ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Segmentation of spinal cord images by means of watershed and region merging together with inhomogeneity correction
Authors: Mariusz Nieniewski, Roger Serneels
Venue: Machine Graphics Vision International Journal (2002)

The paper presents a morphological method for segmentation of high field Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the human spinal cord and extraction of the gray matter mask. These images are of low quality and poor contrast. The inhomogeneity of brightness in the image is usually more pronounced than the difference in brightness between the gray matter and the white matter. Due to this inhomogeneity, it is very hard to use watershed segmentation for automatic extraction of the gray matter, and what remains is manual pointing out of a hundred or more regions belonging to the gray matter. However, as shown in the paper, by using the White Top Hat (WTH) transform with a large structuring element, one can correct the images, significantly reducing the inhomogeneity and appropriately modifying individual region statistics. In particular, watershed segmentation is carried out on the original image, whereas region statistics used for region merging are calculated from the corrected image. Then the extraction of the gray matter mask is carried out in a semi-automatic way, with the user pointing out the first region belonging to the gray matter area, and the program selecting subsequent neighboring regions based on the statistics of the regions. The method was tested on images coming from different cross-sections of the spinal cord, and the results indicate that the process of extracting the gray matter mask has been significantly speeded up and improved.
Morphological Image Analysis: Principles and Applications, 2 edition
Authors: Pierre Soille
Venue:  (2003)

:The purpose of this book is to provide readers with an in-depth presentation of the principles and applications of morphological image analysis. This is achieved through a step by step process starting from the basic morphological operators and extending to the most recent advances which have proven their practical usefulness. This self-contained volume will be valuable to all engineers, scientists, and practitioners interested in the analysis and processing of digital images.
(In)Formalism
Authors: John Beidler, Robert McCloskey, Yaodong Bi
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2003)

This paper describes a "gentle" approach we are taking in our Data Structures and Algorithms course to introduce the use of formal notation as an aid in the specification and implementation of abstract data types. So that it can be included as comments within source code (and be processed by the javadoc utility), we chose a notation that relies upon only ASCII symbols, plus the ability to italicize, boldface, and form subscripts, superscripts, and horizontal lines.
Specifying and verifying imprecise sequential datapaths by Arithmetic Transforms
Authors: Katarzyna Radecka, Zeljko Zilic
Venue: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE/ACM international conference on Computer-aided design (2002)

We address verification of imprecise datapath circuits with sequential elements. Using Arithmetic Transform (AT) and its extensions, we verify the sequential datapath circuits with finite precision. An efficient formulation of the precision verification is presented as a polynomial maximization search over Boolean inputs. Using a branch-and-bound search for the precision error and the block-level composition of ATs, we verify the approximated, rounded and truncated pipelined datapaths.
An introduction to loadable modules for the Linux kernel
Authors: Richard Sevenich, William Clark
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2002)

Because its source code is freely available, the Linux operating system provides a wealth of practical examples for operating systems courses. Further, one can tinker with Linux to demonstrate concepts and try new software and hardware design ideas. This tutorial will focus on a particularly convenient Linux feature for such studies, the loadable kernel module.Hardware device drivers are most commonly implemented as loadable modules. The number of hardware devices supported by Linux has mushroomed since its early days; so it is no suprise that the major contributor to the dramatic growth in the size of the Linux source tree comes from loadable modules. These provide great flexibility. The major benefits are: • if a machine does not need a particular capability, the kernel need not include the related module -thereby keeping the kernel trim • modules can be added and removed from the kernel manually (no system recompile or even reboot) - an efficient convenience for a developer • alternatively, it is straightforward to load modules dynamically (no system reboot) to a running system, when they are needed; and to remove them after a chosen period of inactivity - again keeping the kernel trim • modules can provide a functional hierarchy where one module depends on another - the kernel enforces these dependenciesThe tutorial will introduce the loadable module's programming interface for 2.4 series of the Linux kernel. The vehicle will be a specific example, emphasizing module entry points used: • when the module is added to a running kernel • accessed by a user program • removed from the running kernelA module such as a device driver may need to probe/query the system for hardware resources (e.g. port addresses and interrupt request lines). This is discussed along how a module can reserve such resources for its own use - and subsequently release those resources. The distinction between programming in kernel space and programming in user space will be discussed. Transfer of information between user space and kernel space is of particular interest.The specific module example will then be exploited to demonstrate: • how a module can be manually added to and removed from a running system • alternatively, how a module can be dynamically added to a running system on demand, and subsequently removed on a selected period of inactivity • how a user program can access the driver (using the virtual file system in this case)The example will then be extended to describe dependent modules, where one module may use code in another. This will include a discussion of kernel enforcement of such intermodular dependence.
Operational Drivers of Customer Loyalty in Electronic Retailing: An Empirical Analysis of Electronic Food Retailers
Authors: Gregory R. Heim, Kingshuk K. Sinha
Venue: Manufacturing Service Operations Management (2001)

The relationship between customer loyalty and the order procurement and order fulfillment processes of electronic retailers is empirically examined in this paper. The study sample contains data from 52 electronic food retailers. After controlling for the retailers' product categories based on design flexibility, our regression analysis results indicate that three order procurement variables--website navigation, product information, and price; and three order fulfillment variables--product availability, timeliness of delivery, and ease of return have significant association with customer loyalty. In terms of their relative contributions toward improving customer loyalty, these variables can be ordered in a descending order as follows: ease of return, timeliness of delivery, website navigation, product availability, price, and product information.
On the Application of Explanation-Based Learning to Acquire Control Knowledge for Branch and Bound Algorithms
Authors: Matthew J. Realff, George Stephanopoulos
Venue: INFORMS Journal on Computing (1998)

The goal of this article is to present a methodology for the automatic acquisition of new control knowledge in the form of dominance and equivalence conditions, using an explanation-based learning algorithm from artificial intelligence. The acquisition of new control knowledge proceeds through the following stages: 1) Analysis of the problem-solving activity, generated from the application of a branch and bound algorithm on specific instance(s) of a class of problems. 2) Interpretation of the problem-solving activity and synthesis of new control knowledge, which can lead to more efficient solution of future problems. The generated control knowledge is provably correct within the theory of the given class of problems and the employed branch and bound strategy. Consequently, the number of nodes evaluated by a specific branch and bound algorithm is guaranteed to be reduced, as new control knowledge is continuously acquired from the solution of specific problems. The article presents the theoretical foundations for the handling of the above two tasks. It concludes with an application of the proposed approach to a mixed integer linear programming formulation of a batch scheduling problem.
Material properties of tailings of open-pit mines using coupled modeling
Authors: P. Procházka, J. Trcková
Venue: Development and application of computer techniques to environmental studies (2002)

Numerical methods are generally burden by an error, which is an aftermath of unsure determined input data, mainly of improper constitutive law. This is why the results of "in situ" measurements are to be involved in the computation and from the measurements the constitutive law is created. The problem consists of the fact that the in situ measurement is very expensive and carried principally out during or even after construction of underground works.In the first stage of realization of such works the material behavior (constitutive law) is not perfectly known, and is only estimated from a couple of tests "in situ", or existing geological and geotechnical maps. Such those input data serve mostly only as a brief description of the real situation on site.In a natural intermediate step the data being available from above mentioned sources are used and experimental models from physically equivalent materials (scale models) are created, which provide much deeper information about the behavior of the rock in the location being of interest to us. Such tests are carried out in experimental stands that are firmly constructed basins with slippery walls and bottom. The front wall is often glazed. Consequently, the stands enable the researchers to observe the movements, failure, and other possible phenomena in the massif. This is the first and very important property of the experiment being carried out in the stands. The second step is a very extensive measurement using gauges to obtain local stresses and displacement are received from appropriate equipments.In this paper localized deformations are examined and the mathematical model is determined by additional quantities - eigenparameters - which in our case stand for plastic strains. The coupled modeling is applied to assessment of deposits (tailing dams) from open pit mines in northern Bohemia.
The Stability of Two-Station Multitype Fluid Networks
Authors: J. G. Dai, J. H. Vande Vate
Venue: Operations Research (2000)

This paper studies the fluid models of two-station multiclass queueing networks with deterministic routing. A fluid model is globally stable if the fluid network eventually empties under each nonidling dispatch policy. We explicitly characterize the global stability region in terms of the arrival and service rates. We show that the global stability region is defined by the nominal workload conditions and the "virtual workload conditions," and we introduce two intuitively appealing phenomena--virtual stations and push starts--that explain the virtual workload conditions. When any of the workload conditions is violated, we construct a fluid solution that cycles to infinity, showing that the fluid network is unstable. When all the workload conditions are satisfied, we solve a network flow problem to find the coefficients of a piecewise linear Lyapunov function. The Lyapunov function decreases to zero, proving that the fluid level eventually reaches zero under any nonidling dispatch policy. Under certain assumptions on the inter arrival and service time distributions, a queueing network is stable or positive Harris recurrent if the corresponding fluid network is stable. Thus, the workload conditions are sufficient to ensure the global stability of two-station multiclass queueing networks with deterministic routing.
Task scheduling on bus-based networks of workstations
Authors: Wei-Ming Lin, Qiuyan Gu
Venue: Cluster Computing (2001)

In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm based on dynamic critical path (DCP) to solve the problem of task scheduling on networks of workstations (NOW). The algorithm takes into account both the characteristics of DCP and NOW by intelligently pre-allocating network communication resources so as to avoid potential communication conflict. It has a reasonable computational complexity of O(v2(1 + p)), where v is the number of nodes in the task graph and p is the number of processors in the NOW. It is suitable for regular as well as irregular task graphs. The algorithm when tested under various task graphs shows performance much superior to previously known techniques.
AGORA: Attributed Goal-Oriented Requirements Analysis Method
Authors: Haruhiko Kaiya, Hisayuki Horai, Motoshi Saeki
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering (2002)

This paper presents an extended version of Goal-Oriented Requirements Analysis Method called AGORA, where attribute values, e.g. contribution values and preference matrices, are added to goal graphs. An analyst attaches contribution values and preference values to edges and nodes of a goal graph respectively during the process for refining and decomposing the goals. The contribution value of an edge stands for the degree of the contribution of the sub-goal to the achievement of its parent goal, while the preference matrix of a goal represents the preference of the goal for each stakeholder. These values can help an analyst to choose and adopt a goal from the alternatives of the goals, to recognize the conflicts among the goals, and to analyze the impact of requirements changes. Furthermorethe values on a goal graph and its structural characteristics allow the analyst to estimate the quality of the resulting requirements specification, such as correctness, unambiguity, completeness etc. The estimated quality values can suggest to him which goals should be improved and/or refined. In addition, we have applied AGORA to a user account system and assessed it.
A sight-seeing tour of the computational landscape of graph transformation
Authors: Hans-Jörg Kreowski
Venue: Formal and natural computing (2002)

In this paper, the basic features of graph transformation are introduced as a kind of sight-seeing tour of the computational landscape which is based on the application of rules to graphs.
Auto-Discovering Configurations for Service Management
Authors: Pankaj K. Garg, Martin Griss, Vijay Machiraju
Venue: Journal of Network and Systems Management (2003)

Determining service configurations is essential for effective service management. In this paper we describe a model-driven approach for service configuration auto-discovery. We develop metrics for performance and scalability analysis of such auto-discovery mechanisms. Our approach addresses several problems in auto-discovery: specification of what services to discover, how to efficiently distribute service discovery, and how to match instances of services into related groups. We use object-oriented models for discovery specifications, a flexible bus-based architecture for distribution and communication, and a novel multi-phased, instance matching approach. We have applied our approach to typical e-commerce services, Enterprise Resource Planning applications, like SAP, and Microsoft Exchange services running on a mixture of Windows and Unix platforms. The main contribution of this work is the flexibility of our models, architecture and algorithms to address discovery of a multitude of services.
Methods of Continuous Logic in Control
Authors: V. I. Levin
Venue: Automation and Remote Control (2003)

Continuous logic, its problems, and methods were outlined, and its basic operations were defined. The algebra of continuous logic was described, and its main functions of one, two, and three variables were listed. The laws of this logic were presented and contrasted with the laws of the discrete two-valued logic. Described were the problems of listing all continuous-logic functions of a given number of variables and representing them in a standard form. The difference between these forms and their counterparts in the two-valued logic was shown. Minimization procedures for the continuous-logic functions and their decomposition into functions of a smaller number of variables were described. The distinctions of these procedures from their counterparts in the two-valued logic were noted. The problems of analysis and synthesis of the continuous-logic functions were formulated, and methods for their solution were presented. The problem of synthesis was shown not to be necessarily solvable. The fundamentals of the continuous-logic differential and integral calculuses were presented. Any continuous-logic function was shown to have no-derivative points. The problem of completeness was described for the continuous logic together with the existing results and their distinctions from the discrete case. Numerous applications of the continuous logic to mathematics, engineering, economics, social sciences, and so on were described, and its perspectives were estimated. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
Initial recommendations for improving maintenance strategy
Authors: Elizabeth Burd, Malcolm Munro, Sonata Pakötiens
Venue: Systems engineering for business process change: new directions (2002)

Chapter 7 investigates how the study of evolutionary trends can be used to assist the maintenance process. A number of different techniques are used; this includes call, file and data analysis. The results of each of these techniques are investigated by using versions of four different industrial applications. The results of the analysis process are analysed in detail. Finally, initial recommendations are made, based on the analysis process of how maintenance interventions can be improved.
New Recursive Algorithms for the Unified Forward and Inverse MDCT/MDST
Authors: Vladimir Nikolajevic, Gerhard Fettweis
Venue: Journal of VLSI Signal Processing Systems (2003)

Forward and inverse MDCT are two of the most computationally intensive operations in the MPEG audio coding standard. In this paper we derive sinusoidal recursive formulas for transforming kernels of the MDCT/MDST and IMDCT/IMDST. Then we efficiently implement MDCT/MDST and IMDCT/IMDST of the general length using the regressive structure derived from the sinusoidal recursive formulas. The proposed regular structure is particularly suitable for parallel VLSI realization. Our solution requires significantly less operations as well as less hardware compared with a recently proposed one.
Partially paradoxist Smarandache geometries
Authors: Howard Iseri
Venue: Smarandache Notions Journal (2002)

A paradoxist Smarandache geometry combines Euclidean, hyperbolic, and elliptic geometry into one space along with other non-Euclidean behaviors of lines that would seem to require a discrete space. A class of continuous spaces is presented here together with specific examples that exhibit almost all of these phenomena and suggest the prospect of a continuous paradoxist geometry.
Constraint-driven join processing in a web warehouse
Authors: Sourav S. Bhowmick, Wee Keong Ng, Sanjay Madria
Venue: Data Knowledge Engineering (2003)

There has been considerable research in join operation in relational databases. In this paper, we introduce the concept of web join for combining hyperlinked Web data. Web join is one of the web algebraic operator in our web warehousing system called WHOWEDA (WareHouse Of WEb DAta). Similar to its relational counterpart, it can be used to gather useful, composite information from two web tables. The significance of web join perhaps can be best realized when we wish to combine data from a Web site where some of the information in the Web site is no longer available due to changes to the site. A web join operation can be constraint-free or constraint-driven depending on the absence or presence of join conditions. In this paper, we focus our discussion on constraint-driven web join operation, i.e., web join operation in the presence of user-specified join conditions. Specifically, we discuss the syntax, semantics and algorithm of web join operator.
Knowledge Management Processes and International Joint Ventures
Authors: Andrew C. Inkpen, Adva Dinur
Venue: Organization Science (1998)

The management and processing of organizational knowledge are increasingly being viewed as critical to organizational success. By exploring how firms access and exploit alliance-based knowledge, the authors provide evidence to support the argument that the firm is a dynamic system of processes involving different types of knowledge. Using data from a longitudinal study of North American-based joint ventures (JVs) between North American and Japanese firms, they address three related research questions: (1) what processes do JV partners use to gain access to alliance knowledge; (2) what types of knowledge are associated with the different processes and how should that knowledge be classified; and (3) what is the relationship between organizational levels, knowledge types, and the transfer of knowledge? Although many generalizations have been drawn about the merits of knowledge-based resources and the creation of knowledge, few efforts have been made to establish systematically how firms acquire and manage new knowledge. Moreover, prior alliance research has not addressed in detail the nature of alliance knowledge and how knowledge is managed in the alliance context. The authors examine the processes used by alliance partners to transfer knowledge from an alliance context to a partner context. They identify four key processes-technology sharing, alliance-parent interaction, personnel transfers, and strategic integration-that share a conceptual underpinning and represent a knowledge connection between parent and alliance. Each of the four processes is shown to provide an avenue for managers to gain exposure to knowledge and ideas outside their traditional organizational boundaries and to create a connection for individual managers to communicate their alliance experiences to others. Although all of the knowledge management processes are potentially effective, the different processes involve different types of knowledge and different organizational levels. The primary types of knowledge associated with each process are identified and then linked with the organizational level affected by the transfer process. From those linkages, several propositions about organizational knowledge transfer and management are developed. The results suggest that although a variety of knowledge management strategies can be viable, some strategies lead to more effective knowledge transfer than others.