Query: A New Fast and Efficient Decision-Based Algorithm for Removal of High-Density Impulse Noises

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Salt-and-pepper noise removal by median-type noise detectors and detail-preserving regularization <=SEP=> This paper proposes a two-phase scheme for removing salt-and-pepper impulse noise. In the first phase, an adaptive median filter is used to identify pixels which are likely to be contaminated by noise (noise candidates). In the second phase, the image is restored using a specialized regularization method that applies only to those selected noise candidates. In terms of edge preservation and noise suppression, our restored images show a significant improvement compared to those restored by using just nonlinear filters or regularization methods only. Our scheme can remove salt-and-pepper-noise with a noise level as high as 90%.

Detail-preserving median based filters in image processing <=SEP=> 

Noise adaptive soft-switching median filter <=SEP=> Existing state-of-the-art switching-based median filters are commonly found to be nonadaptive to noise density variations and prone to misclassifying pixel characteristics at high noise density interference. This reveals the critical need of having a sophisticated switching scheme and an adaptive weighted median filter. We propose a novel switching-based median filter with incorporation of fuzzy-set concept, called the noise adaptive soft-switching median (NASM) filter, to achieve much improved filtering performance in terms of effectiveness in removing impulse noise while preserving signal details and robustness in combating noise density variations. The proposed NASM filter consists of two stages. A soft-switching noise-detection scheme is developed to classify each pixel to be uncorrupted pixel, isolated impulse noise, nonisolated impulse noise or image object's edge pixel. "No filtering" (or identity filter), standard median (SM) filter or our developed fuzzy weighted median (FWM) filter will then be employed according to the respective characteristic type identified. Experimental results show that our NASM filter impressively outperforms other techniques by achieving fairly close performance to that of ideal-switching median filter across a wide range of noise densities, ranging from 10% to 70%

Adaptive median filters: new algorithms and results <=SEP=> Based on two types of image models corrupted by impulse noise, we propose two new algorithms for adaptive median filters. They have variable window size for removal of impulses while preserving sharpness. The first one, called the ranked-order based adaptive median filter (RAMF), is based on a test for the presence of impulses in the center pixel itself followed by a test for the presence of residual impulses in the median filter output. The second one, called the impulse size based adaptive median filter (SAMF), is based on the detection of the size of the impulse noise. It is shown that the RAMF is superior to the nonlinear mean L(p) filter in removing positive and negative impulses while simultaneously preserving sharpness; the SAMF is superior to Lin's (1988) adaptive scheme because it is simpler with better performance in removing the high density impulsive noise as well as nonimpulsive noise and in preserving the fine details. Simulations on standard images confirm that these algorithms are superior to standard median filters.

Tri-state median filter for image denoising <=SEP=> In this work, a novel nonlinear filter, called tri-state median (TSM) filter, is proposed for preserving image details while effectively suppressing impulse noise. We incorporate the standard median (SM) filter and the center weighted median (CWM) filter into a noise detection framework to determine whether a pixel is corrupted, before applying filtering unconditionally. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed filter consistently outperforms other median filters by balancing the tradeoff between noise reduction and detail preservation.

Nonlinear Modeling of the Self-Oscillating Fluxgate Current Sensor <=SEP=> An accurate mathematical model has been developed in order to describe electrical and geometrical factors affecting operation and DC transfer characteristics of the self-oscillating fluxgate current sensor. The mathematical description of the sensor circuit is based on a continuous function that approximates magnetization curve of the used transformer core. The circuit differential equation based on the adopted transformer model is analytically solved offering a fundamental basis for understanding factors that affect the operation of the sensor. All principle parameters affecting sensor operation are clearly demonstrated by using the proposed model, and good agreements with laboratory measurements has been obtained.

Integrated bioethanol and protein production from brown seaweed Laminaria digitata. <=SEP=> A wild-growing glucose-rich (i.e. 56.7% glucose content) brown seaweed species Laminaria digitata, collected from the North Coast of Denmark in August 2012, was used as the feedstock for an integrated bioethanol and protein production. Glutamic acid and aspartic acid are the two most abundant amino acids in the algal protein, both with proportional content of 10% in crude protein. Only minor pretreatment of milling was used on the biomass to facilitate the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. The Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF) resulted in obviously higher ethanol yield than the Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF). High conversion rate at maximum of 84.1% glucose recovery by enzymatic hydrolysis and overall ethanol yield at maximum of 77.7% theoretical were achieved. Protein content in the solid residues after fermentation was enriched by 2.7 fold, with similar distributions of amino acids, due to the hydrolysis of polymers in the seaweed cell wall matrix.

Dynamic Thermal Management for High-Performance Microprocessors <=SEP=> With the increasing clock rate and transistor count of today’s microprocessors, power dissipation is becoming a critical component of system design complexity. Thermal and power-delivery issues are becoming especially critical for high-performance computing systems. In this work, we investigate dynamic thermal management as a technique to control CPUpower dissipation. With the increasing usage of clock gating techniques, the average power dissipation typically seen by common applications is becoming much less than the chip’s rated maximum power dissipation. However; system designers still must design thermal heat sinks to withstand the worst-case scenario. We define and investigate the major components of any dynamic thermal management scheme. Specijcally we explore the tradeoffs between several mechanisms for responding to periods of thermal trauma and we consider the effects of hardware and sofnyare implementations. With appropriate dynamic thermal management, the CPU can be designed for a much lower maximum power rating, with minimal performance impact for typical applications.

Efficient elastic burst detection in data streams <=SEP=> Burst detection is the activity of finding abnormal aggregates in data streams. Such aggregates are based on sliding windows over data streams. In some applications, we want to monitor many sliding window sizes simultaneously and to report those windows with aggregates significantly different from other periods. We will present a general data structure for detecting interesting aggregates over such elastic windows in near linear time. We present applications of the algorithm for detecting Gamma Ray Bursts in large-scale astrophysical data. Detection of periods with high volumes of trading activities and high stock price volatility is also demonstrated using real time Trade and Quote (TAQ) data from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Our algorithm beats the direct computation approach by several orders of magnitude.

Learning to Assign Orientations to Feature Points <=SEP=> We show how to train a Convolutional Neural Network to assign a canonical orientation to feature points given an image patch centered on the feature point. Our method improves feature point matching upon the state-of-the art and can be used in conjunction with any existing rotation sensitive descriptors. To avoid the tedious and almost impossible task of finding a target orientation to learn, we propose to use Siamese networks which implicitly find the optimal orientations during training. We also propose a new type of activation function for Neural Networks that generalizes the popular ReLU, maxout, and PReLU activation functions. This novel activation performs better for our task. We validate the effectiveness of our method extensively with four existing datasets, including two non-planar datasets, as well as our own dataset. We show that we outperform the state-of-the-art without the need of retraining for each dataset.

Compact CPW-Fed microstrip octagonal patch antenna with H slot for WLAN and WIMAX applications <=SEP=> In this paper, a Coplanar Wave Guide (CPW)-Fed microstrip octagonal patch antenna for WLAN and WIMAX Applications is proposed. The studied structure is suitable for 2.3/2.5/3.3/3.5/5/5.5GHz WiMAX and for 3.6/2.4–2.5/4.9–5.9GHz WLAN applications. The octagonal shape is obtained by making a cut in the four angles of the rectangular microstrip patch antenna; in addition the using of CPW-Fed allows obtaining UWB characteristics. The miniaturization in the antenna size for lower band is achieved by introducing an H slot in the radiating element. The proposed antenna is designed on a single and a small substrate board of dimensions 46×40×1.6 mm3. Moreover the miniaturized antenna has a good impedance matching and a reasonable gain. All the simulations were performed in CADFEKO, a Method of Moment (MoM) based solver.

Artificial-Life Ecosystems - What are they and what could they become? <=SEP=> This paper summarises the history of the terms ecology and ecosystem, before examining their application in the early and recent literature of A-Life agent-based software simulation. It investigates trends in A-Life that have led to a predominance of simulations incorporating artificial evolution acting on generic agents, but lacking a level of detail that would allow the emergence of phenomena relating to the transfer and transformation of energy and matter between the virtual abiotic environment and biota. Implications of these characteristics for the relevance of A-Life’s virtual ecosystem models to Ecology are discussed. We argue a position that the inclusion of low-level representations of energetics, matter and evolution, in concert with pattern-oriented modelling techniques from Ecology for model validation, will improve the relevance of A-Life models to Ecology. We also suggest two methods that may allows us to meet this goal: artificial evolution can be employed as a mechanism for automating pattern-oriented ecological modelling from the level of individual species up to that of the ecosystem, or it may be employed to explore general principles of ecosystem behaviour over evolutionary time periods.

Optimized Product Quantization for Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search <=SEP=> Product quantization is an effective vector quantization approach to compactly encode high-dimensional vectors for fast approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search. The essence of product quantization is to decompose the original high-dimensional space into the Cartesian product of a finite number of low-dimensional subspaces that are then quantized separately. Optimal space decomposition is important for the performance of ANN search, but still remains unaddressed. In this paper, we optimize product quantization by minimizing quantization distortions w.r.t. the space decomposition and the quantization codebooks. We present two novel methods for optimization: a non-parametric method that alternatively solves two smaller sub-problems, and a parametric method that is guaranteed to achieve the optimal solution if the input data follows some Gaussian distribution. We show by experiments that our optimized approach substantially improves the accuracy of product quantization for ANN search.

A GPU-Based Rasterization Algorithm for Boolean Operations on Polygons <=SEP=> This paper presents a new GPU-based rasterization algorithm for Boolean operations that handles arbitary closed polygons. We construct an efficient data structure for interoperation of CPU and GPU and propose a fast GPU-based contour extraction method to ensure the performance of our algorithm. We then design a novel traversing strategy to achieve an error-free calculation of intersection point for correct Boolean operations. We finally give a detail evaluation and the results show that our algorithm has a higher performance than exsiting algorithms on processing polygons with large amount of vertices. key words: GPU, CPU, rasterization, Boolean operation, error-free

Experimental Analysis of Mode Switching Techniques in Touch-based User Interfaces <=SEP=> This paper presents the results of a 36 participant empirical comparison of touch mode-switching. Six techniques are evaluated, spanning current and future techniques: long press, non-dominant hand, two-fingers, hard press, knuckle, and thumb-on-finger. Two poses are controlled for, seated with the tablet on a desk and standing with the tablet held on the forearm. Findings indicate pose has no effect on mode switching time and little effect on error rate; using two-fingers is fastest while long press is much slower; non-preferred hand and thumb-on-finger also rate highly in subjective scores. The experiment protocol is based on Li et al.'s pen mode-switching study, enabling a comparison of touch and pen mode switching. Among the common techniques, the non-dominant hand is faster than pressure with touch, whereas no significant difference had been found for pen. Our work addresses the lack of empirical evidence comparing touch mode-switching techniques and provides guidance to practitioners when choosing techniques and to researchers when designing new mode-switching methods.

Backtracking search algorithm in CVRP models for efficient solid waste collection and route optimization. <=SEP=> Waste collection is an important part of waste management that involves different issues, including environmental, economic, and social, among others. Waste collection optimization can reduce the waste collection budget and environmental emissions by reducing the collection route distance. This paper presents a modified Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA) in capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) models with the smart bin concept to find the best optimized waste collection route solutions. The objective function minimizes the sum of the waste collection route distances. The study introduces the concept of the threshold waste level (TWL) of waste bins to reduce the number of bins to be emptied by finding an optimal range, thus minimizing the distance. A scheduling model is also introduced to compare the feasibility of the proposed model with that of the conventional collection system in terms of travel distance, collected waste, fuel consumption, fuel cost, efficiency and CO2 emission. The optimal TWL was found to be between 70% and 75% of the fill level of waste collection nodes and had the maximum tightness value for different problem cases. The obtained results for four days show a 36.80% distance reduction for 91.40% of the total waste collection, which eventually increases the average waste collection efficiency by 36.78% and reduces the fuel consumption, fuel cost and CO2 emission by 50%, 47.77% and 44.68%, respectively. Thus, the proposed optimization model can be considered a viable tool for optimizing waste collection routes to reduce economic costs and environmental impacts.

The return of AdaBoost.MH: multi-class Hamming trees <=SEP=> Within the framework of ADABOOST.MH, we propose to train vector-valued decision trees to optimize the multi-class edge without reducing the multi-class problem toK binary one-againstall classifications. The key element of the method is a vector-valued decision stump, factorized into an input-independent vector of length K and label-independent scalar classifier. At inner tree nodes, the label-dependent vector is discarded and the binary classifier can be used for partitioning the input space into two regions. The algorithm retains the conceptual elegance, power, and computational efficiency of binary ADABOOST. In experiments it is on par with support vector machines and with the best existing multi-class boosting algorithm AOSOLOGITBOOST, and it is significantly better than other known implementations of ADABOOST.MH.

Process mining: a two-step approach to balance between underfitting and overfitting <=SEP=> Process mining includes the automated discovery of processes from event logs. Based on observed events (e.g., activities being executed or messages being exchanged) a process model is constructed. One of the essential problems in process mining is that one cannot assume to have seen all possible behavior. At best, one has seen a representative subset. Therefore, classical synthesis techniques are not suitable as they aim at finding a model that is able to exactly reproduce the log. Existing process mining techniques try to avoid such “overfitting” by generalizing the model to allow for more behavior. This generalization is often driven by the representation language and very crude assumptions about completeness. As a result, parts of the model are “overfitting” (allow only for what has actually been observed) while other parts may be “underfitting” (allow for much more behavior without strong support for it). None of the existing techniques enables the user to control the balance between “overfitting” and “underfitting”. To address this, we propose a two-step approach. First, using a configurable approach, a transition system is constructed. Then, using the “theory of regions”, the model is synthesized. The approach has been implemented in the context of ProM and overcomes many of the limitations of traditional approaches.

AtlanticWave-SDX : An International SDX to Support Science Data Applications <=SEP=> New scientific instruments that are being designed and deployed in the coming years will dramatically increase the need for large, real-time data transfers among scientists throughout the world. One such instrument is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope being built in Chile that will produce 6.4 GB images every 17 seconds. This paper describes an ongoing effort to meet the demands of these large data scientific instruments through the development of an international software defined exchange point (SDX) that will meet the provisioning needs for the scientific users. The specific planned and ongoing work in SDX architecture is described with specific consideration for policy specification and security. Keywords—Software Defined Exchange; Science Data

Pustulobullous variant of SDRIFE (symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema). <=SEP=> We report on a 64-year-old patient from Sri Lanka who presented to the emergency room with a 24-hour history of pruritic, erythematous patches – with occasional pustules and blisters – in the groins, axillae, and antecubital fossae. The patient reported no pain or general symptoms. Six days earlier, he had started taking cefuroxime (500 mg BID) for the first time. The antibiotic had been prescribed following temporary ureteral stent placement due to nephrolithiasis. He denied any other medical or dermatological conditions, and no other drugs had been taken. At initial presentation, he exhibited sharply demarcated, symmetrically disseminated, dark-red patches in the groins, axillae, and antecubital fossae. Some lesions showed pustules and blisters (Figure 1a–c). The physical exam was otherwise unremarkable; in particular, there was no fever. Histology revealed a superficial perivascular, spongiform dermatitis with lymphocytes, eosinophils, and neutrophils. Focally, necrotic keratinocytes and neutrophils were noted in the epidermis. Overall, the findings were consistent with a drug reaction (Figure 2). Apart from slightly elevated CRP levels (5.7 mg/dL, normal range: < 0.5) and mild thrombocytopenia (111,000, normal range: 166,000–308,000), laboratory tests were within normal limits. The detection of Escherichia coli in a swab taken from a pustule in the inguinal region was thought to represent contamination; the pathological lab results were considered to be consistent with an inflammatory response to nephrolithiasis. Taking the history, clinical symptoms, and histological findings into account, the patient was diagnosed with a pustulobullous variant of SDRIFE (symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema). Since 2004, the acronym SDRIFE has been used for the condition previously known as baboon syndrome. First reported in 1984, the term baboon syndrome referred to the acute development of erythematous lesions in the gluteal area following contact with mercury from broken fever thermometers [1, 2]. In particular, the new term SDRIFE takes into account that systemic drugs, too, may induce flexural skin lesions without prior sensitization [3–6]. In the present case, the development of skin lesions six days after the intake of cefuroxime suggests first exposure to the drug. The diagnosis of SDRIFE includes five clinical criteria that are summarized in Table 1. Atypical disease courses with pustules, papules, and blisters have also been described [4]. The onset of SDRIFE is independent of patient age, and occurs a few hours or even up to eight days after the administration/application of the triggering factor. Apart from systemic antibiotics – in particular β-lactam antibiotics – corticosteroids, psychopharmaceuticals, biologics, and many other drug classes are

High Efficient Interleaved Multi-channel dc/dc Converter Dedicated to Mobile Applications <=SEP=> In the transportation field, the empty weight of the vehicle has to be as light as possible in order to have the highest energetic efficiency. For onboard storage electrical systems, DC/DC converters are usually used to control the power flows in the vehicle. This paper focuses on two different DC/DC converter applications: high current/low voltage on the one hand and low current/high voltage on the other hand. For all power mobile applications, a standard dc/dc converter is not realizable due to mass and volume constraints. As the inductor is usually the biggest and heaviest component in the system, it is important to develop a new structure allowing the reduction of its size and weight. The chosen technology is based on interleaved channels operating in discontinuous mode, also using reverse conduction of power MOSFET transistors. For both of the cases described above, a prototype has been built composed of 8 and 4 channels respectively. The first converter is used for power assistance (250 A/18 V) using the MOS reverse conduction property. In this particular case, efficiency is up to 96.3 %. The second is developed for a mobile solar application (3.8 A/270 V). Efficiencies are up to 98.4 %

Face Detection: A Survey <=SEP=> In this paper we present a comprehensive and critical survey of face detection algorithms. Face detection is a necessary first-step in face recognition systems, with the purpose of localizing and extracting the face region from the background. It also has several applications in areas such as content-based image retrieval, video coding, video conferencing, crowd surveillance, and intelligent human–computer interfaces. However, it was not until recently that the face detection problem received considerable attention among researchers. The human face is a dynamic object and has a high degree of variability in its apperance, which makes face detection a difficult problem in computer vision. A wide variety of techniques have been proposed, ranging from simple edge-based algorithms to composite high-level approaches utilizing advanced pattern recognition methods. The algorithms presented in this paper are classified as either feature-based or image-based and are discussed in terms of their technical approach and performance. Due to the lack of standardized tests, we do not provide a comprehensive comparative evaluation, but in cases where results are reported on common datasets, comparisons are presented. We also give a presentation of some proposed applications and possible application areas. c © 2001 Academic Press

Greedy Sampling of Graph Signals <=SEP=> Sampling is a fundamental topic in graph signal processing, having found applications in estimation, clustering, and video compression. In contrast to traditional signal processing, the irregularity of the signal domain makes selecting a sampling set nontrivial and hard to analyze. Indeed, though conditions for graph signal interpolation from noiseless samples exist, they do not lead to a unique sampling set. The presence of noise makes choosing among these sampling sets a hard combinatorial problem. Although greedy sampling schemes are commonly used in practice, they have no performance guarantee. This work takes a twofold approach to address this issue. First, universal performance bounds are derived for the Bayesian estimation of graph signals from noisy samples. In contrast to currently available bounds, they are not restricted to specific sampling schemes and hold for any sampling sets. Second, this paper provides near-optimal guarantees for greedy sampling by introducing the concept of approximate submodularity and updating the classical greedy bound. It then provides explicit bounds on the approximate supermodularity of the interpolation mean-square error showing that it can be optimized with worst case guarantees using greedy search even though it is not supermodular. Simulations illustrate the derived bound for different graph models and show an application of graph signal sampling to reduce the complexity of kernel principal component analysis.

Development and Evaluation of a Bluetooth EKG Monitoring Sensor <=SEP=> With the adoption of 2G and 3G cellular network technologies, mobile phones now have the bandwidth capability to stream data back to monitoring stations in real-time. Our paper describes the design and evaluation of a Bluetooth electrocardiogram sensor that transmits medical data to a cell phone. This data is displayed and stored on the phone. Future development of the system will relay this data over a cellular GPRS network. The current system provides a low cost and lightweight alternative to existing EKG event monitors. The final GPRS connected system will provide continuous monitoring of a patient 's heart anywhere cellular coverage is available

Learning to Propagate Labels: Transductive Propagation Network for Few-shot Learning <=SEP=> The goal of few-shot learning is to learn a classifier that generalizes well even when trained with a limited number of training instances per class. The recently introduced meta-learning approaches tackle this problem by learning a generic classifier across a large number of multiclass classification tasks and generalizing the model to a new task. Yet, even with such meta-learning, the low-data problem in the novel classification task still remains. In this paper, we propose Transductive Propagation Network (TPN), a novel meta-learning framework for transductive inference that classifies the entire test set at once to alleviate the low-data problem. Specifically, we propose to learn to propagate labels from labeled instances to unlabeled test instances, by learning a graph construction module that exploits the manifold structure in the data. TPN jointly learns both the parameters of feature embedding and the graph construction in an end-to-end manner. We validate TPN on multiple benchmark datasets, on which it largely outperforms existing few-shot learning approaches and achieves the state-of-the-art results.

Biomedical Image Processing <=SEP=> medical fields has led to the automated processing ofpictorial data. Here, a device called the cytocomputer searches for genetic mutations. A computer revolution has occurred not only in technical fields but also in medicine, where vast amounts of information must be processed quickly and accurately. Nowhere is the need for image processing techniques more apparent than in clinical diagnosis or mass screening applications where data take the form of digital images. New high-resolution scanning techniques such as computed tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, po-sitron emission tomography, and digital radiography produce images containing immense amounts of relevant information for medical analysis. But as these scanning techniques become more vital to clinical diagnosis, the work for specialists who must visually examine the resultant images increases. In many cases, quantitative data in the form of measurements and counts are needed to supplement nonimage patient data, and the manual extraction of these data is a time-consuming and costly step in an otherwise automated process. Furthermore, subtle variants of shade and shape can be the earliest clues to a diagnosis, placing the additional burden of complete thoroughness on the examining specialist. For the last five years, the University of Michigan and the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan have conducted a unique series of studies that involve the processing of biomedical imagery on a highly parallel computer specifically designed for image processing. System designers have incorporated the requirements of extracting a verifiable answer from an image in a reasonable time into an integrated approach to hardware and software design. The system includes a parallel pipelined image processor, called a cytocomputer, and a high-level language specifically created for image processing, C-3PL, the cytocomputer parallel picture processing language. These studies have involved a great many people from both the medical and engineering communities and have highlighted the interdisciplinary aspects of biomedical image processing. The methods have been tested in anatomy, developmental biology, nuclear medicine, car-diology, and transplant rejection. The general consensus is that quantification by automated image analysis not only increases diagnostic accuracy but also provides significant data not obtainable from qualitative analysis alone. One study in particular, on which descriptions in this article are based, involves a joint effort by the University of Michigan's human genetics and electrical and computer engineering departments and is supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute. Basically, automated image analysis is being applied via sophisticated biochemical and computer techniques to derive …

A Review on Automated Brain Tumor Detection and Segmentation from MRI of Brain <=SEP=> Tumor segmentation from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data is an important but time consuming manual task performed by medical experts. Automating this process is a challenging task because of the high diversity in the appearance of tumor tissues among different patients and in many cases similarity with the normal tissues. MRI is an advanced medical imaging technique providing rich information about the human soft-tissue anatomy. There are different brain tumor detection and segmentation methods to detect and segment a brain tumor from MRI images. These detection and segmentation approaches are reviewed with an importance placed on enlightening the advantages and drawbacks of these methods for brain tumor detection and segmentation. The use of MRI image detection and segmentation in different procedures are also described. Here a brief review of different segmentation for detection of brain tumor from MRI of brain has been discussed.

Survey on Cloud Computing Security <=SEP=> Cloud is a modern age computing paradigm which has potential to bring great benefits to information and Communication Technology (ICT) and ICT enabled business. The term Cloud comes from the graphic that was often used to show the heterogeneous networks and complex infrastructure. This graphic was adopted to describe the many aspects of Cloud Computing. In this paper, we aim to identify the security issues in cloud computing. Here we present an analysis of security issues in a cloud environment. Solutions exist to a certain extent for various issues. Keywords—Cloud computing, security challenges, threats

Review on Non-Volatile Memory with High-k Dielectrics: Flash for Generation Beyond 32 nm <=SEP=> Flash memory is the most widely used non-volatile memory device nowadays. In order to keep up with the demand for increased memory capacities, flash memory has been continuously scaled to smaller and smaller dimensions. The main benefits of down-scaling cell size and increasing integration are that they enable lower manufacturing cost as well as higher performance. Charge trapping memory is regarded as one of the most promising flash memory technologies as further down-scaling continues. In addition, more and more exploration is investigated with high-k dielectrics implemented in the charge trapping memory. The paper reviews the advanced research status concerning charge trapping memory with high-k dielectrics for the performance improvement. Application of high-k dielectric as charge trapping layer, blocking layer, and tunneling layer is comprehensively discussed accordingly.

A unified theory of development: a dialectic integration of nature and nurture. <=SEP=> The understanding of nature and nurture within developmental science has evolved with alternating ascendance of one or the other as primary explanations for individual differences in life course trajectories of success or failure. A dialectical perspective emphasizing the interconnectedness of individual and context is suggested to interpret the evolution of developmental science in similar terms to those necessary to explain the development of individual children. A unified theory of development is proposed to integrate personal change, context, regulation, and representational models of development.