Heat Sink Performance Analysis through Numerical Technique

Abstract: The increase in dissipated power per unit area of electronic components sets higher demands on the performance of the heat sink. Also if we continue at our current rate of miniaturisation, laptops and other electronic devices can get heated up tremendously. Hence we require a better heat dissipating system to overcome the excess heat generating problem of using nanoelectronics, which is expected to power the next generation of computers. To handle the excessive and often unpredictable heating up of high performance electronic components like microprocessors, we need to predict the temperature profile of the heat sink used. This also helps us to select the best heat sink for the operating power range of any microprocessor. Understanding the temperature profile of a heat sink and a microprocessor helps us to handle its temperature efficiently for a range of loads. In this work, a method to estimate the normal response of a heat sink to various loads of a microprocessor is explained.


Fault Tolerant Real Time Systems

Abstract: Real time systems are systems in which there is a commitment for timely response by the computer to external stimuli. Real time applications have to function correctly even in presence of faults. Fault tolerance can be achieved by either hardware or software or time redundancy. Safety-critical applications have strict time and cost constraints, which means that not only faults have to be tolerated but also the constraints should be satisfied. Deadline scheduling means that the taskwith the earliest required response time is processed. The most common scheduling algorithms are :Rate Monotonic(RM) and Earliest deadline first(EDF).This paper deals with the interaction between the fault tolerant strategy and the EDF real time scheduling strategy.


A Study of VLSI Technology, Wafers and Impact on Nanotechnology

Abstract: This paper presents a detailed study of the present VLSI technological aspects, importance and their replacement or combination with the Nanotechnology in the VLSI world of silicon semiconductors. Here authors bring out the nanotechnology in Silicon world which invariably means shrinking geometry of CMOS devices to nano scale. This also refers to a new world of nanotechnology where chemists are working in manufacturing of carbon nanotubes , nano devices of varius materials of nano dimensions without even knowing how this could change the whole world of Si and CMOS technology and the world we live in.


Cooperative Proxy Servers Architecture for VoD to Achieve High QoS with Reduced Transmission Time and Cost

Abstract: - The aim of this paper is to propose a novel Voice On Demand (VoD) architecture and implementation of an efficient load sharing algorithm to achieve Quality of Service (QoS). This scheme reduces the transmission cost from the Centralized Multimedia Sever (CMS) to Proxy Servers (PS) by sharing the videos among the proxy servers of the Local Proxy Servers Group [LPSG] and among the neighboring LPSGs, which are interconnected in a ring fashion. This results in very low request rejection ratio, reduction in transmission time and cost, reduction of load on the CMS and high QoS for the users. Simulation results indicate acceptable initial startup latency, reduced transmission cost and time, load sharing among the proxy servers, among the LPSGs and between the CMS and the PS.


Relaxation Control of Packet Arrival Rate in the Neighborhood of the Destination in Concentric Sensor Networks

Abstract: One of the challenges in the wireless sensor applications which are gaining much attention is the real-time transmission of continuous data packets across the network. Though advances in communication in sensor networks are providing guaranteed quality data packet delivery they still have some drawbacks. One such drawback is transmission of incessant data packets over high speed networks. Here in this paper we have designed a concentric sensor network having buffer just not at the sink but also in selected intermediate nodes to minimize the packet loss caused due to congestion. This approach results in haggle congestion and less packet loss in the designed network.


An Architectural Approach for Decoding and Distributing Functions in FPUs in a Functional Processor System

Abstract: The main goal of this research is to develop the concepts of a revolutionary processor system called Functional Processor System. The fairly novel work carried out in this proposal concentrates on decoding of function pipelines and distributing it in FPUs as a part of scheduling approach. As the functional programs are super-level programs that entails requirements only at functional level, decoding of functions and distribution of functions in the heterogeneous functional processor units are a challenge. We explored the possibilities of segregation of the functions from the application program and distributing the functions on the relevant FPUs by using address mapping techniques. Here we pursue the perception of feeding the functions into the processor farm rather than the processor fetching the instructions or functions and executing it. This work is carried out at theoretical levels and it requires a long way to go in the realization of this work in hardware perhaps with a large industrial team with a pragmatic time frame.


The P versus NP Problem

Abstract: Removed by arXiv administration. This article was plagiarized directly from Stephen Cook's description of the problem for the Clay Mathematics Institute. See http://gauss.claymath.org:8888/millennium/P_vs_NP/pvsnp.pdf for the original text.


Performance and Fault Tolerance in the StoreTorrent Parallel Filesystem

Abstract: With a goal of supporting the timely and cost-effective analysis of Terabyte datasets on commodity components, we present and evaluate StoreTorrent, a simple distributed filesystem with integrated fault tolerance for efficient handling of small data records. Our contributions include an application-OS pipelining technique and metadata structure to increase small write and read performance by a factor of 1-10, and the use of peer-to-peer communication of replica-location indexes to avoid transferring data during parallel analysis even in a degraded state. We evaluated StoreTorrent, PVFS, and Gluster filesystems using 70 storage nodes and 560 parallel clients on an 8-core/node Ethernet cluster with directly attached SATA disks. StoreTorrent performed parallel small writes at an aggregate rate of 1.69 GB/s, and supported reads over the network at 8.47 GB/s. We ported a parallel analysis task and demonstrate it achieved parallel reads at the full aggregate speed of the storage node local filesystems.


Defect Prevention Approaches in Medium Scale it Enterprises

Abstract: The software industry is successful, if it can draw the complete attention of the customers towards it. This is achievable if the organization can produce a high quality product. To identify a product to be of high quality, it should be free of defects, should be capable of producing expected results. It should be delivered in an estimated cost, time and be maintainable with minimum effort. Defect Prevention is the most critical but often neglected component of the software quality assurance in any project. If applied at all stages of software development, it can reduce the time, cost and resources required to engineer a high quality product.


Mapping General System Characteristics to Non- Functional Requirements

Abstract: The Function point analysis (FPA) method is the preferred scheme of estimation for project managers to determine the size, effort, schedule, resource loading and other such parameters. The FPA method by International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) has captured the critical implementation features of an application through fourteen general system characteristics. However, Non- functional requirements (NFRs) such as functionality, reliability, efficiency, usability, maintainability, portability, etc. have not been included in the FPA estimation method. This paper discusses some of the NFRs and tries to determine a degree of influence for each of them. An attempt to factor the NFRs into estimation has been made. This approach needs to be validated with data collection and analysis.


Comparison of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing Technique for Optimal Path Selection In Network Routing

Abstract: This paper addresses the path selection problem from a known sender to the receiver. The proposed work shows path selection using genetic algorithm(GA)and simulated annealing (SA) approaches. In genetic algorithm approach, the multi point crossover and mutation helps in determining the optimal path and also alternate path if required. The input to both the algorithms is a learnt module which is a part of the cognitive router that takes care of four QoS parameters.The aim of the approach is to maximize the bandwidth along the forward channels and minimize the route length. The population size is considered as the N nodes participating in the network scenario, which will be limited to a known size of topology. The simulated results show that, by using genetic algorithm approach, the probability of shortest path convergence is higher as the number of iteration goes up whereas in simulated annealing the number of iterations had no influence to attain better results as it acts on random principle of selection.


Tatouage Robuste Et Aveugle Dans Le Domaine Des Valeurs Singulieres

Abstract: Digital watermarking consists on inserting a mark into an image to protect it against copies. The heaviness of the extraction procedure with the old methods urged us to look for a new algorithm in the singular values domain which would be blind : it does not require the original image to extract the mark. We propose a new robust method which consists on inserting the bits of the mark into the singular values matrix. Contrary to most of the watermarking algorithms, it is blind and the results show that our method is robust against the JPEG compression, the reduction of colors (GIF) and the histogram spreading. So, we were able to obtain PSNR = 49,63 dB.


Approaches to Curriculum and Teaching Materials to Bring Out Better Skilled Software Engineers-An Indian Perspective

Abstract: Development of Curriculum and delivery materials has undergone changes over a period of time, in undergraduate engineering degree system in Indian universities. However, there exists a gap between industry expectations in IT field and skills and knowledge that the graduating engineers possess and this continues to grow. A similar situation has been seen in the developed countries like USA, UK and Australia. Several researchers and practitioners have discussed and tried to come up with innovative approaches to teaching software engineering and IT as a whole. In India, it is of vital importance that steps be taken to address this issue seriously. This paper discusses some of the measures that have been implemented so that this gap is reduced and software engineers with better skills are produced. Changes to curriculum, industry-academia collaboration through conferences, sabbaticals etc., industry internships and live projects for final year students are some of the measures that have been discussed in this paper. The implementation of these measures may lead to fulfilling the growing requirement for skilled software engineers who can handle the industry challenges.


Spreadsheet good practice: is there any such thing?

Abstract: Various techniques for developing spreadsheet models greatly improve the chance that the end result will not contain basic mechanical errors. However, for every discipline in which a given technique is useful, there is likely to be another in which the same technique works badly. As a result, the author urges that EuSpRIG does not succumb to internal or external pressures to champion a particular set of "best practices", because no such set is optimal in all spreadsheet applications.


Modelacion y Visualizacion Tridimensional Interactiva de Variables Electricas en Celdas de Electro-Obtencion con Electrodos Bipolares

Abstract: The use of floating bipolar electrodes in electrowinning cells of copper constitutes a nonconventional technology that promises economic and operational impacts. This paper presents a computational tool for the simulation and analysis of such electrochemical cells. A new model is developed for floating electrodes and a method of finite difference is used to obtain the threedimensional distribution of the potential and the field of current density inside the cell. The analysis of the results is based on a technique for the interactive visualization of three-dimensional vectorial fields as lines of flow.


Aplicacion Grafica para el estudio de un Modelo de Celda Electrolitica usando Tecnicas de Visualizacion de Campos Vectoriales

Abstract: The use of floating bipolar electrodes in electrowinning cells of copper constitutes a nonconventional technology that promises economic and operational impacts. This thesis presents a computational tool for the simulation and analysis of such electrochemical cells. A new model is developed for floating electrodes and a method of finite difference is used to obtain the threedimensional distribution of the potential and the field of current density inside the cell. The analysis of the results is based on a technique for the interactive visualization of three-dimensional vectorial fields as lines of flow.


Fixed-Parameter Algorithms for Computing Kemeny Scores - Theory and Practice

Abstract: The central problem in this work is to compute a ranking of a set of elements which is "closest to" a given set of input rankings of the elements. We define "closest to" in an established way as having the minimum sum of Kendall-Tau distances to each input ranking. Unfortunately, the resulting problem Kemeny consensus is NP-hard for instances with n input rankings, n being an even integer greater than three. Nevertheless this problem plays a central role in many rank aggregation problems. It was shown that one can compute the corresponding Kemeny consensus list in f(k) + poly(n) time, being f(k) a computable function in one of the parameters "score of the consensus", "maximum distance between two input rankings", "number of candidates" and "average pairwise Kendall-Tau distance" and poly(n) a polynomial in the input size. This work will demonstrate the practical usefulness of the corresponding algorithms by applying them to randomly generated and several real-world data. Thus, we show that these fixed-parameter algorithms are not only of theoretical interest. In a more theoretical part of this work we will develop an improved fixed-parameter algorithm for the parameter "score of the consensus" having a better upper bound for the running time than previous algorithms.


Gr\"obner Bases of Bihomogeneous Ideals generated by Polynomials of Bidegree (1,1): Algorithms and Complexity

Abstract: Solving multihomogeneous systems, as a wide range of structured algebraic systems occurring frequently in practical problems, is of first importance. Experimentally, solving these systems with Gr\"obner bases algorithms seems to be easier than solving homogeneous systems of the same degree. Nevertheless, the reasons of this behaviour are not clear. In this paper, we focus on bilinear systems (i.e. bihomogeneous systems where all equations have bidegree (1,1)). Our goal is to provide a theoretical explanation of the aforementionned experimental behaviour and to propose new techniques to speed up the Gr\"obner basis computations by using the multihomogeneous structure of those systems. The contributions are theoretical and practical. First, we adapt the classical F5 criterion to avoid reductions to zero which occur when the input is a set of bilinear polynomials. We also prove an explicit form of the Hilbert series of bihomogeneous ideals generated by generic bilinear polynomials and give a new upper bound on the degree of regularity of generic affine bilinear systems. This leads to new complexity bounds for solving bilinear systems. We propose also a variant of the F5 Algorithm dedicated to multihomogeneous systems which exploits a structural property of the Macaulay matrix which occurs on such inputs. Experimental results show that this variant requires less time and memory than the classical homogeneous F5 Algorithm.


A Minimal Propositional Type Theory

Abstract: Propositional type theory, first studied by Henkin, is the restriction of simple type theory to a single base type that is interpreted as the set of the two truth values. We show that two constants (falsity and implication) suffice for denotational and deductive completeness. Denotational completeness means that every value of the full set-theoretic type hierarchy can be described by a closed term. Deductive completeness is shown for a sequent-based proof system that extends a propositional natural deduction system with lambda conversion and Boolean replacement.


Digital Mathematics Libraries: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Abstract: The idea of a World digital mathematics library (DML) has been around since the turn of the 21th century. We feel that it is time to make it a reality, starting in a modest way from successful bricks that have already been built, but with an ambitious goal in mind. After a brief historical overview of publishing mathematics, an estimate of the size and a characterisation of the bulk of documents to be included in the DML, we turn to proposing a model for a Reference Digital Mathematics Library--a network of institutions where the digital documents would be physically archived. This pattern based rather on the bottom-up strategy seems to be more practicable and consistent with the digital nature of the DML. After describing the model we summarise what can and should be done in order to accomplish the vision. The current state of some of the local libraries that could contribute to the global views are described with more details.


Ant Colony Algorithm for the Weighted Item Layout Optimization Problem

Abstract: This paper discusses the problem of placing weighted items in a circular container in two-dimensional space. This problem is of great practical significance in various mechanical engineering domains, such as the design of communication satellites. Two constructive heuristics are proposed, one for packing circular items and the other for packing rectangular items. These work by first optimizing object placement order, and then optimizing object positioning. Based on these heuristics, an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is described to search first for optimal positioning order, and then for the optimal layout. We describe the results of numerical experiments, in which we test two versions of our ACO algorithm alongside local search methods previously described in the literature. Our results show that the constructive heuristic-based ACO performs better than existing methods on larger problem instances.


Inclusion Analysis

Abstract: Inclusion analysis is the name given by Operis to a black box testing technique that it has found to make the checking of key financial ratios calculated by spreadsheet models quicker, easier and more likely to find omission errors than code inspection.


Self-Checks In Spreadsheets: A Survey Of Current Practice

Abstract: A common application of spreadsheets is the development of models that deliver projections of the future financial statements of companies established to pursue ventures that are subject to project financing. A survey of 11 such spreadsheets prepared by a range of organisations shows that the amount of self-testing included in such models ranges between one formula of testing for each three formulae of calculation, down to essentially no self-testing at all.


A Multi-Stage CUDA Kernel for Floyd-Warshall

Abstract: We present a new implementation of the Floyd-Warshall All-Pairs Shortest Paths algorithm on CUDA. Our algorithm runs approximately 5 times faster than the previously best reported algorithm. In order to achieve this speedup, we applied a new technique to reduce usage of on-chip shared memory and allow the CUDA scheduler to more effectively hide instruction latency.


On the Design of an Optimal Multiprocessor Real-Time Scheduling Algorithm under Practical Considerations (Extended Version)

Abstract: This research addresses the multiprocessor scheduling problem of hard real-time systems, and it especially focuses on optimal and global schedulers when practical constraints are taken into account. First, we propose an improvement of the optimal algorithm BF. We formally prove that our adaptation is (i) optimal, i.e., it always generates a feasible schedule as long as such a schedule exists, and (ii) valid, i.e., it complies with the all the requirements. We also show that it outperforms BF by providing a computing complexity of O(n), where n is the number of tasks to be scheduled. Next, we propose a schedulability analysis which indicates a priori whether the real-time application can be scheduled by our improvement of BF without missing any deadline. This analysis is, to the best of our knowledge, the first such test for multiprocessors that takes into account all the main overheads generated by the Operating System.


The tropical double description method

Abstract: We develop a tropical analogue of the classical double description method allowing one to compute an internal representation (in terms of vertices) of a polyhedron defined externally (by inequalities). The heart of the tropical algorithm is a characterization of the extreme points of a polyhedron in terms of a system of constraints which define it. We show that checking the extremality of a point reduces to checking whether there is only one minimal strongly connected component in an hypergraph. The latter problem can be solved in almost linear time, which allows us to eliminate quickly redundant generators. We report extensive tests (including benchmarks from an application to static analysis) showing that the method outperforms experimentally the previous ones by orders of magnitude. The present tools also lead to worst case bounds which improve the ones provided by previous methods.


Distributed Control of the Laplacian Spectral Moments of a Network

Abstract: It is well-known that the eigenvalue spectrum of the Laplacian matrix of a network contains valuable information about the network structure and the behavior of many dynamical processes run on it. In this paper, we propose a fully decentralized algorithm that iteratively modifies the structure of a network of agents in order to control the moments of the Laplacian eigenvalue spectrum. Although the individual agents have knowledge of their local network structure only (i.e., myopic information), they are collectively able to aggregate this local information and decide on what links are most beneficial to be added or removed at each time step. Our approach relies on gossip algorithms to distributively compute the spectral moments of the Laplacian matrix, as well as ensure network connectivity in the presence of link deletions. We illustrate our approach in nontrivial computer simulations and show that a good final approximation of the spectral moments of the target Laplacian matrix is achieved for many cases of interest.


Defect Prevention Approaches In Medium Scale It Enterprises

Abstract: The software industry is successful, if it can draw the complete attention of the customers towards it. This is achievable if the organization can produce a high quality product. To identify a product to be of high quality, it should be free of defects, should be capable of producing expected results. It should be delivered in an estimated cost, time and be maintainable with minimum effort.


An Adaptive Dynamic Replacement Approach for a Multicast based Popularity Aware Prefix Cache Memory System

Abstract: In this paper we have proposed an adaptive dynamic cache replacement algorithm for a multimedia servers cache system. The goal is to achieve an effective utilization of the cache memory which stores the prefix of popular videos. A replacement policy is usually evaluated using hit ratio, the frequency with which any video is requested. Usually discarding the least recently used page is the policy of choice in cache management. The adaptive dynamic replacement approach for prefix cache is a self tuning, low overhead algorithm that responds online to changing access patterns. It constantly balances between lru and lfu to improve combined result. It automatically adapts to evolving workloads. Since in our algorithm we have considered a prefix caching with multicast transmission of popular objects it utilizes the hard disk and network bandwidth efficiently and increases the number of requests being served.


Authentication and Authorization in Server Systems for Bio-Informatics

Abstract: Authentication and authorization are two tightly coupled and interrelated concepts which are used to keep transactions secure and help in protecting confidential information. This paper proposes to evaluate the current techniques used for authentication and authorization also compares them with the best practices and universally accepted authentication and authorization methods. Authentication verifies user identity and provides reusable credentials while authorization services stores information about user access levels. These mechanisms by which a system checks what level of access a particular authenticated user should have to view secure resources is controlled by the system


SVM-based Multiview Face Recognition by Generalization of Discriminant Analysis

Abstract: Identity verification of authentic persons by their multiview faces is a real valued problem in machine vision. Multiview faces are having difficulties due to non-linear representation in the feature space. This paper illustrates the usability of the generalization of LDA in the form of canonical covariate for face recognition to multiview faces. In the proposed work, the Gabor filter bank is used to extract facial features that characterized by spatial frequency, spatial locality and orientation. Gabor face representation captures substantial amount of variations of the face instances that often occurs due to illumination, pose and facial expression changes. Convolution of Gabor filter bank to face images of rotated profile views produce Gabor faces with high dimensional features vectors. Canonical covariate is then used to Gabor faces to reduce the high dimensional feature spaces into low dimensional subspaces. Finally, support vector machines are trained with canonical sub-spaces that contain reduced set of features and perform recognition task. The proposed system is evaluated with UMIST face database. The experiment results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed system with high recognition rates.


Generic design of Chinese remaindering schemes

Abstract: We propose a generic design for Chinese remainder algorithms. A Chinese remainder computation consists in reconstructing an integer value from its residues modulo non coprime integers. We also propose an efficient linear data structure, a radix ladder, for the intermediate storage and computations. Our design is structured into three main modules: a black box residue computation in charge of computing each residue; a Chinese remaindering controller in charge of launching the computation and of the termination decision; an integer builder in charge of the reconstruction computation. We then show that this design enables many different forms of Chinese remaindering (e.g. deterministic, early terminated, distributed, etc.), easy comparisons between these forms and e.g. user-transparent parallelism at different parallel grains.


Review and Analysis of Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS) to Deliver Voice, Data, Internet, and Video Services

Abstract: Local multipoint distribution system (LMDS) uses cellular-like network architecture of microwave radios placed at the client's location and at the company's base station to deliver fixed services, mainly telephony, video and Internet access. The use of time-division multiple access (TDMA) and FDMA (frequency DMA) technology allows multiple customers within a 3-5 mile coverage radius to share the same radio channel. Customers can receive data rates between 64kbps to 155Mbps. LMDS was conceived as a broadband, fixed wireless, point-to-multipoint technology for utilization in the last mile. Throughput capacity and reliable distance of the link depends on common radio link constraints and the modulation method used - either phase-shift keying or amplitude modulation. In general deployment links of up to 5 miles (8 km) from the base station are possible, but distance is typically limited to about 1.5 miles due to rain fading attenuation constraints. Point-to-point systems are also capable of using the LMDS frequencies and can reach slightly farther distances due to increased antenna gain.LMDS uses a scalable architecture combined with industry standards to ensure service can be expanded as customer demand increases.


Technological Strategy of Using Global Positioning System: An Analysis

Abstract: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a U.S. space-based radionavigation system that provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous worldwide basis -- freely available to all. GPS provides specially coded satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position, velocity and time. Basically GPS works by using four GPS satellite signals to compute positions in three dimensions (and the time offset) in the receiver clock. GPS provides accurate location and time information for an unlimited number of people in all weather, day and night, anywhere in the world. Anyone who needs to keep track of where he or she is, to find his or her way to a specified location, or know what direction and how fast he or she is going can utilize the benefits of the global positioning system. Everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids, are facilitated by the accurate timing provided by GPS.


Fingerprint Recognition Using Minutia Score Matching

Abstract: The popular Biometric used to authenticate a person is Fingerprint which is unique and permanent throughout a person's life. A minutia matching is widely used for fingerprint recognition and can be classified as ridge ending and ridge bifurcation. In this paper we projected Fingerprint Recognition using Minutia Score Matching method (FRMSM). For Fingerprint thinning, the Block Filter is used, which scans the image at the boundary to preserves the quality of the image and extract the minutiae from the thinned image. The false matching ratio is better compared to the existing algorithm.


Detection and Demarcation of Tumor using Vector Quantization in MRI images

Abstract: Segmenting a MRI images into homogeneous texture regions representing disparate tissue types is often a useful preprocessing step in the computer-assisted detection of breast cancer. That is why we proposed new algorithm to detect cancer in mammogram breast cancer images. In this paper we proposed segmentation using vector quantization technique. Here we used Linde Buzo-Gray algorithm (LBG) for segmentation of MRI images. Initially a codebook of size 128 was generated for MRI images. These code vectors were further clustered in 8 clusters using same LBG algorithm. These 8 images were displayed as a result. This approach does not leads to over segmentation or under segmentation. For the comparison purpose we displayed results of watershed segmentation and Entropy using Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix along with this method.


Speech Recognition of the letter 'zha' in Tamil Language using HMM

Abstract: Speech signals of the letter 'zha' in Tamil language of 3 males and 3 females were coded using an improved version of Linear Predictive Coding (LPC). The sampling frequency was at 16 kHz and the bit rate was at 15450 bits per second, where the original bit rate was at 128000 bits per second with the help of wave surfer audio tool. The output LPC cepstrum is implemented in first order three state Hidden Markov Model(HMM) chain.


Performance Analysis and Special Issues of Broadband Strategies in the Computer Communication

Abstract: Broadband communications consists of the technologies and equipment required to deliver packet-based digital voice, video, and data services to end users. Broadband affords end users high-speed, always-on access to the Internet while affording service providers the ability to offer value-added services to increase revenues. Due to the growth of the Internet, there has been tremendous buildout of high-speed, inter-city communications links that connect population centers and Internet service providers (ISPs) points of presence (PoPs) around the world. This build out of the backbone infrastructure or core network has occurred primarily via optical transport technology. Broadband access technologies are being deployed to address the bandwidth bottleneck for the "last mile," the connection of homes and small businesses to this infrastructure. One important aspect of broadband access to the home is that it allows people to telecommute effectively by providing a similar environment as when they are physically present in their office: simultaneous telephone and computer access, high-speed Internet and intranet access for e-mail, file sharing, and access to corporate servers.


Review and Analysis of The Issues of Unified Modeling Language for Visualizing, Specifying, Constructing and Documenting the Artifacts of a Software-Intensive System

Abstract: The UML allows us to specify models in a precise, complete and unambiguous manner. In particular, the UML addresses the specification of all important decisions regarding analysis, design and implementation. Although UML is not a visual programming language, its models can be directly connected to a vast variety of programming languages. This enables a dual approach to software development: the developer has a choice as to the means of input. UML can be used directly, from which code can be generated; or on the other hand, that which is best expressed as text can be entered into the program as code. In an ideal world, the UML tool will be able to reverse-engineer any direct changes to code and the UML representations will be kept in sync with the code. However, without human intervention this is not always possible. There are certain elements of information that are lost when moving from models to code. Even then, there are certain aspects of programming language code do seem to preserve more of their semantics and therefore permits automatic reverse-engineering of code back to a subset of the UML models.


Studying the Feasibility and Importance of Software Testing: An Analysis

Abstract: Software testing is a critical element of software quality assurance and represents the ultimate review of specification, design and coding. Software testing is the process of testing the functionality and correctness of software by running it. Software testing is usually performed for one of two reasons: defect detection, and reliability estimation. The problem of applying software testing to defect detection is that software can only suggest the presence of flaws, not their absence (unless the testing is exhaustive). The problem of applying software testing to reliability estimation is that the input distribution used for selecting test cases may be flawed. The key to software testing is trying to find the modes of failure - something that requires exhaustively testing the code on all possible inputs. Software Testing, depending on the testing method employed, can be implemented at any time in the development process.


Optimization of Multiple Vehicle Routing Problems using Approximation Algorithms

Abstract: This paper deals with generating of an optimized route for multiple Vehicle routing Problems (mVRP). We used a methodology of clustering the given cities depending upon the number of vehicles and each cluster is allotted to a vehicle. k- Means clustering algorithm has been used for easy clustering of the cities. In this way the mVRP has been converted into VRP which is simple in computation compared to mVRP. After clustering, an optimized route is generated for each vehicle in its allotted cluster. Once the clustering had been done and after the cities were allocated to the various vehicles, each cluster/tour was taken as an individual Vehicle Routing problem and the steps of Genetic Algorithm were applied to the cluster and iterated to obtain the most optimal value of the distance after convergence takes place. After the application of the various heuristic techniques, it was found that the Genetic algorithm gave a better result and a more optimal tour for mVRPs in short computational time than other Algorithms due to the extensive search and constructive nature of the algorithm.


Comparative Study of Protocols Used for Establishing VPN

Abstract: This is an Internet era. Most of the organizations try to establish their development centers and branch offices across the World. Employees working from their homes are also becoming very popular and organizations benefit financially by utilizing less office space, and reducing total expenses incurred by having office workers on site. To meet such requirements organizations develop a need to communicate with these offices over highly secure, confidential and reliable connections regardless of the location of the office. Here the VPN plays a vital role in establishing a distributed business model.


Modelling Variability for System Families

Abstract: In this paper, an approach to facilitate the treatment with variabilities in system families is presented by explicitly modelling variants. The proposed method of managing variability consists of a variant part, which models variants and a decision table to depict the customisation decision regarding each variant. We have found that it is easy to implement and has advantage over other methods. We present this model as an integral part of modelling system families.


Improved Approximation for Guarding Simple Galleries from the Perimeter

Abstract: We provide an O(log log OPT)-approximation algorithm for the problem of guarding a simple polygon with guards on the perimeter. We first design a polynomial-time algorithm for building epsilon-nets of size O(1/epsilon log log 1/epsilon) for the instances of Hitting Set associated with our guarding problem. We then apply the technique of Bronnimann and Goodrich to build an approximation algorithm from this epsilon-net finder. Along with a simple polygon P, our algorithm takes as input a finite set of potential guard locations that must include the polygon's vertices. If a finite set of potential guard locations is not specified, e.g. when guards may be placed anywhere on the perimeter, we use a known discretization technique at the cost of making the algorithm's running time potentially linear in the ratio between the longest and shortest distances between vertices. Our algorithm is the first to improve upon O(log OPT)-approximation algorithms that use generic net finders for set systems of finite VC-dimension.


A Decidable Class of Nested Iterated Schemata (extended version)

Abstract: Many problems can be specified by patterns of propositional formulae depending on a parameter, e.g. the specification of a circuit usually depends on the number of bits of its input. We define a logic whose formulae, called "iterated schemata", allow to express such patterns. Schemata extend propositional logic with indexed propositions, e.g. P_i, P_i+1, P_1, and with generalized connectives, e.g. /\i=1..n or i=1..n (called "iterations") where n is an (unbound) integer variable called a "parameter". The expressive power of iterated schemata is strictly greater than propositional logic: it is even out of the scope of first-order logic. We define a proof procedure, called DPLL*, that can prove that a schema is satisfiable for at least one value of its parameter, in the spirit of the DPLL procedure. However the converse problem, i.e. proving that a schema is unsatisfiable for every value of the parameter, is undecidable so DPLL* does not terminate in general. Still, we prove that it terminates for schemata of a syntactic subclass called "regularly nested". This is the first non trivial class for which DPLL* is proved to terminate. Furthermore the class of regularly nested schemata is the first decidable class to allow nesting of iterations, i.e. to allow schemata of the form /\i=1..n (/\j=1..n ...).


The Complexity of Satisfiability for Sub-Boolean Fragments of ALC

Abstract: The standard reasoning problem, concept satisfiability, in the basic description logic ALC is PSPACE-complete, and it is EXPTIME-complete in the presence of unrestricted axioms. Several fragments of ALC, notably logics in the FL, EL, and DL-Lite family, have an easier satisfiability problem; sometimes it is even tractable. All these fragments restrict the use of Boolean operators in one way or another. We look at systematic and more general restrictions of the Boolean operators and establish the complexity of the concept satisfiability problem in the presence of axioms. We separate tractable from intractable cases.


Sentence Simplification Aids Protein-Protein Interaction Extraction

Abstract: Accurate systems for extracting Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) automatically from biomedical articles can help accelerate biomedical research. Biomedical Informatics researchers are collaborating to provide metaservices and advance the state-of-art in PPI extraction. One problem often neglected by current Natural Language Processing systems is the characteristic complexity of the sentences in biomedical literature. In this paper, we report on the impact that automatic simplification of sentences has on the performance of a state-of-art PPI extraction system, showing a substantial improvement in recall (8%) when the sentence simplification method is applied, without significant impact to precision.


ONER: Tool for Organization Named Entity Recognition from Affiliation Strings in PubMed Abstracts

Abstract: Automatically extracting organization names from the affiliation sentences of articles related to biomedicine is of great interest to the pharmaceutical marketing industry, health care funding agencies and public health officials. It will also be useful for other scientists in normalizing author names, automatically creating citations, indexing articles and identifying potential resources or collaborators. Today there are more than 18 million articles related to biomedical research indexed in PubMed, and information derived from them could be used effectively to save the great amount of time and resources spent by government agencies in understanding the scientific landscape, including key opinion leaders and centers of excellence. Our process for extracting organization names involves multi-layered rule matching with multiple dictionaries. The system achieves 99.6% f-measure in extracting organization names.


Towards Automatic Extraction of Social Networks of Organizations in PubMed Abstracts

Abstract: Social Network Analysis (SNA) of organizations can attract great interest from government agencies and scientists for its ability to boost translational research and accelerate the process of converting research to care. For SNA of a particular disease area, we need to identify the key research groups in that area by mining the affiliation information from PubMed. This not only involves recognizing the organization names in the affiliation string, but also resolving ambiguities to identify the article with a unique organization. We present here a process of normalization that involves clustering based on local sequence alignment metrics and local learning based on finding connected components. We demonstrate the application of the method by analyzing organizations involved in angiogenensis treatment, and demonstrating the utility of the results for researchers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries or national funding agencies.


Towards Effective Sentence Simplification for Automatic Processing of Biomedical Text

Abstract: The complexity of sentences characteristic to biomedical articles poses a challenge to natural language parsers, which are typically trained on large-scale corpora of non-technical text. We propose a text simplification process, bioSimplify, that seeks to reduce the complexity of sentences in biomedical abstracts in order to improve the performance of syntactic parsers on the processed sentences. Syntactic parsing is typically one of the first steps in a text mining pipeline. Thus, any improvement in performance would have a ripple effect over all processing steps. We evaluated our method using a corpus of biomedical sentences annotated with syntactic links. Our empirical results show an improvement of 2.90% for the Charniak-McClosky parser and of 4.23% for the Link Grammar parser when processing simplified sentences rather than the original sentences in the corpus.


Spreadsheet Auditing Software

Abstract: It is now widely accepted that errors in spreadsheets are both common and potentially dangerous. Further research has taken place to investigate how frequently these errors occur, what impact they have, how the risk of spreadsheet errors can be reduced by following spreadsheet design guidelines and methodologies, and how effective auditing of a spreadsheet is in the detection of these errors. However, little research exists to establish the usefulness of software tools in the auditing of spreadsheets. This paper documents and tests office software tools designed to assist in the audit of spreadsheets. The test was designed to identify the success of software tools in detecting different types of errors, to identify how the software tools assist the auditor and to determine the usefulness of the tools.


Multi-camera Realtime 3D Tracking of Multiple Flying Animals

Abstract: Automated tracking of animal movement allows analyses that would not otherwise be possible by providing great quantities of data. The additional capability of tracking in realtime - with minimal latency - opens up the experimental possibility of manipulating sensory feedback, thus allowing detailed explorations of the neural basis for control of behavior. Here we describe a new system capable of tracking the position and body orientation of animals such as flies and birds. The system operates with less than 40 msec latency and can track multiple animals simultaneously. To achieve these results, a multi target tracking algorithm was developed based on the Extended Kalman Filter and the Nearest Neighbor Standard Filter data association algorithm. In one implementation, an eleven camera system is capable of tracking three flies simultaneously at 60 frames per second using a gigabit network of nine standard Intel Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo computers. This manuscript presents the rationale and details of the algorithms employed and shows three implementations of the system. An experiment was performed using the tracking system to measure the effect of visual contrast on the flight speed of Drosophila melanogaster. At low contrasts, speed is more variable and faster on average than at high contrasts. Thus, the system is already a useful tool to study the neurobiology and behavior of freely flying animals. If combined with other techniques, such as `virtual reality'-type computer graphics or genetic manipulation, the tracking system would offer a powerful new way to investigate the biology of flying animals.


Identification of Logical Errors through Monte-Carlo Simulation

Abstract: The primary focus of Monte Carlo simulation is to identify and quantify risk related to uncertainty and variability in spreadsheet model inputs. The stress of Monte Carlo simulation often reveals logical errors in the underlying spreadsheet model that might be overlooked during day-to-day use or traditional "what-if" testing. This secondary benefit of simulation requires a trained eye to recognize warning signs of poor model construction.


Probabilistic Approach to Neural Networks Computation Based on Quantum Probability Model Probabilistic Principal Subspace Analysis Example

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce elements of probabilistic model that is suitable for modeling of learning algorithms in biologically plausible artificial neural networks framework. Model is based on two of the main concepts in quantum physics - a density matrix and the Born rule. As an example, we will show that proposed probabilistic interpretation is suitable for modeling of on-line learning algorithms for PSA, which are preferably realized by a parallel hardware based on very simple computational units. Proposed concept (model) can be used in the context of improving algorithm convergence speed, learning factor choice, or input signal scale robustness. We are going to see how the Born rule and the Hebbian learning rule are connected


Connected searching of weighted trees

Abstract: In this paper we consider the problem of connected edge searching of weighted trees. It is shown that there exists a polynomial-time algorithm for finding optimal connected search strategy for bounded degree trees with arbitrary weights on the edges and vertices of the tree. The problem is NP-complete for general node-weighted trees (the weight of each edge is 1).


Implicit media frames: Automated analysis of public debate on artificial sweeteners

Abstract: The framing of issues in the mass media plays a crucial role in the public understanding of science and technology. This article contributes to research concerned with diachronic analysis of media frames by making an analytical distinction between implicit and explicit media frames, and by introducing an automated method for analysing diachronic changes of implicit frames. In particular, we apply a semantic maps method to a case study on the newspaper debate about artificial sweeteners, published in The New York Times (NYT) between 1980 and 2006. Our results show that the analysis of semantic changes enables us to filter out the dynamics of implicit frames, and to detect emerging metaphors in public debates. Theoretically, we discuss the relation between implicit frames in public debates and codification of information in scientific discourses, and suggest further avenues for research interested in the automated analysis of frame changes and trends in public debates.


Stream Productivity by Outermost Termination

Abstract: Streams are infinite sequences over a given data type. A stream specification is a set of equations intended to define a stream. A core property is productivity: unfolding the equations produces the intended stream in the limit. In this paper we show that productivity is equivalent to termination with respect to the balanced outermost strategy of a TRS obtained by adding an additional rule. For specifications not involving branching symbols balancedness is obtained for free, by which tools for proving outermost termination can be used to prove productivity fully automatically.


A Formal Framework of Virtual Organisations as Agent Societies

Abstract: We propose a formal framework that supports a model of agent-based Virtual Organisations (VOs) for service grids and provides an associated operational model for the creation of VOs. The framework is intended to be used for describing different service grid applications based on multiple agents and, as a result, it abstracts away from any realisation choices of the service grid application, the agents involved to support the applications and their interactions. Within the proposed framework VOs are seen as emerging from societies of agents, where agents are abstractly characterised by goals and roles they can play within VOs. In turn, VOs are abstractly characterised by the agents participating in them with specific roles, as well as the workflow of services and corresponding contracts suitable for achieving the goals of the participating agents. We illustrate the proposed framework with an earth observation scenario.


Common Representation of Information Flows for Dynamic Coalitions

Abstract: We propose a formal foundation for reasoning about access control policies within a Dynamic Coalition, defining an abstraction over existing access control models and providing mechanisms for translation of those models into information-flow domain. The abstracted information-flow domain model, called a Common Representation, can then be used for defining a way to control the evolution of Dynamic Coalitions with respect to information flow.


Structure and Behaviour of Virtual Organisation Breeding Environments

Abstract: This paper provides an outline of a formal approach that we are developing for modelling Virtual Organisations (VOs) and their Breeding Environments (VBEs). We propose different levels of representation for the functional structures and processes that VBEs and VOs involve, which are independent of the specificities of the infrastructures (organisational and technical) that support the functioning of VBEs. This allows us to reason about properties of tasks performed within VBEs and services provided through VOs without committing to the way in which they are implemented.


A Framework to Manage the Complex Organisation of Collaborating: Its Application to Autonomous Systems

Abstract: In this paper we present an analysis of the complexities of large group collaboration and its application to develop detailed requirements for collaboration schema for Autonomous Systems (AS). These requirements flow from our development of a framework for collaboration that provides a basis for designing, supporting and managing complex collaborative systems that can be applied and tested in various real world settings. We present the concepts of "collaborative flow" and "working as one" as descriptive expressions of what good collaborative teamwork can be in such scenarios. The paper considers the application of the framework within different scenarios and discuses the utility of the framework in modelling and supporting collaboration in complex organisational structures.


The Complexity of Flood Filling Games

Abstract: We study the complexity of the popular one player combinatorial game known as Flood-It. In this game the player is given an n by n board of tiles where each tile is allocated one of c colours. The goal is to make the colours of all tiles equal via the shortest possible sequence of flooding operations. In the standard version, a flooding operation consists of the player choosing a colour k, which then changes the colour of all the tiles in the monochromatic region connected to the top left tile to k. After this operation has been performed, neighbouring regions which are already of the chosen colour k will then also become connected, thereby extending the monochromatic region of the board. We show that finding the minimum number of flooding operations is NP-hard for c>=3 and that this even holds when the player can perform flooding operations from any position on the board. However, we show that this "free" variant is in P for c=2. We also prove that for an unbounded number of colours, Flood-It remains NP-hard for boards of height at least 3, but is in P for boards of height 2. Next we show how a c-1 approximation and a randomised 2c/3 approximation algorithm can be derived, and that no polynomial time constant factor, independent of c, approximation algorithm exists unless P=NP. We then investigate how many moves are required for the "most demanding" n by n boards (those requiring the most moves) and show that the number grows as fast as Theta(n*c^0.5). Finally, we consider boards where the colours of the tiles are chosen at random and show that for c>=2, the number of moves required to flood the whole board is Omega(n) with high probability.


Extensional and Intensional Strategies

Abstract: This paper is a contribution to the theoretical foundations of strategies. We first present a general definition of abstract strategies which is extensional in the sense that a strategy is defined explicitly as a set of derivations of an abstract reduction system. We then move to a more intensional definition supporting the abstract view but more operational in the sense that it describes a means for determining such a set. We characterize the class of extensional strategies that can be defined intensionally. We also give some hints towards a logical characterization of intensional strategies and propose a few challenging perspectives.


Superdevelopments for Weak Reduction

Abstract: We study superdevelopments in the weak lambda calculus of Cagman and Hindley, a confluent variant of the standard weak lambda calculus in which reduction below lambdas is forbidden. In contrast to developments, a superdevelopment from a term M allows not only residuals of redexes in M to be reduced but also some newly created ones. In the lambda calculus there are three ways new redexes may be created; in the weak lambda calculus a new form of redex creation is possible. We present labeled and simultaneous reduction formulations of superdevelopments for the weak lambda calculus and prove them equivalent.


Strategies in PRholog

Abstract: PRholog is an experimental extension of logic programming with strategic conditional transformation rules, combining Prolog with Rholog calculus. The rules perform nondeterministic transformations on hedges. Queries may have several results that can be explored on backtracking. Strategies provide a control on rule applications in a declarative way. With strategy combinators, the user can construct more complex strategies from simpler ones. Matching with four different kinds of variables provides a flexible mechanism of selecting (sub)terms during execution. We give an overview on programming with strategies in PRholog and demonstrate how rewriting strategies can be expressed.


Specification of Products and Product Lines

Abstract: The study of variability in software development has become increasingly important in recent years. A common mechanism to represent the variability in a product line is by means of feature models. However, the relationship between these models and UML design models is not straightforward. UML statecharts are extended introducing variability in their main components, so that the behavior of product lines can be specified. The contribution of this work is the proposal of a rule-based approach that defines a transformation strategy from extended statecharts to concrete UML statecharts. This is accomplished via the use of feature models, in order to describe the common and variant components, in such a way that, starting from different feature configurations and applying the rule-based method, concrete state machines corresponding to different products of a line can be obtained.


Extending Context-Sensitivity in Term Rewriting

Abstract: We propose a generalized version of context-sensitivity in term rewriting based on the notion of "forbidden patterns". The basic idea is that a rewrite step should be forbidden if the redex to be contracted has a certain shape and appears in a certain context. This shape and context is expressed through forbidden patterns. In particular we analyze the relationships among this novel approach and the commonly used notion of context-sensitivity in term rewriting, as well as the feasibility of rewriting with forbidden patterns from a computational point of view. The latter feasibility is characterized by demanding that restricting a rewrite relation yields an improved termination behaviour while still being powerful enough to compute meaningful results. Sufficient criteria for both kinds of properties in certain classes of rewrite systems with forbidden patterns are presented.


Principal Typings in a Restricted Intersection Type System for Beta Normal Forms with De Bruijn Indices

Abstract: The lambda-calculus with de Bruijn indices assembles each alpha-class of lambda-terms in a unique term, using indices instead of variable names. Intersection types provide finitary type polymorphism and can characterise normalisable lambda-terms through the property that a term is normalisable if and only if it is typeable. To be closer to computations and to simplify the formalisation of the atomic operations involved in beta-contractions, several calculi of explicit substitution were developed mostly with de Bruijn indices. Versions of explicit substitutions calculi without types and with simple type systems are well investigated in contrast to versions with more elaborate type systems such as intersection types. In previous work, we introduced a de Bruijn version of the lambda-calculus with an intersection type system and proved that it preserves subject reduction, a basic property of type systems. In this paper a version with de Bruijn indices of an intersection type system originally introduced to characterise principal typings for beta-normal forms is presented. We present the characterisation in this new system and the corresponding versions for the type inference and the reconstruction of normal forms from principal typings algorithms. We briefly discuss the failure of the subject reduction property and some possible solutions for it.


Cop and robber games when the robber can hide and ride

Abstract: In the classical cop and robber game, two players, the cop C and the robber R, move alternatively along edges of a finite graph G. The cop captures the robber if both players are on the same vertex at the same moment of time. A graph G is called cop win if the cop always captures the robber after a finite number of steps. Nowakowski, Winkler (1983) and Quilliot (1983) characterized the cop-win graphs as graphs admitting a dismantling scheme. In this paper, we characterize in a similar way the class CW(s,s') of cop-win graphs in the game in which the cop and the robber move at different speeds s' and s, s'<= s. We also establish some connections between cop-win graphs for this game with s'<s and Gromov's hyperbolicity. In the particular case s'=1 and s=2, we prove that the class of cop-win graphs is exactly the well-known class of dually chordal graphs. We show that all classes CW(s,1), s>=3, coincide and we provide a structural characterization of these graphs. We also investigate several dismantling schemes necessary or sufficient for the cop-win graphs in the game in which the robber is visible only every k moves for a fixed integer k>1. We characterize the graphs which are cop-win for any value of k. Finally, we consider the game where the cop wins if he is at distance at most 1 from the robber and we characterize via a specific dismantling scheme the bipartite graphs where a single cop wins in this game.


The Privacy Coach: Supporting customer privacy in the Internet of Things

Abstract: The Privacy Coach is an application running on a mobile phone that supports customers in making privacy decisions when confronted with RFID tags. The approach we take to increase customer privacy is a radical departure from the mainstream research efforts that focus on implementing privacy enhancing technologies on the RFID tags themselves. Instead the Privacy Coach functions as a mediator between customer privacy preferences and corporate privacy policies, trying to find a match between the two, and informing the user of the outcome. In this paper we report on the architecture of the Privacy Coach, and show how it enables users to make informed privacy decisions in a user-friendly manner. We also spend considerable time to discuss lessons learnt and to describe future plans to further improve on the Privacy Coach concept.


Maintaining Virtual Areas on FPGAs using Strip Packing with Delays

Abstract: Every year, the computing resources available on dynamically partially reconfigurable devices increase enormously. In the near future, we expect many applications to run on a single reconfigurable device. In this paper, we present a concept for multitasking on dynamically partially reconfigurable systems called virtual area management. We explain its advantages, show its challenges, and discuss possible solutions. Furthermore, we investigate one problem in more detail: Packing modules with time-varying resource requests. This problem from the reconfigurable computing field results in a completely new optimization problem not tackled before. ILP-based and heuristic approaches are compared in an experimental study and the drawbacks and benefits discussed.


Proceedings Ninth International Workshop on Reduction Strategies in Rewriting and Programming

Abstract: This volume contains selected papers presented at the 9th International Workshop on Reduction Strategies in Rewriting and Programming, WRS2009, which was held in Brasilia on the 28th June 2009, associated to RTA 2009 (the 20th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications) at RDP, the Federated Conference on Rewriting, Deduction and Programming. Reduction strategies define which (sub)expression(s) should be selected for evaluation and which rule(s) should be applied. These choices affect fundamental properties of reductions, such as completeness, laziness and efficiency in general. The WRS workshops promote research and collaboration in the area of reduction strategies and their applications in specification and programming, theorem proving, software engineering, etc.


Learning to Blend by Relevance

Abstract: Emergence of various vertical search engines highlights the fact that a single ranking technology cannot deal with the complexity and scale of search problems. For example, technology behind video and image search is very different from general web search. Their ranking functions share few features. Question answering websites (e.g., Yahoo! Answer) can make use of text matching and click features developed for general web, but they have unique page structures and rich user feedback, e.g., thumbs up and thumbs down ratings in Yahoo! answer, which greatly benefit their own ranking. Even for those features shared by answer and general web, the correlation between features and relevance could be very different. Therefore, dedicated functions are needed in order to better rank documents within individual domains. These dedicated functions are defined on distinct feature spaces. However, having one search box for each domain, is neither efficient nor scalable. Rather than typing the same query two times into both Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Answer and retrieving two ranking lists, we would prefer putting it only once but receiving a comprehensive list of documents from both domains on the subject. This situation calls for new technology that blends documents from different sources into a single ranking list. Despite the content richness of the blended list, it has to be sorted by relevance none the less. We call such technology blending, which is the main subject of this paper.


An Optimal Dynamic Mechanism for Multi-Armed Bandit Processes

Abstract: We consider the problem of revenue-optimal dynamic mechanism design in settings where agents' types evolve over time as a function of their (both public and private) experience with items that are auctioned repeatedly over an infinite horizon. A central question here is understanding what natural restrictions on the environment permit the design of optimal mechanisms (note that even in the simpler static setting, optimal mechanisms are characterized only under certain restrictions). We provide a {\em structural characterization} of a natural "separable: multi-armed bandit environment (where the evolution and incentive structure of the a-priori type is decoupled from the subsequent experience in a precise sense) where dynamic optimal mechanism design is possible. Here, we present the Virtual Index Mechanism, an optimal dynamic mechanism, which maximizes the (long term) {\em virtual surplus} using the classical Gittins algorithm. The mechanism optimally balances exploration and exploitation, taking incentives into account.


Is Space a Stronger Resource than Time? Positive Answer for the Nondeterministic at-Least-Quadratic Time Case

Abstract: We show that all languages accepted in time f(n) >= n^2 can be accepted in space O(f(n)^{1/2})_and_ in time O(f(n)). The proof is carried out by simulation, based on the idea of guessing the sequences of internal states of the simulated TM when entering certain critical cells, whose location is also guessed. Our method cannot be generalised easily to many-tapes TMs, and in no case can it be relativised.


m-sophistication

Abstract: The m-sophistication of a finite binary string x is introduced as a generalization of some parameter in the proof that complexity of complexity is rare. A probabilistic near sufficient statistic of x is given which length is upper bounded by the m-sophistication of x within small additive terms. This shows that m-sophistication is lower bounded by coarse sophistication and upper bounded by sophistication within small additive terms. It is also shown that m-sophistication and coarse sophistication can not be approximated by an upper or lower semicomputable function, not even within very large error.


VLSI Architectures for WIMAX Channel Decoders

Abstract: This chapter describes the main architectures proposed in the literature to implement the channel decoders required by the WiMax standard, namely convolutional codes, turbo codes (both block and convolutional) and LDPC. Then it shows a complete design of a convolutional turbo code encoder/decoder system for WiMax.


Towards a participatory E-learning 2.0 A new E-learning focused on learners and validation of the content

Abstract: Our aim is to propose a collaborative methodological approach centred on learners and based on the Web 2.0 tools in order to make E-learning 2.0. It is based on a process consisting of four iterative steps which are: grouping, collaborating, validating and publishing content. In this context, learners will be the creators of the content of assigned courses in a virtual meeting through the chat. These contents will be validated after a pedagogical monitoring by the instructor through the class's blog and merged into a single course content published on a class wiki. Social interaction and sharing of files on the web will be the responsibility of social networks. The rest of the web 2.0 tools such as RSS feeds, tags, podcasts and video casts will be used as complementary tools in order to improve the quality of training. This methodological approach will allow E-learning 2.0 by ensuring a better interactivity, collaboration, sharing and an optimal exploitation of collaborative intelligence in the classroom.


Obstacle Constrained Total Area Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract: This paper deals with the accomplishment of total area coverage of an arbitrary region using sensors with a finite sensing radius of rs. For a given region, we aim to obtain a deterministic placement of sensors which, apart from ensuring that the entire region comes under the purview of at least a single sensor, minimises the number of sensors utilised. We begin by considering regions devoid of obstacles and thus having every location amenable for placement. Herein, we formalise the popular notion that sensors at the centres of the hexagons of a hexagonal tessellation provide the most optimal placement. We then move on to regions which may comprise obstacles of arbitrary size at arbitrary locations. We recognise two distinct classes of obstacles, namely transparent and opaque obstacles, which are distinguished by their ability (or the lack of it) to permit sensing radiation through them. In the real world, transparent obstacles model lakes, ponds and swamps, while the opaque ones stand for, inter alia, hills, trees and walls.We propose a polynomial-time algorithm for achieving optimal placement in the aforesaid scenarios and we prove its convergence.


An Improved Bound on the Number of Unit Area Triangles

Abstract: We show that the number of unit-area triangles determined by a set of $n$ points in the plane is $O(n^{9/4+\epsilon})$, for any $\epsilon>0$, improving the recent bound $O(n^{44/19})$ of Dumitrescu et al.


Evasiveness and the Distribution of Prime Numbers

Abstract: We confirm the eventual evasiveness of several classes of monotone graph properties under widely accepted number theoretic hypotheses. In particular we show that Chowla's conjecture on Dirichlet primes implies that (a) for any graph $H$, "forbidden subgraph $H$" is eventually evasive and (b) all nontrivial monotone properties of graphs with $\le n^{3/2-\epsilon}$ edges are eventually evasive. ($n$ is the number of vertices.) While Chowla's conjecture is not known to follow from the Extended Riemann Hypothesis (ERH, the Riemann Hypothesis for Dirichlet's $L$ functions), we show (b) with the bound $O(n^{5/4-\epsilon})$ under ERH. We also prove unconditional results: (a$'$) for any graph $H$, the query complexity of "forbidden subgraph $H$" is $\binom{n}{2} - O(1)$; (b$'$) for some constant $c>0$, all nontrivial monotone properties of graphs with $\le cn\log n+O(1)$ edges are eventually evasive. Even these weaker, unconditional results rely on deep results from number theory such as Vinogradov's theorem on the Goldbach conjecture. Our technical contribution consists in connecting the topological framework of Kahn, Saks, and Sturtevant (1984), as further developed by Chakrabarti, Khot, and Shi (2002), with a deeper analysis of the orbital structure of permutation groups and their connection to the distribution of prime numbers. Our unconditional results include stronger versions and generalizations of some result of Chakrabarti et al.


The WebContent XML Store

Abstract: In this article, we describe the XML storage system used in the WebContent project. We begin by advocating the use of an XML database in order to store WebContent documents, and we present two different ways of storing and querying these documents : the use of a centralized XML database and the use of a P2P XML database.


Some Algebraic Properties of a Subclass of Finite Normal Form Games

Abstract: We study the problem of computing all Nash equilibria of a subclass of finite normal form games. With algebraic characterization of the games, we present a method for computing all its Nash equilibria. Further, we present a method for deciding membership to the class of games with its related results. An appendix, containing an example to show working of each of the presented methods, concludes the work.


Janus: Automatic Ontology Builder from XSD Files

Abstract: The construction of a reference ontology for a large domain still remains an hard human task. The process is sometimes assisted by software tools that facilitate the information extraction from a textual corpus. Despite of the great use of XML Schema files on the internet and especially in the B2B domain, tools that offer a complete semantic analysis of XML schemas are really rare. In this paper we introduce Janus, a tool for automatically building a reference knowledge base starting from XML Schema files. Janus also provides different useful views to simplify B2B application integration.


Deriving Ontologies from XML Schema

Abstract: In this paper, we present a method and a tool for deriving a skeleton of an ontology from XML schema files. We first recall what an is ontology and its relationships with XML schemas. Next, we focus on ontology building methodology and associated tool requirements. Then, we introduce Janus, a tool for building an ontology from various XML schemas in a given domain. We summarize the main features of Janus and illustrate its functionalities through a simple example. Finally, we compare our approach to other existing ontology building tools.


Equilibria of Plurality Voting with Abstentions

Abstract: In the traditional voting manipulation literature, it is assumed that a group of manipulators jointly misrepresent their preferences to get a certain candidate elected, while the remaining voters are truthful. In this paper, we depart from this assumption, and consider the setting where all voters are strategic. In this case, the election can be viewed as a game, and the election outcomes correspond to Nash equilibria of this game. We use this framework to analyze two variants of Plurality voting, namely, simultaneous voting, where all voters submit their ballots at the same time, and sequential voting, where the voters express their preferences one by one. For simultaneous voting, we characterize the preference profiles that admit a pure Nash equilibrium, but show that it is computationally hard to check if a given profile fits our criterion. For sequential voting, we provide a complete analysis of the setting with two candidates, and show that for three or more candidates the equilibria of sequential voting may behave in a counterintuitive manner.


The Complexity of Approximating Bounded-Degree Boolean #CSP (Extended Abstract)

Abstract: The degree of a CSP instance is the maximum number of times that a variable may appear in the scope of constraints. We consider the approximate counting problem for Boolean CSPs with bounded-degree instances, for constraint languages containing the two unary constant relations {0} and {1}. When the maximum degree is at least 25 we obtain a complete classification of the complexity of this problem. It is exactly solvable in polynomial-time if every relation in the constraint language is affine. It is equivalent to the problem of approximately counting independent sets in bipartite graphs if every relation can be expressed as conjunctions of {0}, {1} and binary implication. Otherwise, there is no FPRAS unless NP=RP. For lower degree bounds, additional cases arise in which the complexity is related to the complexity of approximately counting independent sets in hypergraphs.


RFID Key Establishment Against Active Adversaries

Abstract: We present a method to strengthen a very low cost solution for key agreement with a RFID device. Starting from a work which exploits the inherent noise on the communication link to establish a key by public discussion, we show how to protect this agreement against active adversaries. For that purpose, we unravel integrity $(I)$-codes suggested by Cagalj et al. No preliminary key distribution is required.


Trajectory Clustering and an Application to Airspace Monitoring

Abstract: This paper presents a framework aimed at monitoring the behavior of aircraft in a given airspace. Nominal trajectories are determined and learned using data driven methods. Standard procedures are used by air traffic controllers (ATC) to guide aircraft, ensure the safety of the airspace, and to maximize the runway occupancy. Even though standard procedures are used by ATC, the control of the aircraft remains with the pilots, leading to a large variability in the flight patterns observed. Two methods to identify typical operations and their variability from recorded radar tracks are presented. This knowledge base is then used to monitor the conformance of current operations against operations previously identified as standard. A tool called AirTrajectoryMiner is presented, aiming at monitoring the instantaneous health of the airspace, in real time. The airspace is "healthy" when all aircraft are flying according to the nominal procedures. A measure of complexity is introduced, measuring the conformance of current flight to nominal flight patterns. When an aircraft does not conform, the complexity increases as more attention from ATC is required to ensure a safe separation between aircraft.


The Citation Field of Evolutionary Economics

Abstract: Evolutionary economics has developed into an academic field of its own, institutionalized around, amongst others, the Journal of Evolutionary Economics (JEE). This paper analyzes the way and extent to which evolutionary economics has become an interdisciplinary journal, as its aim was: a journal that is indispensable in the exchange of expert knowledge on topics and using approaches that relate naturally with it. Analyzing citation data for the relevant academic field for the Journal of Evolutionary Economics, we use insights from scientometrics and social network analysis to find that, indeed, the JEE is a central player in this interdisciplinary field aiming mostly at understanding technological and regional dynamics. It does not, however, link firmly with the natural sciences (including biology) nor to management sciences, entrepreneurship, and organization studies. Another journal that could be perceived to have evolutionary acumen, the Journal of Economic Issues, does relate to heterodox economics journals and is relatively more involved in discussing issues of firm and industry organization. The JEE seems most keen to develop theoretical insights.


Lower Bounds for the Complexity of Monadic Second-Order Logic

Abstract: Courcelle's famous theorem from 1990 states that any property of graphs definable in monadic second-order logic (MSO) can be decided in linear time on any class of graphs of bounded treewidth, or in other words, MSO is fixed-parameter tractable in linear time on any such class of graphs. From a logical perspective, Courcelle's theorem establishes a sufficient condition, or an upper bound, for tractability of MSO-model checking. Whereas such upper bounds on the complexity of logics have received significant attention in the literature, almost nothing is known about corresponding lower bounds. In this paper we establish a strong lower bound for the complexity of monadic second-order logic. In particular, we show that if C is any class of graphs which is closed under taking subgraphs and whose treewidth is not bounded by a polylogarithmic function (in fact, $\log^c n$ for some small c suffices) then MSO-model checking is intractable on C (under a suitable assumption from complexity theory).


Toward a Compositional Theory of Leftist Grammars and Transformations

Abstract: Leftist grammars [Motwani et al., STOC 2000] are special semi-Thue systems where symbols can only insert or erase to their left. We develop a theory of leftist grammars seen as word transformers as a tool toward rigorous analyses of their computational power. Our main contributions in this first paper are (1) constructions proving that leftist transformations are closed under compositions and transitive closures, and (2) a proof that bounded reachability is NP-complete even for leftist grammars with acyclic rules.


Formal Modelling of a Usable Identity Management Solution for Virtual Organisations

Abstract: This paper attempts to accurately model security requirements for computational grid environments with particular focus on authentication. We introduce the Audited Credential Delegation (ACD) architecture as a solution to some of the virtual organisations identity management usability problems. The approach uses two complementary models: one is state based, described in Z notation, and the other is event-based, expressed in the Process Algebra of Hoare's Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP). The former will be used to capture the state of the WS and to model back-end operations on it whereas the latter will be used to model behavior, and in particular, front-end interactions and communications. The modelling helps to clearly and precisely understand functional and security requirements and provide a basis for verifying that the system meets its intended requirements.


Online Stochastic Packing Applied to Display Ad Allocation

Abstract: Inspired by online ad allocation, we study online stochastic packing linear programs from theoretical and practical standpoints. We first present a near-optimal online algorithm for a general class of packing linear programs which model various online resource allocation problems including online variants of routing, ad allocations, generalized assignment, and combinatorial auctions. As our main theoretical result, we prove that a simple primal-dual training-based algorithm achieves a (1 - o(1))-approximation guarantee in the random order stochastic model. This is a significant improvement over logarithmic or constant-factor approximations for the adversarial variants of the same problems (e.g. factor 1 - 1/e for online ad allocation, and \log m for online routing). We then focus on the online display ad allocation problem and study the efficiency and fairness of various training-based and online allocation algorithms on data sets collected from real-life display ad allocation system. Our experimental evaluation confirms the effectiveness of training-based primal-dual algorithms on real data sets, and also indicate an intrinsic trade-off between fairness and efficiency.


Towards Network Games with Social Preferences

Abstract: Many distributed systems can be modeled as network games: a collection of selfish players that communicate in order to maximize their individual utilities. The performance of such games can be evaluated through the costs of the system equilibria: the system states in which no player can increase her utility by unilaterally changing her behavior. However, assuming that all players are selfish and in particular that all players have the same utility function may not always be appropriate. Hence, several extensions to incorporate also altruistic and malicious behavior in addition to selfishness have been proposed over the last years. In this paper, we seek to go one step further and study arbitrary relationships between participants. In particular, we introduce the notion of the social range matrix and explore the effects of the social range matrix on the equilibria in a network game. In order to derive concrete results, we propose a simplistic network creation game that captures the effect of social relationships among players.


Energy Parity Games

Abstract: Energy parity games are infinite two-player turn-based games played on weighted graphs. The objective of the game combines a (qualitative) parity condition with the (quantitative) requirement that the sum of the weights (i.e., the level of energy in the game) must remain positive. Beside their own interest in the design and synthesis of resource-constrained omega-regular specifications, energy parity games provide one of the simplest model of games with combined qualitative and quantitative objective. Our main results are as follows: (a) exponential memory is necessary and sufficient for winning strategies in energy parity games; (b) the problem of deciding the winner in energy parity games can be solved in NP \cap coNP; and (c) we give an algorithm to solve energy parity by reduction to energy games. We also show that the problem of deciding the winner in energy parity games is polynomially equivalent to the problem of deciding the winner in mean-payoff parity games, while optimal strategies may require infinite memory in mean-payoff parity games. As a consequence we obtain a conceptually simple algorithm to solve mean-payoff parity games.


Auction-based Bandwidth Allocation Mechanisms for Wireless Future Internet

Abstract: An important aspect of the Future Internet is the efficient utilization of (wireless) network resources. In order for the - demanding in terms of QoS - Future Internet services to be provided, the current trend is evolving towards an "integrated" wireless network access model that enables users to enjoy mobility, seamless access and high quality of service in an all-IP network on an "Anytime, Anywhere" basis. The term "integrated" is used to denote that the Future Internet wireless "last mile" is expected to comprise multiple heterogeneous geographically coexisting wireless networks, each having different capacity and coverage radius. The efficient management of the wireless access network resources is crucial due to their scarcity that renders wireless access a potential bottleneck for the provision of high quality services. In this paper we propose an auction mechanism for allocating the bandwidth of such a network so that efficiency is attained, i.e. social welfare is maximized. In particular, we propose an incentive-compatible, efficient auction-based mechanism of low computational complexity. We define a repeated game to address user utilities and incentives issues. Subsequently, we extend this mechanism so that it can also accommodate multicast sessions. We also analyze the computational complexity and message overhead of the proposed mechanism. We then show how user bids can be replaced from weights generated by the network and transform the auction to a cooperative mechanism capable of prioritizing certain classes of services and emulating DiffServ and time-of-day pricing schemes. The theoretical analysis is complemented by simulations that assess the proposed mechanisms properties and performance. We finally provide some concluding remarks and directions for future research.


An in-place truncated Fourier transform and applications to polynomial multiplication

Abstract: The truncated Fourier transform (TFT) was introduced by van der Hoeven in 2004 as a means of smoothing the "jumps" in running time of the ordinary FFT algorithm that occur at power-of-two input sizes. However, the TFT still introduces these jumps in memory usage. We describe in-place variants of the forward and inverse TFT algorithms, achieving time complexity O(n log n) with only O(1) auxiliary space. As an application, we extend the second author's results on space-restricted FFT-based polynomial multiplication to polynomials of arbitrary degree.


An Agent-Based Modeling for Pandemic Influenza in Egypt

Abstract: Pandemic influenza has great potential to cause large and rapid increases in deaths and serious illness. The objective of this paper is to develop an agent-based model to simulate the spread of pandemic influenza (novel H1N1) in Egypt. The proposed multi-agent model is based on the modeling of individuals' interactions in a space time context. The proposed model involves different types of parameters such as: social agent attributes, distribution of Egypt population, and patterns of agents' interactions. Analysis of modeling results leads to understanding the characteristics of the modeled pandemic, transmission patterns, and the conditions under which an outbreak might occur. In addition, the proposed model is used to measure the effectiveness of different control strategies to intervene the pandemic spread.


Proceedings Second Workshop on Formal Aspects of Virtual Organisations

Abstract: FAVO2009 was the second workshop on Formal Aspects of Virtual Organisations. The purpose of the FAVO workshops is to encourage an active community of researchers and practitioners using formal methods in the research and development of Virtual Organisations.


An Efficient Hidden Markov Model for Offline Handwritten Numeral Recognition

Abstract: Traditionally, the performance of ocr algorithms and systems is based on the recognition of isolated characters. When a system classifies an individual character, its output is typically a character label or a reject marker that corresponds to an unrecognized character. By comparing output labels with the correct labels, the number of correct recognition, substitution errors misrecognized characters, and rejects unrecognized characters are determined. Nowadays, although recognition of printed isolated characters is performed with high accuracy, recognition of handwritten characters still remains an open problem in the research arena. The ability to identify machine printed characters in an automated or a semi automated manner has obvious applications in numerous fields. Since creating an algorithm with a one hundred percent correct recognition rate is quite probably impossible in our world of noise and different font styles, it is important to design character recognition algorithms with these failures in mind so that when mistakes are inevitably made, they will at least be understandable and predictable to the person working with the


Implementation of Connectivity and Handover through Wireless Sensor Node based Techniques

Abstract: In this paper a scheme for handoff and connectivity, based on wireless sensor nodetechniques is proposed. Scenes are created in Qualnet and simulated for a simple case. Results are discussed.


Performance Comparisons of PSO based Clustering

Abstract: In this paper we have investigated the performance of PSO Particle Swarm Optimization based clustering on few real world data sets and one artificial data set. The performances are measured by two metric namely quantization error and inter-cluster distance. The K means clustering algorithm is first implemented for all data sets, the results of which form the basis of comparison of PSO based approaches. We have explored different variants of PSO such as gbest, lbest ring, lbest vonneumann and Hybrid PSO for comparison purposes. The results reveal that PSO based clustering algorithms perform better compared to K means in all data sets.


Kannada Character Recognition System A Review

Abstract: Intensive research has been done on optical character recognition ocr and a large number of articles have been published on this topic during the last few decades. Many commercial OCR systems are now available in the market, but most of these systems work for Roman, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic characters. There are no sufficient number of works on Indian language character recognition especially Kannada script among 12 major scripts in India. This paper presents a review of existing work on printed Kannada script and their results. The characteristics of Kannada script and Kannada Character Recognition System kcr are discussed in detail. Finally fusion at the classifier level is proposed to increase the recognition accuracy.


Design of Run time Architectures for Real time UML Models an Actor Centric Approach

Abstract: Although a lot of research has taken place in Object Oriented Design of software for Real Time systems and mapping of design models to implementation models, these methodologies are applicable to systems which are less complex and small in source code size. However, in practice, the size of the software for real time applications is growing. The run time architecture of real time applications is becoming increasingly complex. In this paper, we present a generic approach for mapping the design models to run time architectures resulting in combination of processes and threads. This method is applied in development of a communication subsystem of C4I complex and shall be presented as a case study.


Threshold Based Indexing of Commercial Shoe Print to Create Reference and Recovery Images

Abstract: One of the important evidence in a crime scene that is normally overlooked but very important evidence is shoe print as the criminal is normally unaware of the mask for this. In this paper we use image processing technique to process reference shoe images to make it index-able for a search from the database the shoe print impressions available in the commercial market. This is achieved first by converting the commercially available image through the process of converting them to gray scale then apply image enhancement and restoration techniques and finally do image segmentation to store the segmented parameter as index in the database storage. We use histogram method for image enhancement, inverse filtering for image restoration and threshold method for indexing. We use global threshold as index of the shoe print. The paper describes this method and simulation results are included to validate the method.


Efficient Implementation of Rewriting Revisited Technical Report

Abstract: Recently, many techniques have been introduced that allow the (automated) classification of the runtime complexity of term rewrite systems (TRSs for short). In earlier work, the authors have shown that for confluent TRSs, innermost polynomial runtime complexity induces polytime computability of the functions defined. In this paper, we generalise the above result to full rewriting. Following our previous work, we exploit graph rewriting. We give a new proof of the adequacy of graph rewriting for full rewriting that allows for a precise control of the resources copied. In sum we completely describe an implementation of rewriting on a Turing machine (TM for short). We show that the runtime complexity of the TRS and the runtime complexity of the TM is polynomially related. Our result strengthens the evidence that the complexity of a rewrite system is truthfully represented through the length of derivations. Moreover our result allows the classification of non-deterministic polytime-computation based on runtime complexity analysis of rewrite systems.


Solving Tensor Structured Problems with Computational Tensor Algebra

Abstract: Since its introduction by Gauss, Matrix Algebra has facilitated understanding of scientific problems, hiding distracting details and finding more elegant and efficient ways of computational solving. Today's largest problems, which often originate from multidimensional data, might profit from even higher levels of abstraction. We developed a framework for solving tensor structured problems with tensor algebra that unifies concepts from tensor analysis, multilinear algebra and multidimensional signal processing. In contrast to the conventional matrix approach, it allows the formulation of multidimensional problems, in a multidimensional way, preserving structure and data coherence; and the implementation of automated optimizations of solving algorithms, based on the commutativity of all tensor operations. Its ability to handle large scientific tasks is showcased by a real-world, 4D medical imaging problem, with more than 30 million unknown parameters solved on a current, inexpensive hardware. This significantly surpassed the best published matrix-based approach.