The discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the 2D shallow water equations A high-order finite element method, total variational diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method is investigated to solve free-surface problems in hydraulic dynamics. Some cases of circular dam and rapidly varying two-dimensional flows are presented to show the efficiency and stability of this method. The numerical simulations are given on structured rectangular mesh for regular domain and on unstructured triangular mesh for irregular domain, respectively. (C) 2001 IMACS. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

discontinuous galerkin method
shallow water equations


Not just another focus group: making the case for the nominal group technique in criminology The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is seldom applied in criminological research. This article explores the potential of NGT as a tool for criminological research.

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


Applications of matrix morsifications to Coxeter spectral study of loop-free edge-bipartite graphs Following the spectral graph theory and a Coxeter type technique applied in the representation theory of groups, algebras, coalgebras, and posets, we study the category UBigrn U B i g r n of connected loop-free edge-bipartite graphs ? ? with n?2 n ? 2 vertices (a class of signed graphs) by means of their Coxeter spectrum specc ? ? C , i.e., the spectrum of the Coxeter matrix Cox ? : = ? G ? ? ? G ? ? ? M n ( Z ) (1.2), where G ? ? ? M n ( Z ) is the non-symmetric Gram matrix (1.1) of ? ? . One of our aims is to compute the set C G p o l n + of all polynomials cox ? ( t ) , with positive graphs ? ? in UBigrn U B i g r n , for all n?2 n ? 2 . Moreover, we study the following Coxeter spectral analysis problem (1.4): Does the Z Z -congruence ??Z?? ? ? Z ? ? hold (i.e. the matrices G ? ? and G ? ? ? are Z Z -congruent), for any pair of connected positive loop-free edge-bipartite graphs ? ? , ?? ? ? such that specc ? = specc ? ? . We show that our problems reduce to the study of the set Mor D ? M n ( Z ) of matrix morsifications and their mesh root systems, for the simply laced Dynkin diagrams An A n , Dn D n , E6 E 6 , E7 E 7 , E8 E 8 . On this way we construct algorithms allowing us to compute the finite set C G p o l n + and we get a solution of the problem (1.4) for n?9 n ? 9 and ?,?? ? , ? ? of types An A n and Dn D n .

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

coxeter spectral analysis
coxeter matrix

edge-bipartite graph
combinatorial algorithms
computer algebra


The realization of service-oriented e-Marketplaces Electronic Marketplaces (or e-Marketplaces) require technologies which provide support for the adaptability, flexibility and the integration of business applications in order to meet rapid changes in business environment. Traditional web technologies are unable to meet the new business requirements which are derived from the rapid growth of e-Marketplaces. In this research, a service-oriented framework is proposed in order to address the issues associated with the development of e-Marketplaces. Specifically, it introduces a generic trading model oriented to e-Marketplaces so as to overcome the inadequacy of existing models and to facilitate the development of a computational trading process. In the proposed framework, required services are identified through the utilization of the business-centric trading model. Using a service metamodel, services are equipped with intelligence such that they work seamlessly and coherently within and across e-Marketplaces. A multi-model driven integrated development platform has been developed to support the proposed models and framework. The proposed framework and concepts have been validated through a case study of a mutual funds auction in an e-Marketplace.

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

e-marketplaces
semantic web
web services


Use of a decision support system and a simulation game to help collective decision-making in water management This paper presents a method based on a participatory approach involving a decision support system and a simulation game to improve discussion between actors and to facilitate the emergence of acceptable compromise solutions in water management. An example is provided of how the method can be applied using data from an irrigated perimeter in Tunisia. This is a good example of a conflict between dam managers, farmers and administration concerning water allocation. First, we present the global model with results from a number of scenarios. Then we present a simulation gaming developed to rapidly construct scenarios in collaboration with decision-makers.

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

group decision support system
simulation games
water resource management


Propagation of the SiO2 breakdown event on MOS structures observed with conductive atomic force microscopy In this work, for the first time, a conductive atomic force microscope has been used to electrically characterize the degradation and breakdown propagation of stressed ultra-thin (<6 nm) SiO2 films at a nanometric scale. The results show that, although a slight lateral propagation of the degradation is observed before breakdown, the affected area (few hundreds of nm2) remains relatively constant. However, breakdown is laterally propagated to neighbor spots, although only in some occasions morphological changes are observed. The breakdown affected area (several thousands of nm2) has been found to be strongly related to the hardness of the breakdown event.

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

breakdown propagation
conductive atomic force microscope


an architecture for a scientific visualization system This paper describes the architecture of Data Explorer, a scientific visualization system. Data Explorer supports visualization of a wide variety of data by means of a flexible set of visualization modules. This paper discusses five elements of the system architecture: 1) A single powerful data model common to all modules that allows a wide range of data types to be imported and passed between modules. 2) Integral support for parallelism, affecting the data model and the execution model. 3) A powerful set of visualization modules that are highly interoperable, due in part to the common data model, and exemplified by the renderer. 4) An execution model designed to facilitate parallelization of modules and incorporating optimizations such as caching. 5) A two-process clientserver system structure consisting of a user interface that communicates with an executive via a dataflow language.

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

structure
visualization
language
architecture
types
user interface
data
support
model
paper
dataflow

data models
systems
optimality
parallel
module
process
flexibility
caches
interoperability
scientific visualiztion
system architecture
integrability


A high-order fast direct solver for singular Poisson equations We present a fourth order numerical solution method for the singular Neumann boundary problem of Poisson equations. Such problems arise in the solution process of incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and in the time-harmonic wave propagation in the frequence space with the zero wavenumber. The equation is first discretized with a fourth order modified Collatz difference scheme, producing a singular discrete equation. Then an efficient singular value decomposition (SVD) method modified from a fast Poisson solver is employed to project the discrete singular equation into the orthogonal complement of the null space of the singular matrix. In the complement of the null space, the projected equation is uniquely solvable and its solution is proven to be a solution of the original singular discrete equation when the original equation has a solution. Analytical and experimental results show that this newly proposed singular equation solver is efficient while retaining the accuracy of the high order discretization. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

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

poisson equation
neumann boundary condition
fast fourier transform (fft)


Optimal rotation alignment of 3D objects using a GPU-based similarity function In this paper, we address the challenging task of finding the best alignment between two 3D objects by solving a global optimization problem in the space of rotations SO(3). The objective function to be optimized is a newly developed rotation-variant similarity measure, which is obtained directly from the object's geometry and is entirely implemented on the GPU. By exploiting the modern GPU's parallel architecture, we can process considerably greater amounts of data than a CPU implementation can do in the same amount of time. This allows us to create a similarity measure which combines speed and accuracy. The actual problem of rotation alignment is then solved by finding the global maximum of this similarity function in the space of rotations. A special rotation representation allows for an efficient local optimization on the manifold SO(3). Furthermore, unwanted local maxima can be avoided by a heuristic global optimization procedure which exploits rotational symmetry. Due to this common sense heuristics, the global search can be gradually reduced to a lower-dimensional problem up to a 1D line search to handle objects with high rotational symmetry. We show that our method is superior to existing normalization techniques such as PCA and provides a high degree of precision despite remarkably short runtimes.

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

rotation alignment
similarity measure
rotational symmetry
3d objects
optimization


moodle integration of an automated account enabling system and a user status collection system In this paper, we present a Moodle integrated system that combines an automated account enabling subsystem (AAES) and a user logon status collection subsystem in a computer lab (CULS). The AAES lets each new user learn how to use our computer system and the terms of use. After that the user can enable various computer services such as on-demand printing, network outlet service, and remote access after passing our automated examination in Moodle. The CULS shows information on users in the computer lab through our Moodle system. We have also implemented the capability of setting privacy levels for each role. For example, in the teacher role of a course, a user can get information about course-registered users, while the ordinary student role users can only get the number of free PCs available. The Moodle system content is available in both Japanese and English.

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

course management system
automated service
shibboleth
self-learning
identity service


Optimizing strategic behaviour in a dynamic setting in professional team sports This article develops a dynamic game-theoretic model of optimizing strategic behaviour by football (soccer) teams. Teams choose between defensive and attacking formations and between a non-violent and a violent playing style, and can vary these choices continuously throughout each match. Starting from the end of the match and working backwards, the teams optimal strategies conditional on the current state of the match are determined by solving a series of two-player non-cooperative subgames. Numerical simulations are used to explore the sensitivity of strategic behaviour to variations in the structural parameters. The analysis demonstrates that the strategic behaviour of football teams can be rationalized in accordance with game-theoretic principles of optimizing strategic behaviour by agents when payoffs are uncertain and interdependent.

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


Asymptotic variance rate of the output of a transfer line with no buffer storage and cycle-dependent failures In this study the variability properties of the output of transfer lines are investigated. The asymptotic variance rate of the output of an N-station synchronous transfer line with no inter-station buffers and cycle-dependent failures is analytically determined. Unlike the other studies, the analytical method presented in this study yields a closed-form expression for the asymptotic variance rate of the output. The method is based on a general result derived for irreducible recurrent Markov chains. Namely, the limiting variance of the number of visits to a state of an irreducible recurrent Markov chain is obtained from the n-step transition probability function. Thus, the same method can be used in other applications where the limiting variance of the number of visits to a state of an irreducible recurrent Markov chain is of interest. Numerical results show that the asymptotic variance rate of the output does not monotonically increase as the number of stations in the transfer line increases. The asymptotic variance rate of the output may first increase and then decrease depending on the station parameters. This property of the production rate is investigated through numerical experiments and the results are presented. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


On the hardware-software partitioning problem: system modeling and partitioning techniques This paper presents an in-depth study of several system partitioning procedures. It is based on the appropriate formulation of a general system model, being therefore independent of either the particular co-design problem or the specific partitioning procedure. The techniques under study are a knowledge-based system and three classical circuit partitioning algorithms ( Simulated Annealing, Kernighan& Lin and Hierarchical Clustering). The former has been entirely proposed by the authors in previous works while the later have been properly extended to deal with system level issues. We will show how the way the problem is solved biases the results obtained, regarding both quality and convergence rate. Consequently it is extremely important to choose the most suitable technique for the particular co-design problem that is being confronted.

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

performance
design
hardware-software co-design
hardware-software partitioning
general optimization procedures
cost functions
expert systems
fuzzy logic


Dynamic reconfiguration of complete binary trees in faulty hypercubes In this paper, we present a method for reconfiguring dynamically a complete binary tree in faulty hypercubes. First, we use a dynamic algorithm to reconfigure a complete binary tree of height h (h greater than or equal to 0) in an (h greater than or equal to 1)-dimensional faulty hypercube. If there is a faulty node in the hypercube, both the dilation and congestion values are 2 after reconfiguration. If there are two faulty nodes in the hypercube, both the dilation and congestion values are 3 after reconfiguration. If there are more than two faulty nodes in the hypercube, we impose a constraint on the faulty node type, and both the dilation and congestion values are 3 after reconfiguration. Then we reconfigure a complete binary tree of height h in an (h + 2)-dimensional hypercube with at most 2(h+1) - 1 nodes, and the dilation and congestion values are, respectively, 2 and 1 after reconfiguration. The number of affected nodes is minimized following reconfiguration.

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

reconfiguration
complete binary tree
hypercube
faulty node


server-side coprocessor updating for mobile devices with fpgas FPGAs are increasingly used to implement coprocessors for applications running on desktop platforms, and soon such FPGA coprocessing may appear in mobile devices. Because one device may run different applications from another device, different coprocessor sets are needed for each device based on the device's usage. We introduce an approach wherein a device profiles application usage and uploads that information to a server when docked. The server then determines the best coprocessor set based on such usage and on the device's particular FPGA constraints. The server creates the coprocessor set by combining pre-synthesized coprocessors for each application, and considers multiple versions of the same coprocessor, versions that tradeoff speed and size. We introduce a coprocessor set selection problem and propose a Pareto-optimal merge heuristic for the server that yields near-optimal solutions with linear time complexity. We also use a method that avoids time-consuming resynthesis of the coprocessors into a single FPGA binary, by using small reconfigurable regions with reserved inter-region communication channels. Our experiments show that the Pareto-optimal merge heuristic generates results within 1\% of the optimal on average and run 5-20x faster than simulated annealing. The experiments also show that a 3x speedup and 70\% energy reduction can be achieved by using FPGA coprocessors versus running the applications only on a microprocessor.

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


Estimating translation probabilities for social tag suggestion We present a new perspective to tag suggestion and treat it as a translation process. We propose two methods to estimate the translation probabilities. Our methods can solve the problem of vocabulary gap. Our methods are effective and robust compared with other methods. Our methods are relatively simple and efficient, which makes them practical.

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

natural language processing
translation model
word alignment model
pointwise mutual information


Linear-time approximation algorithms for computing numerical summation with provably small errors Given a multiset X = {x(1),..., x(n)} of real numbers, the floating-point set summation problem asks for S-n = x(1) +...+ x(n). Let E-n* denote the minimum worst-case error over all possible orderings of evaluating S-n. We prove that if X has both positive and negative numbers, it is NP-hard to compute S-n with the worst-case error equal to E-n*. We then give the first known polynomial-time approximation algorithm that has a provably small error for arbitrary X. Our algorithm incurs a worst-case error at most 2(inverted right perpendicular log(n-1) inverted left perpendicular + 1)E-n*. (All logarithms log in this paper are base 2.) After X is sorted, it runs in O(n) time. For the case where X is either all positive or all negative, we give another approximation algorithm with a worst-case error at most inverted right perpendicular log log n inverted left perpendicular E-n*. Even for unsorted X, this algorithm runs in O(n) time. Previously, the best linear-time approximation algorithm had a worst-case error at most inverted right perpendicular log n inverted left perpendicular E-n*, while E-n* was known to be attainable in O(n log n) time using Huffman coding.

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

floating-point summation
error analysis
addition trees
combinatorial optimization
np-hardness


Design Space Exploration of Many-Core Processors for Camera-on-a-Chip A significant problem in many-core architectures for camera-on-a-chip designs is determining the ideal grain size that provides sufficient processing performance with the lowest cost and longest battery life for targeted applications. In this paper, we present analytical results of the design space exploration of many-core processors for the JPEG compression application by quantitatively evaluating the impacts of varying the numbers of processing elements (PEs) and the amounts of memories for a fixed image size (or mapping the amount of image data directly to each processing element, a data-per-processing-element (DPE) ratio) on system performance and efficiency using architectural and workload simulations. The effects of varying the numbers of processing elements and the amounts of memories are difficult to analyze because it significantly affects both hardware and software design. In addition, the optimal PE configuration is not typically at extreme of its range (i.e., either one data per processor or one processor per an entire image). This paper illustrates the correlation among problem size, DPE ratio and processing element (PE) architecture for a target implementation in 100-nm technology. Experimental results using eight different PE configurations indicate that 16,384 PEs provide the most efficient operation for the JPEG application on a fixed 1,280 x 1,024 image size.

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

many-core processor architecture
image processing
camera-on-a-chip


Nonparametric analyses of log-periodic precursors to financial crashes We apply two nonpaxametric methods to further test the hypothesis that log-periodicity characterizes the detrended price trajectory of large financial indices prior to financial crashes or strong corrections. The term "parametric" refers here to the use of the log-periodic power law formula to fit the data; in contrast, "nonparametric" refers to the use of general tools such as Fourier transform, and in the present case the Hilbert transform and the so-called (H, q)-analysis. The analysis using the (H, q)-derivative is applied to seven time series ending with the October 1987 crash, the October 1997 correction and the April 2000 crash of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the Standard & Poor 500 and Nasdaq indices. The Hilbert transform is applied to two detrended price time series in terms of the In(t(c) - t) variable, where t(c) is the time of the crash. Taking all results together, we find strong evidence for a universal fundamental log-frequency f = 1.02 +/- 0.05 corresponding to the scaling ratio lambda = 2.67 +/- 0.12. These values axe in very good agreement with those obtained in earlier works with different parametric techniques. This note is extracted from a long unpublished report with 58 figures available at http://arXiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0205531, which extensively describes the evidence we have accumulated on these seven time series, in particular by presenting all relevant details so that the reader can judge for himself or herself the validity and robustness of the results.

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

critical phenomena
discrete scale invariance
log-periodicity
generalized q-analysis


Power-aware optimization for heterogeneous multi-tier clusters ? We model the problem of power management in Heterogeneous multi-tier clusters. We apply Generalized Benders Decomposition (GBD) to solve the optimization problem. Feedback control is combined in the algorithm. The proposed mechanism works well in both homogeneous and heterogeneous clusters. The algorithm reduces power consumption by up to 39.5%.

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

power management
generalized benders decomposition

heterogeneous multi-tier clusters
non-linear programming


New layerwise theories and finite elements for efficient thermal analysis of hybrid structures Hybrid structures, for example metallic multiwall thermal protection systems, sandwiches or hot structures, consist of layers with different thermal conductivity. In addition, radiation and convection can occur within these layers. Analysis of these internal heat transfer mechanisms and the design of hybrid structures require three-dimensional models leading to a high modelling effort. With a new layerwise theory for heat conduction of hybrid structures this effort can be drastically reduced. Hybrid structures are idealized as structures with homogeneous layers characterised by different thermal conductivities. For layers with internal radiation exchange and convection an equivalent thermal conductivity is assumed. By means of two heat transfer equilibrium conditions the nodal degrees of freedom become independent of the number of layers. Two four-noded finite shell elements QUADLLT and QUADQLT based on the new theory have been developed. These 2D finite elements enable the calculation of three-dimensional temperature distributions within hybrid structures. Comparison with 3D analysis and test results shows good agreement.

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

thermal analysis
finite elements
hybrid structures


Study of Gastrointestinal Nematodes in Sicilian Sheep and Goats Parasitic gastroenteritis is one of the major causes of productivity loss in sheep and goats. This report records two studies of the helminth fauna from post-mortem examination. The first study, performed on the digestive tract of 72 sheep from a central part of Sicily in a high hill village (1,360 meters above sea level), between April 1996 and March 1997, showed an infection rate of 78%. The second study targeted goats from the western part of Sicily and showed an infection rate of 90%. For sheep, a total of 23 species of helminths were identified belonging to the family of Trichostrongyloidea, with the genera Haemonchus, Ostertagia (Teladorsagia), Trichostrongylus, Cooperia, and Nematodirus; Strongilolidea with the genera Oesophagostomum and Chabertia

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

nematodes sheep goats sicily teladorsagia haemonchus trichostrongylus oesophagostomum chabertia


Efficient smart integrated antennas for applications in indoor 60GHz wireless over fiber systems Examination of slot linear array antennas based on high dielectric substrates. Examination of stacked linear array antennas based on high permittivity substrates. The proposed arrays support Beam-forming applications. A photodiode model is outlined to be incorporated with the presented arrays to provide an optoelectronic system.

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

slot array antennas
beam-forming
stacked antennas
radio over fiber


Arabic and Latin handwritting recognition using multi-stream hidden Markov models In this paper, we present a multi-stream approach for off-line handwritten word recognition. The multi-stream formalism presents many advantages: it can combine several kinds of independent features. The combination can be adaptive: some sources of information can be weighted, or even rejected if they are not reliable. The topology of the HMM can be adapted to each source of information. It also allows asynchronous modelling of streams. The proposed approach combines low level feature streams namely, density based features extracted from 2 different sliding windows with different widths, and contour based features extracted from upper and lower contours. Significant experiments have been carried out on two publicly available word databases: IFN/ENIT benchmark database (Arabic script) and IRONOFF database (Latin script). In order to model the Latin characters, we built 26 uppercase character models and 26 lowercase character models). In the case of Arabic characters, we built up to 159 character models. An Arabic character may actually have different shapes according to its position within the word (beginning, middle, end word position). Other models are specified with additional marks such as "shadda". In both Latin and Arabic script, each character model is composed of 4 emitting states. The observation probabilities are modelled with Gaussian Mixtures (3 per state). Embedded training is used where all character models are trained in parallel using Baum-Welch algorithm applied on word examples. The system builds a word HMM by concatenation of the character HMM corresponding to the word transcription of the training sample. The recognition step is doing allowing the HMM-recombination algorithm that consists in building the product HMM and using a classical Viterbi decoding algorithm. We investigate the extension of 2-stream approach to N streams (N=2,...,4) and analyze the improvement in the recognition performance. The computational cost of this extension is discussed. The developed system has been tested on two publicly available databases. For both scripts the results show significant improvement while using a multi-stream approach. The comparison of the multi-stream performances to the classical combination strategies namely, fusion of features and fusion of decisions shows the superiority of the multi-stream approach. Moreover, the proposed recognition system provides significant results comparable to the best results reported in the literature on both databases.

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

hidden markov models
latin script
arabic script

off-line handwriting recognition
multi-stream
information combination


An abstract architecture for virtual organizations: The THOMAS approach Today, the need for architectures and computational models for large-scale open multi-agent systems is considered to be a key issue for the success of agent technology in real-world scenarios. This paper analyzes the significant unsolved problems that must be taken into account in order to develop real, open multi-agent systems. It identifies requirements and related open issues, discusses how some of these requirements have been tackled by current technologies, and explains how the THOMAS architecture is able to give support to these open issues. This paper also describes the THOMAS abstract architecture and computational model for large-scale open multi-agent systems based on a service-oriented approach that specifically addresses the design of virtual organizations. An application example for the management of a travel agency system, which demonstrates the new features of the proposal, is also presented.

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

multi-agent systems
agent platforms
agent infrastructures


Medical image compression using DCT-based subband decomposition and modified SPIHT data organization The work proposed a novel bit-rate-reduced approach for reducing the memory required to store a remote diagnosis and rapidly transmission it. In the work, an 88 Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) approach is adopted to perform subband decomposition. Modified set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) is then employed to organize data and entropy coding. The translation function can store the detailed characteristics of an image. A simple transformation to obtain DCT spectrum data in a single frequency domain decomposes the original signal into various frequency domains that can further compressed by wavelet-based algorithm. In this scheme, insignificant DCT coefficients that correspond to a particular spatial location in the high-frequency subbands can be employed to reduce redundancy by applying a proposed combined function in association with the modified SPIHT. Simulation results showed that the embedded DCT-CSPIHT image compression reduced the computational complexity to only a quarter of the wavelet-based subband decomposition, and improved the quality of the reconstructed medical image as given by both the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the perceptual results over JPEG2000 and the original SPIHT at the same bit rate. Additionally, since 88 fast DCT hardware implementation being commercially available, the proposed DCT-CSPIHT can perform well in high speed image coding and transmission.

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


Kinetic energy fix for low internal energy flows When the kinetic energy of a flow is dominant, numerical schemes employed can encounter difficulties due to negative internal energy. A case study with several commonly used conservative schemes (MUSCL, ENO, WENO and CE/SE) shows that high order schemes may have less ability to preserve positive internal energy (MUSCL and CE/SE), or present less accurate results (WENO and ENO) when the internal energy to kinetic energy ratio is low. By analyzing the positivity property for second-order conservative schemes with large fixed CFL number conditions for time step restriction, this paper proposes the energy consistency conditions for second-order Riemann-solver type schemes and CE/SE method. According to the said energy consistency conditions, a kinetic energy fix method which limits the magnitude of kinetic energy relative to the total energy is introduced. The numerical examples show that the kinetic energy fixed CE/SE method produces reasonable results and keeps positive internal energy for flows with very low internal energy even when a vacuum occurs.

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

low internal energy flow
conservative scheme


Edge and line oriented contour detection: State of the art We present an overview of various edge and line oriented approaches to contour detection that have been proposed in the last two decades. By edge and line oriented we mean methods that do not rely on segmentation. Distinction is made between edges and contours. Contour detectors are divided in local and global operators. The former are mainly based on differential analysis, statistical approaches, phase congruency, rank order filters, and combinations thereof. The latter include computation of contour saliency, perceptual grouping, relaxation labeling and active contours. Important aspects are covered, such as preprocessing aimed to suppress texture and noise, multiresolution techniques, connections between computational models and properties of the human visual system, and use of shape priors. An overview of procedures and metrics for quantitative performance evaluation is also presented. Our main conclusion is that contour detection has reached high degree of sophistication, taking into account multimodal contour definition (by luminance, color or texture changes), mechanisms for reducing the contour masking influence of noise and texture, perceptual grouping, multiscale aspects and high-level vision information.

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

contour detection
preprocessing
performance evaluation

local pattern analysis
contour salience
gestalt grouping
closure
scalespace


Generalized multiple attractor cellular automata (GMACA) model for associative memory This paper reports an efficient technique of evolving Cellular Automata (CA) as an associative memory model. The evolved CA termed as GMACA (Generalized Multiple Attractor Cellular Automata), acts as a powerful pattern recognizer. Detailed analysis of GMACA rules establishes the fact that the rule subspace of the pattern recognizing CA lies at the edge of chaos - believed to be capable of executing complex computation.

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


Structural response of oscillating foil in water Harmonic oscillations of NACA 0012 airfoils in water are numerically simulated to assess the corresponding structural loads due to the generated forces. An appropriately devised procedure estimates the unsteady effect caused by the foil acceleration, i.e. the added mass effect. This is found to play a very important role as the resulting inertia forces are largely enhanced in the range of analysed parameters. The influence of the wing mass is investigated and it is found that light wings generate forces larger than those generated by heavy wings, as light wings accelerate more than heavy wings. The resulting bending stresses and unsteady deflections are calculated by modelling the wings as elastic cantilevers with uniform distributed loads. The maximum unsteady deflection is found to be about 1% of the wing span, that is, the fluidstructure interaction problem can be considered decoupled in the present analysis. It is also shown that heavy, rigid wings appear to be more suitable for the swimming mode corresponding to steady cruise, as the applied stresses result smaller than those obtained for light, flexible wings. The added mass effect could instead be exploited when required, by using lighter propulsors, which generate larger forces.

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

unsteady fluid mechanics
flapping flight
propulsion
boundary element method


On an approximate minimax circle closest to a set of points We show how the Chebychev minimax criterion for finding a circle closest to a set of points can be approximated well by standard linear programming procedures. Scope and purpose Problems that arise in location theory and in the quality control of manufactured parts (drilled holes, shaped spheres) call for finding an annulus of minimum width that encompasses a set of points. For the two-dimensional case, this is equivalent to determining a closest deviation circle with center (x0,y0) and radius r0 such that the maximum radial distance of the points to the circumference of the deviation circle is minimized. The required annulus (narrowest ring) is formed by two circles, centered at (x0,y0), that inscribe and circumscribe the given set of points. We suggest that our linear-programming procedure be used to approximate this annulus as, unlike exact methods, it is stable, fast, and generalizes readily to higher-dimensional point sets.

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


Frontier search The critical resource that limits the application of best-first search is memory. We present a new class of best-first search algorithms that reduce the space complexity. The key idea is to store only the Open list of generated nodes, but not the Closed list of expanded nodes. The solution path can be recovered by a divide-and-conquer technique, either as a bidirectional or unidirectional search. For many problems, frontier search dramatically reduces the memory required by best-first search. We apply frontier search to breadth-first search of sliding-tile puzzles and the 4-peg Towers of Hanoi problem, Dijkstra's algorithm on a grid with random edge costs, and the A* algorithm on the Fifteen Puzzle, the four-peg Towers of Hanoi Problem, and optimal sequence alignment in computational biology.

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

a* algorithm
best-first search
bidirectional search
breadth-first search
dijkstra's algorithm
heuristic search
sliding-tile puzzles


A Hybrid End-to-End QoS Path Computation Algorithm for PCE-Based Multi-Domain Networks Inter-domain quality of service (QoS) routing is a challenging problem for todays Internet. This problem requires the computation of paths that cross multiple domains and meet different QoS constraints. In addition, the used computation methods must meet the constraints of confidentiality and autonomy imposed by the domains of different operators. Path computation element (PCE)-based architecture offers a promising solution for inter-domain QoS routing. It ensures the computation of end-to-end QoS paths while preserving the confidentiality and the autonomy of the domains. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid end-to-end QoS path computation algorithm, named HID-MCP, for PCE-based networks. HID-MCP is a hybrid algorithm that combines the advantages of pre-computation and on-demand computation to obtain end-to-end QoS paths. Moreover, it integrates a crankback mechanism for improving path computation results in a single domain or in multiple domains based on the PCE architecture. Detailed analyses are provided to assess the performance of our algorithm in terms of success rate and computational complexity. The simulation results show that our algorithm has an acceptance rate of the requests very close to the optimal solution; precisely, the difference is lower than 1% in a realistic network. Moreover, HID-MCP has a low computational complexity. Besides, our solution relies on the PCE architecture to overcome the limitations related to inter-domain routing such as domain autonomy and confidentiality.

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

inter-domain qos routing
path computation element (pce)
pre-computation
on-demand computation
look-ahead information


Finite integration method for nonlocal elastic bar under static and dynamic loads The finite integration method is proposed in this paper to approximate solutions of partial differential equations. The coefficient matrix of this finite integration method is derived and its superior accuracy and efficiency is demonstrated by making comparison with the classical finite difference method. For illustration, the finite integration method is applied to solve a nonlocal elastic straight bar under different loading conditions both for static and dynamic cases in which Laplace transform technique is adopted for the dynamic problems. Several illustrative examples indicate that high accurate numerical solutions are obtained with no extra computational efforts. The method is readily extendable to solve more complicated problems of nonlocal elasticity.

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

nonlocal elasticity
finite integration method
laplace transform
static and dynamic loads


Exploiting temporal information and adaptive thresholding for fast mode decision in the H264 video coding standard A new algorithm for fast mode decision in the H264 video coding standard is presented in this paper. The algorithm exploits temporal information and adaptive thresholding and can provide significant computational savings with similar or even better Rate Distortion performance as compared to accepted standard contributions and other techniques found in the literature.

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

h264 video coding standard
mode decision


Practical simulation of hierarchical brittle fracture A novel practical method for brittle fracture simulation is presented. Our fracture model is represented by a tree structure, and all elementary fracture pieces are hierarchically connected. Each node in a fracture tree has a glue table to define connections and strengths among its child nodes. With our hierarchical fracture method, one can control the whole process of fracture formulation and simulation in a more direct way. Given an input object, a hierarchical fracture pattern is constructed by a series of recursive decompositions where the variation of fragment sizes can be intuitively controlled through a drawing interface. A noise pattern is applied on the interfaces of fragments for adding a natural look. A new simple and practical fracture criterion is also introduced, and we capture the difference of virtual and inherited velocities of fracture nodes to break the connection. Our fracture criterion is fast and robust because it does not involve any matrix solves or finite element analysis that is essential in the prior fracturing algorithms. We implement the proposed method on a fluid solver by extending a rigid body interaction unit, and as a result, we achieve that the fracture objects can interact with fluid and ordinary rigid bodies in a fully two-way manner. Copyright (C) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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


PROFILING THE RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF TENURED INFORMATION SYSTEMS FACULTY AT US INSTITUTIONS How many articles in highly rated journals do Information Systems research faculty publish to earn tenure? Which journals are highly rated outlets? Tenure candidates, promotion and tenure committees, and those who are asked to write external letters are frequently called upon to answer such questions. When Dennis et al. (2006) examined all IS Ph.D. graduates entering academic careers, few faculty had published enough articles in 20 "elite" journals in six years to meet tenure research expectations at research-intensive schools. Our study builds on the dialog started by Dennis et al. In our study, we counted the number of journal articles at the point of tenure for faculty who earned tenure within five to seven years after their Ph.D. graduation date. We also examined the effect of acknowledging different sets of journals as highly rated on the publication rates of faculty who earned tenure. Specifically, we examined the effects of expanding on Dennis et al. by including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the AIS, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems in the journal basket. We also looked at the effect of acknowledging highly rated non-IS business journals and highly rated computer science and engineering journals. Finally, we present journal publication benchmarks based on these findings for different types of research institutions.

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

tenure standards
publication standards
faculty productivity
scientometrics
carnegie classification


Bootstrap variance estimation with survey data when estimating model parameters When estimating model parameters from survey data, two sources of variability should normally be taken into account for inference purposes: the model that is assumed to have generated data of the finite population, and the sampling design. If the overall sampling fraction is negligible, the model variability can in principle be ignored and bootstrap techniques that track only the sampling design variability can be used. They are typically implemented by producing design bootstrap weights, often assuming that primary sampling units are selected with replacement. The model variability is often neglected in practice, but this simplification is not always appropriate. Indeed, we provide simulation results for stratified simple random sampling showing that the use of design bootstrap weights may lead to substantial underestimation of the total variance, even when finite population corrections are ignored. We propose a generalized bootstrap method that corrects this deficiency through a simple adjustment of design bootstrap weights that accounts for the model variability. We focus on models in which the observations are assumed to be mutually independent but we do not require the validity of any assumption about their model variance. The improved performance of our proposed generalized bootstrap weights over design bootstrap weights is illustrated by means of a simulation study. Our methodology is also applied to data from the Aboriginal Children Survey conducted by Statistics Canada.

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

estimating equations
heteroscedasticity
taylor linearization


A hybrid genetic - Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for the vehicle routing problem Usually in a genetic algorithm. individual solutions do not evolve during their lifetimes: they are created, evaluated, they may be selected as parents to new solutions and they are destroyed. However, research into memetic algorithms and genetic local search has shown that performance may be improved if solutions are allowed to evolve during their own lifetimes We propose that this solution improvement phase can be assisted by knowledge stored within the parent solutions, effectively allowing parents to teach their offspring how to improve their fitness. In this paper, the evolution of each individual of the total population, which consists of the parents and the offspring. is realized with the use of a Particle Swarm Optimizer where each of them has to improve its physical movement following the basic principles of Particle Swarm Optimization until it will obtain the requirements to be selected as a parent. Thus, the knowledge of each of the parents, especially of a very fit parent, has the possibility to be transferred to its offspring and to the offspring of the whole population. and by this way the proposed algorithm has the possibility to explore more effectively the solution space. These ideas are applied in a classic combinatorial optimization problem, the vehicle routing problem, with very good results when applied to two classic benchmark sets of instances. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

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

vehicle routing problem
particle swarm optimization


Monotonic solutions of a class of quadratic integral equations of Volterra type Using the technique associated with measures of noncompactness we prove the existence of monotonic solutions of a class of quadratic integral equation of Volterra type in the Banach space of real functions defined and continuous on a bounded and closed interval. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

monotonic solutions
quadratic integral equation

measure of noncompactness
fixed-point theorem


Structural solvability analysis of dynamic process models The variable structure of dynamic process models is represented by a directed graph termed as the representation graph for the purpose of solvability analysis in this paper. Structural solvability analysis, the determination of the structural differential index and the structural decomposition of the differential-algebraic equations (DAE) model set can be performed using the representation graph. The characteristic features of the representation graph for both index 1 and high index semi-explicit DAE models are presented. Based on the above a novel index reduction procedure for high index models is proposed. The notions and methods are illustrated on simple process examples. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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

process models
dae models
differential index
solvability


Modeling of vortex dynamics in the wake of a marine propeller The flow past a rotating marine propeller is analyzed with the aim of establishing limits and capabilities and, hence, the field of applicability of different turbulence modeling approaches for this class of problems. To this purpose the eddy viscosity model of Spalart and Allmaras (1994) [1] and the DES approach [2] have been used. It is shown that the RANSE method can give a very good prediction of global quantities such as thrust and torque, with a relatively small number of grid points. However, when the unsteady fluctuation of the flow or instability processes in the wake are of interest (for noise assessment, for instance), RANSE modeling proves to be too dissipative, as it smoothes out most of the finest flow features. On the contrary, DES modeling can track the vorticity field for a longer distance and successfully predicts the onset of instabilities in the wake, with excellent agreement with experiments. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

detached eddy simulation
vortex instability


dynamic hardware plugins in an fpga with partial run-time reconfiguration Tools and a design methodology have been developed to support partial run-time reconfiguration of FPGA logic on the Field Programmable Port Extender. High-speed Internet packet processing circuits on this platform are implemented as Dynamic Hardware Plugin (DHP) modules that fit within a specific region of an FPGA device. The PARBIT tool has been developed to transform and restructure bitfiles created by standard computer aided design tools into partial bitsteams that program DHPs. The methodology allows the platform to hot-swap application-specific DHP modules without disturbing the operation of the rest of the system.

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

reconfiguration packet internet hardware

routing
modularity
fpg
ip
platform computing
partial rtr
network


A rule induction algorithm for knowledge discovery and classification Classification and rule induction are key topics in the fields of decision making and knowledge discovery. The objective of this study is to present a new algorithm developed for automatic knowledge acquisition in data mining. The proposed algorithm has been named RES-2 ( Rule Extraction System). It aims at eliminating the pitfalls and disadvantages of the techniques and algorithms currently in use. The proposed algorithm makes use of the direct rule extraction approach, rather than the decision tree. For this purpose, it uses a set of examples to induce general rules. In this study, 15 datasets consisting of multiclass values with different properties and sizes and obtained from the University of California, Irvine, have been used. Classification accuracy and rule count have been used to test the proposed method. This method presents an alternative 3-step method to classify categorical, binary, and continuous data by taking advantage of algorithms for data mining classification and decision rule generation. The method aims at improving the classification accuracy of the algorithms that extract the decision rules. Experimental studies were conducted on the benchmark datasets and the results of the comparisons with some known algorithms for decision rule generation have shown that the proposed method performs classification with a higher accuracy and generates fewer rules.

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

knowledge discovery
rule extraction
classification
data mining


A parameter study on the micro hot-embossing process of glassy polymer for pattern replication As a promising processing method for glassy polymer, hot-embossing process has attracted more attention in the micro/nano manufacturing field. However, the relationship between process condition and final quality has not been thoroughly and systematically investigated. Since the replication quality of the process is sensitive to the control parameter, it is necessary to study on the optimal process condition. For the four main factors influencing on the final replication fidelity of the hot-embossing process, we carried out a series of experiments with different sets of parameters, in which micro pattern arrays were directly replicated from a glassy carbon (GC) mold to a commercially available glassy polymer substrate (polycarbonate, PC) with self-made micro hot-embossing system. sWe adopt Taguchi method to minimize the sets of experiments and made an analysis of the result using ANOM and ANOVA. As the result shows, the most significant factor is the embossing temperature and the optimal process parameters are the embossing temperature at 170C, heating time at 120s, embossing force at 70kgf and force holding time at 90s. The experiment with these parameters shows a good result.

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

micro hot-embossing process
polycarbonate substrate


A relationship between probability interval and random sets and its application to linear optimization with uncertainties Random sets and probability intervals could be represented as uncertain parameters in a linear program. However, they are not the same. This paper presents a method by which an intersection of random sets provides an approximation of a given probability interval. Two specific random sets generating this approximation are used to construct probability density mass functions that provide the smallest and the largest expected values with respect to the probability interval uncertainty. We show that our construction is computationally more efficient than computing directly from probability intervals. These results are applied to linear programs with random set and probability interval uncertainties to obtain optimal solutions with respect to pessimistic, optimistic, and minimax regret approaches. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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


Synchronization Error Estimation and Controller Design for Delayed Lur'e Systems With Parameter Mismatches This paper investigates the problem of master-slave synchronization of two delayed Lur'e systems in the presence of parameter mismatches. First, by analyzing the corresponding synchronization error system, synchronization with an error level, which is referred to as quasi-synchronization, is established. Some delay-dependent quasi-synchronization criteria are derived. An estimation of the synchronization error bound is given, and an explicit expression of error levels is obtained. Second, sufficient conditions on the existence of feedback controllers under a predetermined error level are provided. The controller gains are obtained by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a delayed Chua's circuit is chosen to illustrate the effectiveness of the derived results.

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


Linearity of word-level representations of multiple-valued networks We study a boundary case of combinational Multiple-Valued Logic (MVL) network representations, namely, the linear word-level expressions and Linear word-level Decision Diagrams (LDDs). The latter models have a number of useful properties: linearity and planarity, while they need less memory compared to other circuit formats; besides, they are compatible with the traditional word-level Decision Diagrams (DDs). The essential point of our approach is to represent every level of MVL network by a linear word-level expression that is mapped to an LDD. Hence, an arbitrary MVL network is represented by a set of LDDs. We prove that the word-level DD model upon the condition of linearity, lost the ability to optimize the initial form. Two types of linear word-level expressions are studied. The first type of word-level description is based on an arithmetic (spectral) transform of the integer-valued equivalent of the initial multi-output function. in the second type we obtain the word-level description with digit-wise operations by mapping of the initial functions to integer-valued equivalent. For both approaches, we successfully simulate MVL networks with about 250 levels and 8000 ternary gates. We test both models and show that the LDD representation of an MVL circuit consumes ten times less memory compared to standard formats.

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

multiple-valued logic
spectral technique
linear decision diagrams


Critical analysis and perspectives on the hydrodynamic approach for the mathematical theory of vehicular traffic This paper deals with a review and critical analysis on the modelling by hydrodynamic equations by taking into account not only the mechanistic behavior of the vehicles, but also the psycho-mechanic interactions between drivers and vehicles, with the aim of proposing various hints for research perspectives in view of further developments focused on vehicular traffic flow and conceivable developments in the dynamics of pedestrian crowds. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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


Evaluation of dynamic models of distillation columns with emphasis on the initial response The flow dynamics (tray hydraulics) are of key importance for the initial dynamic response of distillation columns. The most important parameters are the liquid holdup, the liquid hydraulic time constant and the vapor constant representing the initial effect of a change in vapor flow on liquid flow. In the paper we present methods for determining these parameters experimentally, and compare the results with estimates from available correlations such as the Francis Weir formula.

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

distillation dynamics
experimental response


Understanding software artifact provenance We motivate the need to model for software artifact provenance. We sketch the dimensions of the problem space, and discuss its analysis. We describe an example, using hashing to identify library version information.

O B I 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


Approximation of involute curves for CAD-system processing In numerous instances, accurate algorithms for approximating the original geometry is required. One typical example is a circle involute curve which represents the underlying geometry behind a gear tooth. The circle involute curves are by definition transcendental and cannot be expressed by algebraic equations, and hence it cannot be directly incorporated into commercial CAD systems. In this paper, an approximation algorithm for circle involute curves in terms of polynomial functions is developed. The circle involute curve is approximated using a Chebyshev approximation formula (Press etal. in Numerical recipes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988), which enables us to represent the involute in terms of polynomials, and hence as a Bzier curve. In comparison with the current B-spline approximation algorithms for circle involute curves, the proposed method is found to be more accurate and compact, and induces fewer oscillations.

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

circle involute curves
chebyshev approximation formula


iBEAT:

A

Toolbox

for

Infant

Brain

Magnetic

Resonance

Image

Processing

Its

a

great

challenge

to

analyze

infant

brain

MR

images

due

to

the

small

brain

size

and

low

contrast

of

the

developing

brain

tissues.

We

have

developed

an

Infant

Brain

Extraction

and

Analysis

Toolbox

(iBEAT)

for

various

processing

of

magnetic

resonance

(MR)

images

of

infant

brains.

Several

major

functions

generally

used

in

infant

brain

analysis

are

integrated

in

iBEAT,

including

image

preprocessing,

brain

extraction,

tissue

segmentation,

and

brain

labeling.

The

functions

of

brain

extraction,

tissue

segmentation,

and

brain

labeling

are

provided

respectively

by

three

state-of-the-art

algorithms.

First,

a

learning-based

meta-algorithm

which

integrates

a

group

of

brain

extraction

results

generated

by

the

two

existing

brain

extraction

algorithms

(BET

and

BSE)

was

implemented

in

iBEAT

for

extraction

of

infant

brains

from

MR

images.

Second,

a

level-sets-based

tissue

segmentation

algorithm

that

utilizes

multimodality

information,

cortical

thickness

constraint,

and

longitudinal

consistency

constraint

was

also

included

in

iBEAT

for

segmentation

of

infant

brain

tissues.

Third,

HAMMER

(standing

for

Hierarchical

Attribute

Matching

Mechanism

for

Elastic

Registration)

registration

algorithm

was

further

included

in

iBEAT

to

label

regions

of

interest

(ROIs)

of

infant

brain

images

by

warping

the

pre-labeled

ROIs

of

a

template

to

the

infant

brain

image

space.

By

integration

of

these

state-of-the-art

methods,

iBEAT

is

able

to

segment

and

label

infant

brain

MR

images

accurately.

Moreover,

it

can

process

not

only

single-time-point

images

for

cross-sectional

studies,

but

also

multiple-time-point

images

of

the

same

infant

for

longitudinal

studies.

The

performance

of

iBEAT

has

been

comprehensively

evaluated

with

hundreds

of

infant

brain

images.

A

Linux-based

standalone

package

of

iBEAT

is

freely

available

at

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

infant brain analysis
magnetic resonance image
brain labeling


open and decentralized access across location-based services Users now interact with multiple Location-Based Services (LBS) through a myriad set of location-aware devices and interfaces. However, current LBS tend to be centralized silos with ad-hoc APIs, which limits potential for information sharing and reuse. Further, LBS subscriptions and user experiences are not easily portable across devices. We propose a general architecture for providing open and decentralized access to LBS, based on Tiled Feeds - a RESTful protocol for access and interactions with LBS using feeds, and Feed Subscription Management (FSM) - a generalized feed-based service management protocol. We describe two client designs, and demonstrate how they enable standardized access to LBS services, promote information sharing and mashup creation, and offer service management across various types of location-enabled devices.

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


considering process variations during system-level power analysis Process variations will increasingly impact the operational characteristics of integrated circuits in nanoscale semiconductor technologies. Researchers have proposed various design techniques to address process variations at the mask, circuit, and logic levels. However, as the magnitude of process variations increases, their effects will need to be addressed earlier in the design cycle.In this paper, we propose techniques for accurately and efficiently incorporating the effects of process variations into system-level power estimation tools. To motivate our work, we first study the impact of process variations on the power consumption of an example System-on-Chip (SoC). We consider simple extensions of current approaches to system-level power estimation (spreadsheet-based and simulation-based power estimation), and demonstrate their limitations in performing variation-aware power estimation. We propose a system-level power estimation methodology that can accurately and efficiently analyze the impact of process variations on SoC power. The proposed methodology combines efficient trace-based analysis, power-state based leakage modeling, and Monte Carlo sampling. The key benefit of the proposed methodology is that it captures the necessary inter-dependencies while avoiding iterative system-level simulation. Our implementation of the proposed techniques within an in-house system-level power estimation framework indicates 2-5 orders of magnitude efficiency gains, with negligible loss in accuracy, compared to direct Monte Carlo techniques that require iterative system simulation.

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

framework
design techniques
efficiency
simulation
monte carlo
analysis
design
leakage
direct
paper
sampling
process variations
accuracy
technologies
power consumption
methodology
implementation
demonstrate
power
logic
tools
circuits

traces
examples
addressing
extensibility
spreadsheet
model
integrated circuit
dependencies
research
power analysis
systems
variation
system-on-chip
effect
low power design
iter
power estimation


Popular Concepts beyond Organizations: Exploring New Dimensions of Information Technology Innovations Journal the Association for Information Systems The abundance of innovation concepts in the world of information technology and their differentiated influence on the design, production, and use of IT in organizations make it important that we understand what shapes these concepts themselves. Taking the perspective that an IT innovation concept emerges and evolves beyond organizational boundaries in a community, I argue that the prevalence or popularity of the concept in IT discourse positively influences the adoption of the underlying innovation. Then with the aim to explore what makes an IT innovation concept popular, my empirical analysis of the once highly popular concept ERP (enterprise resource planning) suggests that (1) the popularity of ERP was influenced positively by the prevalence of highlighted business problems that ERP was claimed to solve; (2) ERP's popularity was influenced negatively by the prevalence of related innovation concepts; and (3) these influences largely disappeared after ERP passed its peak popularity. These results imply that the popularity of an IT innovation concept responds to the broader climate of business and relies on the right type of attention drawn and released by other concepts in a network of concepts. Going beyond the dominant paradigm, this paper helps broaden IT innovation research along two new dimensions: toward the innovation concept, as a complement to material innovation, and toward community-level analysis, as an extension of the traditional organizational analysis. The paper also suggests that practitioners evaluate an innovation concept's fit with the broader environment and relationship with other popular concepts, as a way to make sense of the innovation and anticipate its impact on IT practice. Information

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

innovation concept
discourse
community
popularity
enterprise resource planning


Service granularity considerations based on data properties of interface parameters Service granularity is a key determinant of the reusability and maintainability of services. It is evident that mapping existing components directly to Web Services leads to suboptimal design with large number of message exchanges and correspondingly increased risk of partial failures. Most practitioners recommend the use of coarse-grained, message-oriented Web Service that minimize the number of messages and avoid the need to maintain state information between invocations. In this paper we argue that excessive use of coarse-grained, document-centric message structures results in poor reusability and high levels of data coupling between services. We describe a design approach that provides a framework for making decisions about service granularity based on data properties of interface parameters. We treat the problem of service interface design from a data engineering perspective and use data normalization to reason about service granularity. We consider the impact of increasing service granularity on cohesion and coupling of services and discuss the associated design tradeoffs.

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


A Formal Syntax of Natural Languages and the Deductive Grammar This paper presents a formal syntax framework of natural languages for computational linguistics. The abstract syntax of natural languages, particularly English, and their formal manipulations are described. On the basis of the abstract syntax, a universal language processing model and the deductive grammar of English are developed toward the formalization of Chomsky's universal grammar in linguistics. Comparative analyses of natural and programming languages, as well as the linguistic perception on software engineering, are discussed. A wide range of applications of the deductive grammar of English have been explored in language acquisition, comprehension, generation, and processing in cognitive informatics, computational intelligence, and cognitive computing.

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

cognitive informatics
linguistics
universal grammar
deductive grammar
formal syntax
software engineering
programming languages

computational linguistics
formal languages
formal semantics
ebnf
rtpa
comparative linguistics


Information seeking spoken dialogue systems - Part I: Semantics and pragmatics In this paper, the semantic and pragmatic modules of a spoken dialogue system development platform are presented and evaluated. The main goal of this research is to create spoken dialogue system modules that are portable across applications domains and interaction modalities. We propose a hierarchical semantic representation that encodes all information supplied by the user over multiple dialogue turns and can efficiently represent and be used to argue with ambiguous or conflicting information. Implicit in this semantic representation is a pragmatic module, consisting of context tracking, pragmatic analysis and pragmatic scoring submodules, which computes pragmatic confidence scores for all system beliefs. These pragmatic scores are obtained by combining semantic and pragmatic evidence from the various submodules (taking into account the modality of input) and are used to rank-order attribute-value pairs in the semantic representation, as well as identifying and resolving ambiguities. These modules were implemented and evaluated within a travel reservation dialogue system under the auspices of the DARPA Communicator project, as well as for a movie information application. Formal evaluation of the semantic and pragmatic modules has shown that by incorporating pragmatic analysis and scoring, the quality of the system improves for over 20% of the dialogue fragments examined.

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

multimedia communication
natural language interfaces
speech communication


Solving SAT efficiently with promises In this paper, we consider two types of promises for (k-)CNF formulas which can help to find a satisfying assignment of a given formula. The first promise is the Hamming distance between truth assignments. Namely, we know in advance that a k-CNF formula with n variables, if satisfiable, has a satisfying assignment with at most pn variables set to 1. Then we ask whether or not the formula is satisfiable. It is shown that for k greater than or equal to 2 and (i) when p = n(c) (-1 < c less than or equal to 0), the problem is NP-hard; and (ii) when p log n/n, there exists a polynomial-time deterministic algorithm. The algorithm is based on the exponential-time algorithm recently presented by Schoning [7]. It is also applied for coloring k-uniform hypergraphs. The other promise is the number of satisfying assignments. For a CNF formula having 2(n)/2(nepsilon) (0 less than or equal to epsilon < 1) satisfying assignments, we present a subexponential-time deterministic algorithm based on the inclusion-exclusion formula.

O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O B O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 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 I 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 stochastic learning-to-rank algorithm and its application to contextual advertising This paper is concerned with the problem of learning a model to rank objects (Web pages, ads and etc.). We propose a framework where the ranking model is both optimized and evaluated using the same information retrieval measures such as Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG) and Mean Average Precision (MAP). The main difficulty in direct optimization of NDCG and MAP is that these measures depend on the rank of objects and are not differentiable. Most learning-to-rank methods that attempt to optimize NDCG or MAP approximate such measures so that they can be differentiable. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective stochastic optimization algorithm to directly minimize any loss function, which can be defined on NDCG or MAP for the learning-to-rank problem. The algorithm employs Simulated Annealing along with Simplex method for its parameter search and finds the global optimal parameters. Experiment results using NDCG-Annealing algorithm, an instance of the proposed algorithm, on LETOR benchmark data sets show that the proposed algorithm is both effective and stable when compared to the baselines provided in LETOR 3.0. In addition, we applied the algorithm for ranking ads in contextual advertising. Our method has shown to significantly improve relevance in offline evaluation and business metrics in online tests in a real large-scale advertising serving system . To scale our computations, we parallelize the algorithm in a MapReduce framework running on Hadoop.

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

simulated annealing
contextual advertising
ndcg

ndcg-annealing
learning to rank
simplex algorithm
ir measures


Does IT pay to focus? An analysis of IT business value under single and multi-focused business strategies Previous research finds that firm performance is highest when firms maintain a singular strategic focus as opposed to a multi-focused strategy. Yet, from an IT perspective, there is still some debate as to whether IT business value or the contribution of IT to firm performance is also maximized when firms maintain a single-focused strategy. Using the notion of value disciplines to model strategic foci, we find in a matched survey of executives in 241 firms that IT business value is highest in firms with a multi-focused business strategy and lowest in those with a single focus. We also find a relationship between strategic foci and the primary locus of IT value within the value chain for all focus-types except those emphasizing operational excellence. If all firms are using IT to reduce operating expenses, operationally excellent firms may find it increasingly difficult to sustain a low-cost advantage over time through IT.

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

value disciplines
it business value
strategic focus
value chain


Epistemic irrelevance in credal nets: The case of imprecise Markov trees We focus on credal nets, which are graphical models that generalise Bayesian nets to imprecise probability. We replace the notion of strong independence commonly used in credal nets with the weaker notion of epistemic irrelevance, which is arguably more suited for a behavioural theory of probability. Focusing on directed trees, we show how to combine the given local uncertainty models in the nodes of the graph into a global model, and we use this to construct and justify an exact message-passing algorithm that computes updated beliefs for a variable in the tree. The algorithm, which is linear in the number of nodes, is formulated entirely in terms of coherent lower previsions and is shown to satisfy a number of rationality requirements. We supply examples of the algorithm's operation and report an application to on-line character recognition that illustrates the advantages of our approach for prediction. We comment on the perspectives, opened by the availability, for the first time, of a truly efficient algorithm based on epistemic irrelevance. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

epistemic irrelevance
strong independence

coherence
credal net
separation
hidden markov model


Forecasting stock indices using radial basis function neural networks optimized by artificial fish swarm algorithm Stock index forecasting is a hot issue in the financial arena. As the movements of stock indices are non-linear and subject to many internal and external factors, they pose a great challenge to researchers who try to predict them. In this paper, we select a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) to train data and forecast the stock indices of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. We introduce the artificial fish swarm algorithm (AFSA) to optimize RBF. To increase forecasting efficiency, a K-means clustering algorithm is optimized by AFSA in the learning process of RBF. To verify the usefulness of our algorithm, we compared the forecasting results of RBF optimized by AFSA, genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), as well as forecasting results of ARIMA, BP and support vector machine (SVM). Our experiment indicates that RBF optimized by AFSA is an easy-to-use algorithm with considerable accuracy. Of all the combinations we tried in this paper, BIAS6+MA5+ASY4 was the optimum group with the least errors.

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

artificial fish swarm algorithm
radial basis function neural network

k-means clustering algorithm
data mining
shanghai stock exchange index


Editing noise Noise is used to create realistic animations that look like natural phenomena as well as procedural textures and shapes by adding randomness to graphical applications. In this paper, we suggest a method to edit noise values to satisfy the constraints that reflect the user's demands while maintaining the inherent statistical features of the noise function. Noise editing uses optimization to minimize the difference between the statistical characteristics of the ideal and edited versions of a noise source. Using our editing method, detailed control of animation and shape data that include noise is possible. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

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Efficient self-organizing multilayer neural network for nonlinear system modeling It has been shown extensively that the dynamic behaviors of a neural system are strongly influenced by the network architecture and learning process. To establish an artificial neural network (ANN) with self-organizing architecture and suitable learning algorithm for nonlinear system modeling, an automatic axonneural network (AANN) is investigated in the following respects. First, the network architecture is constructed automatically to change both the number of hidden neurons and topologies of the neural network during the training process. The approach introduced in adaptive connecting-and-pruning algorithm (ACP) is a type of mixed mode operation, which is equivalent to pruning or adding the connecting of the neurons, as well as inserting some required neurons directly. Secondly, the weights are adjusted, using a feedforward computation (FC) to obtain the information for the gradient during learning computation. Unlike most of the previous studies, AANN is able to self-organize the architecture and weights, and to improve the network performances. Also, the proposed AANN has been tested on a number of benchmark problems, ranging from nonlinear function approximating to nonlinear systems modeling. The experimental results show that AANN can have better performances than that of some existing neural networks.

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

automatic axonneural network
modeling
feedforward computation

adaptive connecting and pruning algorithm