access control framework that provides flexible security granularity for XML documents. RDF statements are used to represent security objects and to express security policy. The concepts of simple security object and association security object are defined. Our model allows to express and enforce access control on XML trees and their associations. Access control rules, corresponding to ( s, o, a ) triples, are represented as RDF statements with properties access type, user, and object. A history file is maintained for each user that allows decision-making using temporal data.

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

access control
rdf metadata
flexible security granularity

tree extension
association objects
xml security
rxacl


Coordinating self-sizing and self-repair managers for multi-tier systems We propose an approach for coordinating several autonomic managers based on discrete controller synthesis. This relies on modelling the autonomic managers behaviours with states and transition functions. The coordination policy is expressed as logical properties upon the states. The controller which can enforce the logical properties is automatically computed. We present an evaluation of this approach.

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 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

coordination
discrete controller synthesis

autonomic computing
reactive programming
replicated jee servers