76-Space analysis of grey matter diffusivity: Methods and applications
Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) are widely used in the study and diagnosis of neurological diseases involving the White Matter (WM). However, many neurological and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) are generally considered to involve the Grey Matter (GM). Investigation of GM diffusivity of normal aging and pathological brains has both scientific significance and clinical applications. Most of previous research reports on quantification of GM diffusivity were based on the manually labeled Region of Interests (ROI) analysis of specific neuroanatomic regions. The well-known drawbacks of ROI analysis include inter-rater variations, irreproducible results, tediousness, and requirement of a priori definition of interested regions. In this paper, we present a new framework of automated 76-space analysis of GM diffusivity using DWI/DTI. The framework will be evaluated using clinical data, and applied for study of normal brain, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Schizophrenia.

title: Workflow-enabled distributed component-based information architecture for digital medical imaging enterprises
abstract: Few information systems today offer a flexible means to define and manage the automated part of radiology processes, which provide clinical imaging services for the entire healthcare organization. Even fewer of them provide a coherent architecture that can easily cope with heterogeneity and inevitable local adaptation of applications and can integrate clinical and administrative information to aid better clinical, operational, and business decisions. We describe an innovative enterprise architecture of image information management systems to fill the needs. Such a system is based on the interplay of production workflow management, distributed object computing, Java and Web techniques, and in-depth domain knowledge in radiology operations. Our design adapts the approach of "4+1" architectural view. In this new architecture, PACS and RIS become one while the user interaction can be automated by customized workflow process. Clinical service applications are implemented as active components. They can be reasonably substituted by applications of local adaptations and can be multiplied for fault tolerance and load balancing. Furthermore, the workflow-enabled digital radiology system would provide powerful query and statistical functions for managing resources and improving productivity. This paper will potentially lead to a new direction of image information management. We illustrate the innovative design with examples taken from an implemented system.

title: A study of the short message service of a nationwide cellular network
abstract: In recent years, cellular networks have experienced an astronomical increase in the use of Short Message Service (SMS), making it a popular communication means for inter-personal as well as content provider-to-person usage. Yet little is known about the traffic and message user behavior in real SMS systems. In this paper, we present a measurement study of SMS based on traces collected from a nationwide cellular carrier during a three-week period. We characterize message traffic at both the message level and the conversation thread level. We also examine the "store-and-forward" mechanism of SMS and present initial measurements on how messages are actually delivered.

title: An architectural infrastructure and topological optimization for end system multicast
abstract: Although IP-multicast has been proposed and investigated for the some time, there are major problems inherent in the IP-multicasting technique, for example, scalability problems, difficulty to allocate a globally unique multicast address, complexity to support higher level features such as reliable data transfer congestion/flow control and security, and more importantly, deployment problem due to architectural changes to core routers. Recently, end-system multicast (ESM) has been proposed as an alternative solution so that multicasting services can be quickly deployed. In this paper we consider the "architectural" and "optimization " issues on designing an ESM-tree. Specifically, we present a distributed algorithm on how to create and maintain an ESM-tree. We also propose a distributed algorithm to perform a tree optimization (TO) so that an ESM-tree can dynamically adapt to the changing network condition (e.g., drop in transfer bandwidth) so that nodes can receive the multicast data more efficiently. The propose distributed algorithm has the theoretical properties that at all times, a tree-topology can be maintained and that any node joining, leaving, as well as any tree optimization operation will not "partition" an ESM-tree. Therefore, our work can be used to provide an efficient architectural infrastructure for ESM services. We have implemented a prototype ESM system and carried out experiments to illustrate the effectiveness and performance of our ESM optimization protocol.

title: Development of Parallel Hybrid Optimisation Techniques Based on Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing
abstract: This paper develops coarse-grained parallel algorithms for hybrid optimisation techniques based on genetic algorithms and simulated annealing. The design of the algorithms takes into consideration load balancing, processor synchronisation reduction, communication overhead reduction and memory contention elimination. In addition, the algorithms are designed to avoid the problem of premature convergence which exists in some previous parallel genetic algorithms. The algorithms are implemented on an i860 processor in a simulated environment and are applied to a short-term hydrothermal scheduling problem. The scheduling results are presented and are compared to those found by sequential GAs, by parallel simulated-annealing algorithm and by some earlier parallel genetic algorithms.

title: Optimum design of very low distortion class E power amplifiers
abstract: In this paper, the optimum design of a class E power amplifier with resonant tank being symmetrically driven by two class E circuits is studied. The optimally designed symmetrical class E circuit has extremely low harmonic distortion, and the load matching network (if required) is non-critical and can be designed with ease. Practical steady-state design equations are derived and graphically presented. Experimental circuits are constructed for distortion evaluation.

title: A Distributed Approach to Musical Composition
abstract: Current techniques for automated composition use a single algorithm, focusing on one aspect of musical generation. In our system we make use of several algorithms, distributed using an agent oriented middleware, with each specialising on a separate aspect of composition. This paper describes the architecture and algorithms behind this system, with a focus on the agent framework used for implementation. We show early results which encourage a future application of this framework in automated music composition and analysis.