Video-object segmentation and 3D-trajectory estimation for monocular video sequences In this paper, we describe a video-object segmentation and 3D-trajectory estimation method for the analysis of dynamic scenes from a monocular uncalibrated view. Based on the color and motion information among video frames, our proposed method segments the scene, calibrates the camera, and calculates the 3D trajectories of moving objects. It can be employed for video-object segmentation, 2D-to-3D video conversion, video-object retrieval, etc. In our method, reliable 2D feature motions are established by comparing SIFT descriptors among successive frames, and image over-segmentation is achieved using a graph-based method. Then, the 2D motions and the segmentation result iteratively refine each other in a hierarchically structured framework to achieve video-object segmentation. Finally, the 3D trajectories of the segmented moving objects are estimated based on a local constant-velocity constraint, and are refined by a Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed framework can achieve a good performance in terms of both object segmentation and 3D-trajectory estimation.

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

2d-to-3d video conversion
3d trajectory estimation
video-object segmentation


Position control of carbon nanotube using patterned electrode and electric field A suspension which consists of multiwall carbon nanotubes and isopropyl alcohol was dropped onto a substrate which has patterned electrodes thereon. The nanotubes were collected on the anode when the applied voltage is large ( ). When V=0.7 V, the nanotubes are collected around the end of the anode tips where the electric field should be strongest. This means that the position of nanotubes which are dropped on a substrate with a solvent can be controlled using a local electric field generated by patterned electrodes.

B I 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

carbon nanotube
patterned electrode
position control


ATCS: An Adaptive TCP Coding Scheme for Satellite IP Networks In this paper we propose ATCS, a practical TCP protocol coding scheme based on network coding for satellite IP networks. The proposal is specially designed to enhance TCP performance over satellite networks. In our scheme, the source introduces a degree of redundancy and transmits a random linear combination of TCP packets. Since the redundant packets are utilized to mask packet loss over satellite links, the degree of redundancy is determined by the link error rates. Through a simple and effective method, ATCS estimates link error rates in real time and then dynamically adjusts the redundant factor. Consequently, ATCS is adaptable to a wide range of link error rates by coding TCP segments with a flexible redundancy factor. Furthermore, the scheme is compatible with traditional TCP variants. Simulation results indicate that the proposal improves TCP performance considerably.

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

adaptive
network coding
tcp
satellite ip networks


A procedure for approximate negative binomial tolerance intervals In this article, we present a procedure for approximate negative binomial tolerance intervals. We utilize an approach that has been well-studied to approximate tolerance intervals for the binomial and Poisson settings, which is based on the confidence interval for the parameter in the respective distribution. A simulation study is performed to assess the coverage probabilities and expected widths of the tolerance intervals. The simulation study also compares eight different confidence interval approaches for the negative binomial proportions. We recommend using those in practice that perform the best based on our simulation results. The method is also illustrated using two real data 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 O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

coverage probability
expected width
fiducial inference
inverse sampling
saddle-point approximation
62d05
62f25


ICT as a source of economic growth in the information age: Empirical evidence from the 19962005 period This paper examines the hypothesis that ICT penetration has positive effects on economic growth. On theoretical grounds, this paper discusses three channels through which ICT penetration can affect growth: (i) fostering technology diffusion and innovation; (ii) enhancing the quality of decision-making by firms and households; and (iii) increasing demand and reducing production costs, which together raises the output level. This paper conducts three empirical exercises to provide a comprehensive documentation of the role of ICT as a source of growth in the 19962005 period. The first exercise shows that growth in 19962005 improved relative to the previous two decades and experienced a very significant structural change. The second exercise uses the traditional cross-country regression method to identify a strong association between ICT penetration and growth during 19962005, controlling for other potential growth drivers and country-fixed effects. The third exercise uses the system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) for dynamic panel data analysis to tease out the causal link between ICT penetration and growth. This analysis also shows that, for the average country, the marginal effect of the penetration of internet users was larger than that of mobile phones, which in turn is larger than that of personal computers. The marginal effect of ICT penetration, however, lessens as the penetration increases. This paper points out several policy implications drawn from its analyses and findings.

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

ict penetration
economic growth
technology diffusion
internet
mobile phones
personal computers


Methodological accuracy of digital and manual model analysis in orthodontics A retrospective clinical study Computer-based digital orthodontic models are available for clinicians, supplemented by dedicated software for performing required diagnostic measurements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of measurements made on three-dimensional digital models obtained with a CBCT-scanner (DigiModel, OrthoProof, Nieuwegin, The Netherlands). 66 orthodontic dental casts of primary and early mixed dentitions were selected. Three-dimensional images were obtained on this CBCT-scanner and analyzed by means of the DigiModel software. Measurements were made with a digital caliper directly on the conventional casts and also digitally on the virtual models. 6 anatomic dental points were identified, and a total of 11 measurements were taken from each cast, including midline deviation, overjet, overbite and arch widths. Conformity of digital and manual measurements as well as intra-, inter- and repeated-measurement-reliability were evaluated by Lins Concordance Correlation Coefficient, ICC and a BlandAltman-analysis. The agreement and conformity of digital and manual measurements was substantial for all parameters evaluated. Intra-, inter- and repeated-measurement-reliability was excellent. Measurements on digital models obtained by a CBCT scan of conventional casts (DigiModel, OrthoProof) are suited for reliable diagnostic measurements, which compare well to those obtained from plaster casts, the current gold standard.

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

retrospective studies
digital model analysis
cone-beam computed tomography
method reliability


The impact of the regulatory framework on fixed-mobile interconnection settlements: the case of China and Hong Kong Network interconnection is one of the most critical issues in the process of telecommunications deregulation. An improperly interconnected new network is not dissimilar to an isolated network, while network externality remains a concern for subscribers who are searching for demand-side economies of scope. Traditional studies mainly focus on formal mechanisms of setting an interconnection price, while this study indicates that an appropriate regulatory framework is also one of the most important factors in settling effective network interconnection arrangements.

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

regulatory framework
network interconnection
china
hong kong


experiments in 3d interaction for mobile phone ar In this paper we present an evaluation of several different techniques for virtual object positioning and rotation on a mobile phone. We compare gesture input captured by the phone's front camera, to tangible input, keypad interaction and phone tilting in increasingly complex positioning and rotation tasks in an AR context. Usability experiments found that tangible input techniques are best for translation tasks, while keypad input is best for rotation tasks. Implications for the design of mobile phone 3D interfaces are presented as well as directions for future research.

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


teaching microcoding principles Students are typically exposed to programming in various languages as part of their experience in computer science. Assembly language and hardware concepts are considered standard knowledge in addition to other related topics. Teaching firmware, the integration of hardware and software, is the subject of this paper. The need for teaching firmware is presented, followed by a description of a project assigned to students. Lastly, a discussion of the portability of the concepts learned is presented.

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

computer science
software
portability
language
project
teaching
experience
hardware
paper
knowledge

program concept standardization assemblers integrability student


Multiple eigenspaces In this paper, we propose a novel self-organizing framework to construct multiple, low-dimensional eigenspaces from a set of training images. Grouping of images is systematically and robustly performed via eigenspace-growing in terms of low-dimensional eigenspaces. To further increase the robustness, the eigenspace-growing is initiated independently with many small groups of imagesseeds. All these grown eigenspaces are treated as hypotheses that are subject to a selection procedure eigenspace-selection, based on the MDL principle, which selects the final resulting set of eigenspaces as an efficient representation of the training set, taking into account the number of images encompassed by the eigenspaces, the dimensions of the eigenspaces, and their corresponding residual errors. We have tested the proposed method on a number of standard image sets, and the significance of the approach with respect to the recognition rate has been demonstrated.

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

appearance-based object representation
principal component analysis (pca)
visual learning
image grouping
appearance-based object recognition
dimensionality reduction
view-based navigation map


A Dynamic Linkage Clustering using KD-Tree Some clustering algorithms calculate connectivity of each data point to its cluster by depending on density reachability. These algorithms can find arbitrarily shaped clusters, but they require parameters that are mostly sensitive to clustering performance. We develop a new dynamic linkage clustering algorithm using kd-tree. The proposed algorithm does not require any parameters and does not have a worst-case bound on running time that exists in many similar algorithms in the literature. Experimental results are shown in this paper to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. We compare the proposed algorithm with other famous similar algorithm that is shown in literature. We present the proposed algorithm and its performance in detail along with promising avenues of future research.

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

data clustering
density-based clustering algorithm
kd-tree
dbscan


early experience with a commercial hardware transactional memory implementation We report on our experience with the hardware transactional memory (HTM) feature of two pre-production revisions of a new commercial multicore processor. Our experience includes a number of promising results using HTM to improve performance in a variety of contexts, and also identifies some ways in which the feature could be improved to make it even better. We give detailed accounts of our experiences, sharing techniques we used to achieve the results we have, as well as describing challenges we faced in doing so.

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


Metrics and techniques for quantifying performance isolation in cloud environments Three basic metrics for quantifying performance isolation. Decoupled from a concrete scenario and evaluated. Round robin or blacklist scheduling for isolation on SaaS. System provider or developer could use the isolation metrics. Case study quantifying Xen's performance isolation capabilities.

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


Unravelling the world of cis-regulatory elements Genome-wide comparisons indicate that only studying the coding regions will not be enough for explaining the biological complexity of an organism, while the genetic variants and the epigenetic differences of cis-regulatory elements are crucial to elucidate many complicated biological phenomena. Their various regulatory functions also play indispensable roles in forming organismal polymorphism. Recent studies showed that the cis-regulatory elements can regulate gene expression as nuclear organizers, and involve in functional noncoding transcription and produce regulatory noncoding RNA molecules. Novel high-throughput strategies and in silico analysis make a great amount data of cis-regulatory elements available. Particularly, the computational methods could help to combine reductionist studies with network biomedical investigations, and begin the era to understand organismal regulatory events at systems biology level.

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

organismal polymorphism
noncoding transcription

cis-regulatory elements
nuclear organization
regulatory network


Partial algebras, meaning categories and algebraization Many approaches to natural language semantics are essentially model-theoretic, typically cast in type theoretic terms. Many linguists have adopted type theory or many-sorted algebras [see H. Hendriks, Compositionality and model-theoretic interpretation, J. Logic, Language Inform. 10 (2001) 29-48 and references therein]. However, recently Hodges [Formal features of compositionality, J. Logic, Language Inform. 10 (2001) 7-28] has offered an approach to compositionality using just partial algebras. An approach in terms of partial algebras seems at the outset more justified, since the typing is often just artificially superimposed on language (and makes many words massively polymorphic). On the other hand, many-sorted algebras are easier to handle than partial algebras, and are therefore generally preferred. This paper investigates the dialectics between partial algebras and many-sorted algebras and tries to set the background for an approach in the spirit of Hodges [Formal features of compositionality, J. Logic, Language Inform. 10 (2001) 7-28], which also incorporates insights from algebraic logic, in particular from Blok and Pigozzi [Algebraizable logics, Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 77 (396) (1990)]. The analytic methods that we shall develop here shall also be applied to combinatory algebras and algebraizations of predicate logic. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Simulating realistic crowd based on agent trajectories This paper presents a model for simulating realistic crowd behaviors at low computation cost. The proposed model is inspired by video data. In our approach, we first classify the crowd into two categories: main and background characters. Whether the agents are main characters or not is influenced by two factors, one is the agent's trajectories and the other one is the change of the environment. In the second stage, we adopt two approaches to simulate the behaviors of main and background characters. Main characters are intelligent agents with the perception, the memory, the planning, and the psychology so that they can make decisions themselves. Background characters are informed of the behavior options for execution by the smart environment. Finally, we simulate the road-crossing scenario in a three-dimensional virtual environment. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach not only well reflects the characteristics of agent behaviors but also reduces the computation complexity of simulating realistic crowd. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

crowd simulation
agent trajectory
svm classifier


A distributed pricing algorithm for achieving network-wide proportional fairness Proportional fairness (PF) scheduling achieves a balanced tradeoff between throughput and fairness and has attracted great attention recently. However, most previous work on PF only considers the single cell scenario. This paper focuses on the problem of achieving network-wide PF in a generalized multiple base station multiple user network. The problem is formulated as a maximization model and solved using the dual method. By decomposing the dual objective function, we get a distributed pricing based algorithm. Optimality of this algorithm is presented. Although the algorithm is derived using fixed link rate assumption, it can still apply in the presence of time-varying rates. The proposed algorithm is suitable for distributed systems in the sense that it does not need any inter base station communication at all. Simulations illustrate that the proposed distributed network-wide PF scheduling algorithm achieves almost the same performance as the centralized one. Compared with traditional local PF (LPF) scheduling, the network-wide PF scheduling achieves higher throughput, lower throughput oscillation, and greater fairness. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

scheduling
proportional fairness
pricing


Challenges of integration of high-? dielectric with IIIV materials (Invited Paper) This paper gives a brief overview of some of the challenges and approaches of integration of high dielectric constant (high-?) dielectrics with compound semiconductor materials for future high performance low power logic applications. Reviewed themes include interface passivation layer, atomic layer deposition self-cleaning effects and characterization of dielectric/IIIV interfaces.

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

iiiv semiconductors
surface passivation
field effect transistors


Enabling knowledge representation on the Web by extending RDF Schema Recently, a widespread interest has emerged in using ontologies on the Web. Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS) is a basic tool that enables users to define vocabulary, structure and constraints for expressing meta data about Web resources. However, it includes no provisions for formal semantics, and its expressivity is not sufficient for full-fledged ontological modeling and reasoning. In this paper, we will show how RDFS can be extended to include a more expressive knowledge representation language. That, in turn, would enrich it with the required additional expressivity and the semantics of that language. We do this by describing the ontology language Ontology Inference Layer (OIL) as an extension of RDFS. An important advantage to our approach is that it ensures maximal sharing of meta data on the Web: even partial interpretation of an OIL ontology by less semantically aware processors will yield a correct partial interpretation of the meta data.

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

knowledge representation
ontologies
rdf
oil


Solvolysis of chemical warfare agent VX is more efficient with hydroxylamine anion: A computational study The reaction of the chemical warfare agent VX with hydroxylamine anion (NH2O?) has been studied using a combination of correlated molecular orbital and density functional theory. It has been found that the hydroxylamine anion leads to predominant formation of non-toxic products for solvolysis of VX. The calculated activation barrier for the rate determining step of hydroxylamine anion with VX was found to be lower than that of hydroperoxidolysis and suggesting a more facile solvolysis with the former ?-nucleophile. The conformational search was performed for VX using Monte Carlo search method with Merck Molecular force fields (MMFFs), which lead to a more stable conformation than reported. The anomeric effect operates in the lowest energy conformation of VX and contributes towards its stabilization. The reactivity of the ?-nucleophiles towards VX was correlated well with the corresponding charges on nucleophilic oxygen atoms.

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

nerve agent
ab initio calculations
?-nucleophiles


Direct Estimation of Nonrigid Registrations with Image-Based Self-Occlusion Reasoning The registration problem for images of a deforming surface has been well studied. External occlusions are usually well handled. In 2D image-based registration, self-occlusions are more challenging. Consequently, the surface is usually assumed to be only slightly self-occluding. This paper is about image-based nonrigid registration with self-occlusion reasoning. A specific framework explicitly modeling self-occlusions is proposed. It is combined with an intensity-based, "direct" data term for registration. Self-occlusions are detected as shrinkage areas in the 2D warp. Experimental results on several challenging data sets show that our approach successfully registers images with self-occlusions while effectively detecting the self-occluded regions.

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

self-occlusion
direct method
image retexturing


Random Dense Bipartite Graphs and Directed Graphs With Specified Degrees Let s and t be vectors of positive integers with the same sum, We study the uniform distribution on the space of simple bipartite graphs with degree Sequence s in one part and t in the other; equivalently. binary matrices with row sums s and column sums t. In particular, we find precise formulae for the probabilities that a given bipartite graph is edge-disjoint from, a subgraph of, or an induced subgraph of a random graph in the class. We also give similar formulae for the uniform distribution on the set of simple directed graphs with out-degrees s and in-degrees t. In each case, the graphs or digraphs are required to be sufficiently dense. with the degrees varying within certain limits, and the subgraphs are required to be Sufficiently sparse. Previous results were restricted to spaces of sparse graphs. Our theorems are based on an enumeration of bipartite graphs avoiding a given set of edges, proved by Multidimensional complex integration. As a sample application, we determine the expected permanent of a random binary matrix with row sums s and column sums t. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 35, 222-249, 2009

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

digraph
directed graph
0-1 matrix
asymptotic enumeration


an introduction to the construction and verification of alphard programs The programming language Alphard is designed to provide support for both the methodologies of well-structured programming and the techniques of formal program verification. Language constructs allow a programmer to isolate an abstraction , specifying its behavior publicly while localizing knowledge about its implementation. The verification of such an abstraction consists of showing that its implementation behaves in accordance with its public specifications; the abstraction can then be used with confidence in constructing other programs, and the verification of that use employs only the public specifications. This paper introduces Alphard by developing and verifying a data structure definition and a program that uses it. It shows how each language construct contributes to the development of the abstraction and discusses the way the language design and the verification methodology were tailored to each other. It serves not only as an introduction to Alphard, but also as an example of the symbiosis between verification and methodology in language design. The strategy of program structuring, illustrated for Alphard, is also applicable to most of the data abstraction mechanisms now appearing.

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

program
use
structure
language design
public
abstraction
methodology
language
behavior
definition
implementation
verification
support
paper
knowledge
programmer

strategies
examples
formalism
developer
data structures
program verification
programming language


Multi-agent simulation for the dominant players behavior in supply chains This paper describes a multi-agent simulation model for analyzing the dominant players behavior of supply chains. The supply chain consists of a raw material supplier and component supplier, a manufacturer and retailer are simulated by the model. The main sources of uncertainty for the dominant players behavior are identified, including of market information, selling prices, purchasing prices. The economic phenomenon (Players can maintain their profits stably in spite of decreasing the selling price) is shown by the model, and the SPP (Stable Profit Platform) is used to indicate the level of domination power for the player achievement. Moreover, the model can also be extended to various supply chain for better understanding of the dominant players behavior and improving the effective decision making of supply chain cooperation.

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

multi-agents
supply chain behavior
supply chain simulation


Probabilistic information retrieval approach for ranking of database query results We investigate the problem of ranking the answers to a database query when many tuples are returned. In particular, we present methodologies to tackle the problem for conjunctive and range queries, by adapting and applying principles of probabilistic models from information retrieval for structured data. Our solution is domain independent and leverages data and workload statistics and correlations. We evaluate the quality of our approach with a user survey on a real database. Furthermore, we present and experimentally evaluate algorithms to efficiently retrieve the top ranked results, which demonstrate the feasibility of our ranking system.

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 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

probabilistic information retrieval
user survey
workload

experimentation
performance
theory
indexing
automatic ranking
relational queries


Context-based matching for Web service composition In this paper, we propose a novel matching framework for Web service composition. The framework combines the concepts of Web service, context, and ontology. We adopt a broad definition of context for Web services, encompassing all information needed for enabling interactions between clients and providers. Context-based matching for Web services requires dealing with three major research thrusts: context categorization, modeling, and matching. We first propose an ontology-based categorization of contextual information in Web service environments. We then define a two-level mechanism for modeling Web service contexts. In the first level, service providers create context specifications using category-specific Web service languages and standards. In the second level, context specifications are enveloped by policies (called context policies) using WS-Policy standard. Finally, we present a peer-to-peer architecture for matching context policies. The architecture relies on a context matching engine, context policy assistants, and context community services. Community services implement rule-based techniques for comparing context policies.

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

web service composition
matching
context
policy
ontology


Generalized oblivious transfer by secret sharing The notion of Generalized Oblivious Transfer (GOT) was introduced by Ishai and Kushilevitz (Proceeding of ISTCS97, IEEE Computer Society, pp 174-184, 1997). In a GOT protocol, Alice holds a set U of messages. A decreasing monotone collection of subsets of U defines the retrieval restrictions. Bob is allowed to learn any permissable subset of messages from that collection, but nothing else, while Alice must remain oblivious regarding the selection that Bob made. We propose a simple and efficient GOT protocol that employs secret sharing. We compare it to another secret sharing based solution for that problem that was recently proposed in Shankar et al. (Proceeding of ICDCN08, LNCS 4904, pp 304-309, 2008). In particular, we show that the access structures that are realized by the two solutions are related through a duality-type relation that we introduce here. We show that there are examples which favor our solution over the second one, while in other examples the contrary holds. Two applications of GOT are considered-priced oblivious transfer, and oblivious evaluation of multivariate polynomials.

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

oblivious transfer
secret sharing
access structures

generalized oblivious transfer
multiparty computation


Evolving optimised decision rules for intrusion detection using particle swarm paradigm The aim of this article is to construct a practical intrusion detection system (IDS) that properly analyses the statistics of network traffic pattern and classify them as normal or anomalous class. The objective of this article is to prove that the choice of effective network traffic features and a proficient machine-learning paradigm enhances the detection accuracy of IDS. In this article, a rule-based approach with a family of six decision tree classifiers, namely Decision Stump, C4.5, Naive Baye's Tree, Random Forest, Random Tree and Representative Tree model to perform the detection of anomalous network pattern is introduced. In particular, the proposed swarm optimisation-based approach selects instances that compose training set and optimised decision tree operate over this trained set producing classification rules with improved coverage, classification capability and generalisation ability. Experiment with the Knowledge Discovery and Data mining (KDD) data set which have information on traffic pattern, during normal and intrusive behaviour shows that the proposed algorithm produces optimised decision rules and outperforms other machine-learning algorithm.

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

intrusion detection system
decision tree
classification

knowledge discovery and data mining dataset


Oral Pulsed Dexamethasone Therapy in Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Pulse therapy with high-dose glucocorticoids (GCs) is widely used as bridging therapy for the treatment of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Oral pulsed dexamethasone therapy has never been used for this purpose. We determined the clinical efficacy of oral pulsed dexamethasone treatment in patients with early active RA, concomitantly starting with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Fourteen early RA patients, glucocorticoid-naive and with active disease for less than 1 year were included. Ten patients were treated with oral pulsed dexamethasone therapy for 4 days in a row. Of this group, four patients received 10 mg dexamethasone/day, three patients 20 mg/day, and three patients 40 mg/day. As controls, four patients were treated with intramuscular methylprednisolone injections. Disease activity (ascertained by disease activity score [DAS]) and biochemical variables were measured at base line, and biweekly thereafter for up to 4 weeks, and monthly thereafter for up to 3 months. A decrease in disease activity, similar in all subgroups, was observed. Nine of 10 patients responded favorably (decrease in DAS of >1.2) 4 weeks after the start of the study. This response was sustained in the months thereafter. One patient did not respond at all, and disease progression during treatment was observed in one patient. No side effects were reported. Only once was a decrease in cortisol level observed; this was at 2 weeks after the start of the study (0.03 ?mol/L, reference value 0.180.70 ?mol/L). Oral pulsed dexamethasone therapy seems to be effective and safe as bridging therapy in early rheumatoid arthritis. The results of the present study justify a long-term controlled trial to compare oral pulsed dexamethasone treatment (10 mg dexamethasone, once weekly for 4 weeks) with the standard GC regimes in the near future

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

rheumatoid arthritis
therapy
oral pulsed dexamethasone


Domain evolution in ferroelectric materials: A continuum phase field model and finite element implementation A numerical tool for simulating the polarization distribution in ferroelectric materials is presented. Using the concept of a phase field, a continuum physics model is established which is descretized with finite elements. The main feature of the numerical implementation is an implicit time integration of the non-linear evolution equation. Representative examples and comparison to experimental measurements from the literature show the main features of the model.

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

ferroelectrics
micromechanics
configurational forces


Conceptual metaphors and embodied cognition: EEG coherence reveals brain activity differences between primary and complex conceptual metaphors during comprehension Because cognitive linguists assert that primary and complex conceptual metaphors are theoretical constructs with a plausible yet uncertain psychological reality, this study investigated if and how EEG coherence would differ between the two types of metaphor during comprehension. Hypothesis testing implied formalizing an algorithm of conceptual metaphor processing before collecting EEG data from 50 normal adults and looking for condition-specific EEG coherence patterns. Results confirm the psychological reality of two metaphor categories. However, they also support alternative conceptions regarding the algorithm and nature of complex metaphors, developed and discussed in this article.

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


Recovering the missing components in a large noisy low-rank matrix: Application to SFM In computer vision, it is common to require operations on matrices with "missing data," for example, because of occlusion or tracking failures in the Structure from Motion (SFM) problem. Such a problem can be tackled, allowing the recovery of the missing values, if the matrix should be of low rank ( when noise free). The filling in of missing values is known as imputation. Imputation can also be applied in the various subspace techniques for face and shape classification, online "recommender" systems, and a wide variety of other applications. However, iterative imputation can lead to the "recovery" of data that is seriously in error. In this paper, we provide a method to recover the most reliable imputation, in terms of deciding when the inclusion of extra rows or columns, containing significant numbers of missing entries, is likely to lead to poor recovery of the missing parts. Although the proposed approach can be equally applied to a wide range of imputation methods, this paper addresses only the SFM problem. The performance of the proposed method is compared with Jacobs' and Shum's methods for SFM.

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

missing-data problem
rank constraint
singular value decomposition
denoising capacity
affine sfm
linear subspace


Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition and plant-wide MPC coordination Due to the enormous success of model predictive control (MPC) in industrial practice, the efforts to extend its application from unit-wide to plant-wide control are becoming more widespread. In general, industrial practice has tended toward a decentralized MPC architecture. Most existing MPC systems work independently of other MPC systems installed within the plant and pursue a unit/local optimal operation. Thus, a margin for plant-wide performance improvement may be available beyond what decentralized MPC can offer. Coordinating decentralized, autonomous MPC has been identified as a practical approach to improving plant-wide performance. In this work, we propose a framework for designing a coordination system for decentralized MPC which requires only minor modification to the current MPC layer. This work studies the feasibility of applying Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition to provide an on-line solution for coordinating decentralized MPC. The proposed coordinated, decentralized MPC system retains the reliability and maintainability of current distributed MPC schemes. An empirical study of the computational complexity is used to illustrate the efficiency of coordination and provide some guidelines for the application of the proposed coordination strategy. Finally, two case studies are performed to show the ease of implementation of the coordinated, decentralized MPC scheme and the resultant improvement in the plant-wide performance of the decentralized control system. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

dantzig-wolfe decomposition
complexity analysis


My space or your space? Towards a measure of joint accessibility Research on spacetime accessibility is usually concerned with determining and assessing the opportunities for individual activity participation. However, a significant part of everyday activities is conducted jointly with others, implying that the feasibility of potential locations for activity engagement depends on the accumulation of conditions related to the spatiotemporal setting of each participant. In this paper, we put forward a method to gauge the accessibility of places to a particular group of people willing to engage in a joint activity. The method calculates locational benefits by taking into account network-based travel times, individual activity schedules, and the attractiveness and temporal availability of facilities. The applicability of the method extends towards situations with multiple facilities and participants, being available for multiple periods of time. As a possible output of our model, maps of joint accessibility are created which can be used to evaluate different rendezvous scenarios.

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

joint accessibility
spacetime accessibility

time-geography
joint activity participation


Decision and approximation complexity for identifying codes and locating-dominating sets in restricted graph classes ? An identifying code is a subset of vertices of a graph with the property that each vertex is uniquely determined (identified) by its nonempty neighbourhood within the identifying code. When only vertices out of the code are asked to be identified, we get the related concept of a locating-dominating set. These notions are closely related to a number of similar and well-studied concepts such as the one of a test cover. In this paper, we study the decision problems Identifying Code and Locating-Dominating Set (which consist in deciding whether a given graph admits an identifying code or a locating-dominating set, respectively, with a given size) and their minimization variants Minimum Identifying Code and Minimum Locating-Dominating Set. These problems are known to be NP-hard, even when the input graph belongs to a number of specific graph classes such as planar bipartite graphs. Moreover, it is known that they are approximable within a logarithmic factor, but hard to approximate within any sub-logarithmic factor. We extend the latter result to the case where the input graph is bipartite, split or co-bipartite: both problems remain hard in these cases. Among other results, we also show that for bipartite graphs of bounded maximum degree (at least 3), the two problems are hard to approximate within some constant factor, a question which was open. We summarize all known results in the area, and we compare them to the ones for the related problem Dominating Set. In particular, our work exhibits important graph classes for which Dominating Set is efficiently solvable, but Identifying Code and Locating-Dominating Set are hard (whereas in all previous works, their complexity was the same). We also introduce graph classes for which the converse holds, and for which the complexities of Identifying Code and Locating-Dominating Set differ.

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

test cover
identifying code
approximation

separating system
locating-dominating set
np-completeness


Construction algorithm for network error-correcting codes attaining the singleton bound We give a centralized deterministic algorithm for constructing linear network error-correcting codes that attain the Singleton bound of network error-correcting codes. The proposed algorithm is based on the algorithm by Jaggi et al. We give estimates on the time complexity and the required symbol size of the proposed algorithm. We also estimate the probability of a random choice of local encoding vectors by all intermediate nodes giving a network error-correcting codes attaining the Singleton bound. We also clarify the relationship between the robust network coding and the network error-correcting codes with known locations of errors.

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

error correction
mds code
random network coding


Higher order numerical methods for solving fractional differential equations In this paper we introduce higher order numerical methods for solving fractional differential equations. We use two approaches to this problem. The first approach is based on a direct discretisation of the fractional differential operator: we obtain a numerical method for solving a linear fractional differential equation with order 0 0. The order of convergence of the numerical method is O(h 3) for ??1 and O(h 1+2? ) for 0<??1 for sufficiently smooth solutions. Numerical examples are given to show that the numerical results are consistent with the theoretical results.

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


DIPKIP: A CONNECTIONIST KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO IDENTIFY KNOWLEDGE DEFICITS IN PRACTICAL CASES This study presents a novel, multidisciplinary research project entitled DIPKIP (data acquisition, intelligent processing, knowledge identification and proposal), which is a Knowledge Management (KM) system that profiles the KM status of a company. Qualitative data is fed into the system that allows it not only to assess the KM situation in the company in a straightforward and intuitive manner, but also to propose corrective actions to improve that situation. DIPKIP is based on four separate steps. An initial Data Acquisition step, in which key data is captured, is followed by an Intelligent Processing step, using neural projection architectures. Subsequently, the Knowledge Identification step catalogues the company into three categories, which define a set of possible theoretical strategic knowledge situations: knowledge deficit, partial knowledge deficit, and no knowledge deficit. Finally, a Proposal step is performed, in which the knowledge processescreation/acquisition, transference/distribution, and putting into practice/updatingare appraised to arrive at a coherent recommendation. The knowledge updating process (increasing the knowledge held and removing obsolete knowledge) is in itself a novel contribution. DIPKIP may be applied as a decision support system, which, under the supervision of a KM expert, can provide useful and practical proposals to senior management for the improvement of KM, leading to flexibility, cost savings, and greater competitiveness. The research also analyses the future for powerful neural projection models in the emerging field of KM by reviewing a variety of robust unsupervised projection architectures, all of which are used to visualize the intrinsic structure of high-dimensional data sets. The main projection architecture in this research, known as Cooperative Maximum-Likelihood Hebbian Learning (CMLHL), manages to capture a degree of KM topological ordering based on the application of cooperative lateral connections. The results of two real-life case studies in very different industrial sectors corroborated the relevance and viability of the DIPKIP system and the concepts upon which it is founded.

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

data and knowledge visualization
connectionism and neural nets
knowledge-based systems
knowledge management applications
discovery-based science


Disruptive information system innovation: the case of internet computing Abstract.? Information system (IS) innovation can be defined as a novel organizational application of digital computer and information communication technologies (ICT). This paper discusses how modalities of applying ICT technologies in their form and scope exhibit radical breaks, which are introduced herein as disruptive IS innovations. This notion of disruptive IS innovation is developed by drawing upon and extending Swanson's (1994) theory of IS innovation as well as the concept of radical innovation. Disruptive innovations strongly influence the future trajectory of the adoption and use of ICT in organizational contexts and make the trajectory deviate from its expected course. In doing so, these disruptive innovations distinctly define what an IS is and how it is deployed in order to address current and future organizational and managerial prerogatives. Such changes are triggered breakthroughs in the capability of ICT that lead to the revision and expansion of associated cognitive models (frames) of computing. Disruptive IS innovations are those that lead to changes in the application of ICT that are both pervasive and radical. The pervasive nature implies that innovative activity spans all innovation subsets of the quad-core model of IS innovation introduced herein. Innovation types include: IS use and development processes; application architecture and capability; and base technologies. Radical in nature, disruptive is innovations depart in significant ways from existing alternatives and lead to deviation from expected use and diffusion trajectory. This paper demonstrates the importance of a concept of disruptive IS innovation by investigating how changes triggered by internet computing (Lyytinen etal., 1998) meet the conditions of a disruptive IS innovation defined herein. The analysis also affirms both the pervasive and radical nature of internet computing and explains how internet computing has fundamentally transformed the application portfolio, development practices and IS services over time. The analysis demonstrates that, with the concept of disruptive IS innovation, we can fruitfully analyse long waves of ICT evolution an issue that has largely been overlooked in the IS community. On a theoretical plane, the paper advocates the view that we need to look beyond linear, unidirectional, and atomistic concepts of the diffusion of IS innovations where innovative activity takes places in a linear fashion by oscillating between small technological innovations and small organizational innovations. In contrast, IS innovation can exhibit fundamental discontinuity; we need to theoretically grasp such disruptive moments. The recent influx of innovation, spurred by internet-based technology, offers one such moment.

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

innovation theory and models
is applications
quad-core model
software management
system development


optimal exploration of small rings In [4], the authors look at probabilistic bounds and solutions for the exploration of anonymous unoriented rings of any size by a cohort of robots. Considering identical, oblivious, and probabilistic robots, they show that at least four of them are necessary to solve the problem. Moreover, they give a randomized protocol for four robots working in any ring of size more than eight. Here we close the question of optimal ( w.r.t. the cohort size) ring exploration by probabilistic robots. Indeed, we propose a protocol for four robots working in any ring of size less or equal to eight. Composing this protocol with the one in [4], we obtain a protocol for any ring-size.

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


monadic datalog and the expressive power of languages for web information extraction Research on information extraction from Web pages (wrapping) has seen much activity in recent times (particularly systems implementations), but little work has been done on formally studying the expressiveness of the formalisms proposed or on the theoretical foundations of wrapping.In this paper, we first study monadic datalog as a wrapping language (over ranked or unranked tree structures). Using previous work by Neven and Schwentick, we show that this simple language is equivalent to full monadic second order logic (MSO) in its ability to specify wrappers. We believe that MSO has the right expressiveness required for Web information extraction and thus propose MSO as a yardstick for evaluating and comparing wrappers.Using the above result, we study the kernel fragment Elog - of the Elog wrapping language used in the Lixto system (a visual wrapper generator). The striking fact here is that Elog - exactly captures MSO, yet is easier to use. Indeed, programs in this language can be entirely visually specified. We also formally compare Elog to other wrapping languages proposed in the literature.

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

order
use
web
paper
mso
research
systems
information extraction
language
monadic datalog
wrapper
expressiveness
power
logic

html
activation
generation
trees
normalization
fragmentation
regular tree languages
program
visualization
formalism
web page
implementation
web wrapping
datalog
complexity
query evaluation
query
container


Information Loss of the Mahalanobis Distance in High Dimensions: Application to Feature Selection When an infinite training set is used, the Mahalanobis distance between a pattern measurement vector of dimensionality D and the center of the class it belongs to is distributed as a chi(2) with D degrees of freedom. However, the distribution of Mahalanobis distance becomes either Fisher or Beta depending on whether cross validation or resubstitution is used for parameter estimation in finite training sets. The total variation between chi(2) and Fisher, as well as between chi(2) and Beta, allows us to measure the information loss in high dimensions. The information loss is exploited then to set a lower limit for the correct classification rate achieved by the Bayes classifier that is used in subset feature selection.

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

bayes classifier
mahalanobis distance
feature selection
cross validation


Enumeration of binary trees and universal types Binary unlabeled ordered trees ( further called binary trees) were studied at least since Euler, who enumerated them. The number of such trees with n nodes is now known as the Catalan number. Over the years various interesting questions about the statistics of such trees were investigated ( e. g., height and path length distributions for a randomly selected tree). Binary trees find an abundance of applications in computer science. However, recently Seroussi posed a new and interesting problem motivated by information theory considerations: how many binary trees of a given path length ( sum of depths) are there? This question arose in the study of universal types of sequences. Two sequences of length p have the same universal type if they generate the same set of phrases in the incremental parsing of the Lempel-Ziv' 78 scheme since one proves that such sequences converge to the same empirical distribution. It turns out that the number of distinct types of sequences of length p corresponds to the number of binary ( unlabeled and ordered) trees, T-p, of given path length p ( and also the number of distinct Lempel-Ziv' 78 parsings of length p sequences). We first show that the number of binary trees with given path length p is asymptotically equal to T-p similar to 2(2p/(log2 p)(1+O(log-2/3 p))). Then we establish various limiting distributions for the number of nodes ( number of phrases in the Lempel-Ziv' 78 scheme) when a tree is selected randomly among all trees of given path length p. Throughout, we use methods of analytic algorithmics such as generating functions and complex asymptotics, as well as methods of applied mathematics such as the WKB method and matched asymptotics.

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


Audio-visual localization with hierarchical topographic maps: Modeling the superior colliculus A key attribute of the brain is its ability to seamlessly integrate sensory information to form a multisensory representation of the world. In early perceptual processing, the superior colliculus (SC) takes a leading role in integrating visual, auditory and somatosensory stimuli in order to direct eye movements. The SC forms a representation of multisensory space through a layering of retinotopic maps which are sensitive to different types of stimuli. These eye-centered topographic maps can adapt to crossmodal stimuli so that the SC can automatically shift our gaze, moderated by cortical feedback. In this paper we describe a neural network model of the SC consisting of a hierarchy of nine topographic maps that combine to form a multisensory retinotopic representation of audio-visual space. Our motivation is to evaluate whether a biologically plausible model of the SC can localize audio-visual inputs live from a camera and two microphones. We use spatial contrast and a novel form of temporal contrast for visual sensitivity, and interaural level difference for auditory sensitivity. Results are comparable with the performance observed in cats where coincident stimuli are accurately localized, while presentation of disparate stimuli causes a significant drop in performance. The benefit of crossmodal localization is shown by adding increasing amounts of noise to the visual stimuli to the point where audio-visual localization significantly out performs visual-only localization. This work demonstrates how a novel, biologically motivated model of low level multisensory processing can be applied to practical, real-world input in real-time, while maintaining its comparability with biology.

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

audio-visual localization
multisensory integration
computational neuroscience


Identifying low impact development strategies for flood mitigation using a fuzzy-probabilistic approach We proposed a methodology to determine optimal land use strategies for flood mitigation. The methodology captures inherent flood uncertainties and epistemic uncertainties. Flood uncertainties are considered through statistical copula functions within MCS. Epistemic uncertainties are considered through fuzzy set theory. The algorithm integrates NSGA-II, hydrological and hydraulic models and ANN.

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

uncertainty
nsga-ii
optimization
flood risk


Vocational education approach: New TEL settingsnew prospects for teachers instructional activities? This study focuses on vocational education teachers instructional activities in a new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) setting. A content analysis is applied to investigate teachers and students interactions in a 3D game context. The findings illustrate that when teachers and students interactions are mediated by a game, teachers seem to apply different discussion activities to empower vocational learning than they do in traditional classroom settings. Additionally, the present study shows that teachers spontaneously develop new ways of supporting vocational learning processes. In more detail, two main types of instructional activities were identified: a knowledge-providing approach and a joint problem-solving approach. Additionally, findings illustrate how teachers using different types of instructional approaches are followed up with different processes by students. The article is concluded with a general discussion of the emerging challenges regarding the technological and pedagogical development of vocational education and teachers instructional activities in new TEL settings based on a more long-term design-based research project (ongoing since 2004).

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

vocational education
teachers instructional activities
3d game


A new vision of evaluating gene expression signatures Uniqueness, parsimony, and best performance of gene signatures should not be the only issues of concern. Multiple near-optimal gene expression signatures are shown to provide valuable computational and biological information. Bead-chain plot that can be generated by using any suitable meta-heuristics is presented for near-optimal signature evaluation.

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

bead-chain plot
gene signature evaluation
near-optimal signature
phenotype distinction
swarm intelligence


Regular Expression Containment: Coinductive Axiomatization and Computational Interpretation We present a new sound and complete axiomatization of regular expression containment. It consists of the conventional axiomatization of concatenation, alternation, empty set and (the singleton set containing) the empty string as an idempotent semiring, the fixed-point rule E* = 1 + E x E* for Kleene-star, and a general coinduction rule as the only additional rule. Our axiomatization gives rise to a natural computational interpretation of regular expressions as simple types that represent parse trees, and of containment proofs as coercions. This gives the axiomatization a Curry-Howard-style constructive interpretation: Containment proofs do not only certify a language-theoretic containment, but, under our computational interpretation, constructively transform a membership proof of a string in one regular expression into a membership proof of the same string in another regular expression. We show how to encode regular expression equivalence proofs in Salomaa's, Kozen's and Grabmayer's axiomatizations into our containment system, which equips their axiomatizations with a computational interpretation and implies completeness of our axiomatization. To ensure its soundness, we require that the computational interpretation of the coinduction rule be a hereditarily total function. Hereditary totality can be considered the mother of syntactic side conditions: it "explains" their soundness, yet cannot be used as a conventional side condition in its own right since it turns out to be undecidable. We discuss application of regular expressions as types to bit coding of strings and hint at other applications to the wide-spread use of regular expressions for substring matching, where classical automata-theoretic techniques are a priori inapplicable. Neither regular expressions as types nor subtyping interpreted coercively are novel per se. Somewhat surprisingly, this seems to be the first investigation of a general proof-theoretic framework for the latter in the context of the former, however.

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

axiomatization
coinduction
computational interpretation
containment
equivalence
regular expression


Anchor-diagonal-based shape adaptive local support region for efficient stereo matching Local stereo algorithms are preferred for real-time applications due to their computational efficiency. Deciding the size of the required local support region is a challenging task. It fails to estimate accurate disparity for small support region and introduces fattening effect for big support region. Hence, a shape adaptive local support region is necessary to achieve accurate disparity. This paper proposes an anchor-diagonal-based shape adaptive support region construction for stereo matching. The proposed algorithm dynamically constructs local support region, and the aggregated matching cost is used for Normalized Cross-Correlation-based similarity measure. The algorithm is evaluated using benchmarked Middlebury stereo evaluation, and the obtained disparities are efficient as compared to state-of-the-art methods.

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


Combining relational calculus and the DijkstraGries method for deriving relational programs We show how to derive imperative programs for relation-based discrete structures by combining relational calculus and the DijkstraGries method. Three examples are given, viz. Warshall's algorithm for transitive closures, a breadth-first-search reachability algorithm, and an algorithm for spanning trees.

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

program derivation
relational algebra
graph theory


Pattern discovery for microsatellite genome analysis Microsatellite loci comprise an important part of eukaryotic genomes. Their applications in biology as genetic markers are related to numerous fields ranging from paternity analyses to construction of genetic maps and linkage to human disease. Existing software solutions which offer pattern discovery algorithms for the correct identification and downstream analysis of microsatellites are scarce and are proving to be inefficient to analyze large, exponentially increasing, sequenced genomes. Moreover, such analyses can be very difficult for bioinformatically inexperienced biologists. In this paper we present Microsatellite Genome Analysis (MiGA) software for the detection of all microsatellite loci in genomic data through a user friendly interface. The algorithm searches exhaustively and rapidly for most microsatellites. Contrary to other applications, MiGA takes into consideration the following three most important aspects: the efficiency of the algorithm, the usability of the software and the plethora of offered summary statistics. All of the above, help biologists to obtain basic quantitative and qualitative information regarding the presence of microsatellites in genomic data as well as downstream processes, such as selection of specific microsatellite loci for primer design and comparative genome analysis.

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

pattern discovery
microsatellites
genome analysis

bioinformatics software
mining methods
simple sequence repeats


Boundary properties of graphs for algorithmic graph problems The notion of a boundary graph property was recently introduced as a relaxation of that of a minimal property and was applied to several problems of both algorithmic and combinatorial nature. In the present paper, we first survey recent results related to this notion and then apply it to two algorithmic graph problems: HAMILTONIAN CYCLE and VERTEX k-COLORABILITY. In particular, we discover the first two boundary classes for the HAMILTONIAN CYCLE problem and prove that for any k > 3 there is a continuum of boundary classes for VERTEX k-COLORABILITY. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

computational complexity
hereditary class
vertex colorability


An extension of the spectral Tau method for numerical solution of multi-order fractional differential equations with convergence analysis The main purpose of this paper is to provide an efficient numerical approach for the fractional differential equations (FDEs) based on a spectral Tau method. An extension of the operational approach of the Tau method with the orthogonal polynomial bases is proposed to convert FDEs to its matrixvector multiplication representation. The fractional derivatives are described in the Caputo sense. The spectral rate of convergence for the proposed method is established in the L2 L 2 norm. We tested our procedure on several examples and observed that the obtained numerical results confirm the theoretical prediction of the exponential rate of convergence.

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

fractional differential equations
tau method

caputo derivative
operational approach to the tau method


Knowledge sharing practices of project teams when encountering changes in project scope: A contingency approach Prior studies indicate that undesired consequences may occur if knowledge cannot be effectively shared among members of a project team. Nevertheless, there are few studies that explore the knowledge-sharing (KS) mechanisms used and the contingency factors affecting their application in the context of managing new product development projects that encounter changes in project scope. Therefore, in this research the principles of the contingency approach were adopted in order to examine the KS mechanisms used and the contingency factors affecting their use in this context via an in-depth case study. Three key KS mechanisms and three contingency factors affecting their application were identified based on the research results. The relationship between the KS mechanisms and the contingency factors is formalized in five propositions. Future research that examines the interrelationships among these contingency factors and how they collectively influence KS practices in similar contexts is encouraged.

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

contingency approach
knowledge sharing
project teams


privacy preserving schema and data matching In many business scenarios, record matching is performed across different data sources with the aim of identifying common information shared among these sources. However such need is often in contrast with privacy requirements concerning the data stored by the sources. In this paper, we propose a protocol for record matching that preserves privacy both at the data level and at the schema level. Specifically, if two sources need to identify their common data, by running the protocol they can compute the matching of their datasets without sharing their data in clear and only sharing the result of the matching. The protocol uses a third party, and maps records into a vector space in order to preserve their privacy. Experimental results show the efficiency of the matching protocol in terms of precision and recall as well as the good computational performance.

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


The Design and Implementation of Heterogeneous Multicore Systems for Energy-efficient Speculative Thread Execution With the emergence of multicore processors, various aggressive execution models have been proposed to exploit fine-grained thread-level parallelism, taking advantage of the fast on-chip interconnection communication. However, the aggressive nature of these execution models often leads to excessive energy consumption incommensurate to execution time reduction. In the context of Thread-Level Speculation, we demonstrated that on a same-ISA heterogeneous multicore system, by dynamically deciding how on-chip resources are utilized, speculative threads can achieve performance gain in an energy-efficient way. Through a systematic design space exploration, we built a multicore architecture that integrates heterogeneous components of processing cores and first-level caches. To cope with processor reconfiguration overheads, we introduced runtime mechanisms to mitigate their impacts. To match program execution with the most energy-efficient processor configuration, the system was equipped with a dynamic resource allocation scheme that characterizes program behaviors using novel processor counters. We evaluated the proposed heterogeneous system with a diverse set of benchmark programs from SPEC CPU2000 and CPU20006 suites. Compared to the most efficient homogeneous TLS implementation, we achieved similar performance but consumed 18% less energy. Compared to the most efficient homogeneous uniprocessor running sequential programs, we improved performance by 29% and reduced energy consumption by 3.6%, which is a 42% improvement in energy-delay-squared product.

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

heterogeneous multicore
dynamic resource allocation

thread-level speculation
energy efficiency


Tuning parameter selection in sparse regression modeling In sparse regression modeling via regularization such as the lasso, it is important to select appropriate values of tuning parameters including regularization parameters. The choice of tuning parameters can be viewed as a model selection and evaluation problem. Mallows Cp C p type criteria may be used as a tuning parameter selection tool in lasso type regularization methods, for which the concept of degrees of freedom plays a key role. In the present paper, we propose an efficient algorithm that computes the degrees of freedom by extending the generalized path seeking algorithm. Our procedure allows us to construct model selection criteria for evaluating models estimated by regularization with a wide variety of convex and nonconvex penalties. The proposed methodology is investigated through the analysis of real data and Monte Carlo simulations. Numerical results show that Cp C p criterion based on our algorithm performs well in various situations.

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

degrees of freedom
generalized path seeking
model selection
regularization
sparse regression


Search-based model transformation by example Model transformation (MT) has become an important concern in software engineering. In addition to its role in model-driven development, it is useful in many other situations such as measurement, refactoring, and test-case generation. Roughly speaking, MT aims to derive a target model from a source model by following some rules or principles. So far, the contributions in MT have mostly relied on defining languages to express transformation rules. However, the task of defining, expressing, and maintaining these rules can be difficult, especially for proprietary and non-widely used formalisms. In some situations, companies have accumulated examples from past experiences. Our work starts from these observations to view the transformation problem as one to solve with fragmentary knowledge, i.e. with only examples of source-to-target MTs. Our approach has two main advantages: (1) it always proposes a transformation for a source model, even when rule induction is impossible or difficult to achieve; (2) it is independent from the source and target formalisms; aside from the examples, no extra information is needed. In this context, we propose an optimization-based approach that consists of finding in the examples combinations of transformation fragments that best cover the source model. To that end, we use two strategies based on two search-based algorithms: particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing. The results of validating our approach on industrial projects show that the obtained models are accurate.

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

search-based software engineering
automated model transformation


Clumps and collection description in the information environment in the UK with particular reference to Scotland The role, potential and interaction of networked catalogues and collection-level description have recently been given emphasis in order that efficient resource discovery mechanisms, and the effective organisation of such resources, be facilitated within the UK's developing JISC information environment (IE). This article describes the work of CC-interop, a JISC project, and related projects that inform the development of the IE and its ability to instantiate the functional model of online resource discovery to which JISC aspires. The article reviews the evolution of Z39.50 virtual union catalogue services and collection description services that preceded CC-interop. The paper also discusses how such work is informing regional information environments, with particular reference to Scotland, and reveals how such local arrangements will benefit the wider JISC IE.

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


GOFFIN'S ALGORITHM FOR ZONOTOPES The Lowner-John ellipse of a full-dimensional bounded convex set is a circumscribed ellipse with the property that if we shrink it by the factor n (where n is dimension), we obtain an inscribed ellipse. Goffin's algorithm constructs, in polynomial time, a tight approximation of the Lowner-John ellipse of a polyhedron given by facet description. In this text we adapt the algorithm for zonotopes given by generator descriptions. We show that the adapted version works in time polynomial in the size of the generator description (which may be superpolynomially shorter than the facet description).

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

lowner-john ellipse
zonotope
goffin's algorithm
ellipsoid method


Auxiliary graph based protection for survivable Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access network considering different levels of failures Survivability is one of the key issues in Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access network because network component failures may cause huge data loss, especially when the failures in optical back-end. According to the failure severity, we categorize the failures in optical back-end into two levels, that is, Optical-Network-Unit (ONU)-level failure and segment-level failure. In this paper, instead of the expensive fiber duplication approach traditionally, we propose a novel protection approach for FiWi against ONU-level failure by assigning each ONU several alternate ONUs in the same segment and against the segment-level failure by deploying backup fibers among different segments. On one hand, we optimize the assignment of alternate ONUs, aiming to maximize the amount of protected traffic and minimize the number of wireless hops. On the other hand, we optimize the deployment of backup fibers, aiming to maximize the amount of protected traffic and minimize the length of backup fibers. We mathematically formulate these two objectives as Maximum Protection and Minimum Hops Number (MPMHN) problem and the Maximum Protection and Minimum backup Fibers Length (MPMFL) problem, respectively. An efficient algorithm called Auxiliary Graph based Protection (AGP) is proposed to solve the MPMHN and MPMFL problems. In the simulation, we investigate the performance of AGP in various scenarios and demonstrate the cost-efficiency of the proposed protection approach.

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


Multidimensional scaling for group memory visualization We describe an attempt to overcome information overload through information visualization - in a particular domain, group memory. A brief review of information visualization is followed by a brief description of our methodology. We discuss our system, which uses multidimensional scaling (MDS) to visualize relationships between documents, and which we tested on 60 subjects, mostly students. We found three important land statistically significant) differences between task performance on an MDS-generated display and on a randomly generated display. With some qualifications, we conclude that MDS speeds up and improves the quality of manual classification of documents and that the MDS display agrees with subject perceptions of which documents are similar and should be displayed together. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

visualization
multidimensional scaling
group memory

organizational memory
collaborative computing
group support systems


Historical Perspective of the Maillard Reaction in Food Science Abstract: Maillard's paper of 1912 describing the reaction between amino acids and sugars is both innovative and visionary. It provides original and still-valuable data on the chemistry of a new reaction and foresees its involvement in many scientific and biological domains, even in human pathology. This paper was ignored by the scientific community until 1941. In 1948 the Maillard reaction was definitely recognized as being responsible for the browning and loss of nutritive value of heated milk powders. There was then a continuous increase in papers on the chemistry of this complex reaction to identify its various pathways: in food science, to evaluate the influence of reaction parameters (pH, T, time, sugar reactivity, concentration of the reagents, water activity, glass transition temperature) on the evolution of the reaction and on changes in food quality; in nutrition, to quantify the loss of bioavailability of essential amino acids; on the metabolism of the reaction products and on the physiological effects of the ingested Maillard reaction products. The significant scientific advances and the key persons and pioneers who contributed much to the understanding of the Maillard reaction are presented. The food industry is directly concerned with the occurrence of this reaction in processed foods and contributed significantly by its own research to understanding the phenomena and to optimizing the processes and conditions of food preparation in order to preserve the nutritional, safety, and organoleptic qualities of foods.

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

chemistry
food science
nutrition
safety
metabolism
physiological effects


Automatic generation control of multi area thermal system using Bat algorithm optimized PDPID cascade controller PDPID Cascade controller for the first time in AGC. BAT algorithm for optimization of controllers parameters. Performances of several controllers are evaluated with SLP and random load pattern. Comparison revels that PDPID Cascade is best. Sensitivity analysis reveals the robustness of the optimum gains.

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

automatic generation control
cascade controller
bat algorithm
sensitivity analysis
random load pattern


Computational models for computing fuzzy cardinal directional relations between regions In this paper, we investigate the deficiency of Goyal and Egenhofers method for modeling cardinal directional relations between simple regions and provide the computational model based on the concept of mathematical morphology, which can be a complement and refinement of Goyal and Egenhofers model for crisp regions. To the best of our knowledge, the cardinal directional relations between fuzzy regions have not been modeled. Based on fuzzy set theory, we extend Goyal and Egenhofers model to handle fuzziness and provide a computational model based on alpha-morphology, which combines fuzzy set theory and mathematical morphology, to refine the fuzzy cardinal directional relations. Then the computational problems are investigated. The definitions for the cardinal directions are not important and we aim to present the methodology and power of using fuzzy morphology to model directional relations. We also give an example of spatial configuration in 2-dimensional discrete space. The experiment results confirm the cognitive plausibility of our computational 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 B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

cardinal direction
computational geometry


Latent space robust subspace segmentation based on low-rank and locality constraints We propose a new latent space robust subspace segmentation method. We build the connections between the proposed algorithm and robust coding methods. We devise a weighted l1-norm regularizer to capture local structures of data sets.

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

subspace segmentation
latent space
robust coding


Generalized lattice-BGK concept for thermal and chemically reacting flows at low Mach numbers The lattice-BGK method has been extended by introducing additional, free parameters in the original formulation of the lattice-BGK methods. The relationship between these parameters and the macroscopic moment equations is analysed by Taylor series and Chapman-Enskog expansion. The parameters are determined from the macroscopic moment equations by comparisons with the governing equations to be modelled. Extensions are presented for the Navier-Stokes equations at low Mach numbers in Cartesian or axisymmetric coordinates with constant or variable density, for scalar convection-diffusion equations and for equations of Poisson type. The generalized lattice-BGK concept is demonstrated by two applications of chemical engineering. These are the computation of chemically reacting flow through an axisymmetric reactor and of the transport and deposition of particles to filters under the action of different forces. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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