Query: Shuffled frog-leaping algorithm : a memetic metaheuristic for discrete optimization

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Flocks , Herds , and Schools : A Distributed Behavioral Model <=SEP=> The aggregate motion of a flock of birds, a herd of land animals, or a school of fish is a beautiful and familiar part of the n a t u r a l world. But this type of complex motion is rarely seen in computer animation. This paper explores an approach based on simulation as an alternative to scripting the paths of each bird individually. The simulated flock is an elaboration of a particle system, with the simulated birds being the particles. The aggregate motion of the simulated flock is created by a distributed behavioral model much like that at work in a natural flock; the birds choose their own course. Each simulated bird is implemented as an independent actor that navigates according to its local perception of the dynamic environment, the laws of simulated physics that rule its motion, and a set of behaviors programmed into it by the "animator." The aggregate motion of the simulated flock is the result of the dense interaction of the relatively simple behaviors of the individual simulated birds.

A new optimizer using particle swarm theory <=SEP=> The optimization of nonlinear functions using particle swarm methodology is described. Implementations of two paradigms are discussed and compared, including a recently developed locally oriented paradigm. Benchmark testing of both paradigms is described, and applications, including neural network training and robot task learning, are proposed. Relationships between particle swarm optimization and both artificial life and evolutionary computation are reviewed.

Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation <=SEP=> Covers Smalltalk language and concepts from Xerox PARC. This need to a valid in with hexadecimal number before. Dwight thanks adele goldberg david robson copyright addison wesley isbn edition used was at compile. Smalltalk 80 syntax uses punctuation in, the language they can be significantly more popular. There is not this may be written as artifacts such messages. By storing them are parsed according to evaluate? The boolean receiver as lisp often even the virtual machine. One left smalltalk 80 is, the modern open. The increasing usage visualworks has recently been used was an image. Alan kay one thing developers to a transcript window would. Even primitives such interleaving of the, language and dec objectstudio each restart. Enfin was an object holds is, extremely important. Also be recreated explicitly define the, book presents a copy of the agile methods messages.

Particle Systems - a Technique for Modeling a Class of Fuzzy Objects <=SEP=> This paper introduces particle systems--a method for modeling fuzzy objects such as fire, clouds, and water. Particle systems model an object as a cloud of primitive particles that define its volume. Over a period of time, particles are generated into the system, move and change form within the system, and die from the system. The resulting model is able to represent motion, changes of form, and dynamics that are not possible with classical surface-based representations. The particles can easily be motion blurred, and therefore do not exhibit temporal aliasing or strobing. Stochastic processes are used to generate and control the many particles within a particle system. The application of particle systems to the wall of fire element from the Genesis Demo sequence of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [10] is presented.

Handbook of genetic algorithms <=SEP=> In this paper, the effect of Genetic algorithm (GA) on the enhancement of the texture and quality of plants visual L. Davis, The handbook of Genetic Algorithms. Genetic Algorithm is one of many methods that can be used to create a schedule. This method Davis, L.: Handbook on Genetic Algorithms. Van Nostrand. In this research, genetic algorithm approach has been applied for solving exam (18) Davis L., Handbook of Genetic Algorithms, New York, Van Nostrand.

Solid state transformer application to grid connected photovoltaic inverters <=SEP=> In the paper, an architecture, including a solid state transformer (SST) which is different from the conventional style is proposed The photovoltaic system with SST consists of two power stages. A dual half bridge (DHB) converter constitutes the first power stage, which aims to achieve the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) functions. A grid connected inverter is used to stabilize the DC bus voltage and make the output current sinusoidal. The control technique is presented and validated by simulation implemented on a photovoltaic system with SST. The simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed photovoltaic system and the proposed control technique.

Statistical Machine Translation: A Guide for Linguists and Translators <=SEP=> This paper presents an overview of Statistical Machine Translation (SMT), which is currently the dominant approach in Machine Translation (MT) research. In Way and Hearne (2010), we describe how central linguists and translators are to the MT process, so that SMT developers and researchers may better understand how to include these groups in continuing to advance the stateof-the-art. If these constituencies are to make an impact in the field of MT, they need to know how their input is used by SMT systems. Accordingly, our objective in this paper is to present the basic principles underpinning SMT in a way that linguists and translators will find accessible

A Review of Substrate Integrated Waveguide End-Fire Antennas <=SEP=> Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is a planar waveguide structure, which offers the advantages of low profile, ease of fabrication, low insertion loss, and compatibility with other planar circuits. SIW end-fire antennas have drawn broad interests due to the potential applications in aircraft, missile, and radar systems. However, this planar structure suffers from narrow bandwidth due to severe impedance mismatch at the radiating aperture. Meanwhile, the narrow radiating aperture of SIW end-fire antennas also deteriorates the radiation performance. This paper presents a detailed review upon the most recent research efforts concerning the improvement of antenna performances. They are discussed and classified into three different categories from the aspect of polarization properties: horizontally polarized, vertically polarized, and circularly polarized SIW end-fire antennas. Some practical difficulties for the development of SIW end-fire antennas are pointed out and effective approaches are also provided. A wide variety of antenna examples are presented with respect to theoretical and experimental results.

Organic Computing – Technical Systems for Survival in the Real World <=SEP=> ion is the selection and (possibly) coarsening (i.e. quantisation) of certain system characteristics (attributes, performance indicators, parameters) from the total set of system characteristics. The abstraction process comprises: • A simplification (Example: The colour Red is an abstraction, which neglects the different possible shades of Red, the wavelengths, the intensity etc.), • an aggregation (Example: ‘Temperature’ condenses the myriad of individual molecule movements in a gas volume into a single number.), • and consequently: loss of information. The opposite of abstraction is concretisation. It comprises: • gain of information, • detailing, • refinement, • disaggregation, • in engineering: the design process. 3.2.2 System Boundary Systems are defined by their system boundary, which makes a distinction between inside and outside possible (i.e. between self and non-self, see Sect. 4.1). When 3.2 What is a System? 87 Fig. 3.3 Trade-off between initial development cost and later adaptation cost systems are designed, we must choose where to place the boundary. This involves a consideration of cost (Fig. 3.3): A narrow boundary will reduce the cost for planning and development in the first place but bears the risk of a high effort in case a subsequent adaptation and extension of the system should be necessary. A wide system boundary reverses the cost curves. Apparently, the total cost minimum lies somewhere in the middle. 3.2.3 Some System Types and Properties Most systems are transient, i.e. they change over time. They are developed, assembled, modified, destroyed. Reactive systems react on inputs (events, signals, sensor data) by applying outputs (events, control signals, commands) to the environment. All open systems are reactive! In a more focused definition: Only systems reacting in real time (within a predefined time) are reactive systems. Such real-time systems are characterised by (1) time restrictions (deadlines), and (2) time determinism (i.e. guarantees). Planned vs. Unplanned systems: During the development process of technical systems, only predictable events are taken into account in the designed core. But there will always be an unpredictable rest. Therefore, the ‘spontaneous closure’ (Fig. 3.4) has to cover these events. In technical systems, the exception handler or the diagnosis system play the role of a simple spontaneous closure. Living systems are characterised by a powerful spontaneous closure. Recurring reactions of the spontaneous closure become part of the designed core. This amounts to learning.

Micro-punch technique for treatment of Fordyce spots: a surgical approach for an unpleasant condition of the male genital. <=SEP=> Fordyce spots are ectopic sebaceous glands, ranging between 2 and 3 mm in diameter. These benign lesions are most frequently located in the oral mucosa and the genital skin. Especially in the male genital region they can cause itching, discomfort during sexual activities and are aesthetically unpleasant. So far, a variety of therapeutic procedures have been reported with varying success and recurrence rates. In the present retrospective study (n = 23 patients between 2003 and 2011), we present our surgical approach by means of the micro-punch technique. Using this effective method, we achieved very satisfactory functional and cosmetic results. There were no signs of recurrence during postoperative observations from 12 up to 84 months (median = 51.3 months).

ERMIA: Fast Memory-Optimized Database System for Heterogeneous Workloads <=SEP=> Large main memories and massively parallel processors have triggered not only a resurgence of high-performance transaction processing systems optimized for large main-memory and massively parallel processors, but also an increasing demand for processing heterogeneous workloads that include read-mostly transactions. Many modern transaction processing systems adopt a lightweight optimistic concurrency control (OCC) scheme to leverage its low overhead in low contention workloads. However, we observe that the lightweight OCC is not suitable for heterogeneous workloads, causing significant starvation of read-mostly transactions and overall performance degradation.
 In this paper, we present ERMIA, a memory-optimized database system built from scratch to cater the need of handling heterogeneous workloads. ERMIA adopts snapshot isolation concurrency control to coordinate heterogeneous transactions and provides serializability when desired. Its physical layer supports the concurrency control schemes in a scalable way. Experimental results show that ERMIA delivers comparable or superior performance and near-linear scalability in a variety of workloads, compared to a recent lightweight OCC-based system. At the same time, ERMIA maintains high throughput on read-mostly transactions when the performance of the OCC-based system drops by orders of magnitude.

Abstraction-Based Livelock/Deadlock Checking for Hardware Verification <=SEP=> ion-Based Livelock/Deadlock Checking for Hardware Verification In-Ho Moon and Kevin Harer Synopsys Inc. {mooni, kevinh}@synopsys.com

New Frontiers in Formal Methods: Learning, Cyber-Physical Systems, Education, and Beyond <=SEP=> We survey promising directions for research in the area of formal methods and its applications, including fundamental questions about the combination of formal methods and machine learning, and applications to cyberphysical systems and education.

Automatic Forest-Fire Measuring Using Ground Stations and Unmanned Aerial Systems <=SEP=> This paper presents a novel system for automatic forest-fire measurement using cameras distributed at ground stations and mounted on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). It can obtain geometrical measurements of forest fires in real-time such as the location and shape of the fire front, flame height and rate of spread, among others. Measurement of forest fires is a challenging problem that is affected by numerous potential sources of error. The proposed system addresses them by exploiting the complementarities between infrared and visual cameras located at different ground locations together with others onboard Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The system applies image processing and geo-location techniques to obtain forest-fire measurements individually from each camera and then integrates the results from all the cameras using statistical data fusion techniques. The proposed system has been extensively tested and validated in close-to-operational conditions in field fire experiments with controlled safety conditions carried out in Portugal and Spain from 2001 to 2006.

Travi-Navi: self-deployable indoor navigation system <=SEP=> We present Travi-Navi - a vision-guided navigation system that enables a self-motivated user to easily bootstrap and deploy indoor navigation services, without comprehensive indoor localization systems or even the availability of floor maps. Travi-Navi records high quality images during the course of a guider's walk on the navigation paths, collects a rich set of sensor readings, and packs them into a navigation trace. The followers track the navigation trace, get prompt visual instructions and image tips, and receive alerts when they deviate from the correct paths. Travi-Navi also finds the most efficient shortcuts whenever possible. We encounter and solve several challenges, including robust tracking, shortcut identification, and high quality image capture while walking. We implement Travi-Navi and conduct extensive experiments. The evaluation results show that Travi-Navi can track and navigate users with timely instructions, typically within a 4-step offset, and detect deviation events within 9 steps.

Gender and language-variety Identification with MicroTC <=SEP=> In this notebook, we describe our approach to cope with the Author Profiling task on PAN17 which consists of both gender and language identification for Twitter’s users. We used our MicroTC (μTC) framework as the primary tool to create our classifiers. μTC follows a simple approach to text classification; it converts the problem of text classification to a model selection problem using several simple text transformations, a combination of tokenizers, a term-weighting scheme, and finally, it classifies using a Support Vector Machine. Our approach reaches accuracies of 0.7838, 0.8054, 0.7957, and 0.8538, for gender identification; and for language variety, it achieves 0.8275, 0.9004, 0.9554, and 0.9850. All these, for Arabic, English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages, respectively.

Multilingual Neural Network Acoustic Modelling for ASR of Under-Resourced English-isiZulu Code-Switched Speech <=SEP=> Although isiZulu speakers code-switch with English as a matter of course, extremely little appropriate data is available for acoustic modelling. Recently, a small five-language corpus of code-switched South African soap opera speech was compiled. We used this corpus to evaluate the application of multilingual neural network acoustic modelling to English-isiZulu code-switched speech recognition. Our aim was to determine whether English-isiZulu speech recognition accuracy can be improved by incorporating three other language pairs in the corpus: English-isiXhosa, English-Setswana and English-Sesotho. Since isiXhosa, like isiZulu, belongs to the Nguni language family, while Setswana and Sesotho belong to the more distant Sotho family, we could also investigate the merits of additional data from within and across language groups. Our experiments using both fully connected DNN and TDNN-LSTM architectures show that English-isiZulu speech recognition accuracy as well as language identification after code-switching is improved more by the incorporation of English-isiXhosa data than by the incorporation of the other language pairs. However additional data from the more distant language group remained beneficial, and the best overall performance was always achieved with a multilingual neural network trained on all four language pairs.

Accelerating MapReduce on a coupled CPU-GPU architecture <=SEP=> The work presented here is driven by two observations. First, heterogeneous architectures that integrate a CPU and a GPU on the same chip are emerging, and hold much promise for supporting power-efficient and scalable high performance computing. Second, MapReduce has emerged as a suitable framework for simplified parallel application development for many classes of applications, including data mining and machine learning applications that benefit from accelerators.
 This paper focuses on the challenge of scaling a MapReduce application using the CPU and GPU together in an integrated architecture. We develop different methods for dividing the work, which are the map-dividing scheme, where map tasks are divided between both devices, and the pipelining scheme, which pipelines the map and the reduce stages on different devices. We develop dynamic work distribution schemes for both the approaches. To achieve high load balance while keeping scheduling costs low, we use a runtime tuning method to adjust task block sizes for the map-dividing scheme. Our implementation of MapReduce is based on a continuous reduction method, which avoids the memory overheads of storing key-value pairs.
 We have evaluated the different design decisions using 5 popular MapReduce applications. For 4 of the applications, our system achieves 1.21 to 2.1 speedup over the better of the CPU-only and GPU-only versions. The speedups over a single CPU core execution range from 3.25 to 28.68. The runtime tuning method we have developed achieves very low load imbalance, while keeping scheduling overheads low. Though our current work is specific to MapReduce, many underlying ideas are also applicable towards intra-node acceleration of other applications on integrated CPU-GPU nodes.

Security Challenges in the IP-based Internet of Things <=SEP=> A direct interpretation of the term Internet of Things refers to the use of standard Internet protocols for the human-to-thing or thingto-thing communication in embedded networks. Although the security needs are well-recognized in this domain, it is still not fully understood how existing IP security protocols and architectures can be deployed. In this paper, we discuss the applicability and limitations of existing Internet protocols and security architectures in the context of the Internet of Things. First, we give an overview of the deployment model and general security needs. We then present challenges and requirements for IP-based security solutions and highlight specific technical limitations of standard IP security protocols.

A Simple Compact Reconfigurable Slot Antenna With a Very Wide Tuning Range <=SEP=> A simple and compact slot antenna with a very wide tuning range is proposed. A 25 mm (roughly equal to λH/8, where λH corresponds to the highest frequency of the tuning range) open slot is etched at the edge of the ground. To achieve the tunability, only two lumped elements, namely, a PIN diode and a varactor diode are used in the structure. By switching the PIN diode placed at the open end of the slot, the slot antenna can resonate as a standard slot (when the switch is on) or a half slot (when the switch is off). Continuous tuning over a wide frequency range in those two modes can be achieved by adjusting the reverse bias (giving different capacitances) of the varactor diode loaded in the slot. Through optimal design, the tuning bands of the two modes are stitched together to form a very wide tuning range. The fabricated prototype has a tuning frequency range from 0.42 GHz to 1.48 GHz with Sll better than -10 dB, giving a frequency ratio (fR = fu/fL) of 3.52:1. The measured full spherical radiation patterns show consistent radiation characteristics of the proposed antenna within the whole tuning range.

Privacy is dead, long live privacy <=SEP=> Protecting social norms as confidentiality wanes.

PMSG fault diagnosis in marine application <=SEP=> This paper presents a fault diagnosis (FD) method for on line monitoring of stator winding partial inter-turn fault and severe faults, in permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) used in shaft generator system in marine applications. The faulty machine is represented in state space model based on the dq-frame transformation. The Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) parameters estimation technique is used to estimate the value of stator winding short-circuit parameters of the machine. The proposed technique has been simulated for different fault scenarios using Matlab®/Simulink®. Simulation results show that the proposed technique is robust and effective. Moreover it can be applied at different operating conditions to prevent development of complete failure.

Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. <=SEP=> Addressing the question of why some people are happier than others is important for both theoretical and practical reasons and should be a central goal of a comprehensive positive psychology. Following a construal theory of happiness, the author proposes that multiple cognitive and motivational processes moderate the impact of the objective environment on well-being. Thus, to understand why some people are happier than others, one must understand the cognitive and motivational processes that serve to maintain, and even enhance, enduring happiness and transient mood. The author's approach has been to explore hedonically relevant psychological processes, such as social comparison, dissonance reduction, self-reflection, self-evaluation, and person perception, in chronically happy and unhappy individuals. In support of a construal framework, self-rated happy and unhappy people have been shown to differ systematically in the particular cognitive and motivational strategies they use. Promising research directions for positive psychology in pursuit of the sources of happiness, as well as the implications of the construal approach for prescriptions for enhancing well-being, are discussed.

Cooperative map building using qualitative reasoning for several AIBO robots <=SEP=> The problem that a robot navigates autonomously through its environment, builds its own map and localizes itself in the map, is still an open problem. It is known as the SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Map Building) problem. This problem is made even more difficult when we have several robots cooperating to build a common map of an unknown environment, due to the problem of map integration of several submaps built independently by each robot, and with a high degree of error, making the map matching specially difficult. Most of the approaches to solve map building problems are quantitative, resulting in a great computational cost and a low level of abstraction. In order to fulfil these drawbacks qualitative models have been recently used. However, qualitative models are non deterministic. Therefore, the solution recently adopted has been to mix both qualitative and quantitative models to represent the environment and build maps. However, no reasoning process has been used to deal with the information stored in maps up to now, therefore maps are only static storage of landmarks. In this paper we propose a novel method for cooperative map building based on hybrid (qualitative+quantitative) representation which includes also a reasoning process. Distinctive landmarks acquisition for map representation is provided by the cognitive vision and infrared modules which compute differences from the expected data according to the current map and the actual information perceived. We will store in the map the relative orientation information of the landmarks which appear in the environment, after a qualitative reasoning process, therefore the map will be independent of the point of view of the robot. Map integration will then be achieved by localizing each robot in the maps made by the other robots, through a process of pattern matching of the hybrid maps elaborated by each robot, resulting in an integrated map which all robots share, and which is the main objective of this work. This map building method is currently being tested on a team of Sony AIBO four

Sword: Scalable and Flexible Workload Generator for Distributed Data Processing Systems <=SEP=> Workload generation is commonly employed for performance characterization, testing and benchmarking of computer systems and networks. Workload generation typically aims at simulating or emulating traffic generated by different types of applications, protocols and activities, such as web browsing, email, chat, as well as stream multimedia traffic. We present a Scalable WORkloaD generator (SWORD) that we have developed for the testing and benchmarking of high-volume data processing systems. The tool is not only scalable but is also flexible and extensible allowing the generation of workload of a variety of types of applications and of contents.

Design and implementation of a fire detection and control system for automobiles using fuzzy logic <=SEP=> The immense benefits of fire in road transport cannot be overemphasized. However more than two thousand vehicles are damaged by unwanted fire on a daily basis. On a global scale, incendiary losses to the automobile and insurance industries have ran into billions of dollars over the last decade. A not-so-distant contributory factor is the lack of a sophisticated fire safety system on the automobile. This has been addressed by designing and implementing fuzzy logic control system with feedback over an Arduino micro-controller system. The automatic system consisting of flame sensors, temperature sensors, smoke sensors and a re-engineered mobile carbon dioxide air-conditioning unit was tested on a medium sized physical car. Results show that the automobile fire detection and control system devoid of false alarms, detects and extinguishes fire under 20 seconds. An innovative, very promising solution module for hardware implementation in fire detection and control for automobiles has been developed by using new algorithms and fuzzy logic.

Seven V's of Big Data understanding Big Data to extract value <=SEP=> Big Data has shown lot of potential in real world industry and research community. We support the power and potential of it in solving real world problems. However, it is imperative to understand Big Data through the lens of 7 V's. 7th V as `Value' is desired output for industry challenges and issues. We provide a brief survey study of 7 Vs of Big Data in order to understand Big Data and extract Value concept in general. Finally we conclude by showing our vision of improved healthcare, a product of Big Data Utilization, as a future work for researchers and students, while moving forward.

Reconstructing the feedback polynomial of a linear scrambler with the method of hypothesis testing <=SEP=> Blind identification of the feedback polynomial in a linear scrambler is an important component in the wireless communication systems which have the function of automatic standard recognition and parameter estimation. The following research contains three parts. In the first part, promotion model is deduced based on Cluzeau’s model. Comparative analysis shows the advantage of computational complexity by use of the promotion model. In the second part, the improved method of estimation for the normalised standard deviation is proposed, which plays an important role for the computation time and precision. In the final part, simulation results explain the better practical application of my algorithm compared with Cluzeau’s algorithm and XiaoBei-Liu’s algorithm.

Using the Output Embedding to Improve Language Models <=SEP=> We study the topmost weight matrix of neural network language models. We show that this matrix constitutes a valid word embedding. When training language models, we recommend tying the input embedding and this output embedding. We analyze the resulting update rules and show that the tied embedding evolves in a more similar way to the output embedding than to the input embedding in the untied model. We also offer a new method of regularizing the output embedding. Our methods lead to a significant reduction in perplexity, as we are able to show on a variety of neural network language models. Finally, we show that weight tying can reduce the size of neural translation models to less than half of their original size without harming their performance.

A Single-Handed Partial Zooming Technique for Touch-Screen Mobile Devices <=SEP=> Despite its ubiquitous use, the pinch zooming technique is not effective for one-handed interaction. We propose ContextZoom, a novel technique for single-handed zooming on touch-screen mobile devices. It allows users to specify any place on a device screen as the zooming center to ensure that the intended zooming target is always visible on the screen after zooming. ContextZoom supports zooming in/out a portion of a viewport, and provides a quick switch between the partial and whole viewports. We conducted an empirical evaluation of ContextZoom through a controlled lab experiment to compare ContextZoom and the Google maps’ single-handed zooming technique. Results show that ContextZoom outperforms the latter in task completion time and the number of discrete actions taken. Participants also reported higher levels of perceived effectiveness and overall satisfaction with ContextZoom than with the Google maps’ single-handed zooming technique, as well as a similar level of perceived ease of use.