Fast detection of common geometric substructure in proteins We consider the problem of identifying common three-dimensional substructures between proteins. Our method is based on comparing the shape of the cc-carbon backbone structures of the proteins in order to find three-dimensional (3D) rigid motions that bring portions of the geometric structures into correspondence. We propose a geometric representation of protein backbone chains that is compact yet allows for similarity measures that are robust against noise and outliers, This representation encodes the structure of the backbone as a sequence of unit vectors, defined by each adjacent pair of a-carbons. We then define a measure of the similarity of two protein structures based on the root mean squared (RMS) distance between corresponding orientation vectors of the two proteins. Our measure has several advantages over measures that are commonly used for comparing protein shapes, such as the minimum RMS distance between the 3D positions of corresponding atoms in two proteins. A key advantage is that this new measure behaves well for identifying common substructures, in contrast with position-based measures where the nonmatching portions of the structure dominate the measure. At the same time, it avoids the quadratic space and computational difficulties associated with methods based on distance matrices and contact maps. We show applications of our approach to detecting common contiguous substructures in pairs of proteins, as well as the more difficult problem of identifying common protein domains (i.e., larger substructures that are not necessarily contiguous along the protein chain).

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

structure matching
unit-vector rms
efficient algorithms


Real-time event control in active databases Most existing languages for the specification of active rules are based on the ECA (event-condition-action) paradigm. Usually, rules specified by such languages are triggered by simple events like the update of a tuple in a relational database. We present a specification language that can be used to specify real-time triggering conditions in terms of complex event patterns. Our specification language can be used to formulate complex, triggering conditions for active rules in terms of event patterns that involve sequences, alternations, iterations, and parallel compositions. Also, the language can be used to specify soft, real-time constraints with respect to the minimum/maximum time required/allowed between pairs of events. Our language is designed to be flexible and general in the sense that it can be combined with most ECA rule languages. We formally define the syntax and semantics of the language and we illustrate its use by means of examples.

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

active rules
event patterns
event control


Identifying and constructing elemental parts of shafts based on conditional random fields model ? Our work improves the level of semantic understanding of 2D projections in 3D solids reconstruction. It is the first trial to formulate the parts identification task into a classification problem. We employ an advanced classification model, CRFs, to identify the elemental parts.

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

3d reconstruction
semantic information
conditional random fields (crfs) model


Coupled-task scheduling on a single machine subject to a fixed-job-sequence This paper investigates single-machine coupled-task scheduling where each job has two tasks separated by an exact delay. The objective of this study is to schedule the tasks to minimize the makespan subject to a given job sequence. We introduce several intriguing properties of the fixed-job-sequence problem under study. While the complexity status of the studied problem remains open, an O(n(2)) algorithm is proposed to construct a feasible schedule attaining the minimum makespan for a given permutation of 2n tasks abiding by the fixed-job-sequence constraint. We investigate several polynomially solvable cases of the fixed-job-sequence problem and present a complexity graph of the problem. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

coupled tasks
exact delays
fixed-job-sequence


A new TVD-MUSCL scheme for hyperbolic conservation laws The second-order extension of Godunov's method for hyperbolic conservation laws, known as MUSCL schemes, is studied in this paper. We present a new type of Eulerian MUSCL scheme and oscillation-free algorithms. The intercell flux is computed from difference approximations of characteristic equations with the data influencing the values at half-time step. The data for characteristic equations are classified in several different types by the domain of dependence. The oscillation-free algorithm, based on TVD method, gives a general formulation for previously used method and provides a class of limiters including existing limiters. To validate the new TVD-MUSCL scheme, numerical experiments are performed for several model problems in one and two dimensions. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


RIVER: A reliable inter-vehicular routing protocol for vehicular ad hoc networks Vehicular Ad hoc NETworks (VANETs), an emerging technology, would allow vehicles on roads to form a self-organized network without the aid of a permanent infrastructure. As a prerequisite to communication in VANETs, an efficient route between communicating nodes in the network must be established, and the routing protocol must adapt to the rapidly changing topology of vehicles in motion. This is one of the goals of VANET routing protocols. In this paper, we present an efficient routing protocol for VANETs, called the Reliable Inter-VEhicular Routing (RIVER) protocol. RIVER utilizes an undirected graph that represents the surrounding street layout where the vertices of the graph are points at which streets curve or intersect, and the graph edges represent the street segments between those vertices. Unlike existing protocols, RIVER performs real-time, active traffic monitoring and uses these data and other data gathered through passive mechanisms to assign a reliability rating to each street edge. The protocol then uses these reliability ratings to select the most reliable route. Control messages are used to identify a nodes neighbors, determine the reliability of street edges, and to share street edge reliability information with other nodes.

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

vanets
vehicular ad hoc networks
reliability

routing protocols for vanets
vehicle-to-vehicle communication


Elderly persons' perception and acceptance of using wireless sensor networks to assist healthcare Purpose: This is an exploratory study carrying out qualitative research into the perceptions, attitudes and concerns of elderly persons towards wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies in terms of their application to healthcare. This work aims to provide guidance on the dimensions and items that may be included in the development of a more in-depth questionnaire to further validate the importance of the identified factors as well as the relationships between them. This study aims to contribute to opening up a communication channel between users and researchers, informing the research community in relation to applications and functionalities that users deem as either desirable, inadequate or in need of further development. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with elderly individuals who were still living independently. To explore elderly persons' perceptions and thoughts on current wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies and designs, discussion points were designed from concepts identified from various user acceptance theories and models. Participants were given an introduction to explain the functionality and capabilities of WSN and motes and were shown a sample mote, the Crossbow Mica2Dot. Participants were then asked to discuss their perceptions and concerns towards the likelihood of using a WSN-based healthcare system in their home. Findings: We have identified sixteen concepts in relation to the elderly participants' perception, concerns and attitudes towards WSN systems. Those concepts were further classified into six themes describing the determinants that may affect an elderly person's acceptance of WSNs for assisting healthcare. Some of our exploratory findings in this study indicate for example that independence is highly valued by elderly people and hence any system or technology that can prolong that independence tends to be highly regarded, that privacy of WSN health data might not be as important as typically considered, and there are also indications that cost may be the most prominent determinant influencing an elderly person's acceptance of WSNs. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that participants' attitudes towards the idea of wireless sensor networks for health monitoring are generally positive. The exploratory findings along with the literature suggest a number of relationships which can be used in future survey design and model building. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


A stability investigation of a simulation- and reliability-based optimization This study developed a reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) algorithm focusing on the ability of solving problems with nonlinear constraints or system reliability. In this case, a sampling technique is often adopted to evaluate the reliability analyses. However, simulation with an insufficient sample size often possesses statistical randomness resulting in an inaccurate sensitivity calculation. This may cause an unstable RBDO solution. The proposed approach used a set of deterministic variables, called auxiliary design points, to replace the random parameters. Thus, an RBDO is converted into a deterministic optimization (DO, alpha-problem). The DO and the analysis of finding the auxiliary design points (beta-problem) are conducted iteratively until the solution converges. To maintain the stability of the RBDO solution with less computational cost, the proposed approach calculated the sensitivity of reliability (in the beta-problem) with respect to the mean value of the pseudo-random parameters rather than the design variables. The stability of the proposed method was compared to that of the double-loop approach, and many factors, such as sample size, starting point and the parameters used in the optimization, were considered. The accuracy of the proposed method was confirmed using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) with several linear and nonlinear numerical problems.

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


On-line adaptive clustering for process monitoring and fault detection An adaptive clustering procedure specifically designed for process monitoring, fault detection and isolation is presented in this paper. The key feature of the proposed procedure can be identified as its underlying capability to detect novelties in the systems mode of operation and, thus, to identify previously unseen functioning modes of the process. Once a novelty is detected, relevant informations are used to enrich the knowledge-base of the algorithm and as a result the proposed clustering procedure evolves and learns the new features of the monitored process in accordance with the available process data. The suggested clustering procedure is theoretically illustrated and its effectiveness has been investigated experimentally. Particularly, the on-line implementation of the algorithm and its integration with a fault detection expert system have been considered by making reference to a pneumatic process.

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

fault detection and isolation
adaptive clustering

real-time expert systems
adaptive diagnosis
novelty detection


New Characterizations of Simple Points in 2D, 3D, and 4D Discrete Spaces A point of a discrete object is called simple if it can be deleted from this object without altering topology. In this paper, we present new characterizations of simple points, which hold in dimensions 2, 3, and 4 and lead to efficient algorithms for detecting such points. In order to prove these characterizations, we establish two confluence properties of the collapse operation which hold in the neighborhood of a point in spaces of low dimension. We develop this work in the framework of cubical complexes, which provides a sound topological basis for image analysis and retrieves the main notions and results of digital topology, in particular the notion of simple point.

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

thinning
skeleton
topology preservation
cubical complex
4d space


a symbolic method to reduce power consumption of circuits containing false paths Power dissipation in technology mapped circuits can be reduced by performing gate re-sizing. Recently we have proposed a symbolic procedure which exploits the compactness of the ADD data structure to accurately calculate the arrival times at each node of a circuit for any primary input vector. In this paper we extend our timing analysis tool to the symbolic calculation of required times and slacks, and we use this information to identify gates of the circuits that can be re-sized. The nice feature of our approach is that it takes into account the presence of false paths naturally. As shown by the experimental results, circuits re-synthesized with the technique we present in this paper are guaranteed to be at least as fast as the original implementations, but smaller and substantially less power-consuming.

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

use
method
power consumption
input
presence
tool
power
account
paper
feature
circuits

time analysis
vectorization
experimentation
technologies
compact
exploit
size
data structures
implementation
informal


energy optimal speed control of devices with discrete speed sets We obtain analytically, the energy optimal speed profile of a generic multi-speed device with a discrete set of speeds, to execute a given task within a given time. Current implementations of energy efficient speed control policies (including DVFS) almost exclusively use the minimum feasible speed pair, which has been shown before to be suboptimal. Unlike previous works, ours does not require an explicit functional relationship between the device's power and speed (e.g. the CMOS power model), but only assumes that the power-speed relationship is a W-convex (a discrete equivalent of a convex) function. This assumption allowed us to show that the optimal speed profile uses at most two speeds, and that all the essential characteristics of the power-speed relationship can be encapsulated within a single speed, ? u . The latter speed is intrinsic to the device (i.e. task independent) and can be readily computed from its power-speed values (without any curve fit). Further, ? u is also the speed at which the the device consumes the least energy per unit work done. The problem formulation reduces to a linear program in the number of supported speeds, which in general, is difficult to solve analytically. However, the optimum solution has a very simple form - it is either ? u , or the minimum feasible speed pair for the given task. We verified that a number of commercial DVFS processors, and other devices like disk drives satisfied our model of the W-convex power-speed relationship.

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

voltage scaling
functions
energy optimization
low-power
frequency scaling


ON PARALLEL COMPOSITION OF ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOFS WITH BLACK-BOX QUANTUM SIMULATORS Let L be a language decided by a constant-round quantum Arthur-Merlin (QAM) protocol with negligible soundness error and all but possibly the last message being classical. We prove that if this protocol is zero knowledge with a black-box, quantum simulator S, then L is an element of BQP. Our result also applies to any language having a three-round quantum interactive proof (QIP), with all but possibly the last message being classical, with negligible soundness error and a black-box quantum simulator. These results in particular make it unlikely that; certain protocols can be composed ill parallel in order to reduce soundness error, while maintaining zero knowledge with a black-box quantum simulator. They generalize analogous classical results of Goldreich and Krawczyk (1990). Our proof goes via a reduction to quantum black-box search. We show that the existence of a black-box quantum simulator for such protocols when L is not an element of BQP would imply all impossibly-good quantum search algorithm.

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


Improving the modulo simplex algorithm for large-scale periodic timetabling The periodic event scheduling problem (PESP), in which events have to be scheduled repeatedly over a given period, is a complex and well-known discrete problem with numerous real-world applications. The most prominent of them is to find periodic timetables in public transport. Although even finding a feasible solution to the PESP is NP-hard, recent achievements demonstrate the applicability and practicability of the periodic event scheduling model. In this paper we propose different approaches to improve the modulo network simplex algorithm (Nachtigall and Opitz, 2008 [17]), which is a powerful heuristic for the PESP problem, by exploiting improved search methods in the modulo simplex tableau and larger classes of cuts to escape from the many local optima. Numerical experiments on large-scale railway instances show that our algorithms not only perform better than the original method, but even outperform a state-of-the-art commercial MIP solver. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

periodic event scheduling problem
periodic timetabling

combinatorial optimization
large-scale optimization


Bayesian Learning of Noisy Markov Decision Processes We consider the inverse reinforcement learning problem, that is, the problem of learning from, and then predicting or mimicking a controller based on state/action data. We propose a statistical model for such data, derived from the structure of a Markov decision process. Adopting a Bayesian approach to inference, we show how latent variables of the model can be estimated, and how predictions about actions can be made, in a unified framework. A new Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampler is devised for simulation from the posterior distribution. This step includes a parameter expansion step, which is shown to be essential for good convergence properties of the MCMC sampler. As an illustration, the method is applied to learning a human controller.

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

parameter expansion
markov chain monte carlo
markov decision process


The effect of users' tagging motivation on the enlargement of digital educational resources metadata Social tagging as an alternative way of characterizing educational resources. Users tagging motivation can affect the enlargement of metadata descriptions. A methodology proposed and applied to an existing LOR, namely OpenScienceResources. Describers produce tags that are significantly different from formal metadata. Describers outperformed categorizers by contributing new formal vocabulary terms.

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

folksonomy
user tagging motivation
evaluation methodology
evaluation results


A generic architecture for adaptive agents based on reinforcement learning In this paper, we present MAABAC, a generic model for building adaptive agents: they learn new behaviors by interacting with their environment. These agents adapt their behavior by way of reinforcement learning, namely temporal difference methods. MAABAC is presented in its generality and then, different instantiations of the generic model are presented and experiments are reported. These experiments show the strength of this way of learning.

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

modeling
dynamics of behavior
adaptive systems


A novel spaceborne SAR wide-swath imaging approach based on Poisson disk-like nonuniform sampling and compressive sensing Since the range swath width in the conventional single channel spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is restricted by the system parameters, there is a trade-off between the azimuth resolution and the swath width in order to satisfy the Nyquist sampling criterion. In this paper, we propose a novel spaceborne SAR wide-swath imaging scheme based on compressive sensing (CS) for the sparse scene. The proposed method designs a Poisson disk-like nonuniform sampling pattern in the azimuth direction, which meets the demand of wider swath by restricting the smallest time interval between any two azimuth samples, with the conventional sampling pattern preserved in the range direction. By a similar way to the processing procedure of spectral analysis (SPECAN) algorithm, the linear range migration correction (RMC) is realized while carrying out range compression, which can meet the demand for focusing with middle level resolution. To reduce the computation load of CS reconstruction, we propose a novel fast reconstruction algorithm based on nonuniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT), which greatly reduces the computation complexity from O(2MN) to O(4N logN). Experiment results validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods via the point target simulation and the Radarsat-1 raw data processing in F2 mode.

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


optimizing high latency links in the developing world Long distance Wi-Fi links, satellite connections, and other low-bandwidth, high-latency, intermittent options are becoming the norm for providing connectivity in the developing world. For network administrators who must manage these connections, providing users the "best" (or even adequate) service is not a trivial problem. Previous work has focused on optimizing throughput and while we acknowledge the importance of this approach, we argue that latency is an important and often ignored component of network performance. The intrinsically high latencies seen in the developing world are exacerbated by excessive queueing from traffic which often swamp links with miss-sized queues. Current solutions to this problem tend to require resources (people, time and money) that are generally not available in developing environments. In this paper, we demonstrate that latency is a problem in real world deployments and propose an easy to deploy solution.

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


Exponential synchronization of weighted general delay coupled and non-delay coupled dynamical networks Time delays commonly exist in the real world. In the present work, we investigate the exponential synchronization of weighted general delay coupled and non-delay coupled complex dynamical networks with different topological structures. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, the suitable controllers are designed to make the controlled dynamical network exponentially synchronize an isolated node with any pre-specified exponential convergence rate, and proved theoretically. The synchronization scheme is applicable to the undirected networks as well as the directed ones. The derived controllers are simple and can be readily used in practical applications. Furthermore, the coupling matrix is not necessary to be irreducible and the network node dynamics need not satisfy the very strong and conservative uniform Lipschitz condition. Numerical simulations further validate the effectiveness and feasibility of our synchronization method.

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

delay coupled and non-delay coupled network


Preservation properties by Bernstein-type operators. A probabilistic approach In this paper, we are concerned with preservation properties of first- and second-order by Bernstein-type operators which preserve monotone functions. We obtain characterizations of the preservation of nondecreasing right-continuous functions, first- and second-order modulus of smoothness, Lipschitz classes of first- and second-order, uniform and absolute continuity, and convexity. These kinds of problems lead us to consider the notions of dual and derived operators. We give a simple unified approach based on stochastic orders and probabilistic coupling techniques, in the sense that we represent the operators under consideration in terms of stochastic processes. The preceding results are illustrated by considering well-known Bernstein-type operators, such as generalized Bernstein-Kantorovich, generalized Szasz-Kantorovich, Gamma, and Beta operators. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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 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

preservation properties
coupling techniques

bernstein-type operators
dual operator
derived operator


Mechanics of a discontinuity in a geomaterial The paper presents a brief overview of the topic of interfaces and discontinuities in geomechanics and develops computational assessment of the two-dimensional problem of a discontinuity in a geomaterial region that is subjected to relative shear movement with provision for dilation of the discontinuity. The evaluation focuses on the assessment of the influence of the surface topography of the discontinuity, frictional contact mechanisms, failure of the parent material composing the discontinuity and incompatible movements at the contacting planes on the behaviour of the discontinuity. The computational modelling is used to examine the shearing tests conducted by Bandis et al. [Fundamentals of rock joint deformation. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci Geomech Abstr 1983;20:24968] on samples of dolerite.

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

geomaterial discontinuity
material plasticity
contact mechanics
hydraulic conductivity of fractures
mechanics of joint


Reliable service provisioning in converged multimedia network environment For new service provisioning and flexible network management, diverse heterogeneous networks are converged to a packet-based network with the help of service and control platforms. These platforms, which are shared with several services, perform service provisioning-related functions and manipulate network resources on transport systems to provision services requested from users. Under the converged network circumstance, even a single control system failure affects all services supported by the failed system. It is obvious that a convergence environment requires higher level of reliability than legacy service networks. Previous studies on reliability most focus on how to improve reliability of systems or how to compute reliability of services. The purpose of this paper, instead, is to present a way to compute the required reliability of systems with redundancy policy for satisfying the target reliability of services under the converged network circumstance. Using the proposed method we exemplified the required reliability of control systems and their redundancy ratio for satisfying certain level of reliability of services. The proposed method is expected to give a guideline for planning service and control platforms in consideration of economic efficiency that leverages the level of reliability.

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

availability
next generation network (ngn)


Another Look at Performance Analysis of Energy Detector with Multichannel Reception in Nakagami-\(m\) Fading Channels Energy detection is the most dominant method used for reliable wireless detection owing to its non-coherent structure and low implementation complexity. The main challenge for performance analysis of energy detection comes from the generalized Marcum \(Q\)-function involved. To overcome this hurdle, this paper revisits the detection problem and introduces a new framework based on the incomplete Toronto function that allows analyzing the performance for non-fading and fading scenarios in a very simple way. Based on newly-derived expressions for the incomplete Toronto function, performance analysis of energy detection is firstly formulated for unfaded Gaussian noise channels. Second, novel closed-from expressions are derived for the average probability of detection over Nakagami-\(m\) fading channels. The analyses are based on two approaches: the probability density function-based and the moment generating function-based (MGF). The former uses the canonical series representation of the incomplete Toronto function while the latter employs MGF-derivative method which is based on the \(n\)th order derivative of the MGF. The analysis is then extended to cases with diversity receptions including maximal ratio combining and switch and stay combining (SSC). For the SSC diversity case, an analytical expression that can be used to determine optimum switching thresholds in a maximum average detection probability is also derived. The analytical results are verified by numerical computations and Monte-Carlo simulations.

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

energy detection
detection probability
maximal ratio combining
switch and stay combining
the incomplete toronto function


Analysis of tendinous actuation in balancing the maximal fingertip force for normal and abnormal forefinger system This work displayed the force capabilities of the musculoskeletal system of the forefinger under external loading. Different states of normal and pathological fingers are studied. We evaluated the impact of losing musculo-tendon unit strength capacities in terms of maximal output fingertip force and tendon tensions distribution. A biomechanical model for a static force analysis is developed through anatomical and kinematic studies. An optimisation approach is then used to determine tendon tension distribution when performing an isometric task. Furthermore, pathological fingers with common cases of injured flexors and extensors are analysed. The method of simulation for forefinger abnormities is described. Furthermore, the simulation results are interpreted.

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

forefinger
biomechanical model
optimisation

tendon force
partial and complete disruption


An efficient mixed-precision, hybrid CPU-GPU implementation of a nonlinearly implicit one-dimensional particle-in-cell algorithm Recently, an implicit, nonlinearly consistent, energy-and charge-conserving one-dimensional (1D) particle-in-cell method has been proposed for multi-scale, full-f kinetic simulations [G. Chen et al., J. Comput. Phys. 230 (18) (2011)]. The method employs a Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov (JFNK) solver, capable of using very large timesteps without loss of numerical stability or accuracy. A fundamental feature of the method is the segregation of particle-orbit computations from the field solver, while remaining fully self-consistent. This paper describes a very efficient, mixed-precision hybrid CPU-GPU implementation of the 1D implicit PIC algorithm exploiting this feature. The JFNK solver is kept on the CPU in double precision (DP), while the implicit, charge-conserving, and adaptive particle mover is implemented on a GPU (graphics processing unit) using CUDA in single-precision (SP). Performance-oriented optimizations are introduced with the aid of the roofline model. The implicit particle mover algorithm is shown to achieve up to 400 GOp/s on a Nvidia GeForce GTX580. This corresponds to 25% absolute GPU efficiency against the peak theoretical performance, and is about 100 times faster than an equivalent single-core CPU (Intel Xeon X5460) compiler-optimized execution. For the test case chosen, the mixed-precision hybrid CPU-GPU solver is shown to over-perform the DP CPU-only serial version by a factor of similar to 100, without apparent loss of robustness or accuracy in a challenging long-time-scale ion acoustic wave simulation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

energy and charge conserving
implicit particle in cell
multi-scale
ion-acoustic wave
gpu computing
heterogeneous architecture
jacobian-free newton-krylov solver
particle enslavement


dependence language model for information retrieval This paper presents a new dependence language modeling approach to information retrieval. The approach extends the basic language modeling approach based on unigram by relaxing the independence assumption. We integrate the linkage of a query as a hidden variable, which expresses the term dependencies within the query as an acyclic, planar, undirected graph. We then assume that a query is generated from a document in two stages: the linkage is generated first, and then each term is generated in turn depending on other related terms according to the linkage. We also present a smoothing method for model parameter estimation and an approach to learning the linkage of a sentence in an unsupervised manner. The new approach is compared to the classical probabilistic retrieval model and the previously proposed language models with and without taking into account term dependencies. Results show that our model achieves substantial and significant improvements on TREC collections.

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

information retrieval
method
dependence
parameter estimation
language model
graph
account
learning
model
paper
query

variability
collect
parser
smooth
language modelling
documentation
retrieval model
integrability


Compressive Frequency Sensing Techique Using Discrete Prolate Spheroidal Sequences In this paper, we present a new frequency identification technique using the recent methodology of compressive sensing and discrete prolate spheroidal sequences with optimal energy concentration. Using the bandpass form of discrete prolate spheroidal sequences as basis matrix in compressive sensing, compressive frequency sensing algorithm is presented. Simulation results are given to present the effectiveness of the proposed technique for application to detection of carrier-frequency type signal and recognition of wideband signal in communication.

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

compressive sensing
prolate spheroidal sequences
frequency identification


Mesh Segmentation with Concavity-Aware Fields This paper presents a simple and efficient automatic mesh segmentation algorithm that solely exploits the shape concavity information. The method locates concave creases and seams using a set of concavity-sensitive scalar fields. These fields are computed by solving a Laplacian system with a novel concavity-sensitive weighting scheme. Isolines sampled from the concavity-aware fields naturally gather at concave seams, serving as good cutting boundary candidates. In addition, the fields provide sufficient information allowing efficient evaluation of the candidate cuts. We perform a summarization of all field gradient magnitudes to define a score for each isoline and employ a score-based greedy algorithm to select the best cuts. Extensive experiments and quantitative analysis have shown that the quality of our segmentations are better than or comparable with existing state-of-the-art more complex approaches.

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


Construction of several second- and fourth-order geometric partial differential equations for space curves ? ?? Several second- and fourth-order geometric partial differential equations for space curves are constructed. Changing rates of the arc-length of the evolved curves and areas swept by the curves are discussed. Short-term and long-term behaviors of the evolved curves are illustrated.

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


Approximate min-max relations on plane graphs Let G be a plane graph, let ?(G) (resp. ??(G)) be the minimum number of vertices (resp. edges) that meet all cycles ofG, and let ?(G) (resp. ??(G)) be the maximum number of vertex-disjoint (resp. edge-disjoint) cycles inG. In this note we show that ?(G)?3?(G) and ??(G)?4??(G)?1; our proofs are constructive, which yield polynomial-time algorithms for finding corresponding objects with the desired properties.

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

feedback set
cycle
approximate min-max relation


Production systems with negation as failure We study action rule-based systems with two forms of negation, namely classical negation and "negation as failure to find a course of actions." We show by several examples that adding negation as failure to such systems increases their expressiveness in the sense that real life problems can be represented in a natural and simple way. Then, we address the problem of providing a formal declarative semantics to these extended systems by adopting an argumentation-based approach which has been shown to be a simple unifying framework for understanding the declarative semantics of various nonmonotonic formalisms. In this way, we naturally define the grounded (well-founded), stable, and preferred semantics for production systems with negation as failure. Next, we characterize the class of stratified production systems, which enjoy the properties that the above mentioned semantics coincide and that negation as failure to find a course of actions can be computed by a simple bottom-up operator. Stratified production systems can be implemented on top of conventional production systems in two ways. The first way corresponds to the understanding of stratification as a form of priority assignment between rules. We show that this implementation, though sound, is not complete in the general case. Hence, we propose a second implementation by means of an algorithm which transforms a finite stratified production system into a classical one. This is a sound and complete implementation, though computationally hard, as shown in the paper.

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

rule-based systems
knowledge-based systems
rule-based processing
expert systems
knowledge representation


Wavelet-based separation of nonlinear show-through and bleed-through image mixtures This work addresses the separation of the nonlinear real-life mixture of images that occurs when a page of a document is scanned or photographed and the back page shows through. This effect can be due to partial paper transparency (show-through) and/or to bleeding of the ink through the paper (bleed-through). These two causes usually lead to mixtures with different characteristics. We propose a separation method based on the fact that the high-frequency components of the images are sparse and are stronger on one side of the paper than on the other one. The same properties were already used in nonlinear denoising source separation (DSS). However, we developed significant improvements that allow us to achieve a competitive separation quality by means of a one-shot processing, with no iteration. The method does not require the sources to be independent or the mixture to be invariant, and is suitable for separating mixtures such as those produced by bleed-through, for which we do not have an adequate physical model.

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

nonlinear separation
image mixture
show-through
bleed-through
image enhancement


Dynamic Interaction in Decision Support: Effects on Perceived Diagnosticity and Confidence in Unstructured Domains The evolution of eCommerce over the past decade has resulted in a wide range of tools that enable consumers to make better decisions about the products or services that they are purchasing. One class of tools that are now widely used in a variety of eCommerce domains are mashups, which combine disparate sources of information (e. g., price, product reviews, and seller reviews) to support buyer decision making. Previous academic studies that examined decision support tools for eCommerce domains have focused on the impacts on information search, consideration set size, and decision quality. This paper discusses dynamic interaction, namely, the degree to which a user can revisit and revise their inputs and consider alternative solutions during a decision. The relationships between dynamic interaction, diagnosticity, confidence, and intention were investigated in an experiment. The results of the study indicated that increasing dynamic interaction increased the perceived diagnosticity (i.e., the extent to which the user believes that the tool is useful to evaluate a product) of the decision support tool and the overall confidence in the decision. In addition, a post hoc analysis of decision quality suggests that increased levels of dynamic interaction also improve the overall quality of the decision made.

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

confidence
dynamic interaction
perceived diagnosticity

calibration
web 2.0 mashups
end-user programming


Simulating cardiac electrophysiology using anisotropic mesh adaptivity The simulation of cardiac electrophysiology requires small time steps and a fine mesh in order to resolve very sharp, but highly localized, wavefronts. The use of very high resolution meshes containing large numbers of nodes results in a high computational cost, both in terms of CPU hours and memory footprint. In this paper an anisotropic mesh adaptivity technique is implemented in the Chaste physiological simulation library in order to reduce the mesh resolution away from the depolarization front. Adapting the mesh results in a reduction in the number of degrees of freedom of the system to be solved by an order of magnitude during propagation and 23 orders of magnitude in the subsequent plateau phase. As a result, a computational speedup by a factor of between 5 and 12 has been obtained with no loss of accuracy, both in a slab-like geometry and for a realistic heart mesh with a spatial resolution of 0.125mm.

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

cardiac electrophysiology
simulation
anisotropic mesh adaptivity


Adaptive network-based fuzzy inference model on CPS for large scale intelligent and cooperative surveillance This paper proposes Cyber-Physical System (CPS) architectures for Large Scale Intelligent and Cooperative Surveillance (ICS) and presents an Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference Model (ANFIM) for reducing the false accident-event report rates of Controller Manager (CM) systems among CPS components. In ICS, sensor nodes detect traffic accident events from general roads and crossroads and transmit event attribute values (car and accident types), time attribute values (date, month, day, year), environmental variable values (weather, temperature, luminous intensity, humidity and sound), and accident event videos to the Controller through WSN mesh networks. Using these pieces of information, the Controller conducts image processing and delivers all sensing data to the CM together with accident-event probability values. The CM conducts data filtering with multi regression analysis utilizing the past accident event database. Centering on the resultant values obtained through the foregoing process, this paper proposes a mathematical model for influence analysis of environmental variables that affect accident events. Based on the models results, the authors establish a Sugeno Type fuzzy rule base for reducing false accident-event report rates to propose an ANFIM.

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

cyber physical system
large scale system surveillance
68 (priority 1)


Batch scheduling of simple linear deteriorating jobs on a single machine to minimize makespan We consider a scheduling problem in which n jobs are to be processed on a single machine. The jobs are processed in batches and the processing time of each job is a simple linear function of its waiting time, i.e., the time between the start of the processing of the batch to which the job belongs and the start of the processing of the job. The objective is to minimize the makespan, i.e., the completion time of the last job. We first show that the problem is strongly NP-hard. Then we show that, if the number of batches is B , the problem remains strongly NP-hard when B?U B ? U for a variable U?2 U ? 2 or B?U B ? U for any constant U?2 U ? 2 . For the case of B?U B ? U , we present a dynamic programming algorithm that runs in pseudo-polynomial time and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for any constant U?2 U ? 2 . Furthermore, we provide an optimal linear time algorithm for the special case where the jobs are subject to a linear precedence constraint, which subsumes the case where all the job growth rates are equal.

B I 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 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 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


The research activity of the current faculty of the Greek chemical engineering departments: a bibliometric study in national and international context The object of the present study is the evaluation of the research quality of the three Greek chemical engineering departments (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras) by means of several advanced bibliometric indices calculated separately for each academic using a twofold approach, namely in department and academic rank level. This allows the ranking of the studied departments, but also sheds light on the distribution of the research activity among the various ranks. In addition, to assess the research profile and background of the current faculty of the Greek chemical engineering departments in International context their research output is compared with that of Massachusetts chemical engineering department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dependency of the bibliometric indices on seniority is also investigated, conducting the bibliometric analysis using a common time basis for all academics, i.e., research performance during the last decade. Available data are also used to investigate the temporal progress of the research productivity. Finally, gender distribution among the academics of the various ranks is also studied to explore the gender balance in research. In general, bibliometrics demonstrate that Patras department host academics of better quality, with higher scientific activity over the last decade, but superiority of MIT department against the Greek departments is also evident. Results also indicate that no common standards in hiring/promotion of academics are established between the departments. The negative impact of the European socio-economic crisis on the research productivity is also highlighted, while the university system suffers from unequal gender distribution with pronounced male dominance.

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

bibliometrics
chemical engineering
academic rank
gender


Statistical model selection method to analyze combinatorial effects of SNPs and environmental factors for binary disease We propose a model selection method to estimate the relation of multiple SNPs, environmental factors and the binary disease trait. We applied the combination of logistic regression and genetic algorithm for this study. The logistic regression model can capture the continuous effects of environments without categorization, which causes the loss of the information. To construct an accurate prediction rule for binary trait, we adopted Akaike's information criterion (AIC) to find the most effective set of SNPs and environments. That is, the set of SNPs and environments that gives the smallest AIC is chosen as the optimal set. Since the number of combinations of SNPs and environments is usually huge, we propose the use of the genetic algorithm for choosing the optimal SNPs and environments in the sense of AIC. We show the effectiveness of the proposed method through the analysis of the case/control populations of diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and obesity patients. We succeeded in finding an efficient set to predict types of diabetes and some SNPs which have strong interactions to age while it is not significant as a single locus.

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

binary disease
logistic regression
genetic algorithm


Allostatic Load, Perceived Stress, and Health: A Prospective Study in Two Age Groups Overactivity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) has been observed in the presence of acute stress and, under chronic conditions, in disorders such as depression and anorexia nervosa as well as in cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. However, there may be other stress-related disorders (fatigue, pain, etc) that seem to be associated with mild hypocortisolism. This suggests that two major subtypes of the HPAA response to stress need to be discriminated. In this study, we investigated 76 subjects with and without hypocortisolism, respectively, over a 1-year period. Surprisingly, hypocortisolemic subjects had a lower allostatic load but they scored higher on measures of depression, perceived stress, and physical complaints. We propose a protective role of the hypocortisolemic stress response on cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, particularly in the elderly.

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

cortisol
protective and damaging effects
chronic stress
fibrinogen
whr


A contrast-based approach to the identification of texture faults Texture analysis based on the extraction of contrast features is very effective in terms of both computational complexity and discrimination capability. In this framework, max-min approaches have been proposed in the past as a simple and powerful tool to characterize a statistical texture. In the present work, a method is proposed that allows exploiting the potential of max-min approaches to efficiently solve the problem of detecting local alterations in a uniform statistical texture. Experimental results show a high defect discrimination capability, and a good attitude to real-time applications, which make it particularly attractive for the development of industrial visual inspection systems.

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

texture analysis
contrast
visual inspection


from quotient-difference to generalized eigenvalues and sparse polynomial interpolation The numerical quotient-difference algorithm,or the qd-algorithm, can be used for determining the poles of a meromorphic function directly from its Taylor coeffcients. We show that the poles computed in the qd-algorithm, regardless of their multiplicities,are converging to the solution of a generalized eigenvalue problem. In a special case when all the poles are simple,such generalized eigenvalue problem can be viewed as a reformulation of Prony 's method,a method that is closely related to the Ben-Or/Tiwari algorithm for interpolating a multivariate sparse polynomial in computer algebra.

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

sparse polynomial interpolation
generalized eigenvalue

ben-or/tiwari algorithm
prony's method
qd-algorithm


Techniques and algorithms for access control list optimization Access control lists are core features of todays internetwork routers. They serve several purposes, most notably in filtering network traffic and securing critical networked resources. However, the addition of access control lists increases packet latency due to the overhead of extra computations involved. This paper presents simple techniques and algorithms for optimizing access control lists that can reduce significantly expected packet latencies without sacrificing security requirements. The emphasis throughout the paper is in providing a modular approach that can be implemented either fully or partially, both online and offline, based on the amount of overhead allowed. It also shows empirically and analytically where and why the greatest potential for optimization lies.

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

data networks optimization
network security


A study on modeling of human spatial behavior using multi-agent technique This research follows the design and implementation of an agent-based modeling environment written in Java program language on AnyLogic simulation platform to facilitate observing the human spatial behaviors of electric taxis and passengers. The system is developed with a view to improve decision analysis and support for users or companies. In order to achieve the object of decision support for the user, we provide a graphic user interface (GUI) to support user making decision real time. User can simulate the real condition via GUI in our electric taxi DAR operation system to observe the simulation process and the result to help reasonable decision-making immediately. We validate our multi-agent simulation model with the electric taxi DAR operation system case study. Finally, according to the analysis result, we demonstrate that our multi-agent simulation model and GUI can help users or companies quickly make a quality and accurate decision to reduce the decision-making cost and time. In this condition, users or companies can strengthen their competitive advantage and response ability with the reduction of decision-making risk.

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

graphic user interface
simulation
human spatial behaviors


Statistical Timing Analysis Considering Spatially and Temporally Correlated Dynamic Power Supply Noise Power supply noise Is having increasingly more influence on timing, even though noise-aware timing analysis has not yet been fully established, because of several difficulties such as its dependence on input vectors and dynamic behavior. This paper proposes static timing analysis that takes power supply noise into consideration where the dependence of noise on input vectors and spatial and temporal correlations are handled statistically. We construct a statistical model of power supply voltage that dynamically varies with spatial and temporal correlation, and represent it as a set of uncorrelated variables. We demonstrate that power-voltage variations are highly correlated and adopting principal component analysis as an orthogonalization technique can effectively reduce the number of variables. Experiments confirmed the validity of our model and the accuracy of tinting analysis. We also discuss the accuracy and CPU time in association with the reduced number of variables.

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

power supply noise
principal component analysis
statistical timing analysis


Functional Properties of Minimum Mean-Square Error and Mutual Information In addition to exploring its various regularity properties, we show that the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) is a concave functional of the input-output joint distribution. In the case of additive Gaussian noise, the MMSE is shown to be weakly continuous in the input distribution and Lipschitz continuous with respect to the quadratic Wasserstein distance for peak-limited inputs. Regularity properties of mutual information are also obtained. Several applications to information theory and the central limit theorem are discussed.

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

central limit theorem
gaussian noise
mutual information

bayesian statistics
minimum mean-square error (mmse)
non-gaussian noise


On a Capacity Scaling Algorithm for the Constrained Maximum Flow Problem Ahuja and Orlin (Networks 25 (1995), 89-98) introduced a constrained maximum flow problem and proposed its first polynomial combinatorial algorithm. The problem has important applications and is related to important problems such as the knapsack problem. In this article, we show that the algorithm may not terminate with a feasible solution in certain instances and provide a modified version with the same complexity. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 53(3), 229-230 2009

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

minimum cost network flow
polynomial algorithm


MORE THOUGHTS ON CONTINUITY AND LOGIC In the current debate on appropriate representations of uncertainty, it is usual to assume a finite set of events to be discriminated. A similar bias is apparent in much discussion in neurophysiology and cognitive psychology, and it entails de-emphasis of the property of continuity ("in the large"), necessary for interpolation, extrapolation and ranking. The importance of continuity is acknowledged in recent discussions related to fuzzy set theory, which acknowledge linguistic variables. Argues that this is an important development and that much other discussion is of restricted applicability because it fails to recognize continuity.

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


Multi-modal human interactions with an intelligent interface utilizing images, sounds, and force feedback One goal of research in the area of human-machine interaction is to improve the ways a human user interacts with a computer through a multimedia interface. This interaction comprises of not only text, graphical animation, stereo sounds, and live video images, but also force and haptic feedback, which can provide more "real" feeling to the user. The force feedback joystick, a human interface device is an input-output device. It not only tracks user's physical manipulation input, but also provides realistic physical sensations of force coordinated with system output. As part of our research, we have developed a multimedia computer game that assimilates images, sounds, and force feedback. We focused on the issues of how to combine these media to allow the user feel the compliance, damping, and vibration effects through the force feedback joystick. We conducted series of human subject experiments that incorporated different combinations of media, including the comparative study of the different performances of 60 human users, aiming to answer the question: What are the effects of force feedback (and associated time delays) when used in combination with visual and auditory information as part of a multi-modal interface? It is hoped that these results can be utilized in the design of enhanced multimedia systems that incorporate force feedback.

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

human-machine interactions
intelligent interfaces
multi-modal interactions
telerobotics


Minimal syndrome formers for group codes Given a controllable group code, it has been shown by Forney, Trott, and Loeliger that it is possible to construct a canonical encoder whose state space coincides with the canonical state space of the code, that is the essential element determining the minimal trellis of the code. The construction of such an encoder is based on the concept of controllability granule, In this paper the construction of a syndrome former for an observable group code is proposed, This syndrome former exhibits analogous properties of the above mentioned canonical encoder and, in particular, its state space coincides with the canonical state space of the code. The proposed construction is based on the concept of observability granule, introduced by Forney and Trott, which dualizes the concept of controllability granule, Similarly to what happens for the encoders, each observability granule produces a map and all these maps together provide the syndrome former. The main difference is that here, to achieve the right state-space dimension, the automata associated with these maps do not evolve independently from each other, but are coupled according to a triangular structure.

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

behavioral approach
convolutional codes over groups
dynamical systems
inverters
observability granules
observer-form realization
state-space representations
systems over groups


Analysis of Discrete \(L^2\) Projection on Polynomial Spaces with Random Evaluations We analyze the problem of approximating a multivariate function by discrete least-squares projection on a polynomial space starting from random, noise-free observations. An area of possible application of such technique is uncertainty quantification for computational models. We prove an optimal convergence estimate, up to a logarithmic factor, in the univariate case, when the observation points are sampled in a bounded domain from a probability density function bounded away from zero and bounded from above, provided the number of samples scales quadratically with the dimension of the polynomial space. Optimality is meant in the sense that the weighted \(L^2\) norm of the error committed by the random discrete projection is bounded with high probability from above by the best \(L^\infty \) error achievable in the given polynomial space, up to logarithmic factors. Several numerical tests are presented in both the univariate and multivariate cases, confirming our theoretical estimates. The numerical tests also clarify how the convergence rate depends on the number of sampling points, on the polynomial degree, and on the smoothness of the target function.

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


How is a search system used in work task completion? Typically studies of information retrieval and interactive information retrieval concentrate on the identification of relevant items. In this study, rather than stop at finding relevant items, we considered how people use a search system in the completion of a broader work task. To conduct the study, we created 12 tasks that required multiple queries and document views in order to find enough information to complete the task. A total of 381 people completed three tasks each in a laboratory setting using the wikiSearch system that was embedded into WiIRE. Results found that two-thirds of time spent on the task was spent after finding a relevant set of documents sufficient for task completion, and that time was mainly spent reviewing documents that had already been retrieved. Findings suggest that an open-source information retrieval system, such as Lucene, was adequate for this task. However, the ultimate challenge will be in building useful systems that aid the user in extracting, interpreting and analysing information to achieve work task completion.

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

interactive information retrieval
work task


presentation of a web site using the systematic approach In the report an attempt to explain the role and place of the Systematic approach with its typical techniques and methods in the process of the analysis and projection of a Web site is proffered. The basic components of the Web site are described in it. The role of the users with their characteristics, interests and activities in the process of projection are displayed. A generalized model of a Web site is proposed.

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


A large set of non-Hamiltonian graphs It is proved that the set of not-1-edge-tough graphs (N1ET) is a better approximation for the set of non-Hamiltonian graphs then the previously given sets. The best previous approximation is the set of non-sub-2-factor graphs (NS2F). The main result of the present article is that the set N1ET?NS2F is -complete, which suggests that N1ET is essentially larger than NS2F.

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

edge-toughness
toughness
hamiltonian cycle


Octopus: An Upperware based system for building personal pervasive environments As of today, there is no operating system suitable for pervasive computing. Such system must integrate and coordinate heterogeneous devices and systems but, at the same time, it should provide a single system image to let the user feel that there is only a single "pervasive" computing environment. Such illusion must consider the Internet as the system backbone, because users move. The challenge is providing a novel system while permitting the seamless integration of traditional legacy systems, which may be required to run on many computers and devices, if only to run their applications. We argue that to build such a system, we should abandon Middleware and use a different technology, that we call Upperware. To back up our claim, we have built an actual system using Upperware: the Octopus. The Octopus has been in use for several years both to build pervasive applications like smart spaces and to provide a general-purpose computing environment. We have been using it through wide area networks, on a daily basis. In this paper we discuss the Upperware approach and present the Octopus as an actual system built out of Upperware, including some evaluation results. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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


Modeling and quantitatively predicting software security based on stochastic Petri nets To quantitatively predict software security in the design phase, hierarchical software security modeling and evaluation methods are proposed based on Stochastic Petri Nets (SPNs). Hierarchical methods mitigate the state-space explosion problem in SPNs. An isomorphic Markov Chain (MC) is obtained from the component SPN model. The security prediction value is calculated based on the probability distribution of the MC in the steady state. A sensitivity analysis method is proposed through evaluating the derivative of the security evaluation prediction equation. It provides a means to identify and trace back to the critical components for security enhancing. Security prediction and sensitivity analysis in the design phase provide the possibility to investigate and compare different solutions to the target system before realization. A case study shows the applicability and feasibility of our method. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

model
software security
sensitivity analysis
hierarchical


JPEG Compatible Raw Image Coding Based on Polynomial Tone Mapping Model In this paper, we propose a coding method for camera raw images with high dynamic ranges. Our encoder has two layers. In the first layer, 24 bit low dynamic range image is encoded by a conventional codec, and then the residual image that represents the difference between the raw image and its approximation is encoded in the second layer. The approximation is derived by a polynomial fitting. The main advantage of this approach is that applying the polynomial model reduces the correlation between the raw and 24 bit images, which increases coding efficiency. Experiments shows compression efficiency is significantly improved by taking an inverse tone mapping into account.

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


Optical properties of left-handed metamaterial involving coated nano-spheres We present theoretical results of a left-handed metamaterial engineered by a combination of coated and solid nano-spheres. The structure is a binary composite of CdSTiO 2 coreshell and Au solid nano-spheres which simultaneously dispersed in the air matrix. The effective medium parameters derived by extended Maxwell-Garnett (EMG) effective medium theory. It is shown the possibility of fine-tuning the metamaterial in order to observe left-handed behavior. The results are supplemented with transmittance curves, calculated by layer-multiple-scattering (LMS) method. The predictions of the EMG theory are in good agreement with those of LMS method; thus the (CdSTiO 2)/Au nano-composite is an appropriate choice as a three-dimensional left-handed metamaterial.

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

left-handed
negative refraction index
extended maxwell-garnett theory


Microstructure evolution during liquidliquid laminar mixing: a kinetic theory approach Many material forming processes involve liquidliquid mixing, and in general the induced properties are strongly dependent on the resulting microstructure. Microstructure during liquidliquid mixing exhibits a morphology characterized by a length scale usually much smaller that the one associated with the macroscopic flow. In this context a microstructure description allowing to characterize the microscopic morphology, its characteristic size, shape and orientation as well as the time evolution of the specific interface area, seems to be necessary in order to qualify and even quantify, the ability of flows to perform mixing, leading to the definition of optimal flows to maximize some desired criteria. The approach based on the definition of area tensor is a promising description of such phenomena, being its main drawback the necessity of introducing a closure relation to derive the equation governing its time evolution, whose impact on the computed solution can be in some cases significant. In this paper we propose a new description which considers the area tensor description as starting point, but defines its evolution in a kinetic theory framework, avoiding the introduction of any closure relation.

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

microstructured fluids
kinetic theory description


A moving Lagrangian interface technique for flow computations over fixed meshes In this paper, an enhanced finite element formulation for unsteady incompressible flows with moving interfaces is presented. The weak form of the NavierStokes equations, written using a generalized streamline operator technique, is coupled with the movement of the interface between two immiscible fluids defined through an independent moving mesh. The position of the interface is updated using a Lagrangian formulation. In this framework, a global mass conservation corrector algorithm and an enhanced element integration technique are proposed to improve accuracy. The method is applied to a number of test problems with moving interfaces.

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

moving interface
fixed mesh
incompressible flow


Constrained (k, d)-out-of-n systems Two new coherent system reliability models, which generalise k-out-of-n:F and consecutive k-out-of-n:G systems, are proposed and explicit formulae for the reliabilities of these systems are derived when the components are independent and identical and when they are Markov dependent. Our method of deriving reliability functions is based on the use of classical combinatorial arguments. These extensions consider an additional constraint on the number of working components between successive failures. More explicitly, in addition to the working conditions of k-out-of-n:F and consecutive k-out-of-n:G systems there must be at least d consecutive working components between any of two successive failures. This type of consideration might be useful in some situations including the analysis of constrained binary sequences arising in communications systems, and particular infrared detecting systems.

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 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

k-out-of-n system
consecutive k-out-of-n system
markov dependent components
stochastic systems


On the ordinal equivalence of the Johnston, Banzhaf and Shapley power indices ? In this paper, we characterize the games in which Johnston, ShapleyShubik and PenroseBanzhafColeman indices are ordinally equivalent, meaning that they rank players in the same way. We prove that these three indices are ordinally equivalent in semicomplete simple games, which is a newly defined class that contains complete games and includes most of the realworld examples of binary voting systems. This result constitutes a twofold extension of Diffo Lambo and Moulens result (Diffo Lambo and Moulen, 2002) in the sense that ordinal equivalence emerges for three power indices (not just for the ShapleyShubik and PenroseBanzhafColeman indices), and it holds for a class of games strictly larger than the class of complete games.

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

simple games
power indices
ordinal equivalence

game theory
decision support systems
complete simple games


role-based multicast in highly mobile but sparsely connected ad hoc networks We present an approach to multicasting messages among highly mobile hosts in ad hoc networks. We suggest a new definition of a role-based multicast that suits the special needs of inter-vehicle communication: Rather than by explicit identification, a multicast group is defined implicitly by location, speed, driving direction and time. As an example, we study a road accident that is reported to nearby vehicles. We focus on sparse deployment of the system which is likely to occur soon after the system is introduced to the market. In this state, the resulting ad hoc network tends to be disconnected. We tailor the proposed algorithm to overcome this problem of network fragmentation. Simulations show us the quality of the proposed protocol by measuring how many vehicles inside a multicast area are informed in time under various conditions.

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

communication
network
quality
market
definition
tailor
group
fragmentation
ad hoc networks
identification
deployment
multicast
algorithm

measurement
global positioning system
inter-vehicle communication
simulation
drive
examples
mobility
direct
timing
informal
mobile ad hoc network
role
systems
locatability
message


Time accurate fast three-step wavelet-Galerkin method for partial differential equations We introduce the concept of three-step wavelet-Galerkin method based on the Taylor series expansion in time. Unlike the Taylor-Galerkin methods, the present scheme does not contain any new higher-order derivatives which makes it suitable for solving nonlinear problems. Numerical schemes taking advantage of the wavelet bases capabilities to compress the operators and sparse representation of functions which are smooth, except for localized regions, up to any given accuracy are presented. Here numerical experiments deal with advection equation with the spiky solution in one dimension, two dimensions and nonlinear equation with a shock in solution in two dimensions. Numerical results indicate the versatility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

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

three-step method
wavelets
parabolic equation
hyperbolic equation


CPI: Constraints-Preserving Inlining algorithm for mapping XML DTD to relational schema As Extensible Markup Language (XML) is emerging as the data format of the Internet era, there are increasing needs to efficiently store and query XML data. One path to this goal is transforming XML data into relational format in order to use relational database technology. Although several transformation algorithms exist, they are incomplete in the sense that they focus only on structural aspects and ignore semantic aspects. In this paper, we present the semantic knowledge that needs to be captured during transformation to ensure a correct relational schema. Further, we show an algorithm that can (1) derive such semantic knowledge from a given XML Document Type Definition (DTD) and (2) preserve the knowledge by representing it as semantic constraints in relational database terms. By combining existing transformation algorithms and our constraints-preserving algorithm, one can transform XML DTD to relational schema where correct semantics and behaviors are guaranteed by the preserved constraints. Experimental results are also presented.

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


The theorems of structural vzariation for grillage systems The theorems of structural variation predict the forces and displacements throughout a structure without the need of fresh analysis when the physical properties of one or more of its members are altered. It is necessary to carry out a single linear analysis of a parent structure under the applied loads and a set of unit loadings in order to study the effect of infinite number of changes in the cross-sectional properties or even total removal of a member in the structure. The member end forces obtained in this analysis are used to calculate the variation factors. The displacements and member end forces of the modified structure are then obtained by simply multiplying the displacements and member end forces of the parent structure, The earlier application of these theorems covers the rigid frames and some finite element structures. In this study, the theorems of structural variation are extended to grillage structures. The unit loading cases required to study the modification of grillage elements are determined. A number of examples are included to demonstrate the simplicity of the method. (C) 2000 Civil-Comp Ltd. and Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

structural reanalysis
nonlinear analysis


Multiobjective evolutionary optimization of periodic layered materials for desired wave dispersion characteristics An important dispersion-related characteristic of wave propagation through periodic materials is the existence of frequency bands. A medium effectively attenuates all incident waves within stopbands and allows propagation within passbands. The widths and locations of these bands in the frequency domain depend on the layout of contrasting materials and the ratio of their properties. Using a multiobjective genetic algorithm, the topologies of one-dimensional periodic unit cells are designed for target frequency band structures characterizing longitudinal wave motion. The decision variables are the number of layers in the unit cell and the thickness of each layer. Binary and mixed formulations are developed for the treatment of the optimization problems. Designs are generated for the following novel objectives: (1) maximum attenuation of time harmonic waves, (2) maximum isolation of general broadband pulses, and (3) filtering signals at predetermined frequency windows. The saturation of performance with the number of unit-cell layers is shown for the first two cases. In the filtering application, the trade-off between the simultaneous realization of passband and stop-band targets is analyzed. It is shown that it is more difficult to design for passbands than it is to design for stopbands. The design approach presented has potential use in the development of vibration and shock isolation structures, sound isolation pads/partitions, and multiple band frequency filters, among other applications.

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

periodic materials
wave dispersion
stopband
passband
vibration and shock isolation

phononic and photonic crystals
band gap
topology optimization
multiobjective genetic algorithms


Applications of Docking and Molecular Dynamic Studies on the Search for New Drugs Against the Biological Warfare Agents Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis The fear of biological warfare agents (BWA) use by terrorists is the major concern of the security agencies and health authorities worldwide today. The non-existence of vaccines or drugs against most BWA and the possibility of genetic modified strains has turned the search for new drugs to a state of urgency. Fast in silico techniques are, therefore, perfect tools for this task once they can quickly provide structures of several new lead compounds for further experimental work. Here we try to present a mini-review on docking and molecular dynamics simulations studies applied to the drug design against the BWA Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis.

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

docking studies
molecular dynamic simulations


Using input invariance as a method to facilitate system design in DPS applications Distributed power supply (DPS) systems are extensively used to supply different electronic equipment and systems such as telecom switching systems. Continuous reduction of supply voltages of digital integrated circuits from the previous industry standard of 5 V down to 1 V or even less has necessitated the use of point-of-load system architectures due to high supply currents. The input currents of the switched-mode power supplies contain typically high ripple currents necessitating the use of noise suppression (EMI) filters to meet the stringent requirements stipulated by international standards. The interactions between the load converters, EMI filters, and supply side converters may adversely affect the stability and performance of the system. The system analysis is typically made based on the behavior of the ratio between the output impedance of the supply side and the input impedance of the load side known as minor-loop gain. Certain forbidden regions in the complex plane have been developed out of which the minor-loop gain should stay in order to guarantee stability. Even if the restrictions for the behavior of the minor-loop gain are well-defined, the accurate prediction of the associated impedances is difficult or even impossible. We propose, in this paper, a method based on input invariance to cancel the load-side interactions in the small-signal sense. The only concern left is then the stability of EMI filters, which may be considered based on the input power of the associated converters.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 power system
buck converter
input-voltage feedforward
voltage-mode control
peak-current-mode control
continuous conduction mode