Self-Assembling Rulers for Approximating Generalized Sierpinski Carpets Discrete self-similar fractals have been used as test cases for self-assembly, both in the laboratory and in mathematical models, ever since Winfree exhibited a tile assembly system in which the Sierpinski triangle self-assembles. For strict self-assembly, where tiles are not allowed to be placed outside the target structure, it is an open question whether any self-similar fractal can self-assemble. This has motivated the development of techniques to approximate fractals with strict self-assembly. Ideally, such an approximation would produce a structure with the same fractal dimension as the intended fractal, but with specially labeled tiles at positions corresponding to points in the fractal. We show that the Sierpinski carpet, along with an infinite class of related fractals, can approximately self-assemble in this manner. Our construction takes a set of parameters specifying a target fractal and creates a tile assembly system in which the fractal approximately self-assembles. This construction introduces rulers and readers to control the self-assembly of a fractal structure without distorting it. To verify the fractal dimension of the resulting assemblies, we prove a result on the dimension of sets embedded into discrete fractals. We also give a conjecture on the limitations of approximating self-similar fractals.

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


The analytic hierarchy process and human resource allocation: Half the story The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) provides a way to rank the alternatives of a problem by deriving priorities. A question that occurs in practice is: what is the best combination of alternatives that has the largest sum of priorities and satisfies given constraints? This leads one to consider the interface between the AHP and the combinatorial approach inherent in Linear Programming (LP). The priorities of the alternatives often serve as coefficients of the objective function of an LP problem. The constraints are determined from existing measurements, such as the range for the number of employees needed and the salaries required for various jobs. Another way to use the AHP might be to determine the coefficients of the constraints. This paper addresses the first half of the problem. Through various examples, we show how to apply the absolute measurement mode of the AHP together with LP to optimize human resource allocation problems. For example, one can determine which positions to fill, or which mix of candidates to hire. We also give an example of how to allocate resources to maximize the returns to a corporation of its training programs. Finally, we show that the combined AHP and LP model is capable of solving hiring problems involving synergy, such as when two persons with different complementary skills work as a team. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

ahp
linear programming
resource allocation


Note on the second kind Barnes' type multiple q-Euler polynomials In this paper we introduce the second kind Barnes-type multiple q-Euler numbers and polynomials, by using fermionic p-adic in Variant integral on Z(p). We give some interesting properties.

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

the second kind q-euler numbers and polynomials

the second kind barnes-type multiple q-euler numbers and polynomials


FaceDCAPTCHA: Face detection based color image CAPTCHA With data theft and computer break-ins becoming increasingly common, there is a great need for secondary authentication to reduce automated attacks while posing a minimal hindrance to legitimate users. CAPTCHA is one of the possible ways to classify human users and automated scripts. Though text-based CAPTCHAs are used in many applications, they pose a challenge due to language dependency. In this paper, we propose a face image-based CAPTCHA as a potential solution. To solve the CAPTCHA, users must correctly identify visually-distorted human faces embedded in a complex background without selecting any non-human faces. The proposed algorithm generates a CAPTCHA that offers better human accuracy and lower machine attack rates compared to existing approaches.

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


A Source Code Similarity System for Plagiarism Detection Source code plagiarism is an easy to do task, but very difficult to detect without proper tool support. Various source code similarity detection systems have been developed to help detect source code plagiarism. Those systems need to recognize a number of lexical and structural source code modifications. For example, by some structural modifications (e.g. modification of control structures, modification of data structures or structural redesign of source code) the source code can be changed in such a way that it almost looks genuine. Most of the existing source code similarity detection systems can be confused when these structural modifications have been applied to the original source code. To be considered effective, a source code similarity detection system must address these issues. To address them, we designed and developed the source code similarity system for plagiarism detection. To demonstrate that the proposed system has the desired effectiveness, we performed a well-known conformism test. The proposed system showed promising results as compared with the JPlag system in detecting source code similarity when various lexical or structural modifications are applied to plagiarized code. As a confirmation of these results, an independent samples t-test revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between average values of F-measures for the test sets that we used and for the experiments that we have done in the practically usable range of cut-off threshold values of 35-70%.

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

plagiarism
similarity detection
source code


A NEW METHOD FOR FACIAL FEATURES QUANTIFICATION OF CARICATURE BASED ON SELF-REFERENCE MODEL Some facial features that differ from an ordinary face should be identified by a computer when generating a facial caricature. These distinctive facial features are called self-features. Compared with traditional Mean Face Model (MFM) that is unable to quantify these self-features well, a Self-Reference Model (SRM) is presented in this paper. Firstly, based on the physiology structure of a front face, a self-reference is found, and this reference is used to measure the self-features. According to the self-reference, some standard facial parameters are worked out by collecting statistic data of many facial images. Then, in an input face image, by evaluating some differences between the input face and the standard facial parameters, the self-features are properly estimated and quantified. Finally, by analyzing some caricatures produced by caricaturists, the SRM can prove the validity of the proposed Algorithm.

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

facial features recognition
caricaturing method
self-reference model


a logical framework for modeling and reasoning about semantic web services contract In this paper, we incorporate concrete domain and action theory into a very expressive Description Logic (DL), called ALCQO. Notably, this extension can significantly augment the expressive power for modeling and reasoning about dynamic aspects of services contracting. Meanwhile, the original nature and advantages of classical DLs are also preserved to the extent possible.

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


Dynamic modelling and identification of a waterjet cutting system This paper describes a new dynamic model for a waterjet cutting system that includes a double-acting reciprocating intensifier pump. Since the system operates at high pressures the fluid flow is assumed to be compressible. The dynamic model includes the characteristics of the intensifier pump, the check valves, the accumulator, the system piping and compressible jet flow through the nozzle. The system model is presented as a set of differential-algebraic equations. Experimental results for an actual system are used to identify the discharge coefficient of the nozzle, certain unknown parameters associated with the check valve, and to determine the velocity profile of the piston in the intensifier pump. This is accomplished by formulating and solving a parameter optimization problem. The paper also includes numerical simulation results that validate the dynamic model.

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

modelling
identification
parameter optimization


Robust H-2 fuzzy output feedback control for discrete-time nonlinear systems with parametric uncertainties This paper deals with the robust H-2 fuzzy observer-based control problem for discrete-time uncertain nonlinear systems. The Takagi and Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is employed to represent a discrete-time nonlinear system with parametric uncertainties. A fuzzy observer is used to estimate the state of the fuzzy system and a non-parallel distributed compensation (non-PDC) scheme is adopted for the control design. A fuzzy Lyapunov function (FLF) is constructed to derive a sufficient condition such that the closed-loop fuzzy system is globally asymptotically stable and an upper bound on the quadratic cost function is provided. A sufficient condition for the existence of a robust H2 fuzzy observer-based controller is presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Moreover, by using the existing LMI optimization techniques, a suboptimal fuzzy observer-based controller in the sense of minimizing the cost bound is proposed. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

discrete-time nonlinear systems
fuzzy control
h-2 control
linear matrix inequality (lmi)
parametric uncertainty
state observer


A tutorial for designing flexible geometric algorithms The implementation of an algorithm is faced with the issues of efficiency, flexibility, and ease-of-use. In this paper we suggest a design concept that greatly increases the flexibility of an implementation without sacrificing ease-of-use and efficiency. We demonstrate the advantages of our concept through a C++ implementation of a simple rectangle-intersection algorithm, which follows the well-known sweep-line paradigm. We lead the reader. who should be familiar with C++ and its template mechanism. from a naive interface in a step-by-step guide to an interface offering full flexibility. The gain in flexibility can reduce the overall implementation effort by facilitating code reuse. Reusability in turn helps to achieve correctness simply because more users mean more testing. Though most of the ingredients of our concept have already been suggested elsewhere, to our knowledge this is the first time that they are applied vigorously in a geometric setting. We include a thorough experimental analysis on random and real-world data.

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

generic design
standard template library
sweep-line algorithm
computational geometry


A Dynamic Network Oligopoly Model with Transportation Costs, Product Differentiation, and Quality Competition This paper develops a new dynamic model of CournotNash oligopolistic competition that includes production and transportation costs, product differentiation, and quality levels in a network framework. The production costs capture the total quality cost, which, in turn, can also represent the R&D cost. We first present the equilibrium version and derive alternative variational inequality formulations. We then construct the projected dynamical systems model, which provides a continuous-time evolution of the firms product shipments and product quality levels, and whose set of stationary points coincides with the set of solutions to the variational inequality problem. We establish stability analysis results using a monotonicity approach and construct a discrete-time version of the continuous-time adjustment process, which yields an algorithm, with closed form expressions at each iteration. The algorithm is then utilized to compute solutions to several numerical examples. The framework can serve as the foundation for the modeling and analysis of competition among firms in industries ranging from food to pharmaceuticals to durable goods and high tech products, as well as Internet services, where quality and product differentiation are seminal.

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

product quality
product differentiation
projected dynamical systems

oligopolies
networks
game theory
variational inequalities


Formalizing the structural semantics of domain-specific modeling languages Model-based approaches to system design are now widespread and successful. These approaches make extensive use of model structure to describe systems using domain-specific abstractions, to specify and implement model transformations, and to analyze structural properties of models. In spite of its general importance the structural semantics of modeling languages are not well-understood. In this paper we develop the formal foundations for the structural semantics of domain-specific modeling languages (DSML), including the mechanisms by which metamodels specify the structural semantics of DSMLs. Additionally, we show how our formalization can complement existing tools, and how it yields algorithms for the analysis of DSMLs and model transformations.

O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O 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-based design
domain-specific modeling languages
metamodeling
formal logic
horn logic


On the monotonicity of hierarchical sum-product fuzzy systems Motivated by the authors' previous work on the control of queueing systems, the assessment of sustainable development, and the measurement of material recyclability, this paper provides sufficient conditions on the parameters of hierarchical fuzzy systems under which the output of the system is monotonic with respect to its inputs. This property could be useful in designing multistage fuzzy inference systems and fuzzy controllers. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Interval natural frequency and mode shape analysis for truss structures with interval parameters A new method called the interval factor method (IFM) for the natural frequency and mode shape analysis of truss structures with interval parameters is presented in this paper. Using the IFM, the structural physical parameters and geometric dimensions can be considered as interval variables. The structural stiffness and mass matrices can then be, respectively, divided into the product of two parts corresponding to the interval factors and the deterministic matrix. The computational expressions for the lower and upper bound and interval change ratio of the natural frequency and mode shape are derived from Rayleigh quotient by means of the interval operations. The influences of the change of the structural parameters on the natural frequency and mode shape are demonstrated by using truss structures.

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

interval parameters
interval factor method
natural frequency
mode shape
truss structures


The descent of memory T cells Our T cell repertoire is shaped by antigen encounter. From a naive T cell pool that contains millions of different T cells with unknown specificities, pathogen infection leads to selection of those T cells that can detect pathogen-derived antigens. Following clearance of infection, a population of memory T cells remains and protects the individual from severe reinfection. A central question in the field has been how the generation of long-lived memory T cells, versus short-lived (terminally differentiated) T cells, is controlled. In this review we discuss the models that have been put forward to explain the generation of memory T cells after infection and the experimental evidence supporting these hypotheses. Based on the available data we propose a new model that stipulates that during immune responses T cells do not acquire different fates that determine their subsequent long-term survival but rather T cells assume different states that simply reflect the likelihood of future survival, states that can still be modulated by external signals.

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

differentiation
lineage tracing
cell fate


applications driving 3d integration and corresponding manufacturing challenges Three dimensional (3D) semiconductor circuit integration has been an active area of research recently. Part of the driving force behind this interest has been applications. In this paper, we identify applications that drive 3D integration and point out the challenges they bring. In particular, we focus on through silicon via-based (TSV-based) 3D integration. TSV-based 3D integration opens up a new genre, and new opportunities for semiconductor integrated circuits. After a brief overview of TSV-based 3D technology overview, we identify driver applications that are dominant in this transition. We then point out challenges in the manufacturing area, i.e., thermal, reliability, EDA, cost, and test.

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

thermal reliability integration 3d technology manufacturing cost applications

challenges eda
optical
bonding
mems
architecture
testing
rf


Rule-based OneClass-DS learning algorithm One-class learning algorithms are used in situations when training data are available only for one class, called target class. Data for other class(es), called outliers, are not available. One-class learning algorithms are used for detecting outliers, or novelty, in the data. The common approaching one-class learning is to use density estimation techniques or adapt standard classification algorithms to define a decision boundary that encompasses the target data. In this paper we introduce OneClass-DS learning algorithm that combines rule-based classification with greedy search algorithm based on density of features. Its performance is tested on 25 data sets and compared with eight one-class algorithms; the results show that it performs on par with the eight algorithms.

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

one-class learning algorithm: oneclass-ds


Modeling the evolution of operating systems: An empirical study In this paper, we report on an empirical experiment where we observe, record and analyze the evolution of selected operating systems over the past decades, and derive a statistical model that captures relevant evolutionary laws. This model is derived by quantifying relevant attributes of operating systems, including intrinsic technical factors and time-dependent environmental factors. We use this model to understand past evolution and learn to predict future evolution, not only of individual operating systems, but also of operating systems features. We combine the insights gained from this study with insights gained from other similar empirical experiments to attempt to derive evolutionary laws for software technology trends.

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

software engineering trends
tech watch
unix
solaris
sun/os
bsd
windows
ms-dos
mac os
linux
netware
hp_ux
gnu hurd
ibm aix
compaq/dec vms
os/2


real-time, load-adaptive processing of continuous queries over data streams We introduce a new type of query, called a real-time continuous query (RCQ) that captures the real-time requirements of processing data streams. We develop techniques to efficiently process the RCQs in the presence of fluctuating query load and data load. We show that Rate-Monotonic scheduling is applicable to this problem domain, and show how to make this method adaptive to varying load conditions. When a set of queries becomes unschedulable due to load variations, we perform controlled input load shedding by dropping tuples using a novel feedback-based approach to decide which tuples to drop. Our work shows how to provide response time guarantees for processing RCQs, and enables making the appropriate trade-off between penalty due to missed deadlines and result accuracy. Our experiments show that our approach works very well and is usable in practice.

O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 correction method for dynamic analysis of linear continuous systems A method to improve the dynamic response analysis of continuous classically damped linear system is proposed. As in fact usually, following a classical approach, a reduced number of eigenfunctions are accounted for and the response is evaluated by integrating the uncoupled differential equations of motion in modal space, neglecting the contribution of high frequency modes (truncation procedure). Here, starting from the given system, it is proposed to set up two differential equations governing the motion of two new continuous systems: the first one contains only the first m non-zero eigenvalues of the given system and the second one contains the remainder non-zero ??m eigenvalues. By summing up the response of the two aforementioned systems it is proven that the global response is recovered. Then, the response of the first system is evaluated by classical dynamic methods (Duhamell integral or step-by-step integration procedures), while the particular solution of the second one is obtained in series form that is shown to converge quickly.

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

modal analysis
correction methods
force derivative method


On minimizing the number of ADMs - Tight bounds for an algorithm without preprocessing Minimizing the number of electronic switches in optical networks is a main research topic in recent studies. In such networks we assign colors to a given set of lightpaths. Thus the lightpaths are partitioned into cycles and paths. The switching cost is minimized when the number of paths is minimized. The problem of minimizing the switching cost is NP-hard, and approximation algorithms have been suggested for it. Many of these algorithms have a preprocessing stage, in which they first find cycles. The basic algorithm eliminates cycles of size at most 1, and is known to have a performance guarantee of OPT + 1/2 (1 + epsilon)N, where OPT is the cost of an optimal solution, N is the number of lightpaths, and 0 <= epsilon <= 1/l+2, for any given odd l. Without preprocessing phase (i.e. l = 1), this reduces to OPT + 2/3 N. We develop a new technique for the analysis of the upper bound and prove a tight bound of OPT + 3/5 N for the performance of this algorithm. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

wavelength assignment
wavelength division multiplexing (wdm)
add-drop multiplexer (adm)


Climate change and game theory This paper examines the problem of achieving global cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Contributions to this problem are reviewed from noncooperative game theory, cooperative game theory, and implementation theory. We examine the solutions to games where players have a continuous choice about how much to pollute, as well as games where players make decisions about treaty participation. The implications of linking cooperation on climate change with cooperation on other issues, such as trade, are also examined. Cooperative and noncooperative approaches to coalition formation are investigated in order to examine the behavior of coalitions cooperating on climate change. One way to achieve cooperation is to design a game, known as a mechanism, whose equilibrium corresponds to an optimal outcome. This paper examines some mechanisms that are based on conditional commitments, and their policy implications. These mechanisms could make cooperation on climate change mitigation more likely.

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

game theory
implementation theory
coalition formation

climate change negotiations
subgame perfect equilibrium


Location effect on gold nano bi-domes based absorption coefficient Binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) algorithm was used to generate the binary gold nano bi-domes for getting higher absorption coefficient spectrum. The simulation results show that absorption coefficient strongly depends on the localized position of nano particles and non-periodic structures have more appropriate response in term of absorption coefficient. This approach can be useful in optical applications such as solar cell and plasmonic nano antenna.

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

plasmonic nano particles
optimization algorithm
pso algorithm


Visualization of respiratory flows from 3D reconstructed alveolar airspaces using X-ray tomographic microscopy A deeper knowledge of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the pulmonary acinus has direct applications in studies on acinar fluid dynamics and aerosol kinematics. To date, however, acinar flow simulations have been often based on geometrical models inspired by morphometrical studies; limitations in the spatial resolution of lung imaging techniques have prevented the simulation of acinar flows using 3D reconstructions of such small structures. In the present study, we use high-resolution, synchrotron radiation-based X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) images of the pulmonary acinus of a mouse to reconstruct 3D alveolar airspaces and conduct computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations mimicking rhythmic breathing motion. Respiratory airflows and Lagrangian (massless) particle tracking are visualized in two examples of acinar geometries with varying size and complexity, representative of terminal sacculi including their alveoli. The present CFD simulations open the path towards future acinar flow and aerosol deposition studies in complete and anatomically realistic multi-generation acinar trees using reconstructed 3D SRXTM geometries.

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

synchrotron radiation x-ray tomographic microscopy (srxtm)


Sources of polysemy in indexing practice: The case of games, experimental in MeSH Polysemy in practice (the use of one indexing term to represent several different concepts) can be detected through contextual co-descriptor analysis and content analysis. The research reported here demonstrates this through the co-descriptor profiles and content analysis of the primary research literature indexed with the MeSH term GAMES, EXPERIMENTAL over the years 1974-1999 and 2005-2012. The indexing profiles illustrate an early-to-late period shift in goals from a 70% focus on education to a divided focus (?60% total) on various aspects of individual and interactive decision making. In a content analysis of reported games, word puzzles, adaptations of quiz and board games, and simulations/role playing dominated in 1974-99goals and activities not congruent with the game-theoretic notion of a game. In 2005-2012, game-theoretic scenarios and individual risky-decision activities (e.g. Iowa Gambling Task) dominated. Overall, it appears that indexers relied on the occurrence of the term game in the article and/or the more common notion of what a game is in indexing the article. This was particularly evident in the early time period, before the rise of experimental economics/game theory, but even in recent years, the term is used to tag a wider variety of activities than would be expected by the term's position and syndetic relationship.

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

polysemy
games
indexing
mesh
content analysis


Stream traffic management over an ATM passive optical network Several alternatives based either on wired or wireless infrastructures are considered for the provision of broadband services in the local loop. In the field of wired solutions, Passive Optical Networks (PON) look very promising due to their bandwidth capacity. Also called APONs (ATM over PON), PON systems are designed in order to satisfy end-to-end ATM connections. Because it is based on a point-to-multipoint optical tree configuration, a PON access system requires a MAC protocol for the upstream traffic. Two approaches may be adopted for the design of an APON MAC protocol. The first approach considers a MAC protocol based on a work-conserving discipline combined with a stand-alone traffic shaper between the head of the optical tree and an ATM switch. The second approach consists in an integrated mechanism able to reduce Cell Delay Variation (CDV) of CBR/VBR connections by means of non-work conserving disciplines at the MAC layer. After having described the main characteristics of APON systems, we propose a new APON MAC protocol with integrated shaping well suited to real time traffic management. The performances of our protocol are investigated by means of both computer simulations and analytical modeling. By extension of our analytical study, a Call Admission Control procedure is proposed for real time VBR connections.

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

fibre-in-the-loop
atm traffic management
passive optical network (pon)
service disciplines


A Spatially Augmented Reality Sketching Interface for Architectural Daylighting Design We present an application of interactive global illumination and spatially augmented reality to architectural daylight modeling that allows designers to explore alternative designs and new technologies for improving the sustainability of their buildings. Images of a model in the real world, captured by a camera above the scene, are processed to construct a virtual 3D model. To achieve interactive rendering rates, we use a hybrid rendering technique, leveraging radiosity to simulate the interreflectance between diffuse patches and shadow volumes to generate per-pixel direct illumination. The rendered images are then projected on the real model by four calibrated projectors to help users study the daylighting illumination. The virtual heliodon is a physical design environment in which multiple designers, a designer and a client, or a teacher and students can gather to experience animated visualizations of the natural illumination within a proposed design by controlling the time of day, season, and climate. Furthermore, participants may interactively redesign the geometry and materials of the space by manipulating physical design elements and see the updated lighting simulation.

O B I I O O O O B I 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 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

spatially augmented reality
global illumination
radiosity
daylighting design


A

dimensional

viscous

hydrodynamic

code

for

relativistic

heavy

ion

collisions

We

describe

the

details

of

dimensional

relativistic

hydrodynamic

code

for

the

simulations

of

quarkgluon/hadron

matter

expansion

in

ultra-relativistic

heavy

ion

collisions.

The

code

solves

the

equations

of

relativistic

viscous

hydrodynamics

in

the

IsraelStewart

framework.

With

the

help

of

idealviscous

splitting,

we

keep

the

ability

to

solve

the

equations

of

ideal

hydrodynamics

in

the

limit

of

zero

viscosities

using

a

Godunov-type

algorithm.

Milne

coordinates

are

used

to

treat

the

predominant

expansion

in

longitudinal

(beam)

direction

effectively.

The

results

are

successfully

tested

against

known

analytical

relativistic

inviscid

and

viscous

solutions,

as

well

as

against

existing

relativistic

viscous

code.

Program

title:

vHLLE

Catalogue

identifier:

Program

summary

Program

obtainable

from:

CPC

Program

Library,

Queens

University,

Belfast,

N.

Ireland

Licensing

provisions:

Standard

CPC

licence,

No.

of

lines

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

No.

of

bytes

in

distributed

program,

including

test

data,

etc.:

Distribution

format:

tar.gz

Programming

language:

C++.

Computer:

any

with

a

C++

compiler

and

the

CERN

ROOT

libraries.

Operating

system:

tested

on

GNU/Linux

Ubuntu

(gcc

GNU/Linux

Ubuntu

(gcc

Red

Hat

Linux

(gcc

RAM:

scales

with

the

number

of

cells

in

hydrodynamic

grid;

Mbytes

for

grid.

Classification:

External

routines:

CERN

ROOT

Gnuplot

for

plotting

the

results.

Nature

of

problem:

relativistic

hydrodynamical

description

of

the

quarkgluon/hadron

matter

expansion

in

ultra-relativistic

heavy

ion

collisions.

Solution

method:

finite

volume

Godunov-type

method.

Running

time:

scales

with

the

number

of

hydrodynamic

cells;

typical

running

times

on

Intel(R)

Core(TM)

CPU

single

thread

mode,

grid

and

p

EoS

(setup

discussed

in

Sec.

sec/timestep

for

ideal

hydro

evolution;

sec/timestep

for

viscous

hydro

evolution;

sec/timestep

for

tabulated

EoS

and

ideal

hydro

evolution.

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


combining wire swapping and spacing for low-power deep-submicron buses We propose an approach for reducing the energy consumption of address buses that targets both the switching and the crosstalk components of power dissipation.The method is based on the combined application of two techniques. First, selective wire swapping is applied in such a way that bus wires with high coupling activity are kept far away from each other. Then, the slack available in the floorplanning for the routing of the bus wire is exploited to realize a bus with non-uniform inter-wire spacing. Both swapping and placement are driven by the switching data obtained from the analysis of typical address bus traces, and can be successfully applied to any address bus.Results on a set of profiled address streams show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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

traces
method
energy consumption
analysis
data
placement
routing
floorplanning
crosstalk

select
activation
applications
bus encoding
couples
low power
addressing
power dissipation
switch
effect
low-power design
combinational
physical design
component


Design issues of self-organizing broadband wireless networks ? Design issues of self-organizing broadband wireless networks are examined in this paper. As centralized solutions suffer from many inherent disadvantages, the responsibilities of organizing and controlling self-organizing networks should be fully distributed among wireless stations themselves. Wireless channel oriented adhoc multihop broadband (W-CHAMB) ideas that meet QoS demands for high performance services and realize statistical multiplexing of bursty traffic in a fully distributed and efficient manner are described in detail. The superiority of the performance of the W-CHAMB network can be seen in comparison with that of packet-oriented IEEE 802.11 WLAN. The hidden station problem is completely resolved by means of the energy signal (E-signal) solution. The performance gain of the E-signal solution over the RTS/CTS mechanism is evaluated through computer simulation. Finally, the effect of network connectivity on the traffic performance is discussed.

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

self-organizing
wireless lan
adhoc networking


Knowledge building in asynchronous discussion groups: Going beyond quantitative analysis This contribution examines the methodological challenges involved in defining the collaborative knowledge-building processes occurring in asynchronous discussion and proposes an approach that could advance understanding of these processes. The written protocols that are available to the analyst provide an exact record of the instructional transactions at a given time in the online discussion. On the basis of a study of online discussion forums used in a higher education context, a model for the analysis of collaborative knowledge building in asynchronous discussion is presented. The model allows examination of the communication from the multiple perspectives of interaction, cognition and discourse analysis. The investigation was conducted using a qualitative case study approach and involved an in-depth examination of three cases. Content analysis of the discourse was done at a number of levels, focusing on the discussion forum itself, the discussion threads, the messages, and the exchanges and moves among the messages. As a result of correspondences found among the variables representing the different levels of the analysis, the most important being the relationship between type of interaction, phase of critical inquiry, and move in the exchange structure, it was possible to build a scheme for assessing knowledge building in asynchronous discussion groups. The scheme integrates the interactive, cognitive and discourse dimensions in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The study represents a merging of quantitative analysis within qualitative methodology and provides both an analytic and a holistic perspective on CSCL. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

computer-mediated communication
distance education
interactive learning


Degradation and surfactant-aided regeneration of fluorinated anti-sticking mold treatments in UV nanoimprint lithography In nanoimprint lithography, the most common approach to prevent resist to adhere to the mold is to graft a fluorinated anti-sticking layer on the molds surface. But it is known that these layers suffer from degradation after a certain number of imprints. In this work, we study the influence of the presence, type and quantity of fluorinated surfactant additives in the resist formulation on the degradation of the molds treatment. It is found that the presence of a fluorinated surfactant drastically increases the possible maximal number of imprints before retreatment. Also, we observed that fluorinated surfactants with a silane end-group are able to be adsorbed at the surface of the mold after repeated imprints to progressively replace the initial molds treatment. Nevertheless, a balance has still to be found between quantity, reactivity and type of surfactant to maintain a smooth and extremely thin fluorinated layer at the surface of the mold.

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

uv-nil
anti-sticking
fluorinated molecules
fused silica molds


automated tutoring for a database skills training environment Universities are increasingly offering courses online. Feedback, assessment, and guidance are important features of this online courseware. Together, in the absence of a human tutor, they aid the student in the learning process. We present a programming training environment for a database course. It aims to offer a substitute for classroom based learning by providing synchronous automated feedback to the student, along with guidance based on a personalized assessment. The automated tutoring system should promote procedural knowledge acquisition and skills training. An automated tutoring feature is an integral part of this tutoring system.

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

tool-mediated independent learning
structured query language


Design improvements and control of a hybrid walking robot In this paper design improvements and control algorithms are presented for a 2-DOF (Degree-Of-Freedom) hybrid leg-wheel walking machine. A prototype of a low-cost robot, which is capable of straight walking and steering with only two actuators, has been designed and built at LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. A control system has been developed in order to control the robots operation and to improve the prototypes behavior. The designed control system and simulation results have been reported to show the operation of the prototype.

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

mobile robots
mechanism design
control systems
hybrid walking robots


DELIVER! - An educational game for teaching Earned Value Management in computing courses Context: To meet the growing need for education in Software Project Management, educational games have been introduced as a beneficial instructional strategy. However, there are no low-cost board games openly available to teach Earned Value Management (EVM) in computing programs. Objective: This paper presents an educational board game to reinforce and teach the application of EVM concepts in the context of undergraduate computing programs complementing expository lessons on EVM basics. Method: The game has been developed based on project management fundamentals and teaching experience in this area. So far, it has been applied in two project management courses in undergraduate computing programs at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. We evaluated motivation, user experience and the game's contribution to learning through case studies on Kirkpatrick's level one based on the perception of the students. Results: First results of the evaluation of the game indicate a perceived potential of the game to contribute to the learning of EVM concepts and their application. The results also point out a very positive effect of the game on social interaction, engagement, immersion, attention and relevance to the course objectives. Conclusion: We conclude that the game DELIVER! can contribute to the learning of the EVM on the cognitive levels of remembering, understanding and application. The illustration of the application of EVM through the game can motivate its usefulness. The game has proven to be an engaging instructional strategy, keeping students on the task and attentive. In this respect, the game offers a possibility to complement traditional instructional strategies for teaching EVM. In order to further generalize and to strengthen the validity of the results, it is important to obtain further evaluations. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

project management
teaching
education
earned value management
computing


Non-Gaussian smoothing of low-count transmission scans for PET whole-body studies A non-Gaussian smoothing (NGS) technique is developed for filtering low count transmission (TR) data to be used for attenuation correction (AC) of positron emission tomography (PET) studies. The method is based on a statistical technique known as the generalized linear mixed model that allows an inverse link function that avoids the inversion of the observed transmission data. The NGS technique has been implemented in the sinogram domain in one-dimensional mode as angle-by-angle computation. To make it adaptive as a function of the TR count statistics we also develop and validate an objective procedure to choose an optimal smoothing parameter. The technique is assessed using experimental phantoms, simulating PET whole-body studies, and applied to real patient data. Different experimental conditions, in terms of TR scan time (from 1 h to 1 min), covering a wide range of TR counting statistic are considered. The method is evaluated, in terms of mean squared error (MSE), by comparing pixel by pixel the distribution for high counts statistics TR scan (1 h) with the corresponding counts distribution for low count statistics TR scans (e.g., 1 min). The smoothing parameter selection is shown to have high efficiency, meaning that it tends to choose values close to the unknown best value. Furthermore, the counts distribution of emission (EM) images, reconstructed with AC generated using low count TR data (1 min), are within 5% of the corresponding EM images reconstructed with AC generated using the high count statistics TR data (1 h). An application to a real patient whole-body PET study shows the promise of the technique for routine use.

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

poisson data
regression
roughness penalty


Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 in the Heart Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) belongs to the superfamily of immunoglobulin-like adhesion molecules. Up-regulation of ICAM-1 occurs in many different pathophysiological processes. Also, cardiomyocytes can express ICAM-1for example, in acute myocardial infarction. Moreover, inhibition of ICAM-1 expression in the heart dramatically reduces infarct size. Hence, inhibitors of ICAM-1 may provide a novel therapeutic option for acute myocardial infarction.

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


An overview of auditory display to assist comprehension of molecular information This paper presents an overview of auditory display (the use of non-speech sounds to convey information) applied to the study of molecular properties in human-computer interfaces, particularly in virtual environments. Chemistry researchers and students have difficulty in analysing and comprehending molecular structure and bonding and other biomolecular characteristics. Research reports that non-speech sounds have been useful in identifying trends in gene sequences and molecular characteristics, which when used in virtual environments. can facilitate comprehension of complex relationships that are difficult to perceive through visualisation alone. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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

auditory display
molecular structure
bonding

virtual reality
multimodality
non-speech sounds


Mathematical modeling for simultaneous design of plants and supply chain in the batch process industry Most supply chain design models have focused on the integration problem, where links among nodes must be settled in order to allow an efficient operation of the whole system. At this level, all the problem elements are modeled like black boxes, and the optimal solution determines the nodes allocation and their capacity, and links among nodes. In this work, a new approach is proposed where decisions about plant design are simultaneously made with operational and planning decisions on the supply chain. Thus, tradeoffs between the plant structure and the network design are assessed. The model considers unit duplications and the allocation of storage tanks for plant design. Using different sets of discrete sizes for batch units and tanks, a mixed integer linear programming model (MILP) is attained. The proposed formulation is compared with other non-integrated approaches in order to illustrate the advantages of the presented simultaneous approach. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

batch process design
simultaneous optimization


Platform-Based Design for the Low Complexity and High Performance De-Interlacing System With the development of digital TV system, how to display the NTSC signal in digital TV system is a problem. De-interlacing is an algorithm to solve it. In previous papers. using motion compensation (MC) method for de-interlacing needs lots of computation complexity and it is not easy to implement in hardware. In this paper, a content adaptive de-interlacing algorithm is proposed. Our algorithm is based on the motion adaptive (MA) method which combines the advantages of intra-field and inter-field method. We propose a block type decision mechanism to predict the video content instead of a blind processing with MC method throughout the entire frame. Additionally, in intra-field method, we propose the edge-base adaptive weight average (EAWA) method to achieve a better performance and smooth the edge and stripe. In order to demonstrate out, algorithm, we implement the de-interlacing system oil the DSP platform with thorough complexity analysis. Compared to MC method, we not only achieve higher video quality in objective and subjective view, but also consume lower computation power. From the profiling on CPU run-time analysis, the proposed algorithm is only one-fifth of MC method. At the DSP demonstration board, the saving ratio is about 54% to 96%.

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

de-interlace
de-interlacing
intra-field interpolation method
inter-field interpolation method
motion adaptive method
motion compensation method


Iterative experimental and virtual high-throughput screening identifies metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 4 positive allosteric modulators Activation of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 4 has been shown to be efficacious in rodent models of Parkinson's disease. Artificial neural networks were trained based on a recently reported high throughput screen which identified 434 positive allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 4 out of a set of approximately 155,000 compounds. A jury system containing three artificial neural networks achieved a theoretical enrichment of 15.4 when selecting the top 2 % compounds of an independent test dataset. The model was used to screen an external commercial database of approximately 450,000 drug-like compounds. 1,100 predicted active small molecules were tested experimentally using two distinct assays of mGlu(4) activity. This experiment yielded 67 positive allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 4 that confirmed in both experimental systems. Compared to the 0.3 % active compounds in the primary screen, this constituted an enrichment of 22 fold.

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


Stock market prediction by a mixture of genetic-neural experts In this paper, a hybrid approach to stock market forecasting is presented. It entails utilizing a mixture of hybrid experts, each expert embedding a genetic classifier coupled with an artificial neural network. Information retrieved from technical analysis is supplied as input to genetic classifiers, while past stock market prices - together with other relevant data - are used as input to neural networks. In this way it is possible to implement a strategy that resembles the one used by human experts. In particular, genetic classifiers based on technical-analysis domain knowledge are used to identify quasi-stationary regimes within the financial data series, whereas neural networks are designed to perform context-dependent predictions. For this purpose, a novel kind of feedforward artificial neural network has been defined whereby effective stock market predictors can be implemented without the need for complex recurrent neural architectures. Experiments were performed on. a major Italian stock market index, also taking into account trading commissions. The results point to the good forecasting capability of the proposed approach, which allowed outperforming the well known buy-and-hold strategy, as well as predictions obtained using recurrent neural networks.

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

mixtures of experts
genetic algorithms
extended classifier systems
artificial neural networks


leakage-aware dynamic scheduling for real-time adaptive applications on multiprocessor systems While performance-adaptable applications are gaining increased popularity on embedded systems (especially multimedia applications), efficient scheduling methods are necessary to explore such feature to achieve the most performance outcome. In addition to conventional scheduling requirements such as real-time and dynamic power, emerging challenges such as leakage power and multiprocessors further complicate the formulation and solution of adaptive application scheduling problems. In this paper, we propose a runtime adaptive application scheduling scheme that efficiently distributes the runtime slack in a task graph, to achieve maximized performance under timing and dynamic/leakage energy constraints. A guided-search heuristics is proposed to select the best-fit frequency levels that maximize the additional program cycles of adaptive tasks. Moreover, we devise a two-stage receiver task selection method that runs efficiently at runtime, in order to quickly find the slack distribution targets. Experiments on synthesized tasks and a JPEG2000 decoder are conducted to justify our approach. Results show that our method achieves at least 25\% runtime performance increase compared to contemporary approaches, incurring negligible runtime overhead.

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

dynamic scheduling
adaptive applications


Field Trial Demonstration and Evaluation of a Coherent 100G IP Over WDM Alien Wavelength Across 769 km of Multiple WDM Infrastructures Without Regeneration We report the first successful coherent 100G IP over WDM alien wavelength field trial over WDM infrastructures spanning a total distance of 769 km, demonstrating the feasibility and robust performance of a simplified 100G IP over WDM core network architecture. Key performance aspects have been investigated including co-propagation of a 100G IP over WDM alien wavelength and native wavelengths generated from WDM transponders, polarization mode dispersion tolerance, and operation without in-line dispersion compensation modules. We also demonstrated the feasibility of a 100G IP over WDM alien wavelength over multiple WDM systems and optical router or regenerator bypass. In addition, we show evaluation results on the key performance management and monitoring functions with a coherent 100G IP over WDM optical interface in the core router.

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

ip networks
optical communications
phase modulation
wdm networks


Riveted joint modeling for numerical analysis of airframe crashworthiness Numerous rivets have to be taken into account to simulate the behavior of aeronautical frames under crash loading conditions. Until now this type of bonding modeling has not been judged satisfactory. The influence of structural embrittlement due to the riveting process, the strength of a riveted joint under dynamic loading and the characterization of a simplified rivet element, in particular, were sources of questions. For each topic, we did solid finite element modeling and carried out experiments to measure the influence of strain rates under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. We also determined the elasticplastic and damage mechanical properties for sheet metal plates and rivet materials. Our results showed that it was essential to develop a new kind of rivet element taking material non-linearities into account. Experiments and solid finite element modeling of an adapted Arcan test procedure were then conducted and pure shear and tensile non-linear responses as well as parameters of a macroscopic criterion were identified. The use of this new rivet element was found to improve prediction of the dynamic behavior for a frame assembled with 700 rivets.

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


Replica placement algorithms for mobile transaction systems In distributed mobile systems, communication cost and disconnections are major concerns. In this paper, we address replica placement issues to achieve improved performance for systems supporting mobile transactions. We focus on handling correlated data objects and disconnections. Frequently, requests and/or transactions issued by mobile clients may access multiple data objects and should be considered together in terms of replica allocation. We discuss the replication cost model for correlated data objects and show that the problem of finding an optimal solution is NP. We further adjust the replication cost model for disconnections. A heuristic "expansion- shrinking" algorithm is developed to efficiently make replica placement decisions. The algorithm obtains near optimal solutions for the correlated data model and yields significant performance gains when disconnection is considered. Experimental studies show that the heuristic expansion-shrinking algorithm significantly outperforms the general frequency-based replication schemes.

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

mobile transaction systems
cost
correlated data
replica placement
disconnection


Pharmacological Interventions in Aging and Age-associated Disorders Past studies including our own have confirmed that chronic administration of deprenyl can prolong life spans of at least four different animal species. Pretreatment with the drug for several weeks increases activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in selective brain regions. An up-regulation of antioxidant enzyme activities can also be induced in organs such as the heart, kidney, spleen, and adrenal gland, and all are accompanied by an increase in mRNA levels for SODs in these organs. The effect of deprenyl on enzyme activities has a dose-effect relationship of a typical inverted U shape. A similar inverted U shape also has emerged for the drug's effect on survival of animals. An apparent parallelism observed between these two effects of the drug seems to support our contention that the up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes is at least partially responsible for the life-prolonging effect on animals. Further, when a clinically applied dose of the drug for patients with Parkinson's disease was given to monkeys, SOD and CAT activities were increased in striatum of these monkeys, which suggests potential for the drug's applicability to humans. The drug was also found to increase concentrations of cytokines such as interleukin-1? (IL-1?) and tumor necrosis factor-? (TNF-?) in the above rat organs. Together with past reports demonstrating that deprenyl increases natural killer (NK) cell functions and interferon-?, and prevents the occurrence of malignant tumors in rodents and dogs, the mobilization of these humoral factors may therefore be included as possible mechanisms of action of deprenyl for its diverse antiaging and life-prolonging effects. The potentials of propargylamines, (?)deprenyl in particular, for human use as antiaging drugs remain worthy of exploration in the future.

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

propargylamines
deprenyl
antioxidant enzymes
cytokines
monkeys


A leaderfollower model for discrete competitive facility location The leaderfollower competitive location problem is investigated. The follower?s problem is optimally solved by a branch and bound algorithm. An effective tabu search algorithm is designed for the solution of the leader?s problem. Result: the main source of extra market share is obtained by attracting new customers.

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

facility location
competitive location
leaderfollower


Fuzzy control of an ANFIS model representing a nonlinear liquid-level system This paper aims to serve two main objectives; one is to demonstrate the modelling capabilities of a neuro-fuzzy approach, namely ANFIS (adaptive-network based fuzzy inference system) to a nonlinear system; and the other is to design a fuzzy controller to control such a system. The nonlinear system, which is a liquid-level system, is represented first by its mathematical model and then by ANFIS architecture. The ANFIS model is formed by means of inputoutput data set taken from the mathematical model. Then a PID-type fuzzy controller, which linguistically approximates the classical three-term compensation, was designed to control the system represented by both its mathematical and ANFIS models in order to perform an agreement comparison between them. It is shown that the ANFIS architecture can model a nonlinear system very accurately by means of inputoutput pairs obtained either from the actual system or its mathematical model. It is also shown that such a system can be controlled effectively by a fuzzy controller.

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

pid-type fuzzy controller
neuro-fuzzy modelling
nonlinear liquid-level system


discrete acceleration and personalised tiling as brain?body interface paradigms for neurorehabilitation We present two studies that have advanced the design of brain-body interfaces for use in the rehabilitation of individuals with severe neurological impairment due to traumatic brain injury. We first developed and evaluated an adaptive cursor acceleration algorithm based on screen areas. This improved the initial design, but was too inflexible to let users make the most of their highly varied abilities. Only some individuals were well served by this adaptive interface. We therefore developed and evaluated an approach based on personalized tile layouts. The rationales for both designs are presented, along with details of their implementation. Evaluation studies for each are reported, which show that we have extended the user population who can use our interfaces relative to previous studies. We have also extended the usable functionality for some of our user group. We thus claim that personalized tiling with discrete acceleration has allowed us to extend the usable functionality of brain-body interfaces to a wider population with traumatic brain injury, thus creating new options for neurorehabiliation.

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

input devices
brain-body interfaces
cyberlink&#228
assistive technology
accessibility


Sensitivity analysis and optimal design of geometrically non-linear laminated plates and shells A high order shear deformation theory is used to develop a discrete model for the sensitivity analysis and optimization of laminated plate and shell structures in non-linear response. The geometrically non-linear analysis is based on an updated Lagrangian formulation associated with the NewtonRaphson iterative technique, which incorporates an automatic arc-length procedure. Fiber orientation angles and vectorial distances from middle surface to the upper surface of each layer are considered as the design variables. Different objectives, such as generalized displacements at specified nodes, volume of structural material, and limit load, and constraints of displacement and stress failure criterion are considered. The design sensitivities are evaluated analytically and are compared with sensitivities evaluated by the global finite difference. Numerical examples are given to show the accuracy of the proposed model in the non-linear response and the corresponding design sensitivity analysis, and to show the applicability in the optimal design.

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

non-linear
composite structures
structered optimization


exploring camera viewpoint control models for a multi-tasking setting in teleoperation Control of camera viewpoint plays a vital role in many teleoperation activities, as watching live video streams is still the fundamental way for operators to obtain situational awareness from remote environments. Motivated by a real-world industrial setting in mining teleoperation, we explore several possible solutions to resolve a common multi-tasking situation where an operator is required to control a robot and simultaneously perform remote camera operation. Conventional control interfaces are predominantly used in such teleoperation settings, but could overload an operator's hand-operation capability, and require frequent attention switches and thus could decrease productivity. We report on an empirical user study in a model multi-tasking teleoperation setting where the user has a main task which requires their attention. We compare three different camera viewpoint control models: (1) dual manual control, (2) natural interaction (combining eye gaze and head motion) and (3) autonomous tracking. The results indicate the advantages of using the natural interaction model, while the manual control model performed the worst.

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

dual manual control
natural interaction
autonomous tracking

remote camera control
multi-tasking setting


Closed form vs. finite element analysis of laminated stacks Recently, structural analysis of multi-layered stacks subjected to thermal loading has received considerable renewed interest. This is partly because of popular use of these structures in electronic packaging. In this paper a comparative analysis of these structures is presented. Comparisons between closed-form solution, elastic, viscoplastic and thermo-viscoplastic with damage analyses have been presented. A damage mechanics based constitutive model is proposed for finite element analysis (FEA) of multi-layered structures. Moreover, mesh sensitivity of the FEA in layered stack problems is studied. It is shown that the closed-form and elastic FEA can only be used for preliminary studies and elastic finite element method is highly mesh sensitive for this problem. In elastic analysis the stress singularity at the free edge makes mesh selection very difficult. On the other hand, inelastic analysis does not suffer from the stress singularity problem encountered in elastic analysis. The damage mechanics based constitutive model proposed in the study uses a thermodynamic internal state variable as a damage metric.

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

laminated stacks
damage mechanics
electronic packaging


Tank monitoring: a pAMN case study The introduction of probabilistic behaviour into the B-method is a recent development. In addition to allowing probabilistic behaviour to be modelled, the relationship between expected values of the machine state can be expressed and verified. This paper explores the application of probabilistic B to a simple case study: tracking the volume of liquid held in a tank by measuring the flow of liquid into it. The flow can change as time progresses, and sensors are used to measure the flow with some degree of accuracy and reliability, modelled as non-deterministic and probabilistic behaviour respectively. At the specification level, the analysis is concerned with the EXPECTATION clause in the probabilistic B machine and its consistency with machine operations. At the refinement level, refinement and equivalence laws on probabilistic GSL are used to establish that a particular design of sensors delivers the required level of reliability.

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

formal methods
probabilistic predicate transformers


Online Speaker Clustering Using Incremental Learning of an Ergodic Hidden Markov Model A novel online speaker clustering method based on a generative model is proposed. It employs an incremental variant of variational Bayesian learning and provides probabilistic (non-deterministic) decisions for each input utterance, on the basis of the history of preceding utterances. It can be expected to be robust against errors in cluster estimation and the classification of utterances, and hence to be applicable to many real-time applications. Experimental results show that it produces 50% fewer classification errors than does a conventional online method. They also show that it is possible to reduce the number of speech recognition errors by combining the method with unsupervised speaker adaptation.

O O O O O O O O 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


Large scale multi-class classification with truncated nuclear norm regularization In this paper, we consider the problem of multi-class image classification when the classes behaviour has a low rank structure. That is, classes can be embedded into a low dimensional space. Traditional multi-class classification algorithms usually use nuclear norm to approximate the rank of the weight matrix. Considering the limited ability of the nuclear norm for the accurate approximation, we propose a new scalable large scale multi-class classification algorithm by using the recently proposed truncated nuclear norm as a better surrogate of the rank operator of matrices along with multinomial logisitic loss. To solve the non-convex and non-smooth optimization problem, we further develop an efficient iterative procedure. In each iteration, by lifting the non-smooth convex subproblem into an infinite dimensional ?1 norm regularized problem, a simple and efficient accelerated coordinate descent algorithm is applied to find the optimal solution. We conduct a series of evaluations on several public large scale image datasets, where the experimental results show the encouraging improvement of classification accuracy of the proposed algorithm in comparison with the state-of-the-art multi-class classification algorithms.

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 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 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

truncated nuclear norm
coordinate descent algorithm


Learning automata-based algorithms for finding cover sets in wireless sensor networks Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely used in different applications. One of the most significant issues in WSNs is developing an efficient algorithm to monitor all the targets and, at the same time, extend the network lifetime. As sensors are often densely deployed, employing scheduling algorithms can be considered a promising approach that is able ultimately to result in extending total network lifetime. In this paper, we propose three learning automata-based scheduling algorithms for solving target coverage problem in WSNs. The proposed algorithms employ learning automata (LA) to determine the sensors that should be activated at each stage for monitoring all the targets. Additionally, we design a pruning rule and manage critical targets in order to maximize network lifetime. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms, extensive simulation experiments were carried out, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in terms of extending the network lifetime. Simulation results also revealed that by a proper choice of the learning rate, a proper trade-off could be achieved between the network lifetime and running time.

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

wireless sensor networks
learning automata


Complexity analysis, uncertainty management and fuzzy dynamical systems - A cybernetic approach In this paper, we present a brief study on various paradigms to tackle complexity or in other words manage uncertainty in the context of understanding science, society and nature. Fuzzy real numbers, fuzzy logic, possibility theory, probability theory, Dempster-Shafer theory, artificial neural nets, neuro-fuzzy, fractals and multifractals, etc. are some of the paradigms to help us to understand complex systems. We present a very detailed discussion on the mathematical theory of fuzzy dynamical system (FDS), which is the most fundamental theory from the point of view of evolution of any fuzzy system. We have made considerable extension of FDS in this paper, which has great practical value in studding some of the very complex systems in society and nature. The theories of fuzzy controllers, fuzzy pattern recognition and fuzzy computer vision are but some of the most prominent subclasses of FDS. We enunciate the concept of fuzzy differential inclusion (not equation) and fuzzy attractor. We attempt to present this theoretical framework to give an interpretation of cyclogenesis in atmospheric cybernetics as a case study. We also have presented a Dempster-Shafer's evidence theoretic analysis and a classical probability theoretic analysis (from general system theoretic outlook) of carcinogenesis as other interesting case studies of bio-cybernetics.

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

cybernetics
fuzzy logic
uncertainty management


Affine Skeletons and Monge-Ampere Equations An important question about a. ne skeletons is the existence of differential equations that are related to the "affine distance" and the "area distance" (hence to a. ne skeletons) in the same way the Eikonal equation is related to the "Euclidean distance" (and the medial axis). We show a surprisingly simple nonlinear second order PDE of Monge-Ampere type that relates to the a. ne skeletons (and extends the Eikonal equation for the medial axis). We also discuss some consequences and ideas that this new PDE formulation suggests.

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

skeleton
affine geometry
monge-ampere equation
differential propagation


an investigation of real world control of robotic assets under communication latency Robots are already being used in a variety of applications, including the military battlefield. As robotic technology continues to advance, those applications will increase, as will the demands on the associated network communication links. Two experiments investigated the effects of communication latency on the control of a robot across four Levels Of Automation (LOAs), (1) full teleoperation, (2) guarded teleoperation, (3) autonomous obstacle avoidance, and (4) full autonomy. Latency parameters studied included latency duration, latency variability, and the "direction" in which the latency occurs, that is from user-to-robot or from robot-to-user. The results indicate that the higher the LOA, the better the performance in terms of both time and number of errors made, and also the more resistant to the degrading effects of latency. Subjective reports confirmed these findings. Implications of constant vs. variable-latency, user-to-robot vs. robot-to-user latency, and latency duration are also discussed.

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

robotics
control, and level of automation
delay


An improved discriminative common vectors and support vector machine based face recognition approach An improved discriminative common vectors and support vector machine based face recognition approach is proposed in this paper. The discriminative common vectors (DCV) algorithm is a recently addressed discriminant method, which shows better face recognition effects than some commonly used linear discriminant algorithms. The DCV is based on a variation of Fishers Linear Discriminant Analysis for the small sample size case. However, for multiclass problem, the Fisher criterion is clearly suboptimal. We design an improved discriminative common vector by adjustment for the Fisher criterion that can estimate the within-class and between-class scatter matrices more accurately for classification purposes. Then we employ support vector machine as the classifier due to its higher classification and higher generalization. Testing on two public large face database: ORL and AR database, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is an effective face recognition approach, which outperforms several representative recognition methods.

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

face recognition
discriminative common vectors
support vector machine


Multiple light source detection This paper presents the V2R algorithm, a novel method for multiple light source detection using a Lambertian sphere as a calibration object. The algorithm segments the image of the sphere into regions that are each illuminated by a single virtual light and subtracts the virtual lights of adjacent regions to estimate the light source vectors. The algorithm uses all pixels within a region to form a robust estimate of the corresponding virtual light. The circumstances under which the light source detection problem lacks a unique solution are discussed in detail and the way in which the V2R algorithm resolves the ambiguity is explained. The V2R algorithm includes novel procedures for identifying the critical lines that bound the regions, for estimating the light source vectors, and for identifying opposite light pairs. Experiments are performed on synthetic and real images and the performance of the V2R algorithm is compared to that of a recent algorithm from the literature. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is robust and that it gives substantially improved accuracy.

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

computer vision
illuminant detection
lambertian sphere limitations
image synthesis


Relevance versus generalization in cognitive engineering The purpose of this article is to describe how research at the intersection of cognition, technology, and work can be generalized beyond the source context of scientific inquiry and confirmation. Special emphasis is given to resolve confusion about the use of terms such as ecological validity and the real world. The ultimate goal is to foster a more productive dialog on the merits of where and how research on important cognitive engineering topics, such as cognitive adaptation to change and uncertainty, should be conducted.

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

representative design
scientific generalization


Migrating multi-block lattice Boltzmann model for immiscible mixtures: 3D algorithm development and validation The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has emerged as a powerful numerical fluid solver especially in the areas of multi-component and multi-phase mixtures. However the LBM uses the particle velocity for the determination of the model time step required by the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) stability condition. This degrades the LBM efficiency, when compared with standard CFD solvers which use instead the macroscopic velocity for the CFL requirements. This paper discusses the development and validation of a 3D migrating multi-block model aiming at the acceleration of the LBM solution. The proposed algorithm is especially applicable to the Gunstensen multi-component model, in which a fine grid block engulfs the fluid-fluid interface and migrates with it. This increases the efficiency of the LBM since less iteration steps are required in areas of marginal interest, and it enables a better interface resolution because the fluid interface is always covered with finer grid. The method was demonstrated by simulating the case of a 3D rising bubble in infinite medium, in which the model results for the bubble terminal velocity were in good agreement with a semi-analytical solution, and the produced shapes fitted very well an experimental shape regime map. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

multi-component lattice boltzmann method


Wavelet-based color image compression: Exploiting the contrast sensitivity function The visual efficiency of an image compression technique depends directly on the amount of visually significant information it retains. By "visually significant" we mean information to which a human observer is most sensitive. The overall sensitivity depends on aspects such as contrast, color, spatial frequency, and so forth. One important aspect is the inverse relationship between contrast sensitivity and spatial frequency. This is described by the contrast sensitivity function (CSF). In compression algorithms the CSF can be exploited to regulate the quantization step-size to minimize the visibility of compression artifacts. Existing CSF implementations for wavelet-based image compression use the same quantization step-size for a large range of spatial frequencies. This is a coarse approximation of the CSF. This paper presents two new techniques that implement the CSF at significantly higher precision, adapting even to local variations of the spatial frequencies within a decomposition subband. The approaches can be used for luminance as well as color images. For color perception three different CSFs describe the sensitivity. The implementation technique is the same for each color band. Implemented into the JPEG2000 compression standard, the new techniques are compared to conventional CSF-schemes. The proposed techniques turn out to be visually more efficient than previously published methods. However, the emphasis of this paper is on how the CSF can be implemented in a precise and locally adaptive way, and not on the superior performance of these techniques.

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

contrast sensitivity function (csf)
human visual system (hvs)
jpeg 2000
vision
wavelet


Contour-based handwritten numeral recognition using multiwavelets and neural networks In this paper, we develop a handwritten numeral recognition descriptor using multiwavelets and neural networks. We first trace the contour of the numeral, then normalize and resample the contour so that it is translation- and scale-invariant. We then perform multiwavelet orthonormal shell expansion on the contour to get several resolution levels and the average. Finally, we use the shell coefficients as features to input into a feed-forward neural network to recognize the handwritten numerals. The main advantage of the orthonormal shell decomposition is that it decomposes a signal into multiresolution levels, but without down-sampling. Wavelet transforms with down-sampling can give very different coefficients when the input signal is shifted. This is the main limitation of wavelet transforms in pattern recognition. For the shell expansion, we prefer multiwavelets to scalar wavelets because we have two coordinates x and y for each point on the contour. If we extract features from x and y separately, just as Wunsch et al. did (Pattern Recognition 28 (1995) 1237), then we may not get the best features. In addition, we know that multiwavelets have advantages over scalar wavelets, such as short support, orthogonality, symmetry and higher order of vanishing moments. These properties allow multiwavelets to outperform scalar wavelets in some applications, e.g. signal denoising (IEEE Trans. Signal Process. 46 (12) (1998) 3414). We conducted experiments and found that it is feasible to use multiwavelet features in handwritten numeral recognition.

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

multiresolution analysis
shape representation