Virtual reality in medicine: A personal perspective This personal perspective is an attempt to look at the role and impact of virtual reality (VR) as related to medicine and medical practice over the past 10-15 years. A similar treatise was recently published (Robb, 2002) in much shorter form. This more complete version is still not intended to be, nor can it be, fully comprehensive and inclusive of all developments or viewpoints. It is primarily based on the author's experience and opinion. Although such a review begs for many references to published works, that too is eschewed in the interest of preserving, for better or worse, the single view of the author in this article. Only seven references are included which contain copious other references to much of the material touched upon in this essay. To the extent that one can learn from history, this synopsis will also fall short, not so much due to lack of confirming references, but rather because the impact of VR in medicine has been an evolutionary culmination of digression and progression that has resulted in some success and useful contributions but also some wasted time and resources.

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

medical imaging
interactive visualization
procedure validation


Finite element simulation of powder forming and sintering A viscoplastic finite element method for simulating macroscopic deformation in powder forming processes is presented. This method is formulated on the basis of the plasticity theory of a porous material to take the change in apparent volume during the forming. The finite element method is extended to simulation of sintering by including the shrinkage strain-rate due to the sintering in the formulation. In addition, microscopic deformation in powder forming and sintering processes is simulated. The microscopic rotation of powder particles during the compaction is dealt with by the Cosserat continuum mechanics. The microscopic shrinkage on the scale of powder particles in the sintering is simulated by the granular element method. Both microscopic and macroscopic shrinkages in the sintering are simulated by coupling the finite element method with the Monte Carlo method. The calculated results in powder forming and sintering processes are shown.

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

powder forming
sintering
compaction
cosserat continuum mechanics
monte carlo method
granular element method


On the market economy development parametrical regulation theory Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to offer the theory of a parametrical regulation of market economy development, and the results of the theory development and usage. Design/methodology/approach - Theoretical results of the abstract have been obtained by way of applying the theory of ordinary differential equations, geometrical methods in variation tasks and the theory of dynamic systems. These results have been used for solving a number of practical tasks. Findings - The market economy development parametrical regulation theory structure has been offered. The approach to parametrical regulation of a nonlinear dynamic system's development has been suggested. An assumption about the existence of solution to the task of calculus of variations on the choice of the optimum laws of parametrical regulation within the given finite set of algorithms has been set forward. An assumption about the conditions sufficient for the existence of an extremal's bifurcation point of the task of calculus of variations on the choice of the optimum laws of parametrical regulation within the given finite set of algorithms is presented, formulated and proved. Theory application samples have been provided. Research limitations/implications - Future papers would be focused on studies of rigidness of other mathematic models of economic systems. Practical implications - The research findings could be applied to the choice and realization of an effective budget and tax as well as monetary and loan state policy. Originality/value - The market economy development parametrical regulation theory has been offered for consideration for the first time.

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

cybernetics
mathematical modelling
parametric measures
variational techniques


PHASE SYNCHRONIZATION OF NEURONAL NOISE IN MOUSE HIPPOCAMPAL EPILEPTIFORM DYNAMICS Organized brain activity is the result of dynamical, segregated neuronal signals that may be used to investigate synchronization effects using sophisticated neuroengineering techniques. Phase synchrony analysis, in particular, has emerged as a promising methodology to study transient and frequency-specific coupling effects across multi-site signals. In this study, we investigated phase synchronization in intracellular recordings of interictal and ictal epileptiform events recorded from pairs of cells in the whole (intact) mouse hippocampus. In particular, we focused our analysis on the background noise-like activity (NLA), previously reported to exhibit complex neurodynamical properties. Our results show evidence for increased linear and nonlinear phase coupling in NLA across three frequency bands [theta (4-10Hz), beta (12-30 Hz) and gamma (30-80 Hz)] in the ictal compared to interictal state dynamics. We also present qualitative and statistical evidence for increased phase synchronization in the theta, beta and gamma frequency bands from paired recordings of ictal NLA. Overall, our results validate the use of background NLA in the neurodynamical study of epileptiform transitions and suggest that what is considered "neuronal noise" is amenable to synchronization effects in the spatiotemporal domain.

O O O O O O O O O O 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 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

noise-like activity
seizure
neurodynamics
complexity
patch-clamp
signal analysis


Hierarchical discriminant analysis for image retrieval A self-organizing framework for object recognition is described. We describe a hierarchical database structure for image retrieval. The Self-Organizing Hierarchical Optimal Subspace Learning and Inference Framework (SHOSLIF) system uses the theories of optimal linear projection for automatic optimal feature derivation and a hierarchical structure to achieve a logarithmic retrieval complexity. A Space-Tessellation Tree is automatically generated using the Most Expressive Features (MEFs) and the Most Discriminating Features (MDFs) at each level of the tree. The major characteristics of the proposed hierarchical discriminant analysis include: 1) avoiding the limitation of global linear features (hyperplanes as separators) by deriving a recursively better-fitted set of features for each of the recursively subdivided sets of training samples; 2) generating a smaller tree whose cell boundaries separate the samples along the class boundaries better than the principal component analysis, thereby giving a better generalization capability (i.e., better recognition rate in a disjoint test); 3) accelerating the retrieval using a tree structure for data pruning, utilizing a different set of discriminant features at each level of the tree. We allow for perturbations in the size and position of objects in the images through learning. We demonstrate the technique on a large image database of widely varying real-world objects taken in natural settings, and show the applicability of the approach for variability in position, size, and 3D orientation. This paper concentrates on the hierarchical partitioning of the feature spaces.

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

principal component analysis
discriminant analysis
image retrieval
partitioning
object recognition

hierarchical image database
tessellation
face recognition
complexity with large image databases


Online Balancing Two Independent Criteria upon Placements and Deletions We study the online bicriteria load balancing problem in this paper. We choose a system of distributed homogeneous file servers located in a cluster as the scenario and propose an online approximate solution for balancing their loads and required storage spaces upon placements and deletions. By placement (resp. deletion), we mean to insert a document into (resp. remove a document from) a server system. The main technique is to keep two global quantities large enough. To the best of our knowledge, the technique is novel, and the result is the first one, in the literature. Our result works for any sequences of document placements and deletions. For each deletion, a limited number of documents are reallocated. The load and storage space bounds are 1.5 to 4 times those in the best existing result for sole placements. We refer sole placements to those placement algorithms that do not allow any reallocation and replication. The time complexity, for each operation, is O(log M N), where M is the number of servers, and N is the number of existing documents in the servers, plus the reallocation cost for document deletion. The price for handling document deletion is almost totally reflected by the reallocation cost, and the higher bounds of load and storage spaces, while the O(log N) additive term in the time complexity serves as the remainder.

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

approximate
distributed
load balancing
deletion
reallocation

online algorithm
scheduling
document placement
distributed and parallel computing


Extending a scripting language for visual basic forms A prototype scripting language was introduced in 2002 to assist the blind in creating forms for Visual Basic programs in a much simpler fashion; currently, creating these forms are particularly difficult for the blind and visually impaired. The language is expanded to include the Visual Basic objects that were omitted from the original grammar for the scripting language. A second prototype of the compiler for the scripting language is now available online. An example and a formal grammar are included.

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

visual programming
graphical user interfaces
blind programmers


a study of non-linearity in the statistical convertibility of function points into cosmic function points Background. After the COSMIC Functional Size Measurement method was proposed, the issue of convertibility between traditional function points and COSMIC function points arose. Several studies have been performed, to evaluate whether a correlation between the two measures. Specifically, it has been suggested that the relation between the measures of FP and CFP may not be linear, i.e., it is a curve that increases its slope for bigger projects. Objective. This paper aims at verifying this hypothesis using the available datasets that collect both FP and CFP size measures. Method. Rigorous statistical analysis techniques are used. In particular regression analysis is used, and the conditions for its applicability are systematically applied. Results. It appears that the analysis of the correlation between FP and CFP measures based on non linear regression models yields different results for the various available datasets: non-linear models can be the best representation of the correlation between FP and CFP, but can also be just equivalent to linear models, or even hardly applicable. Conclusions. There is no evidence that the non-linear models represent well all the available datasets correlating FP and CFP measures. Both linear and non linear regressions should be applied to a given dataset in order to identify the best correlation of FP and CFP.

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


Computational Chemistry, Informatics, and the Discovery of Vaccines Perhaps the most exciting sub-discipline within Bioinformatics is the application of informatic methods to immunology. Immunoinformatics, which combines informatics with computational chemistry, is facilitating important change within immunology. As it frees itself from the empirical straight jacket that has characterised its development, immunoinformatics is helping immunology to engage fully with the dynamic post-genomic revolution sweeping through bioscience. Focussing on quantitative aspects, we will review recent developments within immunoinformatics, paying particular attention to the following: the development of functional immunological databases; prediction of the antigen presentation pathway; predicting the specificity of peptide Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) interactions, using statistical techniques and atomistic molecular dynamics; and the grouping of MHC molecules into supertypes.

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

immunoinformatics
bioinformatics
computational chemistry
antigen presentation

computational vaccinology
vaccine design
mhc binding


Efficient 1-out-of-n oblivious transfer schemes with universally usable parameters In this paper, we propose efficient and secure (string) oblivious transfer (OT(n)(1)) schemes for any n greater than or equal to 2. We build our OT(n)(1) scheme from fundamental cryptographic techniques directly. The receiver's choice is unconditionally secure and the secrecy of the unchosen secrets is based on the hardness of the decisional Diffie-Hellman problem. Some schemes achieve optimal efficiency in terms of the number of rounds and the total number of exchanged messages for the case that the receiver's choice is unconditionally secure. The distinct feature of our scheme is that the system-wide parameters are independent of n and universally usable, that is, all possible receivers and senders use the same parameters and need no trapdoors specific to each of them. We extend our OT(n)(1) schemes to distributed oblivious transfer schemes. Our distributed OT(n)(1) schemes take full advantage of the research results of secret sharing. For applications, we present a method of transforming any (single-database) PIR protocol into a symmetric PIR protocol by slightly increasing the communication cost only.

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

distributed oblivious transfer
private information retrieval


an optimal station association policy for multi-rate ieee 802.11 wireless lans In wireless local area networks (WLANs) often a station can potentially associate with more than one Access Point(AP). In IEEE 802.11, the station simply associates to the AP from which it has received the strongest signal during the scanning process. However, this may result in a significant load imbalance between several APs since some of them might be highly loaded while others are lightly loaded or even idle. Moreover, the multi-rate exibility provided by several IEEE 802.11 variants can cause low bit rate stations to negatively affect high bit rate ones and consequently degrade the overall network throughput. Therefore, a relevant question is how to optimally distribute stations among APs so as to maximize the overall network performance. This paper presents a centralized optimal association policy for IEEE 802.11 WLANs. We first derive the optimal solution for stations association. Then, we evaluate the effectiveness of the solution through the results obtained from Lingo optimization and NCTUns simulation packages.

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


On Ultralightweight RFID Authentication Protocols A recent research trend, motivated by the massive deployment of RFID technology, looks at cryptographic protocols for securing communication between entities in which some of the parties have very limited computing capabilities. In this paper, we focus our attention on SASI, a new RFID authentication protocol, designed for providing Strong Authentication and Strong Integrity. SASI is a good representative of a family of RFID authentication protocols, referred to as Ultralightweight RFID authentication protocols. These protocols, suitable for passive Tags with limited computational power and storage, involve simple bitwise operations such as and, or, exclusive or, modular addition, and cyclic shift operations. They are efficient, fit the hardware constraints, and can be seen as an example of the above research trend. However, the main concern is the real security of these protocols, which are often supported only by apparently reasonable and intuitive arguments. The contribution we provide with this work is the following: we start by showing some weaknesses in the SASI protocol, and then, we describe how such weaknesses, through a sequence of simple steps, can be used to compute in an efficient way all secret data used for the authentication process. Specifically, we describe three attacks: 1) a desynchronization attack, through which an adversary can break the synchronization between the RFID Reader and the Tag; 2) an identity disclosure attack, through which an adversary can compute the identity of the Tag; and 3) a full disclosure attack, which enables an adversary to retrieve all secret data stored in the Tag. Then, we present some experimental results, obtained by running several tests on an implementation of the protocol, in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed attacks, which confirm that the attacks are effective and efficient. It comes out that an active adversary by interacting with a Tag more or less three hundred times, makes the authentication protocol completely useless. Finally, we close the paper with some observations. The cryptoanalysis of SASI gets some new light on the ultralightweight approach, and can also serve as a warning to researchers working on the field and tempted to apply these techniques. Indeed, the results of this work, rise serious questions regarding the limits of the ultralightweight family of protocols, and on the benefits of these ad hoc protocol design strategies and informal security analysis.

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

rfid technology
cryptographic protocols
cryptoanalysis


A combined three-dimensional finite element and scattering matrix method for the analysis of plane wave diffraction by bi-periodic, multilayered structures A three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) for the analysis of plane wave diffraction by a bi-periodic slab is described and implemented. A scattering matrix formalism based on the FEM allows the efficient treatment of light reflection and transmission by multilayer bi-periodic structures, and the computation of Bloch modes of three-dimensional arrays. Numerical simulations, which show the accuracy and flexibility of the FEM, are presented.

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

finite element method
scattering matrix
bloch modes


Behaviour algebras The paper is concerned with algebras whose elements can be used to represent runs of a system, called processes. These algebras, called behaviour algebras, are categories with respect to a partial binary operation called sequential composition, and they are partial monoids with respect to a partial binary operation called parallel composition. They are characterized by axioms such that their elements and operations can be represented by labelled posets and operations on such posets. The respective representation is obtained without assuming a discrete nature of represented elements. In particular, it remains true for behaviour algebras with infinitely divisible elements, and thus also with elements which can represent continuous and partially continuous processes. An important consequence of the representation of elements of behaviour algebras by labelled posets is that elements of some subalgebras of behaviour algebras can be endowed in a consistent way with structures such as a graph structure etc.

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

processes
sequential composition
parallel composition
structure


Adaptive Random Re-Routing for Differentiated QoS in Sensor Networks Sensor networks (SNs) consist of spatially distributed sensors which monitor an environment, and which are connected to some sinks or backbone system to which the sensor data is being forwarded. In many cases, the sensor nodes themselves can serve as intermediate nodes for data coming from other nodes, on the way to the sinks. Much of the traffic carried by SNs will originate from routine measurements or observations by sensors that monitor a particular situation, such as the temperature and humidity in a room or the infrared observation of the perimeter of a house, so that the volume of routine traffic resulting from such observations may be quite high. When important and unusual events occur, such as a sudden fire breaking out or the arrival of an intruder, it will be necessary to convey this new information very urgently through the network to a designated set of sink nodes where this information can be processed and dealt with. This paper addresses the important challenge by avoiding the routine background traffic from creating delays or bottlenecks that impede the rapid delivery of high priority traffic resulting from the unusual events. Specifically we propose a novel technique, the 'Randomized Re-Routing Algorithm (RRR)', which detects the presence of novel events in a distributed manner, and dynamically disperses the background traffic towards secondary paths in the network, while creating a 'fast track path' which provides better delay and better quality of service (QoS) for the high priority traffic which is carrying the new information. When the surge of new information has subsided, this is again detected by the nodes and the nodes progressively revert to best QoS or shortest-path routing for all the ongoing traffic. The proposed technique is evaluated using a mathematical model as well as simulations, and is also compared with a standard node by a node priority scheduling technique.

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


Numerical study of expansion tube problems: Toward the simulation of cavitation A compressible, multiphase, one-fluid inviscid solver has been developed to investigate the behavior of various cavitation models. A new source term for the mass transfer between phases is proposed. A range of models from three to five equations is compared. Numerical simulations are performed on rarefaction problems and compared with reference solutions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

two-phase flow
homogeneous model
euler simulation


trust, authority and popularity in social information retrieval We present a social information retrieval (SIR) model comprising the social network of actors (e.g., authors, publishers, consumers), the graph representing relations in data (e.g., publications), and the links between the social and data network that reflect activities in the network such as search, authoring, annotation, etc. Building on this hybrid network, we describe relevance in terms of the trust propagated through the network and rendered onto a given item. In particular, relevance is a function of the approval votes from the associated sub-graph and the reputation of the sub-graph nodes. We explore a model that differentiates between approval from actors who are perceived authorities by the user and the approval by a wider community, representing the popular opinion.

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


progressive cut Recently, interactive image cutout technique becomes prevalent for image segmentation problem due to its easy-to-use nature. However, most existing stroke-based interactive object cutout system did not consider the user intention inherent in the user interaction process. Strokes in sequential steps are treated as a collection rather than a process, and only the color information of the additional stroke is used to update the color model in the graph cut framework. Accordingly, unexpected fluctuation effect may occur during the process of interactive object cutout. In fact, each step of user interaction reflects the user's evaluation of previous result and his/her intention. By analyzing the user's intention behind the interaction, we propose a progressive cut algorithm, which explicitly models the user's intention into a graph cut framework for the object cutout task. Three aspects of user intention are utilized: 1) the color of the stroke indicates the kind of change s/he expects, 2) the location of the stroke indicates the region of interest, 3) the relative position between the stroke and the previous result indicates the segmentation error. By incorporating such information into the cutout system, the new algorithm removes the unexpected fluctuation effect of existing stroke-based graph-cut methods, and thus provides the user a more controllable result with fewer strokes and faster visual feedback. Experiments and user study show the strength of progressive cut in accuracy, speed, controllability, and user experience.

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

user attention
foreground extraction
graph cuts
interactive image segmentation


Fault-Based Attack on Montgomery's Ladder Algorithm In this paper we present invalid-curve attacks that apply to the Montgomery ladder elliptic curve scalar multiplication (ECSM) algorithm. An elliptic curve over the binary field is defined using two parameters, a and b. We show that with a different "value" for curve parameter a, there exists a cryptographically weaker group in nine of the ten NIST-recommended elliptic curves over Thereafter, we present two attacks that are based on the observation that parameter a is not utilized for the Montgomery ladder algorithms proposed by Lpez and Dahab (CHES 1999: Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems, LNCS, vol. 1717, pp. 316-327, Springer, Berlin, 1999). We also present the probability of success of such attacks for general and NIST-recommended elliptic curves. In addition we give some countermeasures to resist these attacks.

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

elliptic curve cryptography
fault-based attacks


Implications of E-learning systems and self-efficiency on students outcomes: a model approach This paper presents a model approach to examine the relationships among e-learning systems, self-efficacy, and students' apparent learning results for university online courses.

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

e-learning systems
system quality
information quality
user-satisfaction
self-regulated learning behavior


A cross-efficiency model based on super-efficiency for ranking units through the TOPSIS approach and its extension to the interval case One of the most important approaches for ranking decision-making units in data envelopment analysis is the cross-efficiency method. The main idea of cross-efficiency is to use data envelopment analysis in peer evaluation, instead of only a self evaluation. However, in the cross-efficiency method, optimal weights corresponding to evaluation of decision-making units may not be unique. In this research with modifying the cross-efficiency method we are going to overcome this problem. Then with regard to the changes and using the TOPSIS method we present a new super-efficient method to rank all decision-making units. Furthermore, we extend the proposed method to the case that data are intervals. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

data envelopment analysis
ranking
topsis
interval


Multiple criteria sorting with a set of additive value functions We present a new multiple criteria sorting method that aims at assigning actions evaluated on multiple criteria to p pre-defined and ordered classes. The preference information supplied by the decision maker (DM) is a set of assignment examples on a subset of actions relatively well known to the DM. These actions are called reference actions. Each assignment example specifies a desired assignment of a corresponding reference action to one or several contiguous classes. The set of assignment examples is used to build a preference model of the DM represented by a set of general additive value functions compatible with the assignment examples. For each action a, the method computes two kinds of assignments to classes, concordant with the DMs preference model: the necessary assignment and the possible assignment. The necessary assignment specifies the range of classes to which the action can be assigned considering all compatible value functions simultaneously. The possible assignment specifies, in turn, the range of classes to which the action can be assigned considering any compatible value function individually. The compatible value functions and the necessary and possible assignments are computed through the resolution of linear programs.

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

additive value function
disaggregation-aggregation procedure


Action and reason in the theory of ?yurveda The paper explores the relation between reason and action as it emerges from the texts of ?yurveda. Life or Ayus (commonly understood as life-span) is primary subject matter of Ayurveda. Life is a locus of experience, action and disposition. Experiences and actions are differentially determined by dispositions that characterize the organism; otherwise all living organisms will be identical. Ayus of each living being is uniquely individual and remains constant between birth and death. In this journey, upkeep of ayus is the purpose of ?yurveda or science of life. Ayurveda is a science of experienced matter as well as of experienced body. The living body is critically dependent on the influx of matter for its upkeep. ?yurveda offers a conceptual system to reason about balance and imbalances of the system and the causal role of the material flux through the system. This sensate matter is causally open and makes room for definite causal role for the individual and the effective insertion of the felt-purpose of action. Some of the strengths of Ayurveda are brought forth in the paper such as (a) reasoning out the compatibility between the bodily processes and the selection of the natural products for diet and drug, (b) role for heuristics in medical diagnosis, which takes into cognizance the particularity of each living body and the teleology evident in the very act of diagnostic reasoning. The paper shows that ?yurvedic theory is built on experiential datum whereas scientific medical theory is built on experience-independent datum. ?yurveda explores causal efficacy of secondary qualities whereas scientific medicine explores causal efficacy of primary qualities. The actionable experiential reasoning is at the foundations of ?yurveda whereas modern medical science is ab initio saddled with difficult hiatus theoreticus between theory and practice. For Ayurveda it is experience of qualities that discloses behavior of matter. The types of qualities that appear in experience have a special significance for theorizing about the actions of matter with the help of qualities. The paper explores the relation between experience of qualities and the method of science. It shows how efficacy of medical practice is based on the foundational stance of experiential realism in theory. To bring the point home, the paper borrows Aristotalian concepts to show how the relation between phantasm and phronesis is honored in the very theory of ?yurveda.

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

ayurveda
sensate matter
qualities
diagnostic reasoning
experiential realism


Approximation of generalized Stokes problems using dual-mixed finite elements without enrichment In this work a finite element method for a dual-mixed approximation of generalized Stokes problems in two or three space dimensions is studied. A variational formulation of the generalized Stokes problems is accomplished through the introduction of the pseudostress and the trace-free velocity gradient as unknowns, yielding a twofold saddle point problem. The method avoids the explicit computation of the pressure, which can be recovered through a simple post-processing technique. Compared with an existing approach for the same problem, the method presented here reduces the global number of degrees of freedom by up to one-third in two space dimensions. The method presented here also represents a connection between existing dual-mixed and pseudostress methods for Stokes problems. Existence, uniqueness, and error results for the generalized Stokes problems are given, and numerical experiments that illustrate the theoretical results are presented. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

twofold saddle point problem
pseudostress
finite element method

stokes problem
generalized stokes problem
raviart-thomas
dual-mixed method


Majorization problem for certain class of p p -valently analytic function defined by generalized fractional differintegral operator In this paper we investigate a majorization problem for a subclass of p p -valently analytic function involving a generalized fractional differintegral operator. Some useful consequences of the main result are mentioned and relevance with some of the earlier results are also pointed out.

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

analytic function
majorization
fractional differintegral operator


The security service rating design for IT convergence services There has been damage to users due to security problems such as personal information leaks and spam etc. by IT convergence in various information communication industries. Since where the responsibility for this damage lies, compensation systems and damage estimation criteria have not been prepared yet, its compensation is solved by civil litigation between service providers and users. In addition, for security services provided, the standardized clauses of a contract with consumers are provider-oriented articles to be disadvantageous to service users, and detailed compensation criteria have not been prepared in reality. Therefore, it is time to need to prepare a damage compensation system and an estimation criterion for protecting users against technical and legal troubles that could arise when providing security services.

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

it convergence service
sustainable security service
security service index


experience with modeling and simulations in education and in hardware implementation for research This paper illustrates the benefits of modeling and simulations in education and in implementing hardware to conduct research projects that lead to creativity. The education material is developed through grants from NSF, NASA and ONR and is being disseminated proactively nationwide through a grant from ONR.

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


SCautz: a high performance and fault-tolerant datacenter network for modular datacenters Modular datacenters (MDCs) use shipping containers, encapsulating thousands of servers, as large pluggable building blocks for mega datacenters. The MDC's "service-free" model poses stricter demand on fault-tolerance of the modular datacenter network (MDCN). Based on the "scale-out" principle, in this paper we propose SCautz, a novel hybrid intra-container network for MDCs. SCautz comprises a base Kautz topology, created by interconnecting servers, and a small number of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) switches. Moreover, each switch connects a specific number of servers forming "clusters", which, as logical nodes, form multiple higher-level logical Kautz structures. SCautz's hybrid structure has several advantages. First, it supports multiple running modes for the MDC, while its full structure increases network capacity twofold. Second, it retains the throughput for processing one-to-x traffic in the presence of failures. Finally, it achieves much more graceful network performance degradation than computation and storage capacity do. Results from theoretical analysis and simulations show that SCautz is more viable for intra-container networks.

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


Spatial statistics and models of spectrum use In order to opportunistically exploit unused radio spectrum nodes of dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks monitor the spectrum around them. Such cognitive radios can greatly benefit from a spatial characterization of spectrum use. However, there is need to find an efficient way to describe spatial use, something which has not been studied in details so far. In this paper, we introduce spatial statistics techniques as promising methods to describe spectrum use and enable optimization of DSA networks. We discuss two approaches to spatial modelling of spectrum, namely a deterministic approach based on a system model of the complete radio environment and an empirical approach that exploits passive measurements of the spectrum use. We elaborate on the impact of different network properties on the models and provide realistic parameter sets for generation of simulation scenarios. Additionally, we investigate cooperative sensing as a use case for spatial statistics based runtime optimization of the network configuration. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V, All rights reserved.

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

spatial statistics
dynamic spectrum access

spectrum model
node location distribution
spectrum measurements


A two-stage bid-price control for make-to-order revenue management Capacity control implementations in make-to-order (MTO) revenue management typically are based on bid-prices, which are used to approximate the opportunity cost of accepting a customer request. However, in the face of stochastic demand, this approximation becomes less accurate and the performance of bid-prices may deteriorate. To address this problem, we examine the informational dynamics inherent in MTO capacity control problems and propose a two-stage capacity control approach based on bid-price updates. Updating is realized with neural networks, which are applied to adjust the selection criteria during the booking period with respect to online demand information. Not only is the resulting contribution margin positively influenced by the update, but also the downside risk of performing worse than a naive first-come-first-served policy. Results from computational experiments show that the proposed approach dominates traditional revenue management methods like randomized linear programming with and without resolving in expected contribution margin as well as in risk.

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


A location-based service application for a mobile computing environment The convergence of multiple technologies has given rise to new types of information utilities called mobile location-based services. Specifically, the authors examine a context in which people need to move physically from one location to another via taxis. In this scenario, the user is in control of the location information associated with the mobile device. However, problems arise when a fleet management application uses that dynamic information to provide the best taxi assignment. This particular vehicle-routing problem aims to allocate a taxi fleet to a number of mobile units to minimize the running distance and time. This article presents a new approach to the taxi assignment problem in a mobile environment based on optimization and simulation. Its specific interest is to predict the impact of the interaction between the assignment algorithm and fleet management in the mobile environment on the desired quality of service for mobile users.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 communication
location technology
resource management
location-based services
network optimization


A succinct canonical register automaton model ? A MyhillNerode congruence for register automata. Suppressing unnecessary equality tests on data values leads to a more compact representation of a data language. Canonical register automata that are more succinct than other proposals and well-suited for automata learning.

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

data languages
canonical model
automata theory


Absolute phase in mobile channels Radio channels are usually modeled as a well-defined Rice process. The statistics of its wrapped phase (i.e., phase values in [-pi, pi)), such as the mean, variance, and probability density function (pdf), are known. The absolute phase, i.e., the accumulated phase change over an observation interval, is considered here as a new channel variable. Its use for channel characterization can extend to cognitively track users. However, there is very little knowledge about the statistics of the absolute phase. In fact, the known, associated effects of the absolute phase, such as various click noise contributions, are not consistently treated or interpreted in the literature. The definitions of absolute phase, based on both unwrapping and on other methods previously discussed for FM receivers, lay a basis for analysis of the mean, variance, and pdf of the absolute phase for a well-defined Rice process. The conditions are identified for approximate pdf models to hold, and it is noted that pdfs for the absolute phase for small or medium Rice factor and small observation interval are open problems. Simulations are used to support the analysis and discussion. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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

rice phase
channel modeling
fading channels
phase statistics
vehicular communications
cognitive radio


Local search algorithms for political districting Electoral district planning plays an important role in a political election, especially when a majority voting rule is adopted, because it interferes in the translation of votes into seats. The practice of gerrymandering can easily take place if the shape of electoral districts is not controlled. In this paper we consider the following formulation of the political districting problem: given a connected graph (territory) with n nodes (territorial units), partition its set of nodes into k classes such that the subgraph induced by each class (district) is connected and a given vector of functions of the partition is minimized. The nonlinearity of such functions and the connectivity constraints make this network optimization problem a very hard one. Thus, the use of local search heuristics is justified. Experimentation on a sample of medium-large real-life instances has been carried out in order to compare the performance of four local search metaheuristics, i.e., Descent, Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, and Old Bachelor Acceptance. Our experiments with Italian political districting provided strong evidence in favor of the use of automatic procedures. Actually, except for Descent, all local search algorithms showed a very good performance for this problem. In particular, in our sample of regions, Old Bachelor Acceptance produced the best results in the majority of the cases, especially when the objective function was compactness. Moreover, the district maps generated by this heuristic dominate the institutional district plan with respect to all the districting criteria under consideration. When properly designed, automatic procedures tend to be impartial and yield good districting alternatives. Moreover, they are remarkably fast, and thus they allow for the exploration of a large number of scenarios.

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


An approach to designing and evaluating blended courses Recently, there has been an increased interest in producing electronic courses. However, literature shows that adopting e-learning does not guarantee improved learning. This is because mixing technology and content does not necessarily yield effective learning. This paper presents a systematic design process for developing blended courses for undergraduate higher education. The instructional design process is based on instructional design theories and utilized three taxonomies: Bloom Taxonomy, Redeker Taxonomy and Guerra scale. A mapping model is proposed and embedded in the design process to develop a blended course starting from the objectives and content of a traditional course. This paper also presents a evaluation process that estimates the effectiveness of the selected technologies in the design of the blended course. This effectiveness is evaluated in terms of three dimensions: course content formats, interaction and collaboration. A case study is presented to demonstrate the proposed design approach on a System Analysis and Design blended course under development.

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

instructional blended course design
design evaluation


Optical illusion shape texturing using repeated asymmetric patterns Illusory motions refer to the phenomena in which static images composed of certain colors and patterns lead to the illusion of motions. This paper presents an approach for generating illusory motions on 3D surfaces which can be used for shape illustration as well as artistic visualization of line fields on surfaces. Our method extends previous work on generating illusory motions in the plane, which we adapt to 3D surfaces. In addition, we propose novel volume texture of repeated asymmetric patterns (RAPs) to visualize bidirectional flows, thus enabling the visualization of line fields in the plane and on the surface. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method with applications in shape illustration as well as line field visualization on surfaces. For the design of optical illusion art, it is a tough case to arrange the distribution of RAP. However, we provide a semi-automatic algorithm to help users design flow direction. Finally, this technique applies to the design of street art and user could easily set the perspective effect and flow motion for illustration.

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

illusory motion
repeated asymmetric patterns (rap)


Cluster based power efficient cooperative spectrum sensing under reduced bandwidth using location information Frequency spectrum sharing between licensed primary users (PUs) and unlicensed secondary users (SUs) requires the SUs to reliably detect the spectrum occupancy. Due to multipath fading, single terminal detection is unreliable and results in a high probability of missed detection. This is solved by applying cooperative detection. However, when the number of SUs is large, the bandwidth for reporting their sensing results to the common receiver will be very huge. In this paper, we propose an improved frequency divisional cluster based cooperative spectrum sensing based on the location information which employs a censoring method to reduce the average number of sensing bits sent to the common receiver. The reduction in the number of sensing bits using proposed method in turn reduces the total transmission power of the secondary users in the cognitive network thus improving its battery life.

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

cooperative spectrum sensing
reduced bandwidth

frequency divisional clustering
power efficiency


Tracking medical students clinical experiences using natural language processing Graduate medical students must demonstrate competency in clinical skills. Current tracking methods rely either on manual efforts or on simple electronic entry to record clinical experience. We evaluated automated methods to locate 10 institution-defined core clinical problems from three medical students clinical notes (n=290). Each note was processed with section header identification algorithms and the KnowledgeMap concept identifier to locate Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts. The best performing automated search strategies accurately classified documents containing primary discussions to the core clinical problems with area under receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.900.94. Recall and precision for UMLS concept identification was 0.91 and 0.92, respectively. Of the individual note section, concepts found within the chief complaint, history of present illness, and assessment and plan were the strongest predictors of relevance. This automated method of tracking can provide detailed, pertinent reports of clinical experience that does not require additional work from medical trainees. The coupling of section header identification and concept identification holds promise for other natural language processing tasks, such as clinical research or phenotype identification.

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

natural language processing
concept identification
umls

medical education
education portfolios
competency assessment
experience tracking


On the design of reliable wireless mesh network infrastructure with QoS constraints In the design of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), one of the fundamental considerations is the reliability and availability of communication paths between network pairs in the presence of node failures. Reliability and deployment cost are important and are largely determined by network topology. In fact, adding redundant network components increases the reliability of a network, but also increases the cost substantially. Usually, network performance and reliability are considered separately. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm based on ear decomposition for constructing reliable WMN infrastructure that resists the failure of a single mesh node and ensures full coverage to all Mesh Clients (MCs). Via a case study, we show the tight relationship between network deployment cost, performance and reliability in a simultaneous optimization in terms of cost and traffic load balancing over network channels. The proposed multi-objective optimization model is solved using meta-heuristics which provides the network operator with a set of reliable tradeoff solutions.

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

network design
multi-objective optimization
cost-effective topology


automatic role recognition based on conversational and prosodic behaviour This paper proposes an approach for the automatic recognition of roles in settings like news and talk-shows, where roles correspond to specific functions like Anchorman, Guest or Interview Participant. The approach is based on purely nonverbal vocal behavioral cues, including who talks when and how much (turn-taking behavior), and statistical properties of pitch, formants, energy and speaking rate (prosodic behavior). The experiments have been performed over a corpus of around 50 hours of broadcast material and the accuracy, percentage of time correctly labeled in terms of role, is up to 89\%. Both turn-taking and prosodic behavior lead to satisfactory results. Furthermore, on one database, their combination leads to a statistically significant improvement.

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

multiparty recordings
conditional random field
broadcast data


On powers of graphs of bounded NLC-width (clique-width) ? Given a graph G , the graph Gl G l has the same vertex set and two vertices are adjacent in Gl G l if and only if they are at distance at most l in G. The l -coloring problem consists in finding an optimal vertex coloring of the graph Gl G l , where G is the input graph. We show that, for any fixed value of l, the l -coloring problem is polynomial when restricted to graphs of bounded NLC-width (or clique-width), if an expression of the graph is also part of the input. We also prove that the NLC-width of Gl G l is at most 2(l+1)nlcw(G) 2 ( l + 1 ) nlcw ( G ) .

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


Numerical modeling of extensional sedimentary basin formation with MATLAB: Application to the northern margin of the South China Sea The coupled simple-shear/pure-shear model (CSSPSM) with broad application for studying the evolution of continental extensional sedimentary basins was proposed by Kusznir and co-workers. It can be used to determine the geometry of sedimentary basins and their crustal structure by integration of the rheological, thermal and isostatic response of lithosphere to various loads caused by lithosphere extension. We developed a MATLAB code, MODBAS, to model extensional sedimentary basin formation based on the CSSPSM. The validity of the code was tested with a single listric fault model and a multiple-fault model. The application of the code in the Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB) on the northern margin of the South China Sea demonstrates (1) the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere beneath the PRMB is very low (<5km), which may support the idea of a very weak continental crust beneath the northern margin of the South China Sea; and (2) there are significant misfits between predicted and observed basements beneath the two high-standing areas on the profile, which was interpreted as an indication of substantial dynamic support from small-scale mantle convection.

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

lithosphere extension
the south china sea

simple shear
pure shear
flexural isostasy


Outer loop control of fast transmit power control based on intermediate block error rate in concatenated channel coding for DS-CDMA mobile radio This paper proposes an outer loop control method of fast transmit power control (TPC) for high-quality data transmission such as that with the average bit error rate (BER) of 10(-6) in serial concatenated channel coding combining convolutional (inner) and Reed-Solomon (outer) codings for DS-CDMA mobile radio. In the proposed method. the outer loop control is performed based on the measured intermediate block error rate (BLER) value after inner-channel decoding. Since the number of block errors after inter-channel decoding is much greater than that of the final output after outer channel decoding, fast tracking performance of the sudden changes in the propagation conditions such as the number of multipaths and fading Doppler frequency. i.e., moving speed of the mobile station, is achieved. The experimental results clarify that the measured BLER after outer channel decoding is accurately controlled to almost a constant value from the low to high fading maximum Doppler frequency of up to 480 Hz, and that the measured BER after outer channel decoding is within the range of one-order of magnitude of the antenna diversity reception (meanwhile, the target SIR value after Rake combining varied with the range of 2.5 dB).

B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O B I O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O B I O O O O O B I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 radio
concatenated channel coding
outer loop control


teaching software quality assurance by encouraging student contributions to an open source web-based system for the assessment of programming assignments This paper presents a novel and innovative pedagogical approach for teaching software quality assurance in the undergraduate computer science curriculum. The approach is based on students contributing programming problems to an open source web-based system that is used for student practice and instructor assessment of assignments. WeBWorK, and some of the latest web-based systems, use a mechanism based on unit testing to account for variation in the way in which the same problem can be answered in an accurate manner, making such systems highly appealing for education. Tackling open-ended programming problems within WeBWorK therefore requires students to write a code fragment that is then checked for semantic correctness. Given that WeBWorK is open source, the teaching approach that we have evolved revolves around students creating their own problems for other students to practice with. This requires students to construct comprehensive unit tests that can assure both the usability and accuracy of their work prior to deployment. The paper describes this approach, gives examples of student work, presents findings from the experience of using the approach in the classroom, and discusses broader lessons and reasons for integrating software quality assurance practices into the computer science curriculum.

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

programming
software quality assurance
open source
unit testing
webwork

peer review
requirements
junit
java
automated assessment systems


Development of a piezo-driven 3-DOF stage with T-shape flexible hinge mechanism The stage is driven by three piezoelectric actuators (PEAs) and guided by a flexible hinge based mechanism with three symmetric T-shape hinges. The T-shape flexure hinge is composed of three leaf-spring hinge subsections connected at the together like a T-joint. Thus, the T-shape flexure hinge can provide the in plane motion with relatively large out-of-plane stiffness. It is demonstrated from the computational analyses that the proposed T-shape flexure hinge can provide high natural frequency, large working range and high motion dexterity. The experiments results showed that the stage can provide for good performance.

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

stage
piezoelectric actuators
flexible hinge mechanism


Database design principles for placement of delay-sensitive data on disks We investigate design principles for placing striped delay-sensitive data on a number of disks in a distributed environment. The cost formulas of our performance model allow us to calculate the maximum number of users that can be supported by n disks, as well as to study the impact of other performance-tuning options. We show that, for fixed probabilities of accessing the delay-sensitive objects, partitioning the set of disks is always better than striping in all of the disks. Then, given a number n of disks and r distinct delay-sensitive objects with probabilities of access p(1), p(2),..., p(r) that must be striped across r different disk partitions (i.e., nonoverlapping subsets of the n disks), we use the theory of Schur functions in order to find what is the optimal number of disks that must be allocated to each partition. For objects with different consumption rates, we provide an analytic solution to the problem of disk partitioning. We analyze the problem of grouping the more- and less-popular delay-sensitive objects together in partition-when the partitions are less than the objects-so that the number of supported users is maximized. Finally, we analyze the trade-off of striping on all the disks versus partitioning the set of the disks when the access probabilities of the delay-sensitive objects change with time.

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

delay-sensitive objects
continuous media
parallel retrieval
data striping
multimedia servers
performance optimization
video
audio


Online error correcting output codes This article proposes a general extension of the error correcting output codes framework to the online learning scenario. As a result, the final classifier handles the addition of new classes independently of the base classifier used. In particular, this extension supports the use of both online example incremental and batch classifiers as base learners. The extension of the traditional problem independent codings one-versus-all and one-versus-one is introduced. Furthermore, two new codings are proposed, unbalanced online ECOC and a problem dependent online ECOC. This last online coding technique takes advantage of the problem data for minimizing the number of dichotomizers used in the ECOC framework while preserving a high accuracy. These techniques are validated on an online setting of 11 data sets from UCI database and applied to two real machine vision applications: traffic sign recognition and face recognition. As a result, the online ECOC techniques proposed provide a feasible and robust way for handling new classes using any base classifier.

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

online learning
error correcting output codes
machine vision


A study of advanced learning algorithms for short-term load forecasting Neural networks are currently finding practical applications, ranging from soft regulatory control in consumer products, to the accurate modelling of nonlinear systems. This paper presents the development of improved neural-network-based short-term electric load forecasting models for the power system of the Greek island of Crete. Several approaches, including radial basis function networks, dynamic neural networks and fuzzy-neural-type networks, have been proposed, and are discussed in this paper. Their performances are evaluated through a simulation study, using metered data provided by the Greek Public Power Corporation. The results indicate that the load-forecasting models developed in this way provide more accurate forecasts, compared with conventional backpropagation network forecasting models. Finally, the embedding of the new model capability in a modular forecasting system is presented.

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

short-term load forecasting
fuzzy-neural-type networks
radial basis functions
dynamic neural networks


Solving fuzzy problems in operations research: inventory control In this paper we are interested in generating good approximate solutions to single item, N-period, fuzzy inventory control problems. It is a fuzzy inventory control problem since some of the parameters (ordering cost, holding cost, penalty cost) can be fuzzy numbers. We consider three cases: (1) demand is known each period; (2) demand is unknown, and fuzzy each period; and (3) demand is fuzzy and backordering is allowed. We employ an evolutionary algorithm to search out good approximate solutions.

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

evolutionary algorithms
decision analysis


A metric for the stiffness of calcified aortic valves using a combined computational and experimental approach Calcific aortic valve disease is the most common heart valve disease. It is associated with a significant increase in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and independently increases the cardiovascular risk. It is then important to develop parameters that can estimate the stiffness of the valve. Such parameters may contribute to early detection of the disease or track its progression and optimize the timing for therapy. In this study, we introduce a metric representing the stiffness of the native aortic calcified valve over a wide range of stenosis severities. Our approach is based on three-dimensional structural finite-element simulations and in vitro measurements. The proposed method is developed first in a pulse duplicator; its clinical applicability is then evaluated in three patients with severe aortic stenosis. Our results indicate that the value of the proposed metric varies considerably between healthy valves and valves with very severe aortic stenosis, from 0.001 to 7.38MPa, respectively. The method introduced in this study could give useful information regarding the stiffness of the valve leaflets with potential application to the evaluation of aortic sclerosis and aortic stenosis.

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 O O O O

calcific heart valve disease
aortic sclerosis and stenosis
3d finite-element analysis
in vitro testing


the status of the time warp operating system The Time Warp Operating System (TWOS) is a special-purpose operating system designed to support parallel discrete event simulation. It has been under experimental development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for four years, and runs primarily on the JPL/Caltech Mark III Hypercube, although it has been ported to several other systems. Its main distinction is that it incorporates a full implementation of the Time Warp mechanism, which is based on the unusual synchronization primitives of process rollback and message-antimessage annihilation. In this paper we discuss the status of the TWOS project at JPL, and present preliminary data from some of the performance experiments we have conducted on a Pool Balls benchmark, along with our analysis of them.

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

discrete event simulation
warp
systems
synchronization
benchmark
analysis
parallel
performance
operating system
implementation
data
project
process
support
paper
hypercube
laboratory

experimentation developer message experience timing


Diploid versus haploid organisms Using a bit string model, we show that asexual reproduction for diploids is more efficient than for haploids: it improves genetic material producing new individuals with less deleterious mutations. We also see that in a system where competition is present, diploids dominate, even though we consider some dominant loci.

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

evolution
population dynamics
bit-string models


A methodology to assess the performance of spatial data infrastructures in the context of work processes Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) have been developed over the last decades all over the world. They are the subject of periodic assessments in order to give account of past developments, to steer future developments or to better understand their functioning. Most assessment methods are analysing the SDI as a whole which does not allow understanding their internal dynamics. In this research we analyse SDIs from a network perspective and focus on the work processes that take place within these networks. The paper elaborates a series of indicators to assess the SDI performance from the perspective of the process owners and the users of spatial data within those processes. Three indicators are proposed to measure the performance related to the access, use and sharing of spatial data, and three indicators related to the contribution of SDIs to improve the work processes. The methodology is applied to a particular case, i.e. the process of the development of land use plans in Flanders (Belgium). The results show that the methodology and the indicators are applicable in the context of work processes. The proposed process-oriented methodology is complementary to approaches that assess SDIs as a whole. It helps to detect and understand differences in SDI performance between (parts of) organisations that are actively involved in the processes studied. The paper argues that the proposed indicators provide a good basis for analysing the degree to which organisations integrate SDI components in their work processes.

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

indicator framework
performance measurement
spatial data infrastructure (sdi)
work process
user perspective


Analysis of nickel cylindrical bump insertion into aluminium thin film for flip chip applications This paper investigates the mechanical deformation and the electrical contact resistance of an electroplated Ni micro-cylinder called micro-insert inserted in an Al thin film. A modified nanoindentation apparatus is used to perform the experiments with 6?m, 8.5?m and 12.5?m diameters micro-inserts having the same 5?m height. Mechanical deformation of Ni micro-insert and Al film is described at different maximum loads corresponding to an equivalent stress of 0.8GPa, 1.6GPa and 3.2GPa. At equivalent stress less than 1.6GPa, Ni micro-insert exhibits an elastic deformation while at 3.2GPa it presents an elasticplastic deformation with a large amount of compression and penetration into micro-insert foundation. Visco-plastic deformation of Al film is noticed during hold at all maximum loads. Beside, Al creep parameters are extracted using a combined Maxwell/Kelvin-Voigt phenomenological model. Mechanical results are coupled to electrical contact resistance measurement.

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

nickel
aluminium
elasticplastic deformation
creep
electrical contact resistance


Multi-frame image super-resolution reconstruction using sparse co-occurrence prior and sub-pixel registration In this paper, a hybrid super-resolution (SR) method is proposed by combining the concepts of both multi-frame and single-frame SR to generate a high-resolution (HR) image. The main contributions are in two aspects: the first one is hierarchical iterative sub-pixel registration, which provides accurate registration information of input low-resolution (LR) images or frames, to generate an initial HR image; the second one is to enhance the initial HR image with sparse co-occurrence prior, resulted from specially-designed dictionaries containing patches from both generic training images and interpolated input LR images. As a whole, the proposed hybrid SR method makes use of information from both sub-pixel registration and sparse co-occurrence prior to get reconstructed SR image with large zoom-in factor. The simulation results from synthetic images and real video frames illustrate its effectiveness and the superiority in image quality over conventional multi-frame and single-frame SR methods.

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

super-resolution reconstruction
sparse representation
sub-pixel registration
sparse co-occurrence prior


compatibility and commutativity in non-two-phase locking protocols Research on concurrency control mechanisms for database systems has had as a primary goal the discovery of techniques for allowing increased levels of concurrent execution of transactions. In this paper, we study this problem in the context of non-two-phase locking protocols which are defined for data bases in which a directed acyclic graph structure is superimposed on the data items. We introduce a new lock mode, called INV, with properties fundamentally different from locking modes previously studied and show how this allows increased concurrency. Through the introduction of the INV mode of locking we have enunciated a new principle of the theory of data base concurrency control. This principle involves the separation of the effects of the commutativity and compatibility of data manipulation operations. We then examine how the introduction of such a lock mode affects the occurrence of deadlocks in a system. Certain conditions under which deadlock-freedom is maintained are identified, and simple methods for removing deadlocks in other situations are presented.

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

research
structure
systems
data base
concurrency control
concurrency
context
theory
data
graph
manipulation
paper
compatibility
locking

situated
deadlock
method
affect
database system
operability
direct
discoveries
transaction
effect


An incremental learning algorithm for constructing Boolean functions from positive and negative examples This paper introduces an incremental algorithm for learning a Boolean function from examples. The functions are constructed in the disjunctive normal form (DNF) or the conjunctive normal form (CNF) and emphasis is placed in inferring functions with as few clauses as possible. This incremental algorithm can be combined with any existing algorithm that infers a Boolean function from examples. In this paper it is combined with the one clause at a time (OCAT) approach (Comput. Oper. Res. 21(2) (1994) 185) and (J. Global Optim. 5(1) (1994) 64) which is a non-incremental learning approach. An extensive computational study was undertaken to assess the performance characteristics of the new approach. As examples, we used binary vectors that represent text documents from different categories from the TIPSTER collection. The computational results indicate that the new algorithm is considerably more efficient and it derives more accurate Boolean functions. As it was anticipated, the Boolean functions (in DNF or CNF form) derived by the new algorithm are comprised by more clauses than the functions derived by the non-incremental approach. Scope and purpose There is a growing need for methods that can analyze information and infer patterns in a way that can be useful to the analyst. This is the core of data mining and knowledge discovery from databases. Such methods often infer a Boolean function from observations that belong to different classes. This paper presents a methodology that infers a Boolean function in an incremental setting. The proposed approach can be used in conjunction with existing algorithms that infer a Boolean function from examples. The paper presents both algorithmic developments and also an extensive empirical study. The results presented in the paper suggest that the proposed incremental approach is highly promising.

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

incremental and non-incremental learning

the one clause at a time (ocat) approach for inferring a boolean function


ExpTime Tableaux for ALC Using Sound Global Caching We present a simple ExpTime (complexity-optimal) tableau decision procedure based on and-or graphs with sound global caching for checking satisfiability of a concept w.r.t. a TBox in . Our algorithm is easy to implement and provides a foundation for ExpTime (complexity-optimal) tableau-based decision procedures for many modal and description logics, to which various optimisation techniques can be applied.

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

global caching complexity-optimal tableaux


Evaluating plan recognition systems: Three properties of a good explanation Plan recognition in a dialogue system is the process of explaining why an utterance was made, in terms of the plans and goals that its speaker was pursuing in making the utterance. I present a theory of how such an explanation of an utterance may be judged as to its merits as an explanation. I propose three criteria for making such judgments: applicability, grounding, and completeness. The first criterion is the applicability of the explanation to the needs of the system that will use it. The second criterion is the grounding of the explanation in what is already known of the speaker and of the dialogue. Finally, the third criterion is the completeness of the explanation's coverage of the goals that motivated the production of the utterance. An explanation of an utterance is a good explanation of that utterance to the extent that it meets these three criteria. In addition to forming the basis of a method for evaluating the merit of an explanation, these criteria are useful in designing and evaluating a plan recognition algorithm and its associated knowledge base.

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

dialogue systems
natural language processing
evaluation


parameter cross-validation and early-stopping in univariate marginal distribution algorithm In this paper, a cross-validation and early-stopping algorithm is devised for parameter updating in the Univariate Marginal Distribution Algorithm (UMDA) to reduce overftting. Our hypothesis is that the well-known problem of diversity loss in UMDA is a consequence of overfitting during the parameter estimation step at each generation. It is tested by experiments on two different optimization problems.

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


Vector-valued image regularization with PDEs: A common framework for different applications In this paper, we focus on techniques for vector-valued image regularization, based on variational methods and PDEs. Starting from the study of PDE-based formalisms previously proposed in the literature for the regularization of scalar and vector-valued data, we propose a unifying expression that gathers the majority of these previous frameworks into a single generic anisotropic diffusion equation. On one hand, the resulting expression provides a simple interpretation of the regularization process in terms of local filtering with spatially adaptive Gaussian kernels. On the other hand, it naturally disassembles any regularization scheme into the smoothing process itself and the underlying geometry that drives the smoothing. Thus, we can easily specialize our generic expression into different regularization PDEs that fulfill desired smoothing behaviors, depending on the considered application: image restoration, inpainting, magnification, flow visualization, etc. Specific numerical schemes are also proposed, allowing us to implement our regularization framework with accuracy by taking the local filtering properties of the proposed equations into account. Finally, we illustrate the wide range of applications handled by our selected anisotropic diffusion equations with application results on color images.

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

diffusion pdes
color image regularization
denoising
vector-valued smoothing
anisotropic filtering


An Efficient Bayesian Estimation of Ordered Parameters of Two Exponential Distributions The situations where several population parameters need to be estimated simultaneously arise frequently in wide areas of applications, including reliability modeling. survival analysis and biological study. In this paper, we propose Bayesian methods of estimation of the ordered parameters of the two exponential populations, which incorporate the prior information about the simple order restriction, but sometimes breaks the order restriction. A simulation study shows that the proposed estimators are more efficient (in terms of mean square errors) than the isotonic regression of the maximum likelihood estimators with equal weights. An illustrative example is finally presented.

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

bayesian inference
constrained parameters
maximum likelihood estimation
akaike's bayesian information criterion


A multiple disk failure recovery scheme in RAID systems In this paper, we propose a practical disk error recovery scheme tolerating multiple simultaneous disk failures in a typical RAID system, resulting in improvement in availability and reliability. The scheme is composed of the encoding and the decoding processes. The encoding process is defined by making one horizontal parity and a number of vertical parities. The decoding process is defined by a data recovering method for multiple disk failures including the parity disks. The proposed error recovery scheme is proven to correctly recover the original data for multiple simultaneous disk failures regardless of the positions of the failed disks. The proposed error recovery scheme only uses exclusive OR operations and simple arithmetic operations, which can be easily implemented on current RAID systems without hardware changes.

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

disk failures
parity
raid
recovery scheme


Search for Genetic Factors Associated with Susceptibility to Multiple Sclerosis Abstract:?Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a cell-mediated autoimmune disease characterized by type-1 cytokine production. Environmental and individual genetic background might influence this response particularly in cytokine gene polymorphisms. We evaluated whether polymorphisms of interleukin (IL)-10, IL-12, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-? genes, which might play a role in MS pathogenesis, are associated with MS susceptibility. Genotype frequencies for all the analyzed polymorphisms were not differently distributed between cases and controls. It is reasonable to suppose that the cytokine single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) studied must be considered against a larger genetic background involving other functional SNPs of Th1 regulator elements such as IL-21 and IL-23.

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


Designing and programming self-folding sheets We propose a new programmable self-folding sheet model and architecture. We describe and analyze algorithms for the automatic design of self-folding sheets. We describe and analyze algorithms for the synthesis of sticker placement. We build and experiment with devices of two different types of self-folding robots.

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

self-folding
self-reconfiguration
origami
programmable matter
sticker programming
compiler
digital fabrication


On the simulation of traffic signals operation Traffic lights are available in almost all cities and towns worldwide. They solve many traffic congestion problems, save numerous human lives and avoid frequent automobile accidents. Optimizing the operation of traffic light systems in roads is essential for any city's economy, safety and environment. Simulation technology is probably the best tool to analyze and optimize the operation and design of traffic light systems. The increasing use of automobiles in cities has lead city administrators and local governments to install traffic lights and detectors in large quantities in order to avoid accidents and optimize the movement of automobiles and humans. Although signalization can solve traffic conflicts at the intersections, it causes stoppage. The chief objective of optimal traffic control is to improve system mobility and throughput at reduced delays. Delays and stops are not only irritating and pricey to drivers and passengers, but they also add to air contamination and energy use. In this paper, we analyze and demonstrate how the timings of a traffic light system are calculated in order to determine the optimum and proper timings needed to optimize traffic flow.

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

simulation and modeling
traffic light control
transportation planning and engineering
optimization
city planning engineering
road intersections