facilitating mobile decision making The wide spread of mobile computing devices is transforming the newly emerged e-business world into a mobile e-business one, a world in which hand-held computers are the user's front-ends to access enterprise data. For good mobile decision making, users need to count on up-to-date, business-critical data. Such data are typically in the form of summarized information tailored to suit the clients' analysis interests. In this paper, we are addressing the issue of efficient delivery of summary tables to mobile users' hand-held computers equipped with OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) front-end tools. Towards this, we propose a new on-demand scheduling algorithm, called STOBS , that exploits the derivation semantics among OLAP summary tables. It maximizes the aggregated data sharing between clients and reduces the broadcast length compared to the already existing techniques. The algorithm effectiveness with respect to access time and energy consumption is evaluated using simulation.

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

power-aware computing
broadcast scheduling
broadcast pull
e-commerce


modeling shared cache and bus in multi-cores for timing analysis Timing analysis of concurrent programs running on multi-core platforms is currently an important problem. The key to solving this problem is to accurately model the timing effects of shared resources in multi-cores, namely shared cache and bus. In this paper, we provide an integrated timing analysis framework that captures timing effects of both shared cache and shared bus. We also develop a cycle-accurate simulation infra-structure to evaluate the precision of our analysis. Experimental results from a large fragment of an in-orbit spacecraft software show that our analysis produces around 20\% over-estimation over simulation results.

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


Not so greedy: Randomly Selected Naive Bayes Many approaches are proposed to improve Naive Bayes, among which the attribute selection approach has demonstrated remarkable performance. Algorithms for attribute selection fall into two broad categories: filters and wrappers. Filters use the general data characteristics to evaluate the selected attribute subset before the learning algorithm is run, while wrappers use the learning algorithm itself as a black box to evaluate the selected attribute subset. In this paper, we work on the attribute selection approach of wrapper and propose an improved Naive Bayes algorithm by carrying a random search through the whole space of attributes. We simply called it Randomly Selected Naive Bayes (RSNB). In order to meet the need of classification, ranking, and class probability estimation, we discriminatively design three different versions: RSNB-ACC, RSNB-AUC, and RSNB-CLL. The experimental results based on a large number of UCI datasets validate their effectiveness in terms of classification accuracy (ACC), area under the ROC curve (AUC), and conditional log likelihood (CLL), respectively.

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

naive bayes
attribute selection
random search
classification
ranking
class probability estimation


Automated Generation of Logical Constraints on Approximation Spaces Using Quantifier Elimination This paper focuses on approximate reasoning based on the use of approximation spaces. Approximation spaces and the approximated relations induced by them are a generalization of the rough set-based approximations of Pawlak. Approximation spaces are used to define neighborhoods around individuals and rough inclusion functions. These in turn are used to define approximate sets and relations. In any of the approaches, one would like to embed such relations in an appropriate logical theory which can be used as a reasoning engine for specific applications with specific constraints. We propose a framework which permits a formal study of the relationship between properties of approximations and properties of approximation spaces. Using ideas from correspondence theory, we develop an analogous framework for approximation spaces. We also show that this framework can be strongly supported by automated techniques for quantifier elimination.

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

approximate reasoning
approximation spaces
quantifier elimination


THE ONION DIAGRAM: A VORONOI-LIKE TESSELLATION OF A PLANAR LINE SPACE AND ITS APPLICATIONS Given a set S of weighted points in the plane, we consider two problems dealing with lines in R-2 under the weighted Euclidean distance: (1) Preprocess S into a data structure that efficiently finds a nearest point among S to a query line. (2) Find an optimal line that maximizes the minimum of the weighted distance to any point of S. The latter problem is also known as the obnoxious line location problem. We introduce a unified approach to both problems based on a new geometric transformation that maps lines in the plane to points in a line space. It turns out that our transformation, together with its target space, well describes the proximity relations between given weighted points S and every line in R-2. We define a Voronoi-like tessellation on the line space and investigate its geometric, combinatorial, and computational properties. As its direct applications, we obtain several new algorithmic results on the two problems. We also show that our approach extends to weighted line segments and weighted polygons

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

geometric facility location
voronoi diagram
widest corridor problem
parametric search


the augmented knowledge workshop This paper discusses the theme of augmenting a knowledge workshop. The first part of the paper describes the concept and framework of the knowledge workshop. The second part describes aspects of a prototype knowledge workshop being developed within this framework.

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


From embodied to socially embedded agents Implications for interaction-aware robots First, this article proposes a minimal definition of embodiment that can be applied across animals and artefacts. We discuss the potential contributions of this operational definition with respect to assessing and measuring the degree of embodiment in different biological and artificial systems. Second, we outline how this definition can be extended to lead to the particular notion of social embeddedness. Socially embedded agents are structurally coupled with their social environment, in that their sensorimotor activity is grounded in the social environment that the agent is surrounded by. Lastly, based on research in the social sciences on humanhuman interaction, we discuss perceptual requirements for interaction-aware robotic agentsagents whose identification and interpretation of the (social) environment is facilitated by awareness of the structure of agentagent interactions (including humans in the loop). We suggest relevant concepts and heuristics that can contribute to studies of degrees of embodiment of robots that interact with social environments. Manipulating and systematically investigating these heuristics permits variation of the degree of embodiment of such interaction-aware robots.

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

interaction-aware machines
robothuman interaction


Soft computing framework for intelligent human-machine system design, simulation and optimization This paper proposes a novel soft-computing framework for human-machine system design and simulation based on the hybrid intelligent system techniques. The complex human-machine system is described by human and machine parameters within a comprehensive model. Based on this model, procedures and algorithms for human-machine system design, economical/ergonomic evaluation, and optimization are discussed in an integrated CAD and soft-computing framework. With a combination of individual neural and fuzzy techniques, the neuro-fuzzy hybrid soft-computing scheme implements a fuzzy if-then rules block for human-machine system design, evaluation and optimization by a trainable neural fuzzy network architecture. For training and test purposes, assembly tasks are simulated and carried out on a self-built multi-adjustable laboratory workstation with a flexible motion measurement and analysis system. The trained neural fuzzy network system is able to predict the operator's postures and joint angles of motion associated with a range of workstation configurations. It can also be used for design/layout and adjustment of human assembly workstations. The developed system provides a unified, intelligent computational framework for human-machine system design and simulation. Case studies for workstation system design and simulation are provided to illustrate and validate the developed system.

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

human-machine system
neuro-fuzzy hybrid approach


A numerical approximation of parabolic stochastic partial differential equations driven by a Poisson random measure The paper deals with SPDEs driven by Poisson random measures in Banach spaces and its numerical approximation. We investigate the accuracy of space and time approximation. As the space approximation we consider spectral methods and as time approximation the implicit Euler scheme and the explicit Euler scheme.

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

stochastic evolution equations
time discretization
space discretization


A 48 Cycles/MB H.264/AVC Deblocking Filter Architecture for Ultra High Definition Applications In this paper, a highly parallel deblocking filter architecture for H.264/AVC is proposed to process one macroblock in 48 clock cycles and give real-time support to QFHD@60 fps sequences at less than 100 MHz. 4 edge filters organized in 2 groups for simultaneously processing vertical and horizontal edges are applied in this architecture to enhance its throughput. While parallelism increases, pipeline hazards arise owing to the latency of edge filters and data dependency of deblocking algorithm. To solve this problem, a zig-zag processing schedule is proposed to eliminate the pipeline bubbles. Data path of the architecture is then derived according to the processing schedule and optimized through data flow merging, so as to minimize the cost of logic and internal buffer. Meanwhile, the architecture's data input rate is designed to be identical to its throughput, while the transmission order of input data can also match the zig-zag processing schedule. Therefore no intercommunication buffer is required between the deblocking filter and its previous component for speed matching or data reordering. As a result, only one 24x64 two-port SRAM as internal buffer is required in this design. When synthesized with SMIC 130 not process, the architecture costs a gate count of 30.2 k, which is competitive considering its high performance.

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


the orphan problem in zigbee-based wireless sensor networks ZigBee is a standard which is considered to be suitable for wireless sensor networks. In ZigBee, a device is said to join a network if it can obtain a network address from a parent device. Devices calculate addresses for their child devices by a distributed address assignment scheme. This assignment is easy to implement, but it restricts the number of children of a device and the depth of the network. We observe that if one uses the random formation policy specified in ZigBee, the utilization of the address pool will be very low. Those devices that can not receive network addresses will be isolated from the network and become orphan nodes. In this paper, we model the orphan problem by two subproblems: the bounded-degree-and-depth tree formation (BDDTF) problem and the end-device maximum matching (EDMM) problem. We then present solutions to these problems. The results can be applied to network formation in ZigBee networks.

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

graph theory
wireless sensor network
ieee 802.15.4


Regulatory reform and performance in telecommunications: unrealized potential in the MENA countries ? Based on international evidence, this study confirms that telecommunications liberalization is conducive to higher efficiency, contributing to Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) growth. Assessment of liberalization benefits on sector performance is based on an indicator encompassing three key factors: (i) competition in fixed and mobile networks; (ii) openness to foreign ownership; and (iii) pro-competitive regulation. Notwithstanding recent progress, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) telecommunications markets remain less open to competition than elsewhere in the developing world: competition is hindered, private participation is scarce and foreign ownership is most severely constrained, while regulatory regimes do not support fair competition.

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


Examining the digital divide in K-12 public schools: Four-year trends for supporting ICT literacy in Florida While there is evidence that access to computers in schools has increased, there remain questions about whether low socio-economic status (SES) schools provide students with equitable supports for achieving information communication technology (ICT) literacy. This research first presents a theoretical model to examine the digital divide within schools. Using this model, this research uses statewide data from four school years to investigate significant trends in ICT integration by school level and SES in Florida. Multilevel models for repeated measures analysis were used to compare models for predicting trends on nine different aspects of school technology integration. Results show statistically significant differences between high and low SES schools at every level in terms of student access to software, student use of software, teacher use of software, and the level of technology support. This research provides evidence of the existence of the digital divide among Florida's K-12 schools. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

elementary education
evaluation methodologies
media in education
secondary education


Emergent command and control architecture for dynamic agent communities Dynamic multi-agent systems require some accountability mechanism to ensure goal distribution and completion. Accountability can be maintained through proper delineation of power. An organisation is well delineated when each member has an unambiguous power relationship with its peers. Since responsibility and authority follow fully de-conflicted patterns, a delineated organisation is well suited for solving problems. This paper describes a non-deterministic agent level algorithm that emergently simulates various organisational structures and maintains a well-delineated power structure. The appropriateness of this algorithm is demonstrated in a highly dynamic, poor communication network system. A metric is provided which quantifies the appropriateness of the emerging organisational structures. A structure is considered appropriate if an unambiguous chain of accountability exists leading to the human overseer of the system.

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

agents
organisations
emergence
election algorithm


Legacy Real-Time Applications in a Reservation-Based System A remarkable research activity has been carried out in the past few years to support real-time applications with appropriate scheduling solutions. Unfortunately, most of such techniques can be used only if real-time applications use a specialized API, and if some important information (such as the worst-case execution-time) are known a priori. In this paper, we present a novel technique, the Legacy Feedback Scheduler (LFS), for a class of legacy applications that need the support of a real-time scheduler but are not written using a specialized API and have unknown or varying execution requirements. The approach is based on the combination of a resource reservation scheduler and a feedback-based adaptation mechanism for identifying the correct scheduling parameters.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 control
quality-of-service (qos)
real-time computing


Omnivariate Rule Induction Using a Novel Pairwise Statistical Test Rule learning algorithms, for example, RIPPER, induces univariate rules, that is, a propositional condition in a rule uses only one feature. In this paper, we propose an omnivariate induction of rules where under each condition, both a univariate and a multivariate condition are trained, and the best is chosen according to a novel statistical test. This paper has three main contributions: First, we propose a novel statistical test, the combined 5 x 2 cv t test, to compare two classifiers, which is a variant of the 5 x 2 cv t test and give the connections to other tests as 5 x 2 cv F test and k-fold paired t test. Second, we propose a multivariate version of RIPPER, where support vector machine with linear kernel is used to find multivariate linear conditions. Third, we propose an omnivariate version of RIPPER, where the model selection is done via the combined 5 x 2 cv t test. Our results indicate that 1) the combined 5 x 2 cv t test has higher power (lower type II error), lower type I error, and higher replicability compared to the 5 x 2 cv t test, 2) omnivariate rules are better in that they choose whichever condition is more accurate, selecting the right model automatically and separately for each condition in a rule.

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

statistical tests
support vector machines


Structural basis for decreased affinity of Emodin binding to Val66-mutated human CK2 alpha as determined by molecular dynamics Protein kinase CK2 (casein kinase 2) is a multifunctional serine/threonine kinase that is involved in a broad range of physiological events. The decreased affinity of Emodin binding to human CK2 alpha resulting from single-point mutation of Val66 to Ala (V66A) has been demonstrated by experimental mutagenesis. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and energy analysis were performed on wild type (WT) and V66A mutant CK2 alpha-Emodin complexes to investigate the subtle influences of amino acid replacement on the structure of the complex. The structure of CK2 alpha and the orientation of Emodin undergo changes to different degrees in V66A mutant. The affected positions in CK2 alpha are mainly distributed over the glycine-rich loop (G-loop), the alpha-helix and the loop located at the portion between G-loop and alpha-helix (C-loop). Based on the coupling among these segments, an allosteric mechanism among the C-loop, the G-loop and the deviated Emodin is proposed. Additionally, an estimated energy calculation and residue-based energy decomposition also indicate the lower instability of V66A mutant in contrast to WT, as well as the unfavorable energetic influences on critical residue contributions.

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

binding affinity
hydrophobic interaction
mm/pbsa
molecular dynamics simulations


Product Constructions for Perfect Lee Codes A well-known conjecture of Golomb and Welch is that the only nontrivial perfect codes in the Lee and Manhattan metrics have length two or minimum distance three. This problem and related topics were subject for extensive research in the last 40 years. In this paper, two product constructions for perfect Lee codes and diameter perfect Lee codes are presented. These constructions yield a large number of nonlinear perfect codes and nonlinear diameter perfect codes in the Lee and Manhattan metrics. A short survey and other related problems on perfect codes in the Lee and Manhattan metrics are also discussed.

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

anticode
diameter perfect code
hamming scheme
lee metric
manhattan metric
perfect code
periodic code
product construction


Instantaneous frequency estimation using higher order L-Wigner distributions with data-driven order and window length The L-Wigner distributions are defined in order to improve the concentration of signal's time-frequency representation. For a finite distribution order and nonlinear instantaneous frequency (IF) it gives biased IF estimates. In the case of noisy signals the optimal window length and distribution order depend on the noise variance and unknown IE In this correspondence an adaptive IF estimator with the time-varying and data-driven,window length and distribution order is developed, Based on the analysis that has been done here, lower order time-frequency distributions are introduced.

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

time-frequency analysis
wigner distribution
window optimization


Symbolic classification, clustering and fuzzy radial basis function network Symbolic fuzzy classification is proposed using fuzzy radial basis function network, with fuzzy c-medoids clustering at the hidden layer. Symbolic objects include linguistic, nominal, boolean and interval-type of features, along with quantitative attributes. Classification and clustering in this domain involve the use of symbolic dissimilarity between the objects. Fuzzy memberships are used for appropriately handling uncertainty inherent in real-life decisions. The fuzzy radial basis function (FRBF) network here comprises an integration of the principles of radial basis function (RBF) network and fuzzy c-medoids clustering, for handling non-numeric data. The optimal number of hidden nodes is determined by using clustering validity indices, like normalized modified Hubert's statistic and Davies-Bouldin index, in the symbolic framework. The effectiveness of the symbolic fuzzy classification is demonstrated on real-life benchmark data sets. Comparison is provided with the performance of a decision tree. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

radial basis function network
symbolic classification
fuzzy classification

fuzzy clustering
symbolic object
validity index


A deformable registration method for automated morphometry of MRI brain images in neuropsychiatric research Image registration methods play a crucial role in computational neuroanatomy. This paper mainly contributes to the field of image registration with the use of nonlinear spatial transformations. Particularly, problems connected to matching magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain image data obtained from various subjects and with various imaging conditions are solved here. Registration is driven by local forces derived from multimodal point similarity measures which are estimated with the use of joint intensity histogram and tissue probability maps. A spatial deformation model imitating principles of continuum mechanics is used. Five similarity measures are tested in an experiment with image data obtained from the Simulated Brain Database and a quantitative evaluation of the algorithm is presented. Results of application of the method in automated spatial detection of anatomical abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia are presented.

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

computational neuroanatomy
deformable registration
magnetic resonance imaging


Ambiguous chance constrained problems and robust optimization In this paper we study ambiguous chance constrained problems where the distributions of the random parameters in the problem are themselves uncertain. We focus primarily on the special case where the uncertainty set Q of the distributions is of the form Q = {Q : rho(p) (Q, Q(0)) <= beta}, where rho(p) denotes the Prohorov metric. The ambiguous chance constrained problem is approximated by a robust sampled problem where each constraint is a robust constraint centered at a sample drawn according to the central measure Q(0). The main contribution of this paper is to show that the robust sampled problem is a good approximation for the ambiguous chance constrained problem with a high probability. This result is established using the Strassen-Dudley Representation Theorem that states that when the distributions of two random variables are close in the Prohorov metric one can construct a coupling of the random variables such that the samples are close with a high probability. We also show that the robust sampled problem can be solved efficiently both in theory and in practice.

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

stochastic programming
learning theory
coupling of random variables
ambiguity in measure
sample approximation
vc dimension


Opportunistic routing in wireless sensor networks powered by ambient energy harvesting Energy consumption is an important issue in the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which typically rely on portable energy sources like batteries for power. Recent advances in ambient energy harvesting technologies have made it possible for sensor nodes to be powered by ambient energy entirely without the use of batteries. However, since the energy harvesting process is stochastic, exact sleep-and-wakeup schedules cannot be determined in WSNs Powered solely using Ambient Energy Harvesters (WSNHEAP). Therefore, many existing WSN routing protocols cannot be used in WSNHEAP. In this paper, we design an opportunistic routing protocol (EHOR) for multi-hop WSNHEAP. Unlike traditional opportunistic routing protocols like ExOR or MORE, EHOR takes into account energy constraints because nodes have to shut down to recharge once their energy are depleted. Furthermore, since the rate of charging is dependent on environmental factors, the exact identities of nodes that are awake cannot be determined in advance. Therefore, choosing an optimal forwarder is another challenge in EHOR. We use a regioning approach to achieve this goal. Using extensive simulations incorporating experimental results from the characterization of different types of energy harvesters, we evaluate EHOR and the results show that EHOR increases goodput and efficiency compared to traditional opportunistic routing protocols and other non-opportunistic routing protocols suited for WSNHEAP.

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

opportunistic routing
wireless sensor networks
energy harvesting


Developing the Agile IS Development Practices in Large-Scale IT Projects: The Trust-Mediated Organizational Controls and IT Project Team Capabilities Perspectives This paper is based on multiple case studies on the construction of the Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3 in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games that investigated the processes of instilling agile IS development practices in large-scale IT projects. This study develops useful theoretical constructs that will help researchers and practitioners who wish to learn about agile IS development practices as developed in large-scale IT projects. Adopting a contingent view, we uncover four factors that are critical in this development processes, namely: project uncertainty profile and project completion urgency; IT project team capabilities; organizational control mechanisms; and trust relationships among the IT project team, the vendors, and the users. Depending on the unpredictable nature of the project and the trust level among the IT project team, the vendors, and the users, we have uncovered the IT project team capabilities and the organizational control mechanisms that are needed to assure the success of a large-scale IT project. We posit that the interplay between the IT project team capabilities and the trust-mediated organizational control mechanisms forms the theoretical basis that defines agile IS development practice in large-scale IT projects. We argue that our findings provide insights to practitioners who are attempting to introduce agile IS development practices into any large-scale IT project. From a research perspective, the theory developed in this paper also sheds light on the importance of adopting a contingency view when researching agile IS development practices in a large-scale IT project and the factors to consider. This underpinning theoretical perspective will aid in the design of all future researches.

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

project management
agile isd practice
isd agility
case study


FIR: An efficient routing strategy for tori and meshes Recent massively parallel computers are based on clusters of PCs. These machines use one of the recently proposed standard interconnects. These interconnects either use source routing or distributed routing based on forwarding tables. While source routers are simpler, distributed routers provides more flexibility allowing the network to achieve a higher performance. Distributed routing can be implemented by a fixed hardware specific to a routing function on a given topology or by using forwarding tables. The main problem of this approach is the lack of scalability of forwarding tables. In this paper, we propose a distributed routing strategy for commercial switches, flexible interval routing, that is scalable, both in memory and routing time because it is not based on tables. At the same time. the strategy is easy to reconfigure, being able to implement the most commonly used routing algorithms in the most widely used regular topologies. (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 B I O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

direct networks
deterministic and adaptive routing
deadlock-free routing
memory-effective routing
time-effective routing


Accelerometer's position independent physical activity recognition system for long-term activity monitoring in the elderly Mobility is a good indicator of health status and thus objective mobility data could be used to assess the health status of elderly patients. Accelerometry has emerged as an effective means for long-term physical activity monitoring in the elderly. However, the output of an accelerometer varies at different positions on a subject's body, even for the same activity, resulting in high within-class variance. Existing accelerometer-based activity recognition systems thus require firm attachment of the sensor to a subject's body. This requirement makes them impractical for long-term activity monitoring during unsupervised free-living as it forces subjects into a fixed life pattern and impede their daily activities. Therefore, we introduce a novel single-triaxial-accelerometer-based activity recognition system that reduces the high within-class variance significantly and allows subjects to carry the sensor freely in any pocket without its firm attachment. We validated our system using seven activities: resting (lying/sitting/standing), walking, walking-upstairs, walking-downstairs, running, cycling, and vacuuming, recorded from five positions: chest pocket, front left trousers pocket, front right trousers pocket, rear trousers pocket, and inner jacket pocket. Its simplicity, ability to perform activities unimpeded, and an average recognition accuracy of 94% make our system a practical solution for continuous long-term activity monitoring in the elderly.

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

physical activity recognition
accelerometer

linear discriminant analysis
artificial neural nets


access control systems for spatial data infrastructures and their administration Today sophisticated concepts, languages and frameworks exist, that allow implementing powerful fine grained access control systems for protecting Geo Web Services and spatial data in Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). Especially rule based access control systems provide the capabilities to define and enforce expressive, fine grained access rights or restrictions respectively. In the first part of the presentation GeoXACML, a standardised spatial access control language, will be presented and it will be demonstrated that GeoXACML based access control systems can meet the access control specific requirements in OGC Web Service based SDIs. Having powerful, complex access control policies in place introduces a new challenge. It is essential that the policy defining the semantics of an access control system can be easily and securely administrated. In the second part of the presentation it will be highlighted how to administrate complex GeoXACML policies. A very general and powerful administrative model, the Layered Administration Model (LAM), will be introduced. The LAM intends to support an easy, distributed and hierarchical administration of complex spatial access control policies as found in SDIs.

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

geoxacml
layered administration model
spatial access control


Two algorithms for automatic page layout and possible applications This paper describes two approaches to the problem of automatically placing document items on pages of some output device. Both solutions partition the page into regions where each item is to be placed, but work on different input data according to the application: One approach assumes that previously defined rectangular items are to be placed freely on the page (as in a sales brochure), whereas the second approach places free-form items on pages divided into columns (as in a newspaper). Moreover, both approaches try to preserve the reading order provided by the input and use all available area on the page. This paper also describes several possible advances and applications for the algorithms, detailing and expanding the work presented indeOliveira (2008).

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


A research on short term load forecasting problem applying improved grey dynamic model The grey dynamic model GM(1,1), which is based on the grey system theory, has recently emerged as a powerful tool for short term load forecasting (STLF) problem. However, GM(1,1) is only a first order single variable grey model, the forecasted accuracy is unsatisfactory when original data show great randomness. In this paper, we propose improved grey dynamic model GM(2,1), a second order single variable grey model, to enhance the forecasted accuracy. Then it is applied to improve STLF performance. We provide a viewpoint that the derivative and background value of GM(2,1) model can be expressed in grey number. Then cubic spline function is presented to calculate the derivative and background value in grey number interval. We call the proposed model as 3spGM(2,1) model. Additionally, Taylor approximation method is applied to 3spGM(2,1) for achieving the high forecasted accuracy. The improved version is defined as T-3spGM(2,1). The power system load data of ordinary and special days are used to validate the proposed model. The experimental results showed that the proposed model has better performance for STLF problem.

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

grey number
cubic spline function
taylor approximation method

short term load forecasting (stlf)
grey dynamic model gm(2
1)


Algorithms for computing parameters of graph-based extensions of BCH codes This paper develops combinatorial algorithms for computing parameters of extensions of BCH codes based on directed graphs. One of our algorithms generalizes and strengthens a previous result obtained in the literature before.

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


Levitation-guidance stabilization of superconducting maglev through LSM currents This paper presents a modeling and simulation of a superconducting maglev vehicle with a levitation and guidance assist method we have proposed. The assist system stabilizes and assists the vehicle operation so that the vehicle does not need to depend on the mechanical wheels as much as possible at low speeds. By controlling the LSM armature currents, the auxiliary levitation and guidance forces are provided. The results show that the assist system produces appropriate levitation and guidance forces, establishing the reference levitation height and a sufficient guidance at low speeds even against the disturbance force of lateral wind. (c) 2006 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Adaptive Image Warping for Hole Prevention in 3D View Synthesis Increasing popularity of 3D videos calls for new methods to ease the conversion process of existing monocular video to stereoscopic or multi-view video. A popular way to convert video is given by depth image-based rendering methods, in which a depth map that is associated with an image frame is used to generate a virtual view. Because of the lack of knowledge about the 3D structure of a scene and its corresponding texture, the conversion of 2D video, inevitably, however, leads to holes in the resulting 3D image as a result of newly-exposed areas. The conversion process can be altered such that no holes become visible in the resulting 3D view by superimposing a regular grid over the depth map and deforming it. In this paper, an adaptive image warping approach as an improvement to the regular approach is proposed. The new algorithm exploits the smoothness of a typical depth map to reduce the complexity of the underlying optimization problem that is necessary to find the deformation, which is required to prevent holes. This is achieved by splitting a depth map into blocks of homogeneous depth using quadtrees and running the optimization on the resulting adaptive grid. The results show that this approach leads to a considerable reduction of the computational complexity while maintaining the visual quality of the synthesized views.

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

2d-to-3d-conversion
depth image-based rendering
hole-filling


Analysis of an infinite multi-server queue with an optional service This paper deals with an infinite-capacity multi-server queueing system with a second optional service (SOS) channel. The inter-arrival times of arriving customers, the service times of the first essential service (FES) and the SOS channel are all exponentially distributed. A customer may leave the system after the FES channel with a probability (1 - theta), or the completion of the FES may immediately require a SOS with a probability theta (0 <= theta <= 1). The formulae for computing the rate matrix and stationary probabilities are derived by means of a matrix analytical approach. A cost model is developed to simultaneously determine the optimal values of the number of servers and the two service rates at the minimal total expected cost per unit time. Quasi-Newton method and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method are employed to deal with the optimization problem. Under optimal operating conditions, numerical results are provided from which several system performance measures are calculated based on the assumed numerical values of the system parameters. (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 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

first essential channel
linear progressing algorithm
quasi-newton method
second optional channel


The influence of gravity on trajectory planning for climbing robots with non-rigid legs In this paper questions related to the occurrence of departures of a legged climbing robot from the given trajectory are considered. The basic idea of the paper is to show that, if there are slackness and non-rigidities, the legged climbing robot moving upon an inclined or vertical plane, departs systematically from the planned trajectory. It is demonstrated that these departures result from the gravity and are of systematic character. It is also shown how the inclusion of torsion effect changes substantially the nature of systematic errors arising from robot's movement along the inclined surface.

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

climbing robot
torsion effect
trajectory planning


A variant of radial measure capable of dealing with negative inputs and outputs in data envelopment analysis Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a linear programming methodology to evaluate the relative technical efficiency for each member of a set of peer decision making units (DMUs) with multiple inputs and multiple outputs. It has been widely used to measure performance in many areas. A weakness of the traditional DEA model is that it cannot deal with negative input or output values. There have been many studies exploring this issue, and various approaches have been proposed. In this paper, we develop a variant of the traditional radial model whereby original values are replaced with absolute values as the basis to quantify the proportion of improvements to reach the frontier. The new radial measure is units invariant and can deal with all cases of the presence of negative data. In addition, the variant of the radial measure (VRM) preserves the property of proportionate improvement of a traditional radial model, and provides the exact same results in the cases that the traditional radial model can deal with. Examples show the advantages of the new approach.

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

data envelopment analysis
negative data
variant of radial measure


Comparison of Lipoprotein(a) Levels between Elderly and Middle-Aged Men with Coronary Artery Disease Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is known to be a risk factor for atherosclerotic disease in middle-aged men, but the role of Lp(a) in women and in the elderly is less clear. In most studies, excess Lp(a) is not associated with increased risk for persons >65 years of age. This study examined the strength of association of a number of risk factors to coronary artery disease (CAD) in groups of men 65 of age (n= 66) with angiographically documented significant narrowing of coronary arteries. Serum Lp(a) concentrations were determined; elevated Lp(a) is positively associated with CAD for men <65 years (adjusted 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 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


A fully differential third-order VHF G(m)-C filter based on linear transformation techniques A fully differential third-order very high frequency (VHF) Gm-C filter based on linear transformation ( LT) techniques is presented in this paper. The systematic design method and the procedure are developed to realize LT Gm-C fillters efficiently. A third-order Butterworth lowpass filter embedded bandgap and bias circuits with 200 MHz cutoff frequency is implemented in the TSMC 0.18 mu m 1P6M process. The total harmonic distortion (THD) of the proposed filter is -43 dB with input signal 0.5V(p-p) and output loading capacitance 1 pF at 200 MHz. Power dissipation is 9.77 mW under 1.8 V supply voltage. Its core area occupies 0.188 x 0.186 mm(2). Post simulation and experimental results that confirm the theoretical analysis are obtained. Furthermore, the proposed circuits can be extended to high-order Chebychev and elliptic filters.

O B I O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 modeling language's evolution driven by tight interaction between academia and industry Domain specific languages play an important role in model-driven engineering of software-intensive industrial systems. A rich body of knowledge exists on the development of languages, modeling environments, and transformation systems. The understanding of architectural choices for combining these parts into a feasible solution, however, is not particularly deep. We report on an endeavor in the realm of a technology transfer process from academia to industry, where we encountered unexpected influences of the architecture on the modeling language. By examining the evolution of our language and its programming interface, we show that these influences mainly stemmed from practical considerations; for identifying these early on, tight interaction between our research lab and the industrial partner was key. In addition, we share insights into the practice of cooperating with industry by presenting essential lessons we learned.

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

model driven engineering architecture
domains specific language
academic-industry cooperation
clabjects


Existence results for partial neutral functional differential equations with state-dependent delay In this paper we study the existence of mild solutions for a class of first order abstract partial neutral differential equations with state-dependent delay. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

abstract cauchy problem
state-dependent delay


Extracting image orientation feature by using integration operator This paper presents an orientation operator to extract image local orientation features. We show that a proper employment of image integration leads to an unbiased orientation estimate, based on which an orientation operator is proposed. The resulting discrete operator has flexibility in the scale selection as the scale change does not violate the bias minimization criteria. An analytical formula is developed to compare orientation biases of various discrete operators. The proposed operator shows lower bias than eight well-known gradient operators. Experiments further demonstrate higher orientation accuracy of the proposed operator than these gradient operators.

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

feature extraction
image recognition
gradient operator
local orientation estimation
orientation bias


Application of tabu search strategy for finding low energy structure of protein Understanding protein functionality would mean understanding the basics of life. This functionality follows a three-dimensional structure of proteins. Unfortunately till now it is not possible to obtain these structures artificially. This article offers a survey on the use of meta-heuristic methods in context of simplified models of protein folding. Tabu search (TS) strategy is one of the most successful meta-heuristics that has been applied for large number of optimization problems. In the paper, the application of TS for finding low energy conformations of proteins in a simplified lattice model has been proposed. The algorithm has been extensively tested and the tests showed its good performance. It compares well with the other heuristic approaches. The approach presented is competitive as compared with other methods and due to its low computation time can be used as a complementary tool for an analysis of the three-dimensional protein structures.

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

meta-heuristic
hydrophobichydrophilic lattice model
protein structure prediction


A cross-modal method of labeling music tags In this paper, we discuss various features of music objects in two kinds of domain. Among these features, Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) are further discussed and described by Gaussian mixture model (GMM). Also, the similarity between GMMs are investigated accordingly. Then, we employ the multimedia graph as a cross-modal method to associate MFCCs and genre tags of music objects. By applying link analysis algorithm in the graph, we label appropriate genre tags for target music objects. Also, we perform experiments to show performance, effectiveness, and parameter setting of our approach.

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

mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (mfccs)


Handling uncertainty in the establishment of a design space for the manufacture of a pharmaceutical product Recent trends in the pharmaceutical sector are changing the way processes are designed and executed, moving from: allowing the process to operate in a fixed point, to allowing a permissible region in the operating space (a.k.a. design-space) This trend is driving product development to design quality into the manufacturing process (Quality by Design) and not to rely solely on testing quality in the product These changes address the presence of uncertainties entering the process and their negative effect on product quality if the operating conditions are not free to compensate for these disturbances. This work provides a review of methods to address the presence of these uncertainties, ranging from the establishment of multivariate specifications for incoming product, to feed-forward process control. It also presents the development of a feed-forward controller to compensate the process for the observed changes in the properties of the incoming material. The development and testing of this controller is illustrated with a wet-granulation process. The performance of the multiple control strategies is back-propagated to the changes in the acceptance regions for the raw materials Ultimately, the controller and its model are used to define an integrated design-space that accounts for the network of complex relationships between materials, process conditions and product. This work proposes and demonstrates that the use of mathematics is the only way to reach the maximum potential of the Quality by Design by providing a tool to specify an integral Design Space. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

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

design space
quality by design
uncertainty

latent variable methods
pharmaceuticals
partial least squares


Distributed topology control of wireless networks We propose and analyaze a distributed control law that will maintain prescribed local properties of a wireless ad hoc network in the presence of node mobility, MAC layer power control and link fades. The control law uses a simple and intuitive power adaptation mechanism. We consider as an example the topology requirement of maintaining the out-degrees of each node at prescribed values and keeping the in-degree close to the out-degree. The topology objective is achieved by adapting the transmission power based only on local information. This power adaptation algorithm is analyzed using the o.d.e. approach to stochastic approximation. Simulation results verify the analysis and demonstrate its effectiveness. We also study the ability of the proposed objective to maintain connectivity. Although many heuristics are described in the literature to maintain local topological properties, the algorithm proposed in this paper is the first one that has proven convergence properties.

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

control theory
system design
network connectivity


Data space mapping for efficient I/O in large multi-dimensional databases In this paper, we propose data space mapping techniques for storage and retrieval in multi-dimensional databases on multi-disk architectures. We identify the important factors for an efficient multi-disk searching of multi-dimensional data and develop secondary storage organization and retrieval techniques that directly address these factors. We especially focus on high dimensional data, where none of the current approaches are effective. In contrast to the current declustering techniques, storage techniques in this paper consider both inter- and intra-disk organization of the data. The data space is first partitioned into buckets, then the buckets are declustered to multiple disks while they are clustered in each disk. The queries are executed through bucket identification techniques that locate the pages. One of the partitioning techniques we discuss is especially practical for high dimensional data, and our disk and page allocation techniques are optimal with respect to number of I/O accesses and seek times. We provide experimental results that support our claims on two real high dimensional datasets. (C) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

data space mapping
disk and page allocation
high dimensional data
storage

space partitioning
parallel i/o
multi-disk architectures
performance


Hierarchical Online Problem Classification for IT Support Services The overwhelming amount of various monitoring and log data generated in multitier IT systems makes problem determination one of the most expensive and labor-intensive tasks in IT Services arena. Particularly the initial step of problem classification is complicated by error propagation making secondary problems surfacing on multiple dependent resources. In this paper, we propose to automate the process of problem classification by leveraging machine learning. The main focus is to categorize the problem a user experiences by recognizing the real root cause specificity leveraging available training data such as monitoring and logs across the systems. We transform the structure of the problem into a hierarchy using an existing taxonomy. We then propose an efficient hierarchical incremental learning algorithm which is capable of adjusting its internal local classifier parameters in realtime. Comparing to the traditional batch learning algorithms, this online solution decreases the computational complexity of the training process by learning from new instances on an incremental fashion. Our approach significantly reduces the memory required to store the training instances. We demonstrate the efficiency of our approach by learning hierarchical problem patterns for several issues occurring in distributed web applications. Experimental results show that our approach substantially outperforms previous 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 B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O


interactive retrieval based on faceted feedback Motivated by the commonly used faceted search interface in e-commerce, this paper investigates interactive relevance feedback mechanism based on faceted document metadata. In this mechanism, the system recommends a group of document facet-value pairs, and lets users select relevant ones to restrict the returned documents. We propose four facet-value pair recommendation approaches and two retrieval models that incorporate user feedback on document facets. Evaluated based on user feedback collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk, our experimental results show that the Boolean filtering approach, which is widely used in faceted search in e-commerce, doesn't work well for text document retrieval, due to the incompleteness (low recall) of metadata assignment in semi-structured text documents. Instead, a soft model performs more effectively. The faceted feedback mechanism can also be combined with document-based relevance feedback and pseudo relevance feedback to further improve the retrieval performance.

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

interactive retrieval
relevance feedback
faceted feedback


Declarative representation of strategic control knowledge Strategic (control) knowledge typically specifies how a target task is solved. Representing such knowledge declaratively remains a difficult and practical knowledge engineering challenge. The key to addressing this challenge rests on two observations. One, strategic knowledge comprises two finer types of knowledge: subgoaling knowledge used to construct the goal structure for each problem situation pertaining to a target task, and goal-sequencing knowledge used to choose which subgoal in this goal structure is to be pursued at any given moment. Second, when subgoaling knowledge is explicit and expressed in declarative ontological terms, it is possible to fully express goal-sequencing knowledge in the same declarative terms. Building on these observations, we achieve three things. First, we analyse several conventional knowledge-based applications whose subgoaling and goal-sequencing knowledge is implicit, showing that making their subgoaling knowledge explicit permits (re)representing their goal-sequencing knowledge declaratively. Among the applications analysed are MORE and NEOMYCIN. Second, upon studying the roles of goal-sequencing knowledge vis-a-vis subgoaling knowledge, we develop a declarative formalism for representing goal-sequencing knowledge. Finally, we discuss and illustrate key benefits from using our declarative formalism, including an enhanced ability to validate and reuse goal-sequencing knowledge. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

strategic knowledge
control knowledge
knowledge engineering

declarative knowledge
knowledge representation
situation-specific models
ontology


Compression-based averaging of selective naive Bayes classifiers The naive Bayes classifier has proved to be very effective on many real data applications. Its performance usually benefits from an accurate estimation of univariate conditional probabilities and from variable selection. However, although variable selection is a desirable feature, it is prone to overfitting. In this paper, we introduce a Bayesian regularization technique to select the most probable subset of variables compliant with the naive Bayes assumption. We also study the limits of Bayesian model averaging in the case of the naive Bayes assumption and introduce a new weighting scheme based on the ability of the models to conditionally compress the class labels. The weighting scheme on the models reduces to a weighting scheme on the variables, and finally results in a naive Bayes classifier with "soft variable selection". Extensive experiments show that the compression-based averaged classifier outperforms the Bayesian model averaging scheme.

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


Scale Selection Properties of Generalized Scale-Space Interest Point Detectors Scale-invariant interest points have found several highly successful applications in computer vision, in particular for image-based matching and recognition.

B 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

feature detection
blob detection
corner detection
scale-space
scale selection
scale invariance
scale calibration
scale linking
feature trajectory
deep structure
affine transformation
differential invariant
gaussian derivative
multi-scale representation


An expert system for multiobjective decision making: application of fuzzy linguistic preferences and goal programming This paper introduces an interactive approach for solving multiobjective decision making (MODM) problems based on linguistic preferences and architecture of a fuzzy expert system. The aim of this paper is to consider the decision maker's (DMs) preferences in determining the priorities and aspiration levels, in addition to analysis of conflict among the goals. The main concept presented in this paper is to convert the MODM problem into its equivalent goal programming (GP) problem by appropriately setting the priority and aspiration level for each objective. The conversion approach introduced is based on fuzzy linguistic preferences of DM, in addition to the concepts of conflict analysis among objective functions and fuzzy set theory. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

multiobjective decision making
fuzzy expert system
goal programming

linguistic variables
membership functions (mf)


Neuromodulation of STDP through short-term changes in firing causality Spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP) likely plays an important role in forming and changing connectivity patterns between neurons in our brain. In a unidirectional synaptic connection between two neurons, it uses the causal relation between spiking activity of a presynaptic input neuron and a postsynaptic output neuron to change the strength of this connection. While the nature of STDP benefits unsupervised learning of correlated inputs, any incorporation of value into the learning process needs some form of reinforcement. Chemical neuromodulators such as Dopamine or Acetylcholine are thought to signal changes between external reward and internal expectation to many brain regions, including the basal ganglia. This effect is often modelled through a direct inclusion of the level of Dopamine as a third factor into the STDP rule. While this gives the benefit of direct control over synaptic modification, it does not account for observed instantaneous effects in neuronal activity on application of Dopamine agonists. Specifically, an instant facilitation of neuronal excitability in the striatum can not be explained by the only indirect effect that dopamine-modulated STDP has on a neurons firing pattern. We therefore propose a model for synaptic transmission where the level of neuromodulator does not directly influence synaptic plasticity, but instead alters the relative firing causality between pre- and postsynaptic neurons. Through the direct effect on postsynaptic activity, our rule allows indirect modulation of the learning outcome even with unmodulated, two-factor STDP. However, it also does not prohibit joint operation together with three-factor STDP rules.

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

neuromodulation
dopamine
causality
reinforcement
basal ganglia
stdp


Maintaining the Ranch topology ? Topology maintenance, or how to handle the possibly concurrent joining and leaving of nodes, is a central problem for structured peer-to-peer networks. A good topology maintenance protocol should run efficiently, fully maintain the topology, and should not unduly restrict concurrency. In this paper, we present such a protocol for a multi-ring topology called Ranch. The protocol is efficient: for each join or leave, it uses a logarithmic number of messages with high probability. The protocol fully maintains Ranch after joins and leaves, and allows for a high degree of concurrency. To our knowledge, this is the first maintenance protocol that enjoys all of these properties for a structured peer-to-peer network topology.

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

structured peer-to-peer networks
maintenance protocols
correctness


On contracts for VMI program with continuous review (r,Q) policy Based on continuous review (r,Q) policy, this paper deals with contracts for vendor managed inventory (VMI) program in a system comprising a single vendor and a single retailer. Two business scenarios that are popular in VMI program are vendor with ownership and retailer with ownership. Taking the system performance in centralized control as benchmark, we define a contract perfect if the contract can enable the system to be coordinated and can guarantee the program to be trusted. A revenue sharing contract is designed for vendor with ownership, and a franchising contract is designed for retailer with ownership. Without consideration of order policy and related costs at the vendor site, it is shown that one contract can perform satisfactorily and the other one is a perfect contract. With consideration of order policy and related costs at the vendor site, it is shown that one contract can perform satisfactorily and the performance of the other one depends on system parameters.

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


A system for automatic structure discovery and reasoning-based navigation of the web In this paper, we highlight the main research directions currently pursued by the investigators for the development of new tools to improve Web accessibility for users with visual disabilities. The overall principle is to create intelligent software agents used to assist visually impaired individuals in accessing complex on-line data organizations (e.g. tables, frame structures) in a meaningful way. Accessibility agents make use of knowledge representation structures (automatically or manually derived) to assist users in developing navigation plans; these are employed to locate given pieces of information or to answer user's desired goals. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Correct sampling and measurement - the foundation of accurate metallurgical accounting Mining companies devote considerable effort to reconciliation of production tonnages and metallurgical accounting in processing plants. However, in many cases the sampling, weighing and analysis methods used to obtain the raw data for metal balancing are still not given the attention they deserve. There is little point in using the latest metallurgical accounting package to improve metal balancing if the data used are unreliable in the first place. The basic rule for correct sampling is that all parts of the ore, concentrate, slurry or other material being sampled must have an equal probability of being collected and becoming part of the final sample for analysis. Unfortunately, this rule is not respected in many processing plant environments, resulting in both bias and poor precision of the analyses. Of these, bias is the more serious, because no amount of replicate sampling and analysis will reduce bias once it is present. The moisture content and wet mass of the material being sampled are of equal importance in determining the mass of metal. However, the accurate determination of moisture content is particularly difficult, because the moisture content of samples can change rapidly after the sample is taken, e.g., due to moisture evaporation in hot climates. Hence, moisture samples must be taken quickly, placed in sealed bags or containers that are impervious to moisture, and the moisture content determined without delay, preferably by preparing and weighing moisture samples immediately. To determine wet mass, a range of weighing methods is used in industry, including weighbins, weighbridges, conveyor weightometers and platform scales. However, the precision and accuracy of these methods vary considerably, so it is important to select a method with the appropriate precision and ensure that the weighing system is well maintained and regularly calibrated. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

sampling
moisture
weighing
metallurgical accounting
precision
bias


On the Optimality of Binning for Distributed Hypothesis Testing We study a hypothesis testing problem in which data are compressed distributively and sent to a detector that seeks to decide between two possible distributions for the data. The aim is to characterize all achievable encoding rates and exponents of the type 2 error probability when the type 1 error probability is at most a fixed value. For related problems in distributed source coding, schemes based on random binning perform well and are often optimal. For distributed hypothesis testing, however, the use of binning is hindered by the fact that the overall error probability may be dominated by errors in the binning process. We show that despite this complication, binning is optimal for a class of problems in which the goal is to "test against conditional independence." We then use this optimality result to give an outer bound for a more general class of instances of the problem.

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

binning
distributed hypothesis testing
outer bound
test against conditional independence

gaussian many-help-one hypothesis testing against independence

gel'fand and pinsker hypothesis testing against independence


Cognitive style and personality: impact on multimedia perception Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between cognitive style, user personality and perceived multimedia quality Design/methodology/approach This paper used Cognitive Style Analysis and an adapted Myers-Briggs questionnaire to assess cognitive style and user personality respectively It also used an adapted Quality of Perception metric to assess user-perceived multimedia quality Findings The research shows that personality type and user cognitive style affects information assimilation, self-perceived achievement and student level of confidence Practical implications This work suggests a number of practical recommendations to support the consideration of personality and cognitive style in preparation of educational multimedia material Originality/value This paper provides consideration of personality and cognitive style, and the impact that they have on user multimedia perception

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

personality multimedia quality perception


How influential is Brooks' law? A longitudinal citation context analysis of Frederick Brooks' The Mythical Man-Month Citation context analysis is used to demonstrate the diversity of concept symbols that a book-length publication can represent and the diffusion of influence of these concepts over time and across scholarly disciplines. A content analysis of 574 citation contexts from 497 journal articles citing an edition of Frederick P. Brooks, Jr's The Mythical Man-Month (MMM) over the period 1975-1999 showed that MMM represents a variety of different concepts and is cited in a wide range of subject areas. Over time, a high level of interest in MMM spread from software engineering and computer science to management and information systems, with different areas showing different patterns of focus on concepts within the work. 'Brooks' Law' (the 'mythical man-month' or 'adding more people to a late project makes it later'), accounted for less than 30% of the classified citation contexts. The findings contribute to our understanding of the diffusion of ideas in scholarly communication, and the diversity that can underlie the creation of a reference in a scholarly publication.

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

software engineering
citation context analysis
scholarly communication
diffusion of ideas
concept symbols

citation analysis
longitudinal citation analysis


The influencing factors of commitment and business integration on supply chain management The main purpose of this study focuses on how to integrate the supply chain management business process. There were a total of 600 questionnaires issued in this study with 134 valid questionnaires being retrieved. The study concludes the following results: the level of idiosyncratic investments to supply chain partners, the degree of dependence between supply chain partners, and the level of product salability of manufacturer would enhance commitment and, consequently, the integration of the SCM business process. The degree of trust, power, continuity, and communication between supply chain partners would enhance commitment and, consequently, the integration of the SCM business process. The level of affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment of supply chain partners would be helpful in the integration of the SCM business process.

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


Amyloid, Cholinesterase, Melatonin, and Metals and Their Roles in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases The aging brain shows selective neurochemical changes involving several neural cell populations. Increased brain metal levels have been associated with normal aging and a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Melatonin levels are decreased in aging, particularly in AD subjects. The loss of melatonin, which is synthesized by the pineal gland, together with the degeneration of cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain and the deposition of aggregated proteins, such as the amyloid ? peptides (A?), are believed to contribute to the development of cognitive symptoms of dementia. Aging and its variants, such as AD, should be viewed as the result of multiple hits, including alterations in the levels of A?, metals, cholinesterase enzymes, and neuronal gene expression. Herein, we present evidence in support of this theory, based on several studies. We discuss melatonin's neuroprotective function, which plays an important role in aging, prolongation of life span, and health in the aged individual. It interacts with metals and, in some cases, neutralizes their toxic effects. Dietary supplementation of melatonin restores its age-related loss. In mice, an elevated brain melatonin significantly reduced levels of potentially toxic A? peptides. Thus, compensation of melatonin loss in aging by dietary supplementation could well be beneficial in terms of reducing metal-induced toxicity, lipid peroxidation, and losses in cholinergic signaling. We propose that certain cholinesterase inhibitors and the NMDA partial antagonist memantine, which are FDA-approved drugs for AD and useful to boost central nervous system functioning, can be made more effective by their combination with melatonin or other neuroprotectants. Herein, we highlight studies elucidating the role of the amyloid pathway, metals, melatonin, and the cholinergic system in the context of aging and AD. Finally, melatonin is present in edible plants and walnuts, and consuming foodstuffs containing melatonin would be beneficial by enhancing the antioxidative capacity of the organisms.

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

aging amyloid brain cholinergic melatonin metals

acetylcholinesterase
amyloid precursor protein
cobalt
copper
diet
iron
mercury
metalloprotease
mouse
neurodegeneration
neuroprotection
synaptic proteins
zinc


Object matching algorithms using robust Hausdorff distance measures A Hausdorff distance (HD) is one of commonly used measures for object matching. This work analyzes the conventional HD measures and proposes two robust HD measures based on Mi-estimation and least trimmed square (LTS) which are more efficient than the conventional HD measures. By computer simulation, the matching performance of the conventional and proposed HD measures is compared with synthetic and real images.

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

hausdorff distance
least trimmed square
object matching


Breast cancer diagnosis using least square support vector machine The use of machine learning tools in medical diagnosis is increasing gradually. This is mainly because the effectiveness of classification and recognition systems has improved in a great deal to help medical experts in diagnosing diseases. Such a disease is breast cancer, which is a very common type of cancer among woman. In this paper, breast cancer diagnosis was conducted using least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifier algorithm. The robustness of the LS-SVM is examined using classification accuracy, analysis of sensitivity and specificity, k-fold cross-validation method and confusion matrix. The obtained classification accuracy is 98.53% and it is very promising compared to the previously reported classification techniques. Consequently, by LS-SVM, the obtained results show that the used method can make an effective interpretation and point out the ability of design of a new intelligent assistance diagnosis system.

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

breast cancer diagnosis
least square support vector machine
confusion matrix
medical diagnosis

wisconsin breast cancer diagnosis data
k-fold cross validation


Polynomial time certifying algorithms for the planar quantified integer programming problem This article is concerned with the design and analysis of polynomial time algorithms for determining whether a Planar Quantified Integer Program (PQIP) is feasible. A PQIP can be described briefly as an integer program involving two variables, in which each variable can be either universally or existentially quantified. There are four types of PQIPs, depending on how the variables are quantified (existentially or universally). In this article, we present two new, simple, and efficient algorithms for the for all there exists case as well as a detailed account of the complexity of the other cases. Moreover, we discuss certification with respect to the provided algorithms.

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

quantified integer programs
constraints
lattice points


Equalizer-aided time delay tracking based on L-1-normed finite differences This paper addresses the estimation of time delay between two spatially separated noisy signals by system identification modeling with the input and output corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise. The proposed method is based on a modified adaptive Butler-Cantoni equalizer that decouples noise variance estimation from channel estimation. The bias in time delay estimates that is induced by input noise is reduced by an IIR whitening filter whose coefficients are found by the Burg algorithm. For step time-variant delays, a dual mode operation scheme is adopted in which we define a normal operating (tracking) mode and an interrupt operating (optimization) mode. In the tracking mode, only a few coefficients of the impulse response vector are monitored through L-1-normed finite forward differences tracking, while in the optimization mode, the time delay optimized. Simulation results confirm the superiority of the proposed approach at low signal-to-noise ratios.

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

time delay estimation
adaptive butler-cantoni equalizer
delay optimization
l-1-norm
finite difference


i/o-efficient computation of water flow across a terrain Consider rain falling at a uniform rate onto a terrain T represented as a triangular irregular network. Over time, water collects in the basins of T , forming lakes that spill into adjacent basins. Our goal is to compute, for each terrain vertex, the time this vertex is flooded (covered by water). We present an I/O-efficient algorithm that solves this problem using O (sort( X ) log ( X / M ) + sort( N )) I/Os, where N is the number of terrain vertices, X is the number of pits of the terrain, sort( N ) is the cost of sorting N data items, and M is the size of the computer's main memory. Our algorithm assumes that the volumes and watersheds of the basins of T have been precomputed using existing 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

terrains
geographical information systems
i/o-efficient algorithms


Comments on "An improved model for vehicle routing problem with time constraint based on genetic algorithm" [Comput. Ind. Eng. 42 (2002) 361-369] An improved model for vehicle routing problem proposed by Heung-Suk Hwang (2002) was recently published in Computer & Industrial Engineering Journal to solve the time constraint vehicle routing problem based on improved genetic algorithm. In this work, comments are given to the published paper of Heung-Suk Hwang (2002). And they centralize on the example of improved mutation operator and the problem formulation. The suggested modifications are also provided in this work. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

vehicle routing problem
genetic algorithm
improved mutation operator
problem formulation


A performance analysis tool for interactive applications on the grid The use of the Grid for interactive applications imposes new requirements on tools supporting performance analysis, which are not well addressed by tools available in the area of parallel and distributed programming. The two most important demands are an on-line mode of operation, and the ability to measure user-defined, application-specific metrics, such as, for example, the response time of a specific user interaction. The paper starts with an analysis of these requirements, which is based on realworld applications developed in the European CrossGrid project. The most important feature of these applications is the presence of a person in the main computing loop, who inspects intermediate results and controls the further behavior of the application. Based on the results of the requirements analysis, a new performance analysis tool G-PM is currently being implemented. The paper outlines the main ideas as well as some design details of GPM, with a focus on the concept of user-defined metrics, the possible problems of this concept, and some of its implementation aspects.

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

performance analysis
interactive applications

grid computing
user-defined metrics
on-line analysis
metrics specification language


Biological activity of Pinus nigra terpenesEvaluation of FtsZ inhibition by selected compounds as contribution to their antimicrobial activity Biological activity of the essential oils of P. nigra taxa from Serbia was analyzed. The black pine essential oils showed weak DPPH and ABTS scavenging effects. One fungal and two bacterial strains showed sensitivity against oils of all three taxa. Germacrene D-4-ol interacts with FtsZ binding pocket. Synergistic activity between major and minor compounds in the tested oils is proposed.

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

needle terpenes
bacillus cereus
molecular docking


power-efficient pulse width modulation dc/dc converters with zero voltage switching control This paper proposes a power-efficient PWM DC/DC converter design with a novel zero voltage switching (ZVS) control technique. The ZVS control is realized by an inner feedback loop which is implemented by simple digital circuitry between the input and output of the power transistors and achieves real-time zero voltage switching (ZVS) for various loading and device parameters with power efficiencies over 90.0\%. In addition, an outer feedback loop is used to ensure that the output precisely tracks a reference voltage level. We have also built the relationship between the output voltage ripple and the speed of the voltage comparators which has shown to introduce new low-frequency signals to the loops and cause significant output voltage ripples. Experiment results show that the output ripple could be reduced by 4x by carefully handling the generation and propagation of these low frequency signals.

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