Bringing Cross-Layer MIMO to Today's Wireless LANs Recent years have seen major innovations in cross-layer wireless designs. Despite demonstrating significant throughput gains, hardly any of these technologies have made it into real networks. Deploying cross-layer innovations requires adoption from Wi-Fi chip manufacturers. Yet, manufacturers hesitate to undertake major investments without a better understanding of how these designs interact with real networks and applications. This paper presents the first step towards breaking this stalemate, by enabling the adoption of cross-layer designs in today's networks with commodity Wi-Fi cards and actual applications. We present OpenRF, a cross-layer architecture for managing MIMO signal processing. OpenRF enables access points on the same channel to cancel their interference at each other's clients, while beamforming their signal to their own clients. OpenRF is self-configuring, so that network administrators need not understand MIMO or physical layer techniques. We patch the iwlwifi driver to support OpenRF on off-the-shelf Intel cards. We deploy OpenRF on a 20-node network, showing how it manages the complex interaction of cross-layer design with a real network stack, TCP, bursty traffic, and real applications. Our results demonstrate an average gain of 1.6x for TCP traffic and a significant reduction in response time for real-time applications, like remote desktop.

O O B 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 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 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


A simple branching scheme for vertex coloring problems We present a branching scheme for some vertex coloring problems based on a new graph operator called extension. The extension operator is used to generalize the branching scheme proposed by Zykov for the basic problem to a broad class of coloring problems, such as graph multicoloring, where each vertex requires a multiplicity of colors, graph bandwidth coloring, where the colors assigned to adjacent vertices must differ by at least a given distance, and graph bandwidth multicoloring, which generalizes both the multicoloring and the bandwidth coloring problems. We report some computational evidence of the effectiveness of the new branching scheme.

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

graph bandwidth multicoloring
branching scheme


Provision of awareness of learners' emotions through visualizations in a computer interaction-based environment One of the challenges of intelligent systems for education is to use low-level data collected in computer environments in the form of events or interactions to infer information with high-level significance using artificial intelligence techniques, and present it through visualizations in a meaningful and effective way. Among this information, emotional data is gaining track in by instructors in their educational activities. Many benefits can be obtained if an intelligent systems can bring teachers with knowledge about their learner's emotions, learning causes, and learning relationships with emotions. In this paper, we propose and justify a set of visualizations for an intelligent system to provide awareness about the emotions of the learners to the instructor based on the learners' interactions in their computers. We apply these learner's affective visualizations in a programming course at University level with more than 300 students, and analyze and interpret the student's emotional results in connection with the learning process. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

learning analytics
intelligent systems emotion awareness
affective learning
visualization


Brain-based devices for the study of nervous systems and the development of intelligent machines The simultaneous study of brain function at all levels of organization is difficult to undertake with current experimental tools. Present day electrophysiology only allows the recording of at most hundreds of neurons while an animal is performing a behavioral task. Because of this limitation and the sheer complexity of the nervous system, computational modeling has become essential in developing theories of brain function. Accordingly, our group has constructed a series of brain-based devices (BBDs), that is, physical devices with simulated nervous systems that guide behavior, to serve as a heuristic for testing theories of brain function. Unlike animal models, BBDs permit analysis of activity at all levels of the nervous system as the device behaves in its environment. Although the principal focus of developing BBDs has been to test theories of brain function, this type of modeling may also provide a basis for robotic design and practical applications.

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

adaptive behavior
learning
neuroscience
perception
robots


support for the file system security requirements of computational e-mail systems Computational e-mail systems, which allow mail messages to contain command scripts that automatically execute upon receipt, can be used as a basis for building a variety of collaborative applications. However, their use also presents a serious security problem because a command script from a sender may access/modify receiver's private files or execute applications on receiver's behalf. Existing solutions to the problem either severely restrict I/O capability of scripts, limiting the range of applications that can be supported over computational e-mail, or permit all I/O to scripts, potentially compromising the security of the receiver's files. Our model, called the intersection model of security, permits I/O for e-mail from trusted senders but without compromising the security of private files. We describe two implementations of our security model: an interpreter-level implementation and an operating systems-level implementation. We discuss the tradeoffs between the two implementations and suggest directions for future work.

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

requirements
applications
security
use
script
systems
computational email
implementation
support
model
future

active email
collaboration
groupware
interpretation
message
computation
operating system
direct
computer-supported cooperative work
access
collaboration technology
security model
trust
file systems


Generalized likelihood ratio tests for complex fMRI data: A simulation study Statistical tests developed for the analysis of (intrinsically complex valued) functional magnetic resonance time series, are generally applied to the data's magnitude components. However, during the past five years, new tests were developed that incorporate the complex nature of fMRI data. In particular, a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) was proposed based on a constant phase model [19]. In this work, we evaluate the sensitivity of GLRTs for complex data to small misspecifications of the phase model by means of simulation experiments. It is argued that, in practical situations, GLRTs based on magnitude data are likely to perform better compared to GLRTs based on complex data in terms of detection rate and constant false alarm rate properties.

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

fmri
generalized likelihood ratio test
magnitude data


Generalized PLS regression The present paper develops a class of generalized partial least squares (GPLS) regression methods. GPLS can be regarded as a kind of weighted partial least squares regression method. Two special cases of them, ridge partial least squares (RPLS) and generalized ridge partial least squares (GRPLS) regression methods, are discussed in detail. RPLS and GRPLS combine partial least squares (PLS) with ridge regression (RR) and generalized ridge regression (GRR) respectively. It is shown that the estimated coefficient vectors by RPLS and GRPLS are shrunken PLS estimators and their prediction power is not so sensitive to the components included in the model compared to PLS. The four methods RR, PLS, RPLS and GRPLS are compared on the basis of three data sets under the criteria of prediction residual error sum of squares (PRESS) and mean squared error of prediction (MSEP). Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

generalized ridge partial least squares regression


Java Iconic Visual Environment for Simulation (JIVESim) This paper introduces and investigates the use of a Java Iconic Visual Environment for Simulation (JIVESim). JIVESim is an iconic modelling environment for discrete-event simulation. The paper will give an overview of JIVESim and its architecture, which consists of atomic icons and integrated icons. The advantages of Java language that support discrete event simulation will be discussed. The aim of the paper is to address some of the challenges that computer simulation faces. These challenges are complexity, inaccessibility, and high cost. Related aspects of design and implementation are presented and critiqued. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

simulation modelling
iconic modelling environments
visual modelling


Understanding and controlling rotations in factor analytic models Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) is a least-squares approach for solving the factor analysis problem. It has been implemented in several forms. Initially, a program called PMF2 was used. Subsequently, a new, more flexible modeling tool, the Multilinear Engine, was developed. These programs can utilize different approaches to handle the problem of rotational indeterminacy. Although both utilize non-negativity constraints to reduce rotational freedom, such constraints are generally insufficient to wholly eliminate the rotational problem. Additional approaches to control rotations are discussed in this paper: (1) global imposition of additions among "scores" and subtractions among the corresponding "loadings" (or vice versa), (2) constraining individual factor elements, either scores and/or loadings, toward zero values, (3) prescribing values for ratios of certain key factor elements, or (4) specifying certain columns of the loadings matrix as known fixed values. It is emphasized that application of these techniques must be based on some external information about acceptable or desirable shapes of factors. If no such a priori information exists, then the full range of possible, rotations can be explored, but, there is no basis for choosing one of these rotations as the "best" result. Methods for estimating the rotational ambiguity in any specific result are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Parameter identification and hysteresis compensation of embedded piezoelectric stack actuators A novel method for the identification of embedded piezoelectric stack actuator parameters in combination with a real-time capable hysteresis compensation measure is presented. The presented algorithms are based on the Maxwell resistive capacitor model and are particularly useful for the identification of piezoelectric actuators embedded in a high-precision micropositioning system where the disassembly of the complete system for separate actuator identification is not recommended or not possible. The parameter identification can be performed in a fully automated way and enables the adaptation of the compensation routine to the changed circumstances (temperature difference, wearing of actuators) as well. The hysteresis compensation method proposed here does not require significant CPU or memory resources. It can be implemented as an additional task on the already existing controller or a low-budget FPGA. As an example, the proposed method was validated experimentally by the parameter identification and hysteresis compensation of the piezoelectric actuators incorporated in a commercially available hybrid micropositioning system. The achieved experimental results are in very good agreement with the theoretical ones. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

piezoelectric actuator
real-time application


parallel protein structure determination from uncertain data Molecular structure determination is an important task in biology because of the intimate relation between form and function of biological molecules. Individual sources of information about molecular structure are subject to uncertainty and are not sufficiently abundant to define the structure to high accuracy by themselves. We have examined a probabilistic algorithm, PROTEAN, which can incorporate multiple sources of uncertain data to estimate the three-dimensional structure of molecules and also predict a measure of the uncertainty in the estimated structure. We have applied this algorithm successfully to several biological structure problems. Like most structure prediction methods, this algorithm is computationally expensive for realistic biological macromolecules. In this paper, we experiment with speeding up the algorithm through the application of parallelism. We present a parallel version of the algorithm, and demonstrate good speedups on a 32-processor Stanford DASH, a cache-coherent shared-address-space multiprocessor. The results were obtained by exploiting data locality only in the per-processor coherent caches, without attempt to distribute data intelligently in the physically distributed main memory of the machine. We also obtained very good speedups on a state-of-the-art commercial multiprocessor, the Silicon Graphics Challenge. Finally, we propose an extension to the serial algorithm which enables it to handle a wider class of data, and discuss the potential for parallelization of the extended algorithm.

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

challenge
task
uncertainty
data locality
graphics
paper
predict
structure
accuracy
parallel
data
demonstrate
version
relation
distributed
algorithm
caches
multiprocessor
class

measurement
speedup
estimates
applications
addressing
extensibility
experience
art
informal
coherence
sharing
processor
cache
method
determinism
space
functional
memorialized
uncertain data
protein structure
probabilistic algorithm


QoS routing with traffic distribution in mobile ad hoc networks Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) follow a unique organizational and behavioral logic. MANETs' characteristics such as their dynamic topology coupled with the characteristics of the wireless communication medium make Quality of Service provisioning a difficult challenge. This paper presents a new approach based on a mobile routing backbone for supporting Quality of Service (QoS) in MANETs. In real-life MANETs, nodes will possess different communication capabilities and processing characteristics. Hence, we aim to identify those nodes whose capabilities and characteristics will enable them to take part in the mobile routing backbone and efficiently participate in the routing process. Moreover, the route discovery mechanism we developed for the mobile routing backbone dynamically distributes traffic within the network according to current network traffic levels and nodes' processing loads. Simulation results show that our solution improves network throughput and packet delivery ratio by directing traffic through lowly congested regions of the network that are rich in resources. Moreover, our protocol incurs lower communication overheads than AODV (ad hoc on-demand distance vector routing protocol) when searching for routes in the network. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

quality of service
routing
mobile ad hoc networks


CFES: Comprehensive Framework for Forensic Analysis of Embedded Systems Nowadays, embedded systems such as mobile phones, MP3 players, PMPs, and GPS navigation systems have become an integral part of our life. However, the increasing popularity of the use of digital devices has led to an increase in the diversity of cyber crime. Therefore, the forensic community has concentrated on countermeasures against emerging cyber crime techniques and embedded system investigations. While novel forensic analysis methodologies have been proposed for each embedded system known to the forensic community, there is no comprehensive framework for general embedded system forensics. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a general-purpose framework for forensic analysis of embedded systems for future communications and computing. The CFES framework (Comprehensive Framework for Forensic analysis of Embedded Systems) is designed for a comprehensive analysis environment and is a general methodology of extracting useful information about various embedded systems. CFES provides an effective analysis environment and various analysis toolkits, which can be applied to most of embedded systems. Further, it can perform a correlation analysis on the results of embedded system investigations.

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

embedded system investigation
forensic methodology
forensic framework
digital forensics


Computing polycyclic presentations for polycyclic rational matrix groups We describe practical algorithms for computing a polycyclic presentation and for facilitating a membership test for a polycyclic subgroup of GL(d, Q). A variation of this method can be used to check whether a finitely generated subgroup of GL(d, Q) is solvable or solvable-by-finite. We report on our implementations of the algorithms for determining a polycyclic presentation. and checking solvability. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

polycyclic group
matrix group
representation


Continuous models for 2D discrete media valid for higher-frequency domain The paper is focused on 2D continuous models derived from a discrete micro-structure. A new continualization procedure that refers to the non-local interaction between variables of the discrete media is proposed. The proposed procedure covers mainly the application of two-point Pad approximations and allows us to obtain continuous models suitable for analysis of 2D lattice vibrations with arbitrary frequencies.

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 B I O O O O

continuous model
dynamics
higher-frequency domain
pade approximations


Modelling of an intermittently aerated completely mixed activated sludge reactor Mathematical models for description of dynamic behaviour of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification processes carried out in an intermittently aerated completely mixed activated sludge reactor (CMASR) are presented. The general IAWPRC activated sludge model has been extended with volatilisation process of wastewater impurity. The influence of wastewater composition on oxygen transport rate is also included. Different approaches for dissolved oxygen incorporation in biochemical reaction kinetics have been applied. Determination of some biokinetic parameter values by evaluating steady-state measurements of process variables is implied in one version of the proposed models. Experimental modelling of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification processes, carried out in an industrial Carrousel activated sludge reactor, was performed in the lab-scale intermittently aerated CMASR. Organic, ammonium, and heavy metal shock loads were applied in order to simulate transient behaviour of the lab-scale reactor and the influence of heavy metal on biochemical processes and biokinetic parameter values has been investigated. Dissolved oxygen concentration in activated sludge reactor, COD, ammonium, nitrate and biomass concentration responses of reactor were measured and evaluated. Good agreement between the observed data and calculated values by verified models has been achieved. Estimated values of biokinetic parameters, found by optimisation procedure, are close to those recommended for simulation of domestic wastewater treatment processes. The applicability of the IAWPRC kinetic and stoichiometric concept for dynamic behaviour description of an intermittently aerated CMASR reactor, including the above mentioned extension and modification, is demonstrated in the work.

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


Computing polygonal path simplification under area measures ? In this paper, we consider the restricted version of the well-known 2D line simplification problem under area measures and for restricted version. We first propose a unified definition for both of sum-area and difference-area measures that can be used on a general path of n vertices. The optimal simplification runs in O(n3) under both of these measures. Under sum-area measure and for a realistic input path, we propose an approximation algorithm of O n 2 ? time complexity to find a simplification of the input path, where ? is the absolute error of this algorithm compared to the optimal solution. Furthermore, for difference-area measure, we present an algorithm that finds the optimal simplification in O(n2) time. The best previous results work only on x-monotone paths while both of our algorithms work on general paths. To the best of our knowledge, the results presented here are the first sub-cubic simplification algorithms on these measures for general paths.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 geometry
linear model simplification
area difference


cooperatives of distributed energy resources for efficient virtual power plants The creation of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) has been suggested in recent years as the means for achieving the cost-efficient integration of the many distributed energy resources (DERs) that are starting to emerge in the electricity network. In this work, we contribute to the development of VPPs by offering a game-theoretic perspective to the problem. Specifically, we design cooperatives (or "cooperative VPPs"---CVPPs) of rational autonomous DER-agents representing small-to-medium size renewable electricity producers, which coalesce to profitably sell their energy to the electricity grid. By so doing, we help to counter the fact that individual DERs are often excluded from the wholesale energy market due to their perceived inefficiency and unreliability. We discuss the issues surrounding the emergence of such cooperatives, and propose a pricing mechanism with certain desirable properties. Specifically, our mechanism guarantees that CVPPs have the incentive to truthfully report to the grid accurate estimates of their electricity production, and that larger rather than smaller CVPPs form; this promotes CVPP efficiency and reliability. In addition, we propose a scheme to allocate payments within the cooperative, and show that, given this scheme and the pricing mechanism, the allocation is in the core and, as such, no subset of members has a financial incentive to break away from the CVPP. Moreover, we develop an analytical tool for quantifying the uncertainty about DER production estimates, and distinguishing among different types of errors regarding such estimates. We then utilize this tool to devise protocols to manage CVPP membership. Finally, we demonstrate these ideas through a simulation that uses real-world data.

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

energy and emissions
incentives for cooperation
coalition formation


Fast regression methods in a Lanczos (or PLS-1) basis. Theory and applications In order to improve the calibration speed for very large data sets, novel algorithms for principal component regression (PCR) and partial-least-squares (PLS) regression are presented. They use the Lanczos or PLS-1 transformation to reduce the data matrix X to a small bidiagonal matrix (R), after which the small tridiagonal matrix (R'R) is diagonalized and inverted. The complexity of the PCR model may be optimized by cross-validation (PCRL) but also using simpler and faster recipes based upon sound-off monitoring and model fit (PCRF). A similar fast PLS procedure (PLSF) is also presented. Calculations are made for five near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) data sets and compared with PCR with feature selection (PCRS) based on correlation and with de Jong's simple partial least squares (SIMPLS). The Lanczos-based methods have comparable prediction performance and similar model complexity to PCRS and SIMPLS but are considerably faster. From a detailed comparison of the methods, some insight is gained into the performance of the PLS method. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Information clustering based on fuzzy multisets A fuzzy multiset model for information clustering is proposed with application to information retrieval on the World Wide Web. Noting that a search engine retrieves multiple occurrences of the same subjects with possibly different degrees of relevance, we observe that fuzzy multisets provide an appropriate model of information retrieval on the WWW. Information clustering which means both term clustering and document clustering is considered. Three methods of the hard c-means, fuzzy c-means, and an agglomerative method using cluster centers are proposed. Two distances between fuzzy multisets and algorithms for calculating cluster centers are defined. Theoretical properties concerning the clustering algorithms are studied. Illustrative examples are given to show how the algorithms work.

O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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
cluster center
algorithm


Deterministic protocols for real-time communication in multiple access networks In a distributed real-rime system, tasks scheduled on different nodes communicate by message passing mechanisms. In such a system, where messages are characterized by service times and deadlines, the timely delivery of messages before their deadlines, is of prime importance. In this article, we consider the problem of time-constrained communication over a multiple access network. Prior work in this area has resulted in very few protocols that can bound the worst case channel access time in order to ensure predictability of message transmission. These protocols cannot efficiently support messages having multiple packets (packet is a basic unit of transmission) which are needed in most peer-to-peer and client-server real-time applications. As a solution to the problem, we propose best effort protocols based on CSMA/CD protocol with deterministic collision resolution, that use a concept of message deferment, which is based on laxity (laxity is the maximum amount of time that the transmission of a message can be delayed). We study the effectiveness of the proposed protocols through extensive simulation studies by comparing them with well known protocols. The simulation results indicate the superiority of the proposed protocols. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multiple access network
collision resolution
best effort protocols


Project methods as the vehicle for learning in undergraduate design education: a typology Learning through projects is a common feature in practice-based design education. While theory and case-based literature on problem-based learning abounds, the project methods more familiar to design education are rarely defined in practical curriculum development terms. This paper outlines a study of project types in use in a faculty of design. The study identified six project types, four domains and 11 sub-domains related to curriculum design and pedagogical strategies. The resulting propositional typology is presented as a tool for decision-making in project-oriented curriculum design. Also briefly discussed are some significant areas of alignment difficulty found during the study.

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

case study/studies
project-based learning


The 3D wave equation and its Cartesian coordinate stretched perfectly matched embedding - A time-domain Green's function performance analysis A general class of 3D perfectly matched, i.e., reflectionless, Cartesian embeddings (perfectly matched layers in the three coordinate directions) is analyzed with the aid of a combined time-domain Green's function technique and a time-domain, causality-preserving, Cartesian coordinate stretching procedure. It is shown that, for an unbounded embedding of the specified class, the wavefield is, in any 3-rectangular computational solution domain, reproduced exactly. The spurious reflection caused by a (computationally necessary) truncation of the embedding is analyzed as a function of layer thicknesses and their coordinate stretching relaxation functions. A time-domain uniqueness proof for the solution to the truncated embedding problem is provided and a numerical illustration is given for a test case with known analytical solution. For such cases, the pure space-time discretization errors can be separated from the disturbance caused by the spurious reflection. For the second-order coordinate stretched wave equation an equivalent system of first-order equations is presented. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

computational modeling
perfectly matched embeddings
time-domain wavefield computation


A new user-friendly visual environment for breast MRI data analysis In this paper a novel, user friendly visual environment for Breast MRI Data Analysis is presented (BreDAn). Given planar MRI images before and after IV contrast medium injection, BreDAn generates kinematic graphs, color maps of signal increase and decrease and finally detects high risk breast areas. The advantage of BreDAn, which has been validated and tested successfully, is the automation of the radiodiagnostic process in an accurate and reliable manner. It can potentially facilitate radiologists workload.

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

magnetic resonance imaging
mammography
cdss
cad
kinetics


Video image mosaic implement based on planar-mirror-based catadioptric system Planar-mirror-based catadioptric method is one of the most hot topics in recent years. To overcome the disadvantages of the planar-mirror-based catadioptric panoramic camera, described by Nalwa(1996, 2001, 2000), such as the requirement for high-precision optical device designing and the stitching lines in the resulting images, we proposed a planar-mirror-based video image mosaic system with high precision for designing. Firstly, we designed a screw nut on our system, which can be adjusted to locate the viewpoints of the cameras mirror images at a single point approximately. It provides a method for those who have difficulties in their designing and manufacturing for high precision. Then, after the image distortion correction and cylinder projection transforms, we can stitch the images to get a wide field of view image by template matching algorithm. Finally, nonlinear weighting fusion is adopted to eliminate the stitching line effectively. The experimental results show that our system has good characteristics such as video rate capture, high resolution, no stitching line and without affection by the depth of field of view.

catadioptric systems
mirror pyramids
image registration
real-time system


Dynamic server selection using fuzzy inference in content distribution networks To accommodate the exponential growth of Web traffic, Content Distribution Networks (CDN) have been designed and deployed to distribute content to different cache servers, and to transparently and dynamically redirect user requests to the cache servers according to the latest network and server status. Server selection therefore is vital and crucial to both the functionality and performance of any CDN systems. An appropriate server should be selected by taking estimated user location, measured round-trip time, and advertised server load into account. However, it is unlikely to obtain accurate and timely inputs of these parameters in practice, so that the effectiveness and efficiency of CDN cannot be fully achieved by traditional means. In this paper, a novel CDN server selection scheme using fuzzy inference is proposed. The scheme selects appropriate servers based on partial round-trip time measurements and historical server load information, and it can be implemented generically wherever the decision is made. It is shown that the fuzzy inference-based scheme is inherently capable of handling multiple decision inputs efficiently, tolerable to measurement noise and errors, and able to deal with network dynamics. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with other server selection schemes, the proposed scheme can achieve higher resource utilization, provide better user-perceived Quality of Service (QoS), and efficiently deal with network dynamics. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

computer network performance
fuzzy logic


A fuzzy k-prototype clustering algorithm for mixed numeric and categorical data In many applications, data objects are described by both numeric and categorical features. The k-prototype algorithm is one of the most important algorithms for clustering this type of data. However, this method performs hard partition, which may lead to misclassification for the data objects in the boundaries of regions, and the dissimilarity measure only uses the user-given parameter for adjusting the significance of attribute. In this paper, first, we combine mean and fuzzy centroid to represent the prototype of a cluster, and employ a new measure based on co-occurrence of values to evaluate the dissimilarity between data objects and prototypes of clusters. This measure also takes into account the significance of different attributes towards the clustering process. Then we present our algorithm for clustering mixed data. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by a series of experiments on four real world datasets in comparison with that of traditional clustering algorithms.

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

fuzzy clustering
data mining
attribute significance


A study of the informatics literacy of clinical nurses in Taiwan The purpose of this study is to identify the essential components for informatics literacy for clinical nurses working in Taiwanese hospitals. We developed a framework to explore the critical informatics literacy factors that clinical nurses should understand to be proficient in performing their professional duties. Survey methodology was used and the participants were senior administrators of nursing and other personnel in charge of implementing nursing information systems for 84 regional hospitals and medical centers. A total of 50 valid questionnaires was returned, with a 59.5% response rate. In summary, the results of the Taiwanese study are divided into three factors: informatics knowledge, informatics skills, and computer attitudes. A total of 58 questions was used for the measurement of initial nursing informatics literacy, and 49 items were considered to be the most required informatics literacy skills specifically for clinical nurses.

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


A comparative study of Java and C performance in two large-scale parallel applications In the 1990s the Message Passing Interface Forum defined MPI bindings for Fortran, C, and C++. With the success of MPI these relatively conservative languages have continued to dominate in the parallel computing community. There are compelling arguments in favour of more modern languages like Java. These include portability, better runtime error checking, modularity, and multi-threading. But these arguments have not converted many HPC programmers, perhaps due to the scarcity of full-scale scientific Java codes, and the lack of evidence for performance competitive with C or Fortran. This paper tries to redress this situation by porting two scientific applications to Java. Both of these applications are parallelized using our thread-safe Java messaging system-MPJ Express. The first application is the Gadget-2 code, which is a massively parallel structure formation code for cosmological simulations. The second application uses the finite-domain time-difference method for simulations in the area of computational electromagnetics. We evaluate and compare the performance of the Java and C versions of these two scientific applications, and demonstrate that the Java codes can achieve performance comparable with legacy applications written in conventional HPC languages. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

mpj express
java for hpc
mpijava
mpj
parallel java


A Necessary and Sufficient Contractivity Condition for the Fractal Transform Operator This paper revisits the concept of fractal image coding and the contractivity conditions of the fractal transform operator. All such existing conditions are only sufficient. This paper formulates a necessary and sufficient condition for the contractivity of the fractal transform operator associated to a fractal code. Furthermore, analytical results on the convergence of the fractal image decoding will be derived.

O O O O B I 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

fractal image coding
contractivity condition

fractal imaging
contraction maps
fixed point theorem
convergence condition


Enhancement of noisy speech signals: Application to mobile radio communications This paper deals with the enhancement of noisy speech signals recorded in a car for mobile radio applications. Our concern is the signal estimation when 1 or 2 observations are available; each one is composed of a speech signal, si, and an additive noise n(i) (i = 1, 2). In the case of one microphone, we consider new techniques that capitalize on the aspect of speech perception by focusing on enhancing only the short-time spectral amplitude. A ''modified spectral subtraction'' method is proposed; it uses a frequency-dependent over-estimate of the noise and can be combined with segmentation of the observation. When two microphones are available, in the case of uncorrelated (or slightly correlated) noises, we introduce a new technique based on the coherence function which is used to filter the observations or to determine a speech/noise classification algorithm. Finally, listening tests have been conducted to compare the simplest methods. In the case of stationary noise, the modified spectral subtraction is very promising and in the case of non-stationary and decorrelated noises, the method based on the coherence is more attractive.

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

spectral subtraction
segmentation
coherence function


A parallel algorithm for constructing Voronoi diagrams based on point-set adaptive grouping This paper presents a parallel algorithm for constructing Voronoi diagrams based on point-set adaptive grouping. The binary tree splitting method is used to adaptively group the point set in the plane and construct sub-Voronoi diagrams for each group. Given that the construction of Voronoi diagrams in each group consumes the majority of time and that construction within one group does not affect that in other groups, the use of a parallel algorithm is suitable.After constructing the sub-Voronoi diagrams, we extracted the boundary points of the four sides of each sub-group and used to construct boundary site Voronoi diagrams. Finally, the sub-Voronoi diagrams containing each boundary point are merged with the corresponding boundary site Voronoi diagrams. This produces the desired Voronoi diagram. Experiments demonstrate the efficiency of this parallel algorithm, and its time complexity is calculated as a function of the size of the point set, the number of processors, the average number of points in each block, and the number of boundary points. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

voronoi diagrams
parallel algorithm
adaptive grouping

geographical information system
computational geometry


Investigation into the flange problem of resist along the edge of substrate caused by spin coating The flange phenomena of the photoresist (PR) along the edge of the small substrate, caused by the spin coating process in lithography, were observed and analyzed. A facile and valid way to diminish largely the thickness of the PR flange was introduced and the corresponding experiment was carried out to prove its feasibility.

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 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


Single tap identification for fast BCI control One of the major aims of BCI research is devoted to achieving faster and more efficient control of external devices. The identification of individual tap events in a motor imagery BCI is therefore a desirable goal. EEG is recorded from subjects performing and imagining finger taps with their left and right hands. A Differential Evolution based feature selection wrapper is used in order to identify optimal features in the spatial and frequency domains for tap identification. Channel-frequency band combinations are found which allow differentiation of tap vs. no-tap control conditions for executed and imagined taps. Left vs. right hand taps may also be differentiated with features found in this manner. A sliding time window is then used to accurately identify individual taps in the executed tap and imagined tap conditions. Highly statistically significant classification accuracies are achieved with time windows of 0.5s and more allowing taps to be identified on a single trial basis.

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


Oscillation and asymptotic behavior of two-dimensional difference systerns This paper is concerned with the oscillation behavior of solutions of the nonlinear two-dimesional difference system Delta x(n) = bng(yn), Delta y(n)-1 = -a(n) f (x(n)), n epsilon N (n(0)) = (n(0), n(0) + 1,...}. Some necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the oscillation of all solution of the system. Our result improve and generalize some results in the literature. Examples to illustrate the result are included. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

nonlinear two-dimensional difference system


DRM-MD approach for the numerical solution of gas flow in porous media, with application to landfill In the present work two different Dual Reciprocity Method (DRM) formulations were developed, for convectiondiffusion flow of a mixture of gases in a multi-layer porous media, with an application to landfills. The first method treated the whole problem domain as a single one, while the second formulation, the Dual Reciprocity Method Multi-Domain decomposition (DRM-MD), divides the initial domain into a large number of subdomains. The main advantage of the single domain formulation, in relation to domain methods, is that only surface elements are necessary, so the input data is reduced. A drawback of this approach is that it results in a fully populated matrix system, limiting it to small or medium size problems. On the other hand, the DRM-MD formulation extends the range of applications of the technique to large problems, since the final matrix of the system is sparse (band diagonal) and the matrix coefficients of geometrically similar subregions are calculated only once.

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


Error exponents for recursive decoding of Reed-Muller codes on a binary-symmetric channel Error exponents are studied for recursive decoding of Reed-Muller (RM) codes and their subcodes used on a binary-symmetric channel. The decoding process is first decomposed into similar steps, with one new information bit derived in each step. Multiple recursive additions and multiplications of the randomly corrupted channel outputs 1 are performed using a specific order of these two operations in each step. Recalculated random outputs are compared in terms of their exponential moments. As a result, tight analytical bounds are obtained for decoding error probability of the two recursive algorithms considered in the paper. For both algorithms, the derived error exponents almost coincide with simulation results. Comparison of these bounds with similar bounds for bounded distance decoding and majority decoding shows that recursive decoding can reduce the output error probability of the latter two algorithms by five or more orders of magnitude even on the short block length of 256. It is also proven that the error probability of recursive decoding can be exponentially reduced by eliminating one or a few information bits from the original RM code.

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

binary-symmetric channel
chernoff bound
plotkin construction
reed-muller (rm) codes


An implicit meshless scheme for the solution of transient non-linear Poisson-type equations A meshfree point collocation method is used for the numerical simulation of both transient and steady state non-linear Poisson-type partial differential equations. Particular emphasis is placed on the application of the linearization method with special attention to the lagging of coefficients method and the Newton linearization method. The localized form of the Moving Least Squares (MLS) approximation is employed for the construction of the shape functions, in conjunction with the general framework of the point collocation method. Computations are performed for regular nodal distributions, stressing the positivity conditions that make the resulting system stable and convergent. The accuracy and the stability of the proposed scheme are demonstrated through representative and well-established benchmark problems.

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

meshfree point collocation method
mls
linearization method

nonlinear poisson equation
lagging coefficients


A multi-objective multi-period stochastic programming model for public debt management While raising debt on behalf of the government, public debt managers need to consider several possibly conflicting objectives and have to find an appropriate combination for government debt taking into account the uncertainty with regard to the future state of the economy. In this paper, we explicitly consider the underlying uncertainties with a complex multi-period stochastic programming model that captures the trade-offs between the objectives. The model is designed to aid the decision makers in formulating the debt issuance strategy. We apply an interactive procedure that guides the issuer to identify good strategies and demonstrate this approach for the public debt management problem of Turkey.

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

stochastic programming
public debt management

or in government
multiple objective programming
risk analysis


Conformational analysis of kainate in aqueous solution in relation to its binding to AMPA and kainic acid receptors Conformational analyses for kainate in aqueous solution have been performed by using the MM3*, AMBER* and MMFF94 force fields in conjunction with the Generalized Born Solvent Accessible Surface (GB/SA) hydration model. A comparison of calculated results with experimentally determined conformational data indicates that MM3*-GB/SA strongly overestimates the stability of a hydrogen bonded ion-pair in aqueous solution in comparison with the separated and solvated ions. This results in an incorrect prediction by MM3* of the most stable conformer of kainate in aqueous solution, whereas AMBER* and MMFF94 correctly predict the lowest energy conformer. Calculated conformational energy penalties for binding of kainate to the AMPA iGluR2 receptor indicate that the lower affinity of kainate for AMPA receptors compared to its affinity for kainic acid (KA) receptors is not due to a higher energy bioactive conformation of kainate at AMPA receptors. This conclusion is strongly supported by an analysis of a recently reported nonselective AMPA/KA ligand and a comparison of the conformational and structural properties of this ligand with iGluR2-bound kainate. This comparison strongly suggests that kainate binds to AMPA and KA receptors in closely the same conformation.

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

conformational analysis
kainic acid
mmff94

amber*
ampa receptor
gb/sa hydration model
kainic acid receptor
mm3*


Joint learning of error-correcting output codes and dichotomizers from data The ECOC technique is a powerful tool to learn and combine multiple binary learners for multi-class classification. It generally involves three steps: coding, dichotomizers learning, and decoding. In previous ECOC methods, the coding step and the dichotomizers learning step are usually performed independently. This simplifies the learning problem but may lead to unsatisfactory decoding results. To solve this problem, we propose a novel model for learning the ECOC matrix and dichotomizers jointly from data. We formulate the model as a nonlinear programming problem and develop an efficient alternating minimization algorithm to solve it. Specifically, for fixed ECOC matrix, our model is decomposed into a group of mutually independent quadratic programming problems; while for fixed dichotomizers, it is a difference of convex functions problem and can be easily solved using the concave--convex procedure algorithm. Our experimental results on ten data sets from the UCI machine learning repository demonstrated the advantage of our model over state-of-the-art ECOC methods.

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

error correcting output codes (ecoc)
dichotomizer
concave-convex procedure (cccp)


Entropy-based distortion measure and bit allocation for wavelet image compression Quality criteria for image coding are often based on mean square error. However, this is not always a relevant measure of visual quality at low bit rates. Here, we investigate the properties of a distortion measure based on the conditional differential entropy of the input signal given its quantized value. The proposed measure appears to be a correct representation of the amount of information lost by quantization. An adaptive bit allocation algorithm is proposed in order to take advantage of this criterion. Experimental results illustrate the behavior of the proposed distortion measure and exhibit interesting visual properties for low bit-rate subband image coding.

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


Brachiaria species identification using imaging techniques based on fractal descriptors Brachiaria grasses are one of the most important foods for animals. It is very difficult determine the Brachiaria species. An efficient method for the Brachiaria identification and classification is proposed. Fractal descriptors from Brachiarias leaves are used for characterize the plant.

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

fractal descriptors
brachiaria species identification


Analysis of the convergence condition of LMS adaptive digital filter using distributed arithmetic An LMS adaptive digital filter using distributed arithmetic (DA-ADF) has been proposed. Cowan and others proposed the DA adaptive algorithm with offset binary coding for the simple derivation of an algorithm and the use of an odd-symmetry property of adaptive function space (AFS) [3], [5], [10]. However, we indicated that a convergence speed of this DA adaptive algorithm degraded extremely by our computer simulations [6]. To overcome these problems, we have proposed the DA adaptive algorithm generalized with two's complement representation and effective architectures. Our DA-ADF has performances of a high speed, small output latency, a good convergence speed, small-scale hardware and lower power dissipation for higher order, simultaneously. In this paper, we analyze a convergence condition of DA adaptive algorithm that has never been considered theoretically [8], [9]. From this analysis, we indicate that the convergence speed is depended on a distribution of eigenvalues of an auto-correlation matrix of an extended input signal vector [8], [9]. Furthermore, we obtain the eigenvalues theoretically. As a result, we clearly show that our DA-ADF has an advantage of the conventional DA-ADF in the convergence speed.

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

distributed arithmetic
adaptive function space
convergence condition


A new approach to prediction of radiotherapy of bladder cancer cells in small dataset analysis Bladder cancer is a common urologic cancer. Radiotherapy plays an increasingly important role in treatment bladder cancer due to radiotherapy preserves normal bladder function. However, the five-year survival rate after radiotherapy for bladder cancer patients is 3050%. Some biological proteins influence the outcome of radiotherapy. One or two specific proteins may not be sufficient to predict the effect of radiotherapy, analyzing multiple oncoproteins and tumor suppressor proteins may help the prediction. At present, no effective technique has been used to predict the outcome of radiotherapy by multiple protein expression file from a very limited number of patients. The bootstrap technique provides a new approach to improve the accuracy of prediction the outcome of radiotherapy in small dataset analysis. In this study, 13 proteins in each cell line from individual patient were measured and then cell viability was determined after cells irradiated with 5, 10, 20, or 30Gy of cobalt-60. The modeling results showed that when the number of training data increased, the learning accuracy of the prediction the outcome of radiotherapy was enhanced stably, from 55% to 85%. Using this technique to analyze the outcome of radiotherapy related to protein expression profile of individual cell line provides an example to help patients choosing radiotherapy for treatment.

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

small sample size
artificial neural network
machine learning
molecular prediction


An investigation into knowledge-based yard crane scheduling for container terminals To resolve the problems of operational efficiency, energy consumption and operational cost of an entire container terminal, the yard crane scheduling secures a crucial position during terminal operational process. Accordingly, it is imperative to develop an efficient yard crane scheduling strategy. In this study, the knowledge acquisition was initially conducted. Subsequently, a knowledge sorting process, including the taxonomic tree generation and organization of acquired knowledge, was completed. Afterwards, the rules were extracted for the purpose of yard crane scheduling. Furthermore, a mechanism was deployed for knowledge reasoning. Consequently, a knowledge-based system was established with regard to yard crane scheduling. To this end, a case study was used to illustrate the proposed knowledge-based system.

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

yard crane scheduling
knowledge acquisition
knowledge sorting process
knowledge reasoning


Self-adaptive skeletal task farm for computational grids In this work, we introduce a self-adaptive task farm for computational grids which is based on a single-round scheduling algorithm called dynamic deal. In principle, the dynamic deal approach employs skeletal forecasting information to automatically instrument the task farm scheduling and determine the amount of work assigned to each worker at execution time, allowing the farm to adapt effectively to different load and network conditions in the grid. In practice, it uses self-generated predictive execution values and maps tasks onto the different nodes in a single-round. The effectiveness of this approach is illustrated with a computational biology parameter sweep in a non-dedicated departmental grid.

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

divisible workload
grid resource management
single-round scheduling
algorithmic skeleton


Are rational Bezier surfaces monotonicity preserving? We present examples which show that rational Bezier surfaces are not axially monotonicity preserving and that surfaces generated by the tensor product of rational bases are not monotonicity preserving. Besides, we prove that surfaces generated by rational functions through Bernstein basis on a triangle are not axially monotonicity preserving. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

monotonicity preservation
rational surfaces


a simple algorithm for the rate matrices of level-dependent qbd processes We develop a simple algorithm to compute the rate matrices of ergodic level-dependent quasi-birth-and-death processes, based on a matrix continued fraction representation and a probabilistic interpretation of those matrices. The algorithm is easier to implement and less memory-consuming than that developed by Bright and Taylor. We apply the algorithm to an infinite-server queueing system with a Markovian arrival process and exponentially distributed service times. We present some numerical results in order to demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithm.

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

queueing theory
markov chain
matrix analytic methods
map/m/&infin
level-dependent qbds
matrix continued fractions


TELCOT - AN APPLICATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE COTTON INDUSTRY This paper describes the strategic use of information technology by the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association (PCCA). TELCOT, a computer-based system developed by PCCA, provides cotton traders with functions much like those available to NYSE or AMEX traders. TELCOT transformed PCCA from a small cotton merchant to a major cotton broker. Handling 115,000 to 240,000 computer transactions per day, TELCOT provides over 20,000 cotton producers, 40 buyers, and 200 gin operators with an electronic marketing service that has helped PCCA grow from a $50 million to a $500 million enterprise in just 15 years.

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

computer-based trading systems
electronic commodity exchange
strategic advantage
small business
management of information systems


Rigorous learning curve bounds from statistical mechanics ideas from statistical mechanics. The advantage of our theory over the well-established Vapnik-Chervonenkis theory is that our bounds can be considerably tighter in many cases, and are also more reflective of the true behavior of learning curves. This behavior can often exhibit dramatic properties such as phase transitions, as well as power law asymptotics not explained by the VC theory. The disadvantages of our theory are that its application requires knowledge of the input distribution, and it is limited so far to finite cardinality function classes. We illustrate our results with many concrete examples of learning curve bounds derived from our theory.

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

learning curves
statistical mechanics
phase transitions


Data driven articulatory synthesis with deep neural networks ? We present an articulatory-to-acoustic mapping for real-time articulatory synthesis. The method uses a deep neural network with a tapped-delay input line. Tapped-delay line efficiently captures dynamics in articulatory trajectories. The model achieved higher accuracy than competing models based on Gaussian mixtures. The improvement was also found perceivable in a subjective listening test.

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

electromagnetic articulography
deep learning
gaussian mixture models


theoretical analysis of a directional stability-based clustering algorithm for vanets Clustering has the potential to reduce redundant messaging in MANETs and provide an efficient hierarchical network structure. However, it takes time to form and maintain a cluster structure which also requires additional control overhead. In this paper, we aim to analyze a distributed DIrectional Stability-based Clustering Algorithm (DISCA) designed for VANETs, which takes direction, mobility features, and leadership duration into consideration. We provide insights on the theoretical analysis of DISCA and show that the overhead incurred by DISCA is bound by a constant per node per time step, avoiding expensive reclustering chain reactions.

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

broadcasting
vehicular ad-hoc network
vehicle communication
traffic simulation


Linear multi view reconstruction and camera recovery using a reference plane This paper presents a linear algorithm for simultaneous computation of 3D points and camera positions from multiple perspective views based on having a reference plane visible in all views. The reconstruction and camera recovery is achieved in a single step by finding the null-space of a matrix built from image data using Singular Value Decomposition. Contrary to factorization algorithms this approach does not need to have all points visible in all views. This paper investigates two reference plane configurations: Finite reference planes defined by four coplanar points and infinite reference planes defined by vanishing points. A further contribution of this paper is the study of critical configurations for configurations with four coplanar points. By simultaneously reconstructing points and views we can exploit the numerical stabilizing effect of having wide spread cameras with large mutual baselines. This is demonstrated by reconstructing the outside and inside (courtyard) of a building on the basis of 35 views in one single Singular Value Decomposition.

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

structure from motion
projective reconstruction
multiple views
missing data
duality
planar parallax


Multistability of neural networks with discontinuous non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions and time-varying delays Discontinuous non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions are introduced. Multiple equilibriums of neural networks with time-varying delays are investigated. n n -dimensional discontinuous neural networks with delays can have 5n 5 n equilibriums. 3n 3 n equilibriums are locally stable and the others 5n?3n 5 n ? 3 n are unstable. Discontinuous NNs can have greater storage capacity than continuous NNs.

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


interconnect enhancements for a high-speed pld architecture As programmable logic grows more viable for implementing full design systems, performance has become a primary issue for programmable logic device architectures. This paper presents the high-level design of Dali, a PLD architecture specifically aimed at performance-driven applications. We will present significant portions of the background research that contributed to our architectural decisions, an overview of the core routing architecture and benchmarking experiments used to evaluate the prototype device.

B O O O O O B 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 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

programmable logic
architecture
interconnect


H-infinity control design using dynamic neural networks In this paper, a new approach is investigated for adaptive dynamic neural network-based H-infinity control, which is designed for a class of non-linear systems with unknown uncertainties. Currently, non-linear systems with unknown uncertainties are commonly used to efficiently and accurately express the real practical control process. Therefore, it is of critical importance but a great challenge and still at its early age to design a stable and robust controller for such a process. In the proposed research, dynamic neural networks were constructed to precisely approximate the non-linear system with unknown uncertainties first, a non-linear state feedback H-infinity control law was designed next, then an adaptive weighting adjustment mechanism for dynamic neural networks was developed to achieve H-infinity regulation performance, and last a recurrent neural network was employed as a neuro-solver to efficiently and numerically solve the standard LMI problem so as to obtain the appropriate control gains. Finally, case studies further verify the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed research.

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

h-infinity control design
non-linear system


Tolerance in Helly-Type Theorems In this paper we introduce the notion of tolerance in connection with Helly-type theorems and prove, using the ErdAs-Gallai theorem, that any Helly-type theorem can be generalized by relaxing the assumptions and conclusion, allowing a bounded number of exceptional sets or points. In particular, we analyze some of the classical Helly-type theorems, such as Caratheodory's and Tverberg's theorems, as well as some other interesting ones.

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


Bone enhancement in ultrasound using local spectrum variations for guiding percutaneous scaphoid fracture fixation procedures The scaphoid bone is the most frequently fractured bone in the wrist. When fracture fixation is indicated, a screw is inserted into the bone either in an open surgical procedure or percutaneously under fluoroscopic guidance. Due to the complex geometry of the wrist, fracture fixation is a challenging task. Fluoroscopic guidance exposes both the patient and the physician to ionizing radiation. Ultrasound-based guidance has been suggested as a real-time, radiation-free alternative. The main challenge of using ultrasound is the difficulty in interpreting the images due to the low contrast and noisy nature of the data.

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

ultrasound bone enhancement
phase symmetry
wrist model


Segmentation of ovarian ultrasound images using cellular neural networks Segmentation of ovarian ultrasound images using cellular neural networks (CNNs) is studied in this paper. The segmentation method consists of five successive steps where the first four uses CNNs. In the first step, only rough position of follicles is determined. In the second step, the results are improved by expansion of detected follicles. In the third step, previously undetected inexpressive follicles are determined, while the fourth step detects the position of ovary. All results are joined in the fifth step. The templates for CNNs were obtained by applying genetic algorithm. The segmentation method has been tested on 50 ovarian ultrasound images. The recognition rate of follicles was around 60% and misidentification rate was around 30%.

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

cellular neural networks
ultrasound images
genetic algorithm


Leveraging search and content exploration by exploiting context in folksonomy systems With the advent of Web 2.0 tagging became a popular feature in social media systems. People tag diverse kinds of content, e.g. products at Amazon, music at Last.fm, images at Flickr, etc. In the last years several researchers analyzed the impact of tags on information retrieval. Most works focused on tags only and ignored context information. In this article we present context-aware approaches for learning semantics and improve personalized information retrieval in tagging systems. We investigate how explorative search, initialized by clicking on tags, can be enhanced with automatically produced context information so that search results better fit to the actual information needs of the users. We introduce the SocialHITS algorithm and present an experiment where we compare different algorithms for ranking users, tags, and resources in a contextualized way. We showcase our approaches in the domain of images and present the TagMe! system that enables users to explore and tag Flickr pictures. In TagMe! we further demonstrate how advanced context information can easily be generated: TagMe! allows users to attach tag assignments to a specific area within an image and to categorize tag assignments. In our corresponding evaluation we show that those additional facets of tag assignments gain valuable semantics, which can be applied to improve existing search and ranking algorithms significantly.

O O 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 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 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 B I I O O

social media
search and ranking
context
learning semantics


A high-order finite-difference algorithm for direct computation of aerodynamic sound A high-order finite-difference algorithm is proposed in the aim of performing LES calculations for CAA applications. The subgrid scale dissipation is performed by the explicit high-order numerical filter used for numerical stability purpose. A shock-capturing non-linear filter is also used to deal with compressible discontinuous flows. In order to tackle complex geometries, an overset-grid approach is used. High-order interpolations make possible the communication between overlapping domains. The whole algorithm is first validated on canonical flow problems to illustrate both its properties for shock-capturing as well as for accurate wave propagation. Then, the influence of the multi-domain approach on the high-order spatial accuracy is assessed. Finally, a rod-airfoil configuration is studied to highlight the potential of the proposed algorithm to deal with multi-scale aeroacoustic applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

computational aeroacoustics
large-eddy simulation
high-order schemes
overset grids


WATSON: Design space boundary exploration and model generation for analog and RF IC design A new method is described which gives the designer access to the design space boundaries of a circuit topology, all with transistor-level accuracy. Using multiobjective genetic optimization, the hypersurface of Pareto-optimal design points is calculated. Tradeoff, analysis of competing performances at the design space boundaries is made possible by the application of multivariate regression techniques. This new methodology is illustrated with the presentation of the design space for two different types of circuits: a Miller-compensated operational transconductance amplifier and an LC-tank voltage-controlled oscillator.

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

circuit simulation
circuit synthesis
design automation
design space exploration
integrated circuit modeling
multiobjective optimization


THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IN ESTABLISHING SUCCESSFUL INTERORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS The strategic management literature often cites interorganizational systems (IOS) - automated information systems shared by two or more organizations - as examples of information technology used for competitive advantage, However, there is increasing awareness that IOS are becoming a strategic necessity and that their organizational impact demands attention, Examples show that IOS offer opportunities for enhanced organizational design. At the same time, however, IOS lead to mutual dependence between participating organizations that potentially limits their adaptability, This makes management of relationships between IOS participants a key issue in establishing and managing successful IOS. To gain a better understanding of this issue, it is important to go beyond existing functional typologies of IOS, A framework of different contexts of IOS usage is presented that helps in assessing the importance of relationship management between different groups of IOS participants, The framework classifies IOS contexts along two dimensions. First, does the system give the user a competitive advantage, or is it a strategic necessity for participating in the industry? Second, is the system an adjunct to the IOS provider's primary product, or does it constitute a stand-alone business? The author concludes that trust between IOS participants is essential for successful IOS, Analyzing IOS from the perspective of relationship management yields potential win-win outcomes amid all the rhetoric about the competitive battlegrounds.

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

organizational impact of information technology


Adapting indexing trees to data distribution in feature spaces Fast similarity retrieval is critical for content-based image retrieval systems. Tree indexing is a classical technique for fast retrieval, but the practical performance increase offered by the indexing tree depends on the intrinsic dimension of the data. Data with a low intrinsic dimension can be indexed more efficiently than data with high intrinsic dimension. This suggests that an indexing tree that is adapted to the data distribution may be more efficient. This paper proposes two adaptation procedures that are guaranteed to improve indexing efficiency. The procedures are based on a formula for average number of node tests incurred during the retrieval. The formula clearly shows how indexing performance varies with the distribution of feature points and the query. Greedy and optimal tree adaptation procedures are derived based on the formula. Both procedures explicitly enhance the retrieval performance of indexing trees. The optimally adapted tree carries the mathematical guarantee that it is the best performing tree in a set of possible trees obtained by node elimination. The adaptation procedures are applied to kdb-trees and hierarchical clustering trees for indexing synthetic as well as real data sets in medical image databases. Experimental results validate the claim that adaptation procedures increase retrieval efficiency.

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

content-based image retrieval
curse of dimensionality


Design of structure-free and energy-balanced data aggregation in wireless sensor networks ? Power saving is a critical issue in wireless sensor networks since sensor nodes are battery-powered. Data aggregation is an effective approach to save energy because the number of transmissions can be reduced after aggregation. In the literature, most of the data aggregation protocols rely on a structured architecture to accomplish data gathering. Such structure-based methods suffer from high maintenance overhead in a dynamic environment where sensor nodes may move or fail unexpectedly. In this paper, we propose a structure-free and energy-balanced data aggregation protocol, SFEB. SFEB features both efficient data gathering and balanced energy consumption, which results from its two-phase aggregation process and the dynamic aggregator selection mechanism. Analysis, extensive simulation, and real system implementation results verify the superiority of the proposed mechanism.

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

structure-free data aggregation
energy efficient protocols


Apoptotic Cell Death and Amyloid Precursor Protein Signaling in Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Cells We have recently shown that the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and a subset of its C-terminal fragments (CTFs) are tyrosine phosphorylated in human brain and in cultured cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation generates a substrate that is sequentially bound by the adaptor proteins ShcA and Grb2, and this interaction is significantly enhanced in Alzheimer's disease brains. Here we have studied the APP/CTFs phosphorylation and ShcA activation in a human neuroblastoma cell line, SH-SY5Y, under basal and apoptotic conditions. To commit these cells to apoptosis, we used staurosporin, a well-known apoptotic inducer and protein kinase C blocker. Our data suggest the following

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

amyloid precursor protein
adaptor proteins
apoptosis
phosphorylation


On the power of Ambainis lower bounds The polynomial method and the Ambainis lower bound (or Alb, for short) method are two main quantum lower bound techniques. While recently Ambainis showed that the polynomial method is not tight, the present paper aims at studying the power and limitation of Alb's. We first use known Alb's to derive Omega(n(1.5)) lower bounds for BIPARTITENESS, BIPARTITENESS MATCHING and GRAPH MATCHING, in which the lower bound for BIPARTITENESS improves the previous Omega(n) one. We then show that all the three known Ambainis lower bounds have a limitation root N min{C(0)(f), C(1)(f)}, where C(0)(f) and C(1)(f) are the 0- and 1-certificate complexities, respectively. This implies that for many problems such as TRIANGLE, k-CLIQUE, BIPARTITENESS and BIPARTITE/GRAPH MATCHING which draw wide interest and whose quantum query complexities are still open, the best known lower bounds cannot be further improved by using Ambainis techniques. Another consequence is that all the Ambainis lower bounds are not tight. For total functions, this upper bound for Alb's can be further improved to min{root C(0)(f)C(1) (f), root N center dot CI (f)}, where CI(f) is the size of max intersection of a 0- and a 1-certificate set. Again this implies that Alb's cannot improve the best known lower bound for some specific problems such as AND-OR TREE, whose precise quantum query complexity is still open. Finally, we generalize the three known Alb's and give a new Alb style lower bound method, which may be easier to use for some problems. (c) 2005 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 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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

quantum computing
lower bound technique
quantum adversary method


Multivariable harmonic balance analysis of the neuronal oscillator for leech swimming Biological systems, and particularly neuronal circuits, embody a very high level of complexity. Mathematical modeling is therefore essential for understanding how large sets of neurons with complex multiple interconnections work as a functional system. With the increase in computing power, it is now possible to numerically integrate a model with many variables to simulate behavior. However, such analysis can be time-consuming and may not reveal the mechanisms underlying the observed phenomena. An alternative, complementary approach is mathematical analysis, which can demonstrate direct and explicit relationships between a property of interest and system parameters. This paper introduces a mathematical tool for analyzing neuronal oscillator circuits based on multivariable harmonic balance (MHB). The tool is applied to a model of the central pattern generator (CPG) for leech swimming, which comprises a chain of weakly coupled segmental oscillators. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the MHB method and provide analytical explanations for some CPG properties. In particular, the intersegmental phase lag is estimated to be the sum of a nominal value and a perturbation, where the former depends on the structure and span of the neuronal connections and the latter is roughly proportional to the period gradient, communication delay, and the reciprocal of the intersegmental coupling strength.

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

central pattern generator
harmonic balance


Increasing CNC machine tool productivity by using tool-part touch control In this paper a new system for increasing CNC machining productivity is described. The system is based on registering the moment when the cutting tool touches the workpiece during a machining operation. The cutting tool approaches the workpiece with rapid traverse and switches to work feed when it comes in contact with it. In this way, the time for cutting air can significantly be reduced.

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

adaptive control
tool-part touch control


Fragment shaders for agent animation using finite state machines In a previous paper we generated animated agents and their behavior using a combination of XML and images. The behavior of agents was specified as a finite state machine (FSM) in XML. We used images to determine properties of the world that agents react to. While this approach is very flexible, it can be made much faster by using the power available in modern GPUs. In this paper we implement FSMs as fragment shaders using three kinds of images: world space images, agent space images and FSM table images. We show a simple example and compare performance of CPU and GPU implementations. Then we examine a more complex example involving more maps and two types of agents (predatorprey). Furthermore we explore how to render agents in 3D more efficiently by using a variation on pseudoinstancing.

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

fsm-based simulations
virtual characters
shader
crowds
behavior simulation


extended xquery for digital libraries Documents have, in general, a multihierarchical structure (such as physical organization in the form of pages and lines, content organization in the form of paragraphs and sentences, etc.). Searching multihierarchical XML encoding presents a number of unique challenges for both computer scientists and document experts. We present an extension of the XQuery language suitable for searching multihierarchical XML.

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


Grid based sleep research - Analysis of polysomnographies using a grid infrastructure Sleep medicine and sleep research often include comprehensive analysis of multidimensional biosignal recordings during the whole bedtime phase, so called polysomnographies. In order to build an environment for support on the development of new analysis tools and clinical research in the field of sleep research, a production grid infrastructure is employed. Clinical data and polysomnographies from over 300 persons have been integrated as a reference database, and different algorithms for automated analysis of electrocardiograms (ECGs) are implemented. The database can be queried and matching data can be analyzed individually and as a collection. Workflow integration of the analysis and portlet based user interfaces provide a high level of abstraction, hiding the complexity of the underlying grid system and employing basic fault tolerance. The system is laid out for future extension to allow medical decision support based on the developed methods. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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