A case study on using neural networks to perform technical forecasting of forex
This paper reports empirical evidence that a neural network model is applicable to the prediction of foreign exchange rates. Time series data and technical indicators, such as moving average, are fed to neural networks to capture the underlying ‘rulesa of the movement in currency exchange rates. The exchange rates between American Dollar and "ve other major currencies, Japanese Yen, Deutsch Mark, British Pound, Swiss Franc and Australian Dollar are forecast by the trained neural networks. The traditional rescaled range analysis is used to test the ‘e$ciencya of each market before using historical data to train the neural networks. The results presented here show that without the use of extensive market data or knowledge, useful prediction can be made and signi"cant paper pro"ts can be achieved for out-of-sample data with simple technical indicators. A further research on exchange rates between Swiss Franc and American Dollar is also conducted. However, the experiments show that with e$cient market it is not easy to make pro"ts using technical indicators or time series input neural networks. This article also discusses several issues on the frequency of sampling, choice of network architecture, forecasting periods, and measures for evaluating the model’s predictive power. After presenting the experimental results, a discussion on future research concludes the paper.

title: Motion deblurring for optical character recognition
abstract: This paper investigates the problem of blurring caused by motion during image capture of text documents. Motion blurring prevents proper optical character recognition of the document text contents. One area of such applications is to deblur name card images obtained from handheld cameras. In this paper, a complete motion deblurring procedure for document images has been proposed. The method handles both uniform linear motion blur and uniform acceleration motion blur. Experiments on synthetic and real-life blurred images prove the feasibility and reliability of this algorithm provided that the motion is not too irregular. The restoration procedure consumes only small amount of computation time.

title: Improving Pronoun Resolution Using Statistics-Based Semantic Compatibility Information
abstract: In this paper we focus on how to improve pronoun resolution using the statistics-based semantic compatibility information. We investigate two unexplored issues that influence the effectiveness of such information: statistics source and learning framework. Specifically, we for the first time propose to utilize the web and the twin-candidate model, in addition to the previous combination of the corpus and the single-candidate model, to compute and apply the semantic information. Our study shows that the semantic compatibility obtained from the web can be effectively incorporated in the twin-candidate learning model and significantly improve the resolution of neutral pronouns.

title: Chart analysis and recognition in document images
abstract: Hidden Markov models are a probabilistic modeling tool for time series data. It has been successfully applied to many areas, such as speech recognition, hand-written character recognition, etc. In this paper, we present a novel statistical approach using ergodic hidden Markov models to recognize scientific charts. We also present a newly developed feature extraction method for chart images. Unlike traditional primitive-based diagram recognition method, our approach need not recognize the graphic primitives in charts thus bypassing the recognition error problem caused by the inaccurate primitive extraction that is also a major obstacle to the construction of a general chart recognition system.

title: Document Flattening through Grid Modeling and Regularization
abstract: For document images captured by a digital camera, perspective and geometric distortions make it hard to recognize the document content properly. In this paper, we propose an integrated document restoration technique, which is capable of removing perspective and geometric distortions, and producing a flattened and fronto-parallel text image that is friendly to the generic OCR systems. The proposed document restoration is accomplished through grid modeling, which divides camera images into multiple quadrilateral grids using vertical text directions and the x lines and base lines. The global distortions are then removed through grid regularization that transforms the quadrilateral grids together with the pixel contents to the regular square grids. Experimental results show the proposed method is fast and easy for implementation

title: Correcting document image warping based on regression of curved text lines
abstract: Image warping is a common problem when one scans or photocopies a document page from a thick bound volume, resulting in shading and curved text lines in the spine area of the bound volume. This will not only impair readability, but will also reduce the OCR accuracy. Further to our earlier attempt to correct such images, this paper proposes a simpler connected component analysis and regression technique. Compared to our earlier method, the present system is computationally less expensive and is resolution independent too. The implementation of the new system and improvement of OCR accuracy are presented in this paper.

title: Energy-efficient ID-based group key agreement protocols for wireless networks
abstract: One useful application of wireless networks is for secure group communication, which can be achieved by running a group key agreement (GKA) protocol. One well-known method of providing authentication in GKA protocols is through the use of digital signatures. Traditional certificate-based signature schemes require users to receive and verify digital certificates before verifying the signatures but this process is not required in ID-based signature schemes. In this paper, we present an energy-efficient ID-based authenticated GKA protocol and four energy-efficient ID-based authenticated dynamic protocols, namely join, leave, merge and partition protocol, to handle dynamic group membership events, which are frequent in wireless networks. We provide complexity and energy cost analysis of our protocols and show that our protocols are more energy-efficient and suitable for wireless networks.

title: E-governance: towards a strategic convergence of stakeholder interests
abstract: E-governments have become an integral part of our lives and the study of this phenomenon has revealed valuable insights from a governance perspective. Based on an in-depth case study, this paper addresses the strategic management of stakeholders within the e-governmental environment. In particular, the research looks at how advances in information technology have altered the power structures of governance systems and reshaped its fundamental principles .The study concludes that the strategic conversion of interests between the organizations and its stakeholders is an important determining factor for the success of any e-initiative. This requires both a rethinking of fundamental functions and a transformation of organizational business mentalities in order to be flexible and adaptable to ever-changing expectations of a dynamic system.

title: Low-power group key agreement for heterogeneous wireless networks
abstract: Heterogeneous wireless networks are gaining popularity as users can be connected to these networks without any cables and even when they are mobile. The high power nodes in heterogeneous wireless networks do not have energy constraints but the user nodes, which can be large in numbers, are usually low power energy constrained devices. Therefore, the GKA protocol used to secure group communications in these networks has to take into consideration both the low power nature of the user nodes and the network size. In this paper, we present an energy efficient and scalable GKA protocol, which uses our proposed Contributory Ring-Centralized (ContRi-Central) group model. Besides providing complexity analysis, we also show the computational and communication energy consumption costs analysis of all nodes running our proposed scheme and four other efficient GKA protocols. Both the complexity analysis and energy consumption costs analysis indicate that our proposed scheme is more efficient and suitable for heterogeneous wireless networks.

title: An Investigation of Online Group-Buying Institution and Buyer Behavior
abstract: This study draws on interdependency theory to propose and assess the effects of two artifacts - conditional purchase and information cue - on decisional choice in the online group-buying context. Our results suggest that buyers presented with conditional purchase options (i.e., of not honoring the purchase when the expected discount price is not met) are more willing to make a purchase choice (i.e., deviate from an inactive inertia). Counter-intuitively, provision of information cues (i.e., information about procurement actions of the other buyers) appears to induce inaction. However, when a choice has to be made between a riskier and a less risky choice, the presence of information cues leads to a higher propensity for the riskier choice. Implications for theory and practice are further discussed.

title: The use of bigrams to enhance text categorization
abstract: In this paper, we present an efficient text categorization algorithm that generates bigrams selectively by looking for ones that have an especially good chance of being useful. The algorithm uses the information gain metric, combined with various frequency thresholds. The bigrams, along with unigrams, are then given as features to two different classifiers: Naive Bayes and maximum entropy. The experimental results suggest that the bigrams can substantially raise the quality of feature sets, showing increases in the break-even points and F1 measures. The McNemar test shows that in most categories the increases are very significant. Upon close examination of the algorithm, we concluded that the algorithm is most successful in correctly classifying more positive documents, but may cause more negative documents to be classified incorrectly.