Reputation-based Telecommunication Network Selection

Abstract: Nowadays, mobile users can switch between different available networks, for example, nearby WiFi networks or their standard mobile operator network. Soon it will be extended to other operators. However, unless telecommunication operators can directly benefit from allowing a user to switch to another operator, operators have an incentive to keep their network quality of service confidential to avoid that their users decide to switch to another network. In contrast, in a user-centric way, the users should be allowed to share their observations regarding the networks that they have used. In this paper, we present our work in progress towards attack-resistant sharing of quality of service information and network provider reputation among mobile users.


Local ePolitics Reputation Case Study

Abstract: More and more people rely on Web information and with the advance of Web 2.0 technologies they can increasingly easily participate to the creation of this information. Country-level politicians could not ignore this trend and have started to use the Web to promote them or to demote their opponents. This paper presents how candidates to a French mayor local election and with less budget have engineered their Web campaign and online reputation. After presenting the settings of the local election, the Web tools used by the different candidates and the local journalists are detailed. These tools are evaluated from a security point of view and the legal issues that they have created are underlined.


Budget Feasible Mechanisms

Abstract: We study a novel class of mechanism design problems in which the outcomes are constrained by the payments. This basic class of mechanism design problems captures many common economic situations, and yet it has not been studied, to our knowledge, in the past. We focus on the case of procurement auctions in which sellers have private costs, and the auctioneer aims to maximize a utility function on subsets of items, under the constraint that the sum of the payments provided by the mechanism does not exceed a given budget. Standard mechanism design ideas such as the VCG mechanism and its variants are not applicable here. We show that, for general functions, the budget constraint can render mechanisms arbitrarily bad in terms of the utility of the buyer. However, our main result shows that for the important class of submodular functions, a bounded approximation ratio is achievable. Better approximation results are obtained for subclasses of the submodular functions. We explore the space of budget feasible mechanisms in other domains and give a characterization under more restricted conditions.


Fighting Online Click-Fraud Using Bluff Ads

Abstract: Online advertising is currently the greatest source of revenue for many Internet giants. The increased number of specialized websites and modern profiling techniques, have all contributed to an explosion of the income of ad brokers from online advertising. The single biggest threat to this growth, is however, click-fraud. Trained botnets and even individuals are hired by click-fraud specialists in order to maximize the revenue of certain users from the ads they publish on their websites, or to launch an attack between competing businesses. In this note we wish to raise the awareness of the networking research community on potential research areas within this emerging field. As an example strategy, we present Bluff ads; a class of ads that join forces in order to increase the effort level for click-fraud spammers. Bluff ads are either targeted ads, with irrelevant display text, or highly relevant display text, with irrelevant targeting information. They act as a litmus test for the legitimacy of the individual clicking on the ads. Together with standard threshold-based methods, fake ads help to decrease click-fraud levels.


Upstream traffic capacity of a WDM EPON under online GATE-driven scheduling

Abstract: Passive optical networks are increasingly used for access to the Internet and it is important to understand the performance of future long-reach, multi-channel variants. In this paper we discuss requirements on the dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm used to manage the upstream resource in a WDM EPON and propose a simple novel DBA algorithm that is considerably more efficient than classical approaches. We demonstrate that the algorithm emulates a multi-server polling system and derive capacity formulas that are valid for general traffic processes. We evaluate delay performance by simulation demonstrating the superiority of the proposed scheduler. The proposed scheduler offers considerable flexibility and is particularly efficient in long-reach access networks where propagation times are high.


Traffic Capacity of Large WDM Passive Optical Networks

Abstract: As passive optical networks (PON) are increasingly deployed to provide high speed Internet access, it is important to understand their fundamental traffic capacity limits. The paper discusses performance models applicable to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) EPONs and GPONs under the assumption that users access the fibre via optical network units equipped with tunable transmitters. The considered stochastic models are based on multiserver polling systems for which explicit analytical results are not known. A large system asymptotic, mean-field approximation, is used to derive closed form solutions of these complex systems. Convergence of the mean field dynamics is proved in the case of a simple network configuration. Simulation results show that, for a realistic sized PON, the mean field approximation is accurate.


Impact of Random Loss on TCP Performance in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (IEEE 802.11), A Simulation-Based Analysis

Abstract: Initially TCP was designed with the notion in mind that wired networks are generally reliable and any segment loss in a transmission is due to congestion in the network rather than an unreliable medium (The assumptions is that the packet loss caused by damage is much less than 1 percent) . This notion doesnt hold in wireless parts of the network. Wireless links are highly unreliable and they lose segments all the time due to a number of factors. Very few papers are available which uses TCP for MANET. In this paper, an attempt have been made to justify the use of TCP variants (Tahoe and Reno) for loss of packet due to random noise introduces in the MANET. For the present analysis the simulation has been carried out for TCP variants (Tahoe and Reno) by introduces 0, 10, 20 and 30 percent noise. The comparison of TCP variants is made by running simulation for 0, 10, 20 and 30 percent of data packet loss due to noise in the transmission link and the effect of throughput and congestion window has been examined. During the simulation we have observed that throughput has been decreased when a drop of multiple segments happens, further we have observed in the case of TCP variant (Reno) throughput is better at 1 percent (Figure 5) which implies a network with short burst of error and low BER, causing only one segment to be lost. When multiple segments are lost due to error prone nature of link, Tahoe perform better than Reno (Figure 13), that gives a significant saving of time (64.28 percent) in comparison with Reno (Table 4). Several simulations have been run with ns 2 simulator in order to acquire a better understanding of these TCP variants and the way they perform their function. We conclude with a discussion of whether these TCP versions can be used in Mobile Ad hoc Network.


Automatic diagnosis of retinal diseases from color retinal images

Abstract: Teleophthalmology holds a great potential to improve the quality, access, and affordability in health care. For patients, it can reduce the need for travel and provide the access to a superspecialist. Ophthalmology lends itself easily to telemedicine as it is a largely image based diagnosis. The main goal of the proposed system is to diagnose the type of disease in the retina and to automatically detect and segment retinal diseases without human supervision or interaction. The proposed system will diagnose the disease present in the retina using a neural network based classifier.The extent of the disease spread in the retina can be identified by extracting the textural features of the retina. This system will diagnose the following type of diseases: Diabetic Retinopathy and Drusen.


Changing Neighbors k Secure Sum Protocol for Secure Multi Party Computation

Abstract: Secure sum computation of private data inputs is an important component of Secure Multi party Computation (SMC).In this paper we provide a protocol to compute the sum of individual data inputs with zero probability of data leakage. In our proposed protocol we break input of each party into number of segments and change the arrangement of the parties such that in each round of the computation the neighbors are changed. In this protocol it becomes impossible for semi honest parties to know the private data of some other party.


Dual Watermarking Scheme with Encryption

Abstract: Digital Watermarking is used for copyright protection and authentication. In the proposed system, a Dual Watermarking Scheme based on DWT SVD with chaos encryption algorithm, will be developed to improve the robustness and protection along with security. DWT and SVD have been used as a mathematical tool to embed watermark in the image. Two watermarks are embedded in the host image. The secondary is embedded into primary watermark and the resultant watermarked image is encrypted using chaos based logistic map. This provides an efficient and secure way for image encryption and transmission. The watermarked image is decrypted and a reliable watermark extraction scheme is developed for the extraction of the primary as well as secondary watermark from the distorted image.


Effort minimization in UI development by reusing existing DGML based UI design for qualitative software development

Abstract: This paper addresses the methodology for achieving the user interface design reusability of a qualitative software system and effort minimization by applying the inference on the stored design documents. The pictorial design documents are stored in a special format in the form of keyword text [DGML tag based design]. The design document storage mechanism will expose the keywords per design stored. This methodology is having an inference engine. Inference mechanism search for the requirements and find the match for them in the available design repository. A match found will success in reusing it after checking the quality parameters of the found design module in the result set. DGML notations produces qualitative designs which helps in minimizing the efforts of software development life cycle.


New System for Secure Cover File of Hidden Data in the Image Page within Executable File Using Statistical Steganography Techniques

Abstract: A Previously traditional methods were sufficient to protect the information, since it is simplicity in the past does not need complicated methods but with the progress of information technology, it become easy to attack systems, and detection of encryption methods became necessary to find ways parallel with the differing methods used by hackers, so the embedding methods could be under surveillance from system managers in an organization that requires the high level of security. This fact requires researches on new hiding methods and cover objects which hidden information is embedded in. It is the result from the researches to embed information in executable files, but when will use the executable file for cover they have many challenges must be taken into consideration which is any changes made to the file will be firstly detected by untie viruses, secondly the functionality of the file is not still functioning. In this paper, a new information hiding system is presented. The aim of the proposed system is to hide information (data file) within image page of execution file (EXEfile) to make sure changes made to the file will not be detected by universe and the functionality of the exe.file is still functioning after hiding process. Meanwhile, since the cover file might be used to identify hiding information, the proposed system considers overcoming this dilemma by using the execution file as a cover file.


Medical Image Compression using Wavelet Decomposition for Prediction Method

Abstract: In this paper offers a simple and lossless compression method for compression of medical images. Method is based on wavelet decomposition of the medical images followed by the correlation analysis of coefficients. The correlation analyses are the basis of prediction equation for each sub band. Predictor variable selection is performed through coefficient graphic method to avoid multicollinearity problem and to achieve high prediction accuracy and compression rate. The method is applied on MRI and CT images. Results show that the proposed approach gives a high compression rate for MRI and CT images comparing with state of the art methods.


High Performance Hybrid Two Layer Router Architecture for FPGAs Using Network On Chip

Abstract: Networks on Chip is a recent solution paradigm adopted to increase the performance of Multicore designs. The key idea is to interconnect various computation modules (IP cores) in a network fashion and transport packets simultaneously across them, thereby gaining performance. In addition to improving performance by having multiple packets in flight, NoCs also present a host of other advantages including scalability, power efficiency, and component reuse through modular design. This work focuses on design and development of high performance communication architectures for FPGAs using NoCs Once completely developed, the above methodology could be used to augment the current FPGA design flow for implementing multicore SoC applications. We design and implement an NoC framework for FPGAs, MultiClock OnChip Network for Reconfigurable Systems (MoCReS). We propose a novel microarchitecture for a hybrid two layer router that supports both packetswitched communications, across its local and directional ports, as well as, time multiplexed circuitswitched communications among the multiple IP cores directly connected to it. Results from place and route VHDL models of the advanced router architecture show an average improvement of 20.4 percent in NoC bandwidth (maximum of 24 percent compared to a traditional NoC). We parameterize the hybrid router model over the number of ports, channel width and bRAM depth and develop a library of network components (MoClib Library). For your paper to be published in the conference proceedings, you must use this document as both an instruction set and as a template into which you can type your own text. If your paper does not conform to the required format, you will be asked to fix it.


A MAC Layer Based Defense Architecture for Reduction of Quality (RoQ) Attacks in Wireless LAN

Abstract: Recently an alternative of DDoS attacks called shrew attacks or Reduction of Quality (RoQ) has been identified which is very much difficult to detect. The RoQ attacks can use source and destination IP address spoofing, and they do not have distinct periodicity, and may not filter the attack packets precisely. In this paper, we propose to design the MAC layer based defense architecture for RoQ attacks in Wireless LAN which includes the detection and response stages. The attackers are detected by checking the RTS CTS packets from the MAC layer and the corresponding attack flows are blocked or rejected. By our simulation results, we show that our proposed technique achieves reduces the attack throughput there by increasing the received bandwidth and reducing the packet loss of legitimate users.


Application of k Means Clustering algorithm for prediction of Students Academic Performance

Abstract: The ability to monitor the progress of students academic performance is a critical issue to the academic community of higher learning. A system for analyzing students results based on cluster analysis and uses standard statistical algorithms to arrange their scores data according to the level of their performance is described. In this paper, we also implemented k mean clustering algorithm for analyzing students result data. The model was combined with the deterministic model to analyze the students results of a private Institution in Nigeria which is a good benchmark to monitor the progression of academic performance of students in higher Institution for the purpose of making an effective decision by the academic planners.


Using Web Page Titles to Rediscover Lost Web Pages

Abstract: Titles are denoted by the TITLE element within a web page. We queried the title against the the Yahoo search engine to determine the page's status (found, not found). We conducted several tests based on elements of the title. These tests were used to discern whether we could predict a pages status based on the title. Our results increase our ability to determine bad titles but not our ability to determine good titles.


Optimal Lower Bounds for Projective List Update Algorithms

Abstract: The list update problem is a classical online problem, with an optimal competitive ratio that is still open, known to be somewhere between 1.5 and 1.6. An algorithm with competitive ratio 1.6, the smallest known to date, is COMB, a randomized combination of BIT and the TIMESTAMP algorithm TS. This and almost all other list update algorithms, like MTF, are projective in the sense that they can be defined by looking only at any pair of list items at a time. Projectivity (also known as "list factoring") simplifies both the description of the algorithm and its analysis, and so far seems to be the only way to define a good online algorithm for lists of arbitrary length. In this paper we characterize all projective list update algorithms and show that their competitive ratio is never smaller than 1.6 in the partial cost model. Therefore, COMB is a best possible projective algorithm in this model.


Modeling the Probability of Failure on LDAP Binding Operations in Iplanet Web Proxy 3.6 Server

Abstract: This paper is devoted to the theoretical analysis of a problem derived from interaction between two Iplanet products: Web Proxy Server and the Directory Server. In particular, a probabilistic and stochastic-approximation model is proposed to minimize the occurrence of LDAP connection failures in Iplanet Web Proxy 3.6 Server. The proposed model serves not only to provide a parameterization of the aforementioned phenomena, but also to provide meaningful insights illustrating and supporting these theoretical results. In addition, we shall also address practical considerations when estimating the parameters of the proposed model from experimental data. Finally, we shall provide some interesting results from real-world data collected from our customers.


Robust Mechanisms for Risk-Averse Sellers

Abstract: The existing literature on optimal auctions focuses on optimizing the expected revenue of the seller, and is appropriate for risk-neutral sellers. In this paper, we identify good mechanisms for risk-averse sellers. As is standard in the economics literature, we model the risk-aversion of a seller by endowing the seller with a monotone concave utility function. We then seek robust mechanisms that are approximately optimal for all sellers, no matter what their levels of risk-aversion are. We have two main results for multi-unit auctions with unit-demand bidders whose valuations are drawn i.i.d. from a regular distribution. First, we identify a posted-price mechanism called the Hedge mechanism, which gives a universal constant factor approximation; we also show for the unlimited supply case that this mechanism is in a sense the best possible. Second, we show that the VCG mechanism gives a universal constant factor approximation when the number of bidders is even only a small multiple of the number of items. Along the way we point out that Myerson's characterization of the optimal mechanisms fails to extend to utility-maximization for risk-averse sellers, and establish interesting properties of regular distributions and monotone hazard rate distributions.


Feature Level Fusion of Face and Fingerprint Biometrics

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study the fusion at feature extraction level for face and fingerprint biometrics. The proposed approach is based on the fusion of the two traits by extracting independent feature pointsets from the two modalities, and making the two pointsets compatible for concatenation. Moreover, to handle the problem of curse of dimensionality, the feature pointsets are properly reduced in dimension. Different feature reduction techniques are implemented, prior and after the feature pointsets fusion, and the results are duly recorded. The fused feature pointset for the database and the query face and fingerprint images are matched using techniques based on either the point pattern matching, or the Delaunay triangulation. Comparative experiments are conducted on chimeric and real databases, to assess the actual advantage of the fusion performed at the feature extraction level, in comparison to the matching score level.


Secured Cryptographic Key Generation From Multimodal Biometrics Feature Level Fusion Of Fingerprint And Iris

Abstract: Human users have a tough time remembering long cryptographic keys. Hence, researchers, for so long, have been examining ways to utilize biometric features of the user instead of a memorable password or passphrase, in an effort to generate strong and repeatable cryptographic keys. Our objective is to incorporate the volatility of the users biometric features into the generated key, so as to make the key unguessable to an attacker lacking significant knowledge of the users biometrics. We go one step further trying to incorporate multiple biometric modalities into cryptographic key generation so as to provide better security. In this article, we propose an efficient approach based on multimodal biometrics (Iris and fingerprint) for generation of secure cryptographic key. The proposed approach is composed of three modules namely, 1) Feature extraction, 2) Multimodal biometric template generation and 3) Cryptographic key generation. Initially, the features, minutiae points and texture properties are extracted from the fingerprint and iris images respectively. Subsequently, the extracted features are fused together at the feature level to construct the multibiometric template. Finally, a 256bit secure cryptographic key is generated from the multibiometric template. For experimentation, we have employed the fingerprint images obtained from publicly available sources and the iris images from CASIA Iris Database. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Reachability Games on Extended Vector Addition Systems with States

Abstract: We consider two-player turn-based games with zero-reachability and zero-safety objectives generated by extended vector addition systems with states. Although the problem of deciding the winner in such games is undecidable in general, we identify several decidable and even tractable subcases of this problem obtained by restricting the number of counters and/or the sets of target configurations.


Modular Construction of Fixed Point Combinators and Clocked Boehm Trees

Abstract: Fixed point combinators (and their generalization: looping combinators) are classic notions belonging to the heart of lambda-calculus and logic. We start with an exploration of the structure of fixed point combinators (fpc's), vastly generalizing the well-known fact that if Y is an fpc, Y(SI) is again an fpc, generating the Boehm sequence of fpc's. Using the infinitary lambda-calculus we devise infinitely many other generation schemes for fpc's. In this way we find schemes and building blocks to construct new fpc's in a modular way. Having created a plethora of new fixed point combinators, the task is to prove that they are indeed new. That is, we have to prove their beta-inconvertibility. Known techniques via Boehm Trees do not apply, because all fpc's have the same Boehm Tree (BT). Therefore, we employ `clocked BT's', with annotations that convey information of the tempo in which the data in the BT are produced. BT's are thus enriched with an intrinsic clock behaviour, leading to a refined discrimination method for lambda-terms. The corresponding equality is strictly intermediate between beta-convertibility and BT-equality, the equality in the classical models of lambda-calculus. An analogous approach pertains to Levy-Longo Berarducci trees. Finally, we increase the discrimination power by a precision of the clock notion that we call `atomic clock'.


Removing Local Extrema from Imprecise Terrains

Abstract: In this paper we consider imprecise terrains, that is, triangulated terrains with a vertical error interval in the vertices. In particular, we study the problem of removing as many local extrema (minima and maxima) as possible from the terrain. We show that removing only minima or only maxima can be done optimally in O(n log n) time, for a terrain with n vertices. Interestingly, however, removing both the minima and maxima simultaneously is NP-hard, and is even hard to approximate within a factor of O(log log n) unless P=NP. Moreover, we show that even a simplified version of the problem where vertices can have only two different heights is already NP-hard, a result we obtain by proving hardness of a special case of 2-Disjoint Connected Subgraphs, a problem that has lately received considerable attention from the graph-algorithms community.


Fast Arithmetics in Artin-Schreier Towers over Finite Fields

Abstract: An Artin-Schreier tower over the finite field F_p is a tower of field extensions generated by polynomials of the form X^p - X - a. Following Cantor and Couveignes, we give algorithms with quasi-linear time complexity for arithmetic operations in such towers. As an application, we present an implementation of Couveignes' algorithm for computing isogenies between elliptic curves using the p-torsion.


Generating and ranking of Dyck words

Abstract: A new algorithm to generate all Dyck words is presented, which is used in ranking and unranking Dyck words. We emphasize the importance of using Dyck words in encoding objects related to Catalan numbers. As a consequence of formulas used in the ranking algorithm we can obtain a recursive formula for the nth Catalan number.


Assessment Of The Wind Farm Impact On The Radar

Abstract: This study shows the means to evaluate the wind farm impact on the radar. It proposes the set of tools, which can be used to realise this objective. The big part of report covers the study of complex pattern propagation factor as the critical issue of the Advanced Propagation Model (APM). Finally, the reader can find here the implementation of this algorithm - the real scenario in Inverness airport (the United Kingdom), where the ATC radar STAR 2000, developed by Thales Air Systems, operates in the presence of several wind farms. Basically, the project is based on terms of the department "Strategy Technology & Innovation", where it has been done. Also you can find here how the radar industry can act with the problem engendered by wind farms. The current strategies in this area are presented, such as a wind turbine production, improvements of air traffic handling procedures and the collaboration between developers of radars and wind turbines. The possible strategy for Thales as a main pioneer was given as well.


Performance Analysis of View Maintenance Techniques for DW

Abstract: A Data Warehouse stores integrated information as materialized views over data from one or more remote sources. These materialized views must be maintained in response to actual relation updates in the remote sources. The data warehouse view maintenance techniques are classified into four major categories self maintainable recomputation, not self maintainable recomputation, self maintainable incremental maintenance, and not self maintainable incremental maintenance. This paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the techniques in these four categories in terms of the data warehouse space usage and number of rows accessed in order to propagate an update from a remote data source to a target materialized view in the data warehouse.


IT in Power Sector A KPCL Implementation

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the extent of Information Technology penetration in Power sector, taking KPCL, Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd., a premier power generating, a state owned public sector organization as an example. Any organization to flourish, adoption of Information Technology is inevitable in the days of fast changing technological advancements. It is not merely the investment on IT which helps but adoption of right IT solutions and the optimum use of the same does matter and becomes most critical. A strong infrastructure coupled with modern technical and management concepts has helped KPCL to meet the challenges of the rising energy demands of Karnataka.


On the d-complexity of strings

Abstract: This paper deals with the complexity of strings, which play an important role in biology (nucleotid sequences), information theory and computer science. The d-complexity of a string is defined as the number of its distinct d-substrings given in Definition 1. The case d=1 is studied in detail.


Toward a Formal Semantics for Autonomic Components

Abstract: Autonomic management can improve the QoS provided by parallel/ distributed applications. Within the CoreGRID Component Model, the autonomic management is tailored to the automatic - monitoring-driven - alteration of the component assembly and, therefore, is defined as the effect of (distributed) management code. This work yields a semantics based on hypergraph rewriting suitable to model the dynamic evolution and non-functional aspects of Service Oriented Architectures and component-based autonomic applications. In this regard, our main goal is to provide a formal description of adaptation operations that are typically only informally specified. We contend that our approach makes easier to raise the level of abstraction of management code in autonomic and adaptive applications.


Properties of palindromes in finite words

Abstract: We present a method which displays all palindromes of a given length from De Bruijn words of a certain order, and also a recursive one which constructs all palindromes of length $n+1$ from the set of palindromes of length $n$. We show that the palindrome complexity function, which counts the number of palindromes of each length contained in a given word, has a different shape compared with the usual (subword) complexity function. We give upper bounds for the average number of palindromes contained in all words of length $n$, and obtain exact formulae for the number of palindromes of length 1 and 2 contained in all words of length $n$.


Maximal Complexity of Finite Words

Abstract: The subword complexity of a finite word $w$ of length $N$ is a function which associates to each $n\le N$ the number of all distinct subwords of $w$ having the length $n$. We define the \emph{maximal complexity} C(w) as the maximum of the subword complexity for $n \in \{1,2,..., N \}$, and the \emph{global maximal complexity} K(N) as the maximum of C(w) for all words $w$ of a fixed length $N$ over a finite alphabet. By R(N) we will denote the set of the values $i$ for which there exits a word of length $N$ having K(N) subwords of length $i$. M(N) represents the number of words of length $N$ whose maximal complexity is equal to the global maximal complexity.


Negative Interactions in Irreversible Self-Assembly

Abstract: This paper explores the use of negative (i.e., repulsive) interaction the abstract Tile Assembly Model defined by Winfree. Winfree postulated negative interactions to be physically plausible in his Ph.D. thesis, and Reif, Sahu, and Yin explored their power in the context of reversible attachment operations. We explore the power of negative interactions with irreversible attachments, and we achieve two main results. Our first result is an impossibility theorem: after t steps of assembly, Omega(t) tiles will be forever bound to an assembly, unable to detach. Thus negative glue strengths do not afford unlimited power to reuse tiles. Our second result is a positive one: we construct a set of tiles that can simulate a Turing machine with space bound s and time bound t, while ensuring that no intermediate assembly grows larger than O(s), rather than O(s * t) as required by the standard Turing machine simulation with tiles.


Multibiometrics Belief Fusion

Abstract: This paper proposes a multimodal biometric system through Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) for face and ear biometrics with belief fusion of the estimated scores characterized by Gabor responses and the proposed fusion is accomplished by Dempster-Shafer (DS) decision theory. Face and ear images are convolved with Gabor wavelet filters to extracts spatially enhanced Gabor facial features and Gabor ear features. Further, GMM is applied to the high-dimensional Gabor face and Gabor ear responses separately for quantitive measurements. Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm is used to estimate density parameters in GMM. This produces two sets of feature vectors which are then fused using Dempster-Shafer theory. Experiments are conducted on multimodal database containing face and ear images of 400 individuals. It is found that use of Gabor wavelet filters along with GMM and DS theory can provide robust and efficient multimodal fusion strategy.


Collaborative Filtering in a Non-Uniform World: Learning with the Weighted Trace Norm

Abstract: We show that matrix completion with trace-norm regularization can be significantly hurt when entries of the matrix are sampled non-uniformly. We introduce a weighted version of the trace-norm regularizer that works well also with non-uniform sampling. Our experimental results demonstrate that the weighted trace-norm regularization indeed yields significant gains on the (highly non-uniformly sampled) Netflix dataset.


Comparative Results: Group Search Optimizer and Central Force Optimization

Abstract: This note compares the performance of two multidimensional search and optimization algorithms: Group Search Optimizer and Central Force Optimization. GSO is a new state-of-the-art algorithm that has gained some notoriety, consequently providing an excellent yardstick for measuring the performance of other algorithms. CFO is a novel deterministic metaheuristic that has performed well against GSO in previous tests. The CFO implementation reported here includes architectural improvements in errant probe retrieval and decision space adaptation that result in even better performance. Detailed results are provided for the twenty-three function benchmark suite used to evaluate GSO. CFO performs better than or essentially as well as GSO on twenty functions and nearly as well on one of the remaining three. Includes update 24 February 2010.


When Should I Use Network Emulation?

Abstract: The design and development of a complex system requires an adequate methodology and efficient instrumental support in order to early detect and correct anomalies in the functional and non-functional properties of the tested protocols. Among the various tools used to provide experimental support for such developments, network emulation relies on real-time production of impairments on real traffic according to a communication model, either realistically or not. This paper aims at simply presenting to newcomers in network emulation (students, engineers, ...) basic principles and practices illustrated with a few commonly used tools. The motivation behind is to fill a gap in terms of introductory and pragmatic papers in this domain. The study particularly considers centralized approaches, allowing cheap and easy implementation in the context of research labs or industrial developments. In addition, an architectural model for emulation systems is proposed, defining three complementary levels, namely hardware, impairment and model levels. With the help of this architectural framework, various existing tools are situated and described. Various approaches for modeling the emulation actions are studied, such as impairment-based scenarios and virtual architectures, real-time discrete simulation and trace-based systems. Those modeling approaches are described and compared in terms of services and we study their ability to respond to various designer needs to assess when emulation is needed.


Dynamic Cognitive Process Application of Blooms Taxonomy for Complex Software Design in the Cognitive Domain

Abstract: Software design in Software Engineering is a critical and dynamic cognitive process. Accurate and flawless system design will lead to fast coding and early completion of a software project. Blooms taxonomy classifies cognitive domain into six dynamic levels such as Knowledge at base level to Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation at the highest level in the order of increasing complexity. A case study indicated in this paper is a gira system, which is a gprs based Intranet Remote Administration which monitors and controls the intranet from a mobile device. This paper investigates from this case study that the System Design stage in Software Engineering uses all the six levels of Blooms Taxonomy. The application of the highest levels of Blooms Taxonomy such as Synthesis and Evaluation in the design of gira indicates that Software Design in Software Development Life Cycle is a complex and critical cognitive process.


PageRank: Standing on the shoulders of giants

Abstract: PageRank is a Web page ranking technique that has been a fundamental ingredient in the development and success of the Google search engine. The method is still one of the many signals that Google uses to determine which pages are most important. The main idea behind PageRank is to determine the importance of a Web page in terms of the importance assigned to the pages hyperlinking to it. In fact, this thesis is not new, and has been previously successfully exploited in different contexts. We review the PageRank method and link it to some renowned previous techniques that we have found in the fields of Web information retrieval, bibliometrics, sociometry, and econometrics.


A Bisimulation-based Method for Proving the Validity of Equations in GSOS Languages

Abstract: This paper presents a bisimulation-based method for establishing the soundness of equations between terms constructed using operations whose semantics is specified by rules in the GSOS format of Bloom, Istrail and Meyer. The method is inspired by de Simone's FH-bisimilarity and uses transition rules as schematic transitions in a bisimulation-like relation between open terms. The soundness of the method is proven and examples showing its applicability are provided. The proposed bisimulation-based proof method is incomplete, but the article offers some completeness results for restricted classes of GSOS specifications.


A Fully Abstract Symbolic Semantics for Psi-Calculi

Abstract: We present a symbolic transition system and bisimulation equivalence for psi-calculi, and show that it is fully abstract with respect to bisimulation congruence in the non-symbolic semantics. A psi-calculus is an extension of the pi-calculus with nominal data types for data structures and for logical assertions representing facts about data. These can be transmitted between processes and their names can be statically scoped using the standard pi-calculus mechanism to allow for scope migrations. Psi-calculi can be more general than other proposed extensions of the pi-calculus such as the applied pi-calculus, the spi-calculus, the fusion calculus, or the concurrent constraint pi-calculus. Symbolic semantics are necessary for an efficient implementation of the calculus in automated tools exploring state spaces, and the full abstraction property means the semantics of a process does not change from the original.


Causality in the Semantics of Esterel: Revisited

Abstract: We re-examine the challenges concerning causality in the semantics of Esterel and show that they pertain to the known issues in the semantics of Structured Operational Semantics with negative premises. We show that the solutions offered for the semantics of SOS also provide answers to the semantic challenges of Esterel and that they satisfy the intuitive requirements set by the language designers.


On Barbs and Labels in Reactive Systems

Abstract: Reactive systems (RSs) represent a meta-framework aimed at deriving behavioral congruences for those computational formalisms whose operational semantics is provided by reduction rules. RSs proved a flexible specification device, yet so far most of the efforts dealing with their behavioural semantics focused on idem pushouts (IPOs) and saturated (also known as dynamic) bisimulations. In this paper we introduce a novel, intermediate behavioural equivalence: L-bisimilarity, which is able to recast both its IPO and saturated counterparts. The equivalence is parametric with respect to a set L of RSs labels, and it is shown that under mild conditions on L it is indeed a congruence. Furthermore, L-bisimilarity can also recast the notion of barbed semantics for RSs, proposed by the same authors in a previous paper. In order to provide a suitable test-bed, we instantiate our proposal by addressing the semantics of (asynchronous) CCS and of the calculus of mobile ambients.


Reverse Bisimulations on Stable Configuration Structures

Abstract: The relationships between various equivalences on configuration structures, including interleaving bisimulation (IB), step bisimulation (SB) and hereditary history-preserving (HH) bisimulation, have been investigated by van Glabbeek and Goltz (and later Fecher). Since HH bisimulation may be characterised by the use of reverse as well as forward transitions, it is of interest to investigate forms of IB and SB where both forward and reverse transitions are allowed. We give various characterisations of reverse SB, showing that forward steps do not add extra power. We strengthen Bednarczyk's result that, in the absence of auto-concurrency, reverse IB is as strong as HH bisimulation, by showing that we need only exclude auto-concurrent events at the same depth in the configuration.


Rewriting Logic Semantics of a Plan Execution Language

Abstract: The Plan Execution Interchange Language (PLEXIL) is a synchronous language developed by NASA to support autonomous spacecraft operations. In this paper, we propose a rewriting logic semantics of PLEXIL in Maude, a high-performance logical engine. The rewriting logic semantics is by itself a formal interpreter of the language and can be used as a semantic benchmark for the implementation of PLEXIL executives. The implementation in Maude has the additional benefit of making available to PLEXIL designers and developers all the formal analysis and verification tools provided by Maude. The formalization of the PLEXIL semantics in rewriting logic poses an interesting challenge due to the synchronous nature of the language and the prioritized rules defining its semantics. To overcome this difficulty, we propose a general procedure for simulating synchronous set relations in rewriting logic that is sound and, for deterministic relations, complete. We also report on two issues at the design level of the original PLEXIL semantics that were identified with the help of the executable specification in Maude.


Analysis of Boolean Equation Systems through Structure Graphs

Abstract: We analyse the problem of solving Boolean equation systems through the use of structure graphs. The latter are obtained through an elegant set of Plotkin-style deduction rules. Our main contribution is that we show that equation systems with bisimilar structure graphs have the same solution. We show that our work conservatively extends earlier work, conducted by Keiren and Willemse, in which dependency graphs were used to analyse a subclass of Boolean equation systems, viz., equation systems in standard recursive form. We illustrate our approach by a small example, demonstrating the effect of simplifying an equation system through minimisation of its structure graph.


Model-Driven Constraint Programming

Abstract: Constraint programming can definitely be seen as a model-driven paradigm. The users write programs for modeling problems. These programs are mapped to executable models to calculate the solutions. This paper focuses on efficient model management (definition and transformation). From this point of view, we propose to revisit the design of constraint-programming systems. A model-driven architecture is introduced to map solving-independent constraint models to solving-dependent decision models. Several important questions are examined, such as the need for a visual highlevel modeling language, and the quality of metamodeling techniques to implement the transformations. A main result is the s-COMMA platform that efficiently implements the chain from modeling to solving constraint problems


The Complexity of Proving the Discrete Jordan Curve Theorem

Abstract: The Jordan Curve Theorem (JCT) states that a simple closed curve divides the plane into exactly two connected regions. We formalize and prove the theorem in the context of grid graphs, under different input settings, in theories of bounded arithmetic that correspond to small complexity classes. The theory $V^0(2)$ (corresponding to $AC^0(2)$) proves that any set of edges that form disjoint cycles divides the grid into at least two regions. The theory $V^0$ (corresponding to $AC^0$) proves that any sequence of edges that form a simple closed curve divides the grid into exactly two regions. As a consequence, the Hex tautologies and the st-connectivity tautologies have polynomial size $AC^0(2)$-Frege-proofs, which improves results of Buss which only apply to the stronger proof system $TC^0$-Frege.


Proceedings Sixth Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics

Abstract: This volume contains the proceedings of SOS 2009, the Sixth Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics held on the 31st of August 2009 in Bologna, Italy as a affiliated workshop of CONCUR 2009, the 20th International Conference on Concurrency Theory. Structural operational semantics (SOS) is a technique for defining operational semantics for programming and specification languages. The workshop is forum for researchers, students and practitioners interested in new developments and directions for future investigations in the area of SOS. One of the specific goals of the workshop is to provide a meeting point for the concurrency and programming language communities. Another goal is the dissemination of the theory and practice of SOS amongst postgraduate students and young researchers worldwide.


Cognitive Process of Comprehension in Requirement Analysis in IT Applications

Abstract: Requirement Analysis is an important phase in software development which deals with understanding the customers requirements. It includes the collection of information from the customer, which is regarding the customers requirements and what he expects from the software which is to be developed. By doing so, you can have a better understanding of what the customer actually needs and hence can deliver the output as per the customers requirements. Studies are being carried out to bring about improvements in the process of requirement analysis so that errors in software development could be minimized and hence improved and reliable products could be delivered.


GPRS Video Streaming Surveillance System GVSS

Abstract: Future security measures will create comfortable living environments that are embedded with a wide range of intelligent functionalities including home computing, entertainment, health care and security. These place stringent requirements on the home networking architecture which integrates various existing technologies for monitoring and control for future high security needs. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a gvss gprs Video Streaming Surveillance System system, which integrates various existing technologies for providing security for smart home environments. This system provides security for office, home and other buildings where high security is required.This allows the mobile user to track the activities from a particular location. The system will send snapshots of the video and stores them in different formats. It is also possible to display the time with the image when it was captured in the gprs enabled mobiles. This system is implemented using J2me Technology


GPRS Based Intranet Remote Administration GIRA

Abstract: In a world of increasing mobility, there is a growing need for people to communicate with each other and have timely access to information regardless of the location of the individuals or the information. With the advent of moblle technology, the way of communication has changed. The gira system is basically a mobile phone technology service. In this paper we discuss about a novel local area network control system called gprs based Intranet Remote Administration gira. This system finds application in a mobile handset. With this system, a network administrator will have an effective remote control over the network. gira system is developed using gprs, gcf Generic Connection Framework of j2me, sockets and rmi technologies


Rewriting Constraint Models with Metamodels

Abstract: An important challenge in constraint programming is to rewrite constraint models into executable programs calculat- ing the solutions. This phase of constraint processing may require translations between constraint programming lan- guages, transformations of constraint representations, model optimizations, and tuning of solving strategies. In this paper, we introduce a pivot metamodel describing the common fea- tures of constraint models including different kinds of con- straints, statements like conditionals and loops, and other first-class elements like object classes and predicates. This metamodel is general enough to cope with the constructions of many languages, from object-oriented modeling languages to logic languages, but it is independent from them. The rewriting operations manipulate metamodel instances apart from languages. As a consequence, the rewriting operations apply whatever languages are selected and they are able to manage model semantic information. A bridge is created between the metamodel space and languages using parsing techniques. Tools from the software engineering world can be useful to implement this framework.


Quantifying the Deign Quality of Object Oriented System The metric based rules and heuristic

Abstract: The design structure of OO software has decisive impact on its quality. The design must be strongly correlated with quality characteristics like analyzability, changeability, stability and testability, which are important for maintaining the system. But due to the diversity and complexity of the design properties of OO system e.g. Polymorphism, encapsulation, coupling it becomes cumbersome.


Open Access Mandates and the "Fair Dealing" Button

Abstract: We describe the "Fair Dealing Button," a feature designed for authors who have deposited their papers in an Open Access Institutional Repository but have deposited them as "Closed Access" (meaning only the metadata are visible and retrievable, not the full eprint) rather than Open Access. The Button allows individual users to request and authors to provide a single eprint via semi-automated email. The purpose of the Button is to tide over research usage needs during any publisher embargo on Open Access and, more importantly, to make it possible for institutions to adopt the "Immediate-Deposit/Optional-Access" Mandate, without exceptions or opt-outs, instead of a mandate that allows delayed deposit or deposit waivers, depending on publisher permissions or embargoes (or no mandate at all). This is only "Almost-Open Access," but in facilitating exception-free immediate-deposit mandates it will accelerate the advent of universal Open Access.


NumGfun: a Package for Numerical and Analytic Computation with D-finite Functions

Abstract: This article describes the implementation in the software package NumGfun of classical algorithms that operate on solutions of linear differential equations or recurrence relations with polynomial coefficients, including what seems to be the first general implementation of the fast high-precision numerical evaluation algorithms of Chudnovsky & Chudnovsky. In some cases, our descriptions contain improvements over existing algorithms. We also provide references to relevant ideas not currently used in NumGfun.


Using ATL to define advanced and flexible constraint model transformations

Abstract: Transforming constraint models is an important task in re- cent constraint programming systems. User-understandable models are defined during the modeling phase but rewriting or tuning them is manda- tory to get solving-efficient models. We propose a new architecture al- lowing to define bridges between any (modeling or solver) languages and to implement model optimizations. This architecture follows a model- driven approach where the constraint modeling process is seen as a set of model transformations. Among others, an interesting feature is the def- inition of transformations as concept-oriented rules, i.e. based on types of model elements where the types are organized into a hierarchy called a metamodel.


L2C2: Logic-based LSC Consistency Checking

Abstract: Live sequence charts (LSCs) have been proposed as an inter-object scenario-based specification and visual programming language for reactive systems. In this paper, we introduce a logic-based framework to check the consistency of an LSC specification. An LSC simulator has been implemented in logic programming, utilizing a memoized depth-first search strategy, to show how a reactive system in LSCs would response to a set of external event sequences. A formal notation is defined to specify external event sequences, extending the regular expression with a parallel operator and a testing control. The parallel operator allows interleaved parallel external events to be tested in LSCs simultaneously; while the testing control provides users to a new approach to specify and test certain temporal properties (e.g., CTL formula) in a form of LSC. Our framework further provides either a state transition graph or a failure trace to justify the consistency checking results.


Channel Fragmentation in Dynamic Spectrum Access Systems - a Theoretical Study

Abstract: Dynamic Spectrum Access systems exploit temporarily available spectrum (`white spaces') and can spread transmissions over a number of non-contiguous sub-channels. Such methods are highly beneficial in terms of spectrum utilization. However, excessive fragmentation degrades performance and hence off-sets the benefits. Thus, there is a need to study these processes so as to determine how to ensure acceptable levels of fragmentation. Hence, we present experimental and analytical results derived from a mathematical model. We model a system operating at capacity serving requests for bandwidth by assigning a collection of gaps (sub-channels) with no limitations on the fragment size. Our main theoretical result shows that even if fragments can be arbitrarily small, the system does not degrade with time. Namely, the average total number of fragments remains bounded. Within the very difficult class of dynamic fragmentation models (including models of storage fragmentation), this result appears to be the first of its kind. Extensive experimental results describe behavior, at times unexpected, of fragmentation under different algorithms. Our model also applies to dynamic linked-list storage allocation, and provides a novel analysis in that domain. We prove that, interestingly, the 50% rule of the classical (non-fragmented) allocation model carries over to our model. Overall, the paper provides insights into the potential behavior of practical fragmentation algorithms.


Convergence of Bayesian Control Rule

Abstract: Recently, new approaches to adaptive control have sought to reformulate the problem as a minimization of a relative entropy criterion to obtain tractable solutions. In particular, it has been shown that minimizing the expected deviation from the causal input-output dependencies of the true plant leads to a new promising stochastic control rule called the Bayesian control rule. This work proves the convergence of the Bayesian control rule under two sufficient assumptions: boundedness, which is an ergodicity condition; and consistency, which is an instantiation of the sure-thing principle.


Selective Call Out and Real Time Bidding

Abstract: Ads on the Internet are increasingly sold via ad exchanges such as RightMedia, AdECN and Doubleclick Ad Exchange. These exchanges allow real-time bidding, that is, each time the publisher contacts the exchange, the exchange ``calls out'' to solicit bids from ad networks. This aspect of soliciting bids introduces a novel aspect, in contrast to existing literature. This suggests developing a joint optimization framework which optimizes over the allocation and well as solicitation. We model this selective call out as an online recurrent Bayesian decision framework with bandwidth type constraints. We obtain natural algorithms with bounded performance guarantees for several natural optimization criteria. We show that these results hold under different call out constraint models, and different arrival processes. Interestingly, the paper shows that under MHR assumptions, the expected revenue of generalized second price auction with reserve is constant factor of the expected welfare. Also the analysis herein allow us prove adaptivity gap type results for the adwords problem.


The relational model is injective for Multiplicative Exponential Linear Logic (without weakenings)

Abstract: We show that for Multiplicative Exponential Linear Logic (without weakenings) the syntactical equivalence relation on proofs induced by cut-elimination coincides with the semantic equivalence relation on proofs induced by the multiset based relational model: one says that the interpretation in the model (or the semantics) is injective. We actually prove a stronger result: two cut-free proofs of the full multiplicative and exponential fragment of linear logic whose interpretations coincide in the multiset based relational model are the same "up to the connections between the doors of exponential boxes".


SSMS - A Secure SMS Messaging Protocol for the M-payment Systems

Abstract: The GSM network with the greatest worldwide number of users, succumbs to several security vulnerabilities. The short message service (SMS) is one of its superior and well-tried services with a global availability in the GSM networks. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a new secure application layer protocol, called SSMS, to efficiently embed the desired security attributes in the SMS messages to be used as a secure bearer in the m-payment systems. SSMS efficiently embeds the confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation in the SMS messages. It provides an elliptic curve-based public key solution that uses public keys for the secret key establishment of a symmetric encryption. It also provides the attributes of public verification and forward secrecy. It efficiently makes the SMS messaging suitable for the m-payment applications where the security is the great concern.


A new approach to content-based file type detection

Abstract: File type identification and file type clustering may be difficult tasks that have an increasingly importance in the field of computer and network security. Classical methods of file type detection including considering file extensions and magic bytes can be easily spoofed. Content-based file type detection is a newer way that is taken into account recently. In this paper, a new content-based method for the purpose of file type detection and file type clustering is proposed that is based on the PCA and neural networks. The proposed method has a good accuracy and is fast enough.


Solutions to the GSM Security Weaknesses

Abstract: Recently, the mobile industry has experienced an extreme increment in number of its users. The GSM network with the greatest worldwide number of users succumbs to several security vulnerabilities. Although some of its security problems are addressed in its upper generations, there are still many operators using 2G systems. This paper briefly presents the most important security flaws of the GSM network and its transport channels. It also provides some practical solutions to improve the security of currently available 2G systems.


SMEmail - A New Protocol for the Secure E-mail in Mobile Environments

Abstract: The electronic mail plays an unavoidable role in the humankind communications. With the great interest for the connection via mobile platforms, and the growing number of vulnerabilities and attacks, it is essential to provide suitable security solutions regarding the limitations of resource restricted platforms. Although some solutions such as PGP and S/MIME are currently available for the secure e-mail over the Internet, they are based on traditional public key cryptography that involves huge computational costs. In this paper, a new secure application-layer protocol, called SMEmail, is introduced that provides several security attributes such as confidentiality, integrity, authentication, non-repudiation, and forward secrecy of message confidentiality for the electronic mails. SMEmail offers an elliptic curve-based public key solution that uses public keys for the secure key establishment of a symmetric encryption, and is so suitable for the resource restricted platforms such as mobile phones.


Factorization of Non-Commutative Polynomials

Abstract: We describe an algorithm for the factorization of non-commutative polynomials over a field. The first sketch of this algorithm appeared in an unpublished manuscript (literally hand written notes) by James H. Davenport more than 20 years ago. This version of the algorithm contains some improvements with respect to the original sketch. An improved version of the algorithm has been fully implemented in the Axiom computer algebra system.


A Complete Characterization of Statistical Query Learning with Applications to Evolvability

Abstract: Statistical query (SQ) learning model of Kearns (1993) is a natural restriction of the PAC learning model in which a learning algorithm is allowed to obtain estimates of statistical properties of the examples but cannot see the examples themselves. We describe a new and simple characterization of the query complexity of learning in the SQ learning model. Unlike the previously known bounds on SQ learning our characterization preserves the accuracy and the efficiency of learning. The preservation of accuracy implies that that our characterization gives the first characterization of SQ learning in the agnostic learning framework. The preservation of efficiency is achieved using a new boosting technique and allows us to derive a new approach to the design of evolutionary algorithms in Valiant's (2006) model of evolvability. We use this approach to demonstrate the existence of a large class of monotone evolutionary learning algorithms based on square loss performance estimation. These results differ significantly from the few known evolutionary algorithms and give evidence that evolvability in Valiant's model is a more versatile phenomenon than there had been previous reason to suspect.


A Distributed Sequential Algorithm for Collaborative Intrusion Detection Networks

Abstract: Collaborative intrusion detection networks are often used to gain better detection accuracy and cost efficiency as compared to a single host-based intrusion detection system (IDS). Through cooperation, it is possible for a local IDS to detect new attacks that may be known to other experienced acquaintances. In this paper, we present a sequential hypothesis testing method for feedback aggregation for each individual IDS in the net- work. Our simulation results corroborate our theoretical results and demonstrate the properties of cost efficiency and accuracy compared to other heuristic methods. The analytical result on the lower-bound of the average number of acquaintances for consultation is essential for the design and configuration of IDSs in a collaborative environment.


Efficiently Discovering Hammock Paths from Induced Similarity Networks

Abstract: Similarity networks are important abstractions in many information management applications such as recommender systems, corpora analysis, and medical informatics. For instance, by inducing similarity networks between movies rated similarly by users, or between documents containing common terms, and or between clinical trials involving the same themes, we can aim to find the global structure of connectivities underlying the data, and use the network as a basis to make connections between seemingly disparate entities. In the above applications, composing similarities between objects of interest finds uses in serendipitous recommendation, in storytelling, and in clinical diagnosis, respectively. We present an algorithmic framework for traversing similarity paths using the notion of `hammock' paths which are generalization of traditional paths. Our framework is exploratory in nature so that, given starting and ending objects of interest, it explores candidate objects for path following, and heuristics to admissibly estimate the potential for paths to lead to a desired destination. We present three diverse applications: exploring movie similarities in the Netflix dataset, exploring abstract similarities across the PubMed corpus, and exploring description similarities in a database of clinical trials. Experimental results demonstrate the potential of our approach for unstructured knowledge discovery in similarity networks.


Structural Analysis of Boolean Equation Systems

Abstract: We analyse the problem of solving Boolean equation systems through the use of structure graphs. The latter are obtained through an elegant set of Plotkin-style deduction rules. Our main contribution is that we show that equation systems with bisimilar structure graphs have the same solution. We show that our work conservatively extends earlier work, conducted by Keiren and Willemse, in which dependency graphs were used to analyse a subclass of Boolean equation systems, viz., equation systems in standard recursive form. We illustrate our approach by a small example, demonstrating the effect of simplifying an equation system through minimisation of its structure graph.


A Greedy link scheduler for Wireless Networks having Gaussian Broadcast and Multiple Access Channels

Abstract: Information theoretic Broadcast Channels (BC) and Multiple Access Channels (MAC) enable a single node to transmit data simultaneously to multiple nodes, and multiple nodes to transmit data simultaneously to a single node respectively. In this paper, we address the problem of link scheduling in multihop wireless networks containing nodes with BC and MAC capabilities. We first propose an interference model that extends protocol interference models, originally designed for point to point channels, to include the possibility of BC and MAC. Due to the high complexity of optimal link schedulers, we introduce the Multiuser Greedy Maximum Weight algorithm for link scheduling in multihop wireless networks containing BCs and MACs. Given a network graph, we develop new local pooling conditions and show that the performance of our algorithm can be fully characterized using the associated parameter, the multiuser local pooling factor. We provide examples of some network graphs, on which we apply local pooling conditions and derive the multiuser local pooling factor. We prove optimality of our algorithm in tree networks and show that the exploitation of BCs and MACs improve the throughput performance considerably in multihop wireless networks.


Exploring a Multidimensional Representation of Documents and Queries (extended version)

Abstract: In Information Retrieval (IR), whether implicitly or explicitly, queries and documents are often represented as vectors. However, it may be more beneficial to consider documents and/or queries as multidimensional objects. Our belief is this would allow building "truly" interactive IR systems, i.e., where interaction is fully incorporated in the IR framework. The probabilistic formalism of quantum physics represents events and densities as multidimensional objects. This paper presents our first step towards building an interactive IR framework upon this formalism, by stating how the first interaction of the retrieval process, when the user types a query, can be formalised. Our framework depends on a number of parameters affecting the final document ranking. In this paper we experimentally investigate the effect of these parameters, showing that the proposed representation of documents and queries as multidimensional objects can compete with standard approaches, with the additional prospect to be applied to interactive retrieval.


Asymptotically Stable Walking of a Five-Link Underactuated 3D Bipedal Robot

Abstract: This paper presents three feedback controllers that achieve an asymptotically stable, periodic, and fast walking gait for a 3D (spatial) bipedal robot consisting of a torso, two legs, and passive (unactuated) point feet. The contact between the robot and the walking surface is assumed to inhibit yaw rotation. The studied robot has 8 DOF in the single support phase and 6 actuators. The interest of studying robots with point feet is that the robot's natural dynamics must be explicitly taken into account to achieve balance while walking. We use an extension of the method of virtual constraints and hybrid zero dynamics, in order to simultaneously compute a periodic orbit and an autonomous feedback controller that realizes the orbit. This method allows the computations to be carried out on a 2-DOF subsystem of the 8-DOF robot model. The stability of the walking gait under closed-loop control is evaluated with the linearization of the restricted Poincar\'e map of the hybrid zero dynamics. Three strategies are explored. The first strategy consists of imposing a stability condition during the search of a periodic gait by optimization. The second strategy uses an event-based controller. In the third approach, the effect of output selection is discussed and a pertinent choice of outputs is proposed, leading to stabilization without the use of a supplemental event-based controller.


LPKI - A Lightweight Public Key Infrastructure for the Mobile Environments

Abstract: The non-repudiation as an essential requirement of many applications can be provided by the asymmetric key model. With the evolution of new applications such as mobile commerce, it is essential to provide secure and efficient solutions for the mobile environments. The traditional public key cryptography involves huge computational costs and is not so suitable for the resource-constrained platforms. The elliptic curve-based approaches as the newer solutions require certain considerations that are not taken into account in the traditional public key infrastructures. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a Lightweight Public Key Infrastructure (LPKI) for the constrained platforms such as mobile phones. It takes advantages of elliptic curve cryptography and signcryption to decrease the computational costs and communication overheads, and adapting to the constraints. All the computational costs of required validations can be eliminated from end-entities by introduction of a validation authority to the introduced infrastructure and delegating validations to such a component. LPKI is so suitable for mobile environments and for applications such as mobile commerce where the security is the great concern.


Cryptanalysis of an Efficient Signcryption Scheme with Forward Secrecy Based on Elliptic Curve

Abstract: The signcryption is a relatively new cryptographic technique that is supposed to fulfill the functionalities of encryption and digital signature in a single logical step. Several signcryption schemes are proposed throughout the years, each of them having its own problems and limitations. In this paper, the security of a recent signcryption scheme, i.e. Hwang et al.'s scheme is analyzed, and it is proved that it involves several security flaws and shortcomings. Several devastating attacks are also introduced to the mentioned scheme whereby it fails all the desired and essential security attributes of a signcryption scheme.


A Directly Public Verifiable Signcryption Scheme based on Elliptic Curves

Abstract: A directly public verifiable signcryption scheme is introduced in this paper that provides the security attributes of message confidentiality, authentication, integrity, non-repudiation, unforgeability, and forward secrecy of message confidentiality. It provides the attribute of direct public verifiability so anyone can verify the signcryption without any need for any secret information from the corresponding participants. The proposed scheme is based on elliptic curve cryptography and is so suitable for environments with resource constraints.


Optimization of MIMO detectors: Unleashing the multiplexing gain

Abstract: Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems have recently emerged as a key technology in wireless communication systems for increasing both data rates and system performance. There are many schemes that can be applied to MIMO systems such as space time block codes, space time trellis codes, and the Vertical Bell Labs Space-Time Architecture (V-BLAST). This paper proposes a novel signal detector scheme called MIMO detectors to enhance the performance in MIMO channels. We study the general MIMO system, the general V-BLAST architecture with Maximum Likelihood (ML), Zero- Forcing (ZF), Minimum Mean- Square Error (MMSE), and Ordered Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) detectors and simulate this structure in Rayleigh fading channel. Also compares the performances of MIMO system with different modulation techniques in Fading and AWGN channels. Base on frame error rates and bit error rates, we compare the performance and the computational complexity of these schemes with other existence model.Simulations shown that V-BLAST implements a detection technique, i.e. SIC receiver, based on ZF or MMSE combined with symbol cancellation and optimal ordering to improve the performance with lower complexity, although ML receiver appears to have the best SER performance-BLAST achieves symbol error rates close to the ML scheme while retaining the lowcomplexity nature of the V-BLAST.


Co-channel Interference Cancellation for Space-Time Coded OFDM Systems Using Adaptive Beamforming and Null Deepening

Abstract: Combined with space-time coding, the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system explores space diversity. It is a potential scheme to offer spectral efficiency and robust high data rate transmissions over frequency-selective fading channel. However, space-time coding impairs the system ability to suppress interferences as the signals transmitted from two transmit antennas are superposed and interfered at the receiver antennas. In this paper, we developed an adaptive beamforming based on least mean squared error algorithm and null deepening to combat co-channel interference (CCI) for the space-time coded OFDM (STC-OFDM) system. To illustrate the performance of the presented approach, it is compared to the null steering beamformer which requires a prior knowledge of directions of arrival (DOAs). The structure of space-time decoders are preserved although there is the use of beamformers before decoding. By incorporating the proposed beamformer as a CCI canceller in the STC-OFDM systems, the performance improvement is achieved as shown in the simulation results.


Holistic Approach for Critical System Security: Flooding Prevention and Malicious Packet Stopping

Abstract: Denial of service attacks (DoS) can cause significant financial damages. Flooding and Malicious packets are two kinds of DoS attacks. This paper presents a new security approach which stops malicious packets and prevents flooding in the critical systems. New concepts of packet stamp a dynamic-multi-communication-point mechanism has been identified for this proposed approach to make the prevention of flooding attacks easier and the performing of malicious packet attacks harder. In addition, dynamic key encryption technique has been adapted as a part of the proposed approach to enhance its functionality.


Design of Optimal Topology of Satellite-Based Terrestrial Communication Networks

Abstract: Topological design of terrestrial networks for communication via satellites is studied in the paper. Quantitative model of the network cost-analysis minimizing the total transmission and switching cost is described. Several algorithms solving combinatorial problem of the optimal topology design based on binary partitioning, a minimax parametric search and dynamic programming are developed by the author and demonstrated with a numeric example. Analysis of average complexity of the minimax parametric search algorithm is also provided.


Error Performance Analysis to Increase Capacity of A Cellular System Using SDMA

Abstract: One of the biggest drawbacks of the wireless environment is the limited bandwidth. However, the users sharing this limited bandwidth have been increasing considerably.Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) is a new technology by which the capacity of existing mobile communication systems can economically be increased. This paper has been presented how the capacity can be enhanced by using SDMA with smart antennas in mobile communications system. Based on Adaptive Antenna Array (AAA) technology the spatial dimension of the existing system is exploited by means of forming independent radio beams in each of the original channels. This paper analyses the comparison of average Bit Error Rate (BER) of SDMA and CDMA technique and the different ways in which SDMA can be introduced to increase the capacity of a cellular system. The probability of error is found for a standard omni directional base station antenna, and another set of curves is found for flat top beam having a directivity of 5.1dB. It is assumed that k separate flat top beams can be formed by base station and pointed each of the k users within the cell of interest. Noticing that for an average probability of error greater than 0.1 in a propagation path loss environment of n=4, the flat top beam will support 200 users, whereas the omni-directional antenna will support only 50 users. This increase the number of user is roughly equal to the directivity offered by the flat top beam system, and illustrates the promise SDMA offers for improving capacity in wireless system. Here multipath fading is not considered.


A new model for virtual machine migration in virtualized cluster server based on Fuzzy Decision Making

Abstract: In this paper, we show that performance of the virtualized cluster servers could be improved through intelligent decision over migration time of Virtual Machines across heterogeneous physical nodes of a cluster server. The cluster serves a variety range of services from Web Service to File Service. Some of them are CPU-Intensive while others are RAM-Intensive and so on. Virtualization has many advantages such as less hardware cost, cooling cost, more manageability. One of the key benefits is better load balancing by using of VM migration between hosts. To migrate, we must know which virtual machine needs to be migrated and when this relocation has to be done and, moreover, which host must be destined. To relocate VMs from overloaded servers to underloaded ones, we need to sort nodes from the highest volume to the lowest. There are some models to finding the most overloaded node, but they have some shortcomings. The focus of this paper is to present a new method to migrate VMs between cluster nodes using TOPSIS algorithm - one of the most efficient Multi Criteria Decision Making techniques- to make more effective decision over whole active servers of the Cluster and find the most loaded serversTo evaluate the performance improvement resulted from this model, we used cluster Response time and Unbalanced Factor.


Deriving Relationship Between Semantic Models - An Approach for cCSP

Abstract: Formal semantics offers a complete and rigorous definition of a language. It is important to define different semantic models for a language and different models serve different purposes. Building equivalence between different semantic models of a language strengthen its formal foundation. This paper shows the derivation of denotational semantics from operational semantics of the language cCSP. The aim is to show the correspondence between operational and trace semantics. We extract traces from operational rules and use induction over traces to show the correspondence between the two semantics of cCSP.


Performance Comparisions of ICA Algorithms to DS-CDMA Detection

Abstract: Commercial cellular networks, like the systems based on DS-CDMA, face many types of interferences such as multi-user interference inside each sector in a cell to interoperate interference. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) has been used as an advanced preprocessing tool for blind suppression of interfering signals in DS-CDMA communication systems. The role of ICA is to provide an interference-mitigated signal to the conventional detection. This paper evaluates the performance of some major ICA algorithms like Cardoso's joint approximate diagonalization of eigen matrices (JADE), Hyvarinen's fixed point algorithm and Comon's algorithm to solve the symbol estimation problem of the multi users in a DSCDMA communication system. The main focus is on blind separation of convolved CDMA mixture and the improvement of the downlink symbol estimation. The results of numerical experiment are compared with those obtained by the Single User Detection (SUD) receiver, ICA detector and combined SUD-ICA detector.


The Framework for Implementing ECommerce: The Role of Bank and Telecom in Bangladesh

Abstract: In this paper, we describe an effective framework for adapting electronic commerce or e-commerce services in developing countries like Bangladesh. The internet has opened up a new horizon for commerce, namely electronic commerce (e-commerce). It entails the use of the internet in the marketing, identification, payment and delivery of goods and services. At present internet facilities are available in Bangladesh. Slowly, but steadily these facilities are holding a strong position in every aspects of our life. E-commerce is one of those sectors which need more attention if we want to be a part of global business. Bangladesh is far-far away to adapt the main stream of e-commerce application. Though government is shouting to take the challenges of e-commerce, but they do not take the right step, that is why e-commerce dose not make any real contribution in our socio-economic life. Here we propose a model which may develop the e-commerce infrastructure of Bangladesh.


Effect of different substrates on Compact stacked square Microstrip Antenna

Abstract: Selection of the most suitable substrate for a Microstrip antenna is a matter of prime importance. This is because many limitations of the microstrip antenna such as high return loss, low gain and low efficiency can be overcome by selecting an appropriate substrate for fabrication of the antenna, without shifting the resonant frequency significantly. The substate properties such as its dielectric constant, loss tangent have a pronounced effect on the antenna characteristics. Some of the critical properties that are to be taken care of while selecting a dielectric are homogeneity, moisture absorption and adhesion of metal- foil cladding. In this paper a comprehensive study of the effect of variation of substrate material on the antenna properties has been presented.


Limited Memory Prediction for Linear Systems with Different types of Observation

Abstract: This paper is concerned with distributed limited memory prediction for continuous-time linear stochastic systems with multiple sensors. A distributed fusion with the weighted sum structure is applied to the optimal local limited memory predictors. The distributed prediction algorithm represents the optimal linear fusion by weighting matrices under the minimum mean square criterion. The algorithm has the parallel structure and allows parallel processing of observations making it reliable since the rest faultless sensors can continue to the fusion estimation if some sensors occur faulty. The derivation of equations for error cross-covariances between the local predictors is the key of this paper. Example demonstrates effectiveness of the distributed limited memory predictor.


FPGA Based Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulated Waveform Generation for Solar (PV) Rural Home Power Inverter

Abstract: With the increasing concern about global environmental protection and energy demand due to rapid growth of population in developing countries and the diminishing trend of resources of conventional grid supply, the need to produce freely available pollution free natural energy such as solar/wind energy has been drawing increasing interest in every corner of the world. In an effort to utilize these energies effectively through Power converter, a great deal of research is being carried out by different researchers / scientist and engineers at different places in the world to meet the increasing demand of load. The study presents methodology to integrate solar (PV) energy (which is freely available in every corner of the world) with grid source and supplement the existing grid power in rural houses during its cut off or restricted supply period. In order to get consistency in supply a DG is also added as a standby source in the proposed integration of network. The software using novel Direct PWM modulation strategy and its soft control features extend the flexibility to control converter (inverter) parameters like voltage, frequency, number of samples of PWM pulses constituting sine-wave without changing any hardware configuration in the circuit. The system simulation of PWM Pulse generation has been done on a XILINX based FPGA Spartan 3E board using VHDL code. The test on simulation of PWM generation program after synthesis and compilation were recorded and verified on a prototype sample.


Spectral properties of the Google matrix of the World Wide Web and other directed networks

Abstract: We study numerically the spectrum and eigenstate properties of the Google matrix of various examples of directed networks such as vocabulary networks of dictionaries and university World Wide Web networks. The spectra have gapless structure in the vicinity of the maximal eigenvalue for Google damping parameter $\alpha$ equal to unity. The vocabulary networks have relatively homogeneous spectral density, while university networks have pronounced spectral structures which change from one university to another, reflecting specific properties of the networks. We also determine specific properties of eigenstates of the Google matrix, including the PageRank. The fidelity of the PageRank is proposed as a new characterization of its stability.


Iterative exact global histogram specification and SSIM gradient ascent: a proof of convergence, step size and parameter selection

Abstract: The SSIM-optimized exact global histogram specification (EGHS) is shown to converge in the sense that the first order approximation of the result's quality (i.e., its structural similarity with input) does not decrease in an iteration, when the step size is small. Each iteration is composed of SSIM gradient ascent and basic EGHS with the specified target histogram. Selection of step size and other parameters is also discussed.


Interactive Submodular Set Cover

Abstract: We introduce a natural generalization of submodular set cover and exact active learning with a finite hypothesis class (query learning). We call this new problem interactive submodular set cover. Applications include advertising in social networks with hidden information. We give an approximation guarantee for a novel greedy algorithm and give a hardness of approximation result which matches up to constant factors. We also discuss negative results for simpler approaches and present encouraging early experimental results.


On the complexity of stratified logics

Abstract: Our primary motivation is the comparison of two different traditions used in ICC to characterize the class FPTIME of the polynomial time computable functions. On one side, FPTIME can be captured by Intuitionistic Light Affine Logic (ILAL), a logic derived from Linear Logic, characterized by the structural invariant Stratification. On the other side, FPTIME can be captured by Safe Recursion on Notation (SRN), an algebra of functions based on Predicative Recursion, a restriction of the standard recursion schema used to defiine primitive recursive functions. Stratifiication and Predicative Recursion seem to share common underlying principles, whose study is the main subject of this work.


Mixing Time and Stationary Expected Social Welfare of Logit Dynamics

Abstract: We study "logit dynamics" [Blume, Games and Economic Behavior, 1993] for strategic games. This dynamics works as follows: at every stage of the game a player is selected uniformly at random and she plays according to a "noisy" best-response where the noise level is tuned by a parameter $\beta$. Such a dynamics defines a family of ergodic Markov chains, indexed by $\beta$, over the set of strategy profiles. We believe that the stationary distribution of these Markov chains gives a meaningful description of the long-term behavior for systems whose agents are not completely rational. Our aim is twofold: On the one hand, we are interested in evaluating the performance of the game at equilibrium, i.e. the expected social welfare when the strategy profiles are random according to the stationary distribution. On the other hand, we want to estimate how long it takes, for a system starting at an arbitrary profile and running the logit dynamics, to get close to its stationary distribution; i.e., the "mixing time" of the chain. In this paper we study the stationary expected social welfare for the 3-player CK game, for 2-player coordination games, and for two simple $n$-player games. For all these games, we also give almost tight upper and lower bounds on the mixing time of logit dynamics. Our results show two different behaviors: in some games the mixing time depends exponentially on $\beta$, while for other games it can be upper bounded by a function independent of $\beta$.


Enhancing Privacy for Biometric Identification Cards

Abstract: Most developed countries have started the implementation of biometric electronic identification cards, especially passports. The European Union and the United States of America struggle to introduce and standardize these electronic documents. Due to the personal nature of the biometric elements used for the generation of these cards, privacy issues were raised on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to civilian protests and concerns. The lack of transparency from the public authorities responsible with the implementation of such identification systems, and the poor technological approaches chosen by these authorities, are the main reasons for the negative popularity of the new identification methods. The following article shows an approach that provides all the benefits of modern technological advances in the fields of biometrics and cryptography, without sacrificing the privacy of those that will be the beneficiaries of the new system.


Cloud Migration: A Case Study of Migrating an Enterprise IT System to IaaS

Abstract: This case study illustrates the potential benefits and risks associated with the migration of an IT system in the oil & gas industry from an in-house data center to Amazon EC2 from a broad variety of stakeholder perspectives across the enterprise, thus transcending the typical, yet narrow, financial and technical analysis offered by providers. Our results show that the system infrastructure in the case study would have cost 37% less over 5 years on EC2, and using cloud computing could have potentially eliminated 21% of the support calls for this system. These findings seem significant enough to call for a migration of the system to the cloud but our stakeholder impact analysis revealed that there are significant risks associated with this. Whilst the benefits of using the cloud are attractive, we argue that it is important that enterprise decision-makers consider the overall organizational implications of the changes brought about with cloud computing to avoid implementing local optimizations at the cost of organization-wide performance.


Range Reporting for Moving Points on a Grid

Abstract: In this paper we describe a new data structure that supports orthogonal range reporting queries on a set of points that move along linear trajectories on a $U\times U$ grid. The assumption that points lie on a $U\times U$ grid enables us to significantly decrease the query time in comparison to the standard kinetic model. Our data structure answers queries in $O(\sqrt{\log U/\log \log U}+k)$ time, where $k$ denotes the number of points in the answer. The above improves over the $\Omega(\log n)$ lower bound that is valid in the infinite-precision kinetic model. The methods used in this paper could be also of independent interest.


General Hardness Amplification of Predicates and Puzzles

Abstract: We give new proofs for the hardness amplification of efficiently samplable predicates and of weakly verifiable puzzles which generalize to new settings. More concretely, in the first part of the paper, we give a new proof of Yao's XOR-Lemma that additionally applies to related theorems in the cryptographic setting. Our proof seems simpler than previous ones, yet immediately generalizes to statements similar in spirit such as the extraction lemma used to obtain pseudo-random generators from one-way functions [Hastad, Impagliazzo, Levin, Luby, SIAM J. on Comp. 1999]. In the second part of the paper, we give a new proof of hardness amplification for weakly verifiable puzzles, which is more general than previous ones in that it gives the right bound even for an arbitrary monotone function applied to the checking circuit of the underlying puzzle. Both our proofs are applicable in many settings of interactive cryptographic protocols because they satisfy a property that we call "non-rewinding". In particular, we show that any weak cryptographic protocol whose security is given by the unpredictability of single bits can be strengthened with a natural information theoretic protocol. As an example, we show how these theorems solve the main open question from [Halevi and Rabin, TCC2008] concerning bit commitment.


Finite Volume Spaces and Sparsification

Abstract: We introduce and study finite $d$-volumes - the high dimensional generalization of finite metric spaces. Having developed a suitable combinatorial machinery, we define $\ell_1$-volumes and show that they contain Euclidean volumes and hypertree volumes. We show that they can approximate any $d$-volume with $O(n^d)$ multiplicative distortion. On the other hand, contrary to Bourgain's theorem for $d=1$, there exists a $2$-volume that on $n$ vertices that cannot be approximated by any $\ell_1$-volume with distortion smaller than $\tilde{\Omega}(n^{1/5})$. We further address the problem of $\ell_1$-dimension reduction in the context of $\ell_1$ volumes, and show that this phenomenon does occur, although not to the same striking degree as it does for Euclidean metrics and volumes. In particular, we show that any $\ell_1$ metric on $n$ points can be $(1+ \epsilon)$-approximated by a sum of $O(n/\epsilon^2)$ cut metrics, improving over the best previously known bound of $O(n \log n)$ due to Schechtman. In order to deal with dimension reduction, we extend the techniques and ideas introduced by Karger and Bencz{\'u}r, and Spielman et al.~in the context of graph Sparsification, and develop general methods with a wide range of applications.


A Secure Variant of the Hill Cipher

Abstract: The Hill cipher is a classical symmetric encryption algorithm that succumbs to the know-plaintext attack. Although its vulnerability to cryptanalysis has rendered it unusable in practice, it still serves an important pedagogical role in cryptology and linear algebra. In this paper, a variant of the Hill cipher is introduced that makes the Hill cipher secure while it retains the efficiency. The proposed scheme includes a ciphering core for which a cryptographic protocol is introduced.


Mobile Wireless Localization through Cooperation

Abstract: This paper considers N mobile nodes that move together in the vicinity of each other, whose initial poses as well as subsequent movements must be accurately tracked in real time with the assist of M(>=3) reference nodes. By engaging the neighboring mobile nodes in a simple but effective cooperation, and by exploiting both the time-of-arrival (TOA) information (between mobile nodes and reference nodes) and the received-signal-strength (RSS) information (between mobile nodes), an effective new localization strategy, termed cooperative TOA and RSS (COTAR), is developed. An optimal maximum likelihood detector is first formulated, followed by the derivation of a low-complexity iterative approach that can practically achieve the Cramer-Rao lower bound. Instead of using simplified channel models as in many previous studies, a sophisticated and realistic channel model is used, which can effectively account for the critical fact that the direct path is not necessarily the strongest path. Extensive simulations are conducted in static and mobile settings, and various practical issues and system parameters are evaluated. It is shown that COTAR significantly outperforms the existing strategies, achieving a localization accuracy of only a few tenths of a meter in clear environments and a couple of meters in heavily obstructed environments.