Nonblocking <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Compare-Single-Swap

The current literature offers two extremes of nonblocking software synchronization support for concurrent data structure design: intricate designs of specific structures based on single-location operations such as compare-and-swap (CAS), and general-purpose multilocation transactional memory implementations. While the former are sometimes efficient, they are invariably hard to extend and generalize. The latter are flexible and general, but costly. This paper aims at a middle ground: reasonably efficient multilocation operations that are general enough to reduce the design difficulties of algorithms based on CAS alone. We present an obstruction-free implementation of an atomic k -location-compare single-location-swap (KCSS) operation. KCSS allows for simple nonblocking manipulation of linked data structures by overcoming the key algorithmic difficulty in their design: making sure that while a pointer is being manipulated, neighboring parts of the data structure remain unchanged. Our algorithm is efficient in the common uncontended case: A successful k-location KCSS operation requires only two CAS operations, two stores, and 2k noncached loads when there is no contention. We therefore believe our results lend themselves to efficient and flexible nonblocking manipulation of list-based data structures in today’s architectures. A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, pages 314–323, San Diego, California, USA, 2003.     

A fuzzy logic for the revised drastic product <Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-norm

From the ordinal sum theorem for t-subnorms, Jenei introduced a new left-continuous t-norm (called RDP t-norm) by revising the drastic product t-norm. In this paper, propositional and predicate calculi generated by RDP t-norm and its residuum are introduced and the corresponding formal systems RDP and RDP∀, which are schematic extensions of Esteva and Godo’s MTL and MTL∀, respectively, are presented and the standard completeness for RDP and RDP∀ are proved. In addition, a new formula defining the standard disjunctive in RDP was given In the original version of this article, part of it seemed to be text from a previously published article by other authors. This was not so and the author would like to make clear that he was quoting from earlier work of his own in comparison to the work of the other authors. To facilitate this, it was decided that this addendum should be made available.     

Some light-traffic and heavy-traffic results for the <Emphasis Type="Italic">GI</Emphasis>/<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>/0 queue using the <Emphasis Type="Italic">GM Heuristic</Emphasis>

In this paper we carry out both light-traffic and heavy-traffic analyses for the calculation of steady-state loss probabilities in the general multi-server queuing loss system, the GI/G/n/0 queue. The analysis makes use of a heuristic approach called the GM Heuristic, for which a detailed analysis in normal traffic has previously been published. Sufficient conditions are given for the GM Heuristic to be asymptotically exact in light traffic. The heuristic is also shown to be asymptotically exact in heavy-traffic when the number of servers n tends to infinity. These results are illustrated numerically using two-phase Coxian distributions for both the inter-arrival time and service time.     

Particle swarm optimization-based fixed-structure <Emphasis Type="Italic">ℋ</Emphasis><Subscript>∞</Subscript> control design

In this paper, a new robust fixed-structure ℋ _∞ controller design based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique is proposed. The optimization-based structured synthesis problem is formulated and solved by a constrained PSO algorithm. In the proposed approach, the ℋ _∞ controller’s structure is selectable. PI and PID controller structures are especially adopted. The case study of an electrical DC drive benchmark is adopted to illustrate the efficiency and viability of the proposed control approach. A comparison to another similar evolutionary algorithm, such as Genetic Algorithm Optimization (GAO), shows the superiority of the PSO-based method to solve the formulated optimization problem. Simulations and experimental results show the advantages of simple structure, lower order and robustness of the proposed controller.     

The Jamiołkowski Isomorphism and a Simplified Proof for the Correspondence Between Vectors Having Schmidt Number <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Positive Maps

Positive maps which are not completely positive are used in quantum information theory as witnesses for convex sets of states, in particular as entanglement witnesses and, more generally, as witnesses for states having Schmidt number not greater than k. Such maps and witnesses are related to k-positive maps, and their properties may be investigated by making use of the Jamiołkowski isomorphism. In this article we review the properties of this isomorphism, noting that there are actually two related mappings bearing that name. As a new result, we give a simplified proof for the correspondence between vectors having Schmidt number k and k-positive maps and thus for the Jamiołkowski criterion for complete positivity. Another consequence is a special case of a result by Choi, namely that k-positivity implies complete positivity, if k is the dimension of the smaller one of the Hilbert spaces on which the operators act.     

Robust <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>∞</Subscript> fuzzy control for discrete-time nonlinear systems

This paper studies the problem of robust H _∞ control for discrete-time nonlinear systems presented as Takagi—Sugeno’s fuzzy models. The generalized non-parallel distributed compensation (non-PDC) law and non-quadratic Lyapunov function is constructed by the proposed homogeneouspolynomially basis-dependent matrix function (HPB-MF for abbreviation). Based on the generalized non-PDC law and non-quadratic Lyapunov function, some linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are obtained by exploiting the possible combinations of the basis functions. These LMIs ensure the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system and guarantee a norm bound constraint on disturbance attenuation. In addition, it is shown that the LMIs become less conservative as the degree of HPB-MF increases. The merit of the methods presented in this paper lies in their less conservatism than other methods, as shown by a numerical example borrowed from the literature.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">POINT</Emphasis> approach to represent <Emphasis Type="Italic">now</Emphasis> in bitemporal databases

Most modern database applications involve a significant amount of time dependent data and a significant portion of this data is now-relative. Now-relative data are a natural and meaningful part of every temporal database as well as being the focus of most queries. Previous studies indicate that the choice of the representation of now significantly influences the efficiency of accessing bitemporal data. In this paper we propose and experimentally evaluate a novel approach to represent now that we termed the POINT approach, in which now-relative facts are represented as points on the transaction-time and/or valid-time line. Furthermore, in the POINT approach we propose a logical query transformation that relies on the above representation and on the geometry features of spatial access methods. Such a logical query transformation enables off-the-shelf spatial indexes to be used. We empirically prove that the POINT approach is efficient on now-relative bitemporal data, outperforming the maximum timestamp approach that has been proven to the best approach to now-relative data in the literature, independently of the indexing methodology (B ⁺- tree vs R ^*- tree) being used. Specifically, if spatial indexing is used, the POINT approach outperforms the maximum timestamp approach to the extent of factor more than 10, both in number of disk accesses and CPU usage.     

Fault Identification in System-Level Diagnosis: a Logic-Based Framework and an <Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript>\sqrt{τ}/{\log <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>}) Algorithm

Much research has been devoted to system-level diagnosis—SLD. Two issues have been addressed. The first of these is diagnosability, i.e., provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a system of n units to be diagnosable provided that the number of faulty units does not exceed τ . The second is the design of fault identification algorithms, assuming that the system being considered is diagnosable. This paper focuses on the second of these concerns, discussing several algorithms of which the most efficient runs in O(n ^2.5 ) . By considering a logical framework, this paper investigates the process of fault identification and proposes a fault identification algorithm which runs in O( n ² \sqrt τ / \sqrt log n ) , τ < n/2 . Received January 10, 2000; revised August 3, 2000.     

An a posteriori error estimate and a comparison theorem for the nonconforming <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript> element

A posteriori error estimates for the nonconforming P ₁ element are easily determined by the hypercircle method via Marini’s observation on the relation to the mixed method of Raviart–Thomas. Another tool is Ainsworth’s application of the hypercircle method to mixed methods. The relation on the finite element solutions is also extended to an a priori relation of the errors, and the errors of four different finite element methods can be compared.      

On one transformation of Steiner quadruple systems <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">υ</Emphasis>, 4, 3)

A transformation of Steiner quadruple systems S(υ, 4, 3) is introduced. For a given system, it allows to construct new systems of the same order, which can be nonisomorphic to the given one. The structure of Steiner systems S(υ, 4, 3) is considered. There are two different types of such systems, namely, induced and singular systems. Induced systems of 2-rank r can be constructed by the introduced transformation of Steiner systems of 2-rank r − 1 or less. A sufficient condition for a Steiner system S(υ, 4, 3) to be induced is obtained.     

View selection for <Emphasis Type="Italic">real</Emphasis> conjunctive queries

Given a query workload, a database and a set of constraints, the view-selection problem is to select views to materialize so that the constraints are satisfied and the views can be used to compute the queries in the workload efficiently. A typical constraint, which we consider in the present work, is to require that the views can be stored in a given amount of disk space. Depending on features of SQL queries (e.g., the DISTINCT keyword) and on whether the database relations on which the queries are applied are sets or bags, the queries may be computed under set semantics, bag-set semantics, or bag semantics. In this paper we study the complexity of the view-selection problem for conjunctive queries and views under these semantics. We show that bag semantics is the “easiest to handle” (we show that in this case the decision version of view selection is in NP), whereas under set and bag-set semantics we assume further restrictions on the query workload (we only allow queries without self-joins in the workload) to achieve the same complexity. Moreover, while under bag and bag-set semantics filtering views (i.e., subgoals that can be dropped from the rewriting without impacting equivalence to the query) are practically not needed, under set semantics filtering views can reduce significantly the query-evaluation costs. We show that under set semantics the decision version of the view-selection problem remains in NP only if filtering views are not allowed in the rewritings. Finally, we investigate whether the cgalg algorithm for view selection introduced in Chirkova and Genesereth (Linearly bounded reformulations of conjunctive databases, pp. 987–1001, 2000) is suitable in our setting. We prove that this algorithm is sound for all cases we examine here, and that it is complete under bag semantics for workloads of arbitrary conjunctive queries and under bag-set semantics for workloads of conjunctive queries without self-joins. Rada Chirkova’s work on this material has been supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0307072. The project is co-funded by the European Social Fund (75%) and National Resources (25%)- Operational Program for Educational and Vocational Training II (EPEAEK II) and particularly the program PYTHAGORAS. A preliminary version of this paper appears in F. Afrati, R. Chirkova, M. Gergatsoulis, V. Pavlaki. Designing Views to Efficiently Answer Real SQL Queries. In Proc. of SARA 2005, LNAI Vol. 3607, pages 332-346, Springer-Verlag, 2005.     

Classification of optimal (<Emphasis Type="Italic">v</Emphasis>, 4, 1) binary cyclically permutable constant-weight codes and cyclic 2-(<Emphasis Type="Italic">v</Emphasis>, 4, 1) designs with <Emphasis Type="Italic">v</Emphasis> ≤ 76

We classify up to isomorphism optimal (v, 4, 1) binary cyclically permutable constantweight (CPCW) codes with v ≤ 76 and cyclic 2-(73, 4, 1) and 2-(76, 4, 1) designs. There is a one-to-one correspondence between optimal (v, 4, 1) CPCW codes, optimal cyclic binary constant-weight codes with weight 4 and minimum distance 6, (v, 4; ⌎(v − 1)/12⌏) difference packings, and optimal (v, 4, 1) optical orthogonal codes. Therefore, the classification of CPCW codes holds for them too. Perfect (v, 4, 1) CPCWcodes are equivalent to (v, 4, 1) cyclic difference families, and thus (73, 4, 1) cyclic difference families are classified too.     

Fast running algorithm for discrete <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis> transform

A fast algorithm for computing the running type-II discrete W transform (DWT-II) is proposed. The algorithm is based on a recursive relationship between three subsequent local DWT-II spectra. The computational complexity of the algorithm is compared with that of known fast and running DWT-II algorithms. Fast inverse algorithms for signal processing in the domain of the running DWT-II are also proposed. Vitaly Kober obtained his MS degree in Applied Mathematics from the Air-Space University of Samara (Russia) in 1984, and his PhD degree in 1992 and Doctor of Sciences degree in 2004 in Image Processing from the Institute of Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences. Now he is a titular researcher at the Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (Cicese), Mexico. His research interests include signal and image processing, pattern recognition. Iosif A. Ovseevich graduated from the Moscow Electrotechnical Institute of Telecommunications. Received candidate’s degree in 1953 and doctoral degree in information theory in 1972. At present he is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include information theory, signal processing, and expert systems. He is a Member of IEEE, Popov Radio Society.     

3D virtual mosaics: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Opus Palladium</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">mixed</Emphasis> styles

One of the oldest art forms, mosaics are built by careful selection and placement of small pieces called tiles. Although 2D mosaics have attracted attention in computer graphics research, 3D virtual mosaic sculptures are less common. In this work, we present a method to simulate mosaic sculptures using tiles with irregular shapes, a method known by mosaicists as Opus Palladium, or simply “crazy paving,” due to the inherent freedom of mixing the tiles. In order to add expressiveness and emphasize some features, artists distribute the tiles following a high-level design over the shape. We use Voronoi polygons to represent the tiles computed from a distribution of points on the surface of the 3D object. We also address the simulation of mixed mosaics, where both irregular and squared-shape tiles are used on the same object. Previous works on such surface mosaics have used only square-shaped tiles, with fixed or variable size. Special mosaic-like effects are obtained with the help from texture maps, which control the high-level design of the tile distribution.     

Parallel <Emphasis Type="Italic">LL</Emphasis> parsing

A deterministic parallel LL parsing algorithm is presented. The algorithm is based on a transformation from a parsing problem to parallel reduction. First, a nondeterministic version of a parallel LL parser is introduced. Then, it is transformed into the deterministic version—the LLP parser. The deterministic LLP(q,k) parser uses two kinds of information to select the next operation — a lookahead string of length up to k symbols and a lookback string of length up to q symbols. Deterministic parsing is available for LLP grammars, a subclass of LL grammars. Since the presented deterministic and nondeterministic parallel parsers are both based on parallel reduction, they are suitable for most parallel architectures.     

Online <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Server Routing Problems

In an online k-server routing problem, a crew of k servers has to visit points in a metric space as they arrive in real time. Possible objective functions include minimizing the makespan (k-Traveling Salesman Problem) and minimizing the sum of completion times (k-Traveling Repairman Problem). We give competitive algorithms, resource augmentation results and lower bounds for k-server routing problems in a wide class of metric spaces. In some cases the competitive ratio is dramatically better than that of the corresponding single server problem. Namely, we give a 1+O((log k)/k)-competitive algorithm for the k-Traveling Salesman Problem and the k-Traveling Repairman Problem when the underlying metric space is the real line. We also prove that a similar result cannot hold for the Euclidean plane. An extended abstract of this work has appeared in the proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms, September 2006. Research of V. Bonifaci partly supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science through a Huygens scholarship. Research of L. Stougie partly supported by MRT Network ADONET of the European Community (MRTN-CT-2003-504438) and the Dutch BSIK/BRICKS project.     

Multidimensional reverse <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>NN search

Given a multidimensional point q, a reverse k nearest neighbor (RkNN) query retrieves all the data points that have q as one of their k nearest neighbors. Existing methods for processing such queries have at least one of the following deficiencies: they (i) do not support arbitrary values of k, (ii) cannot deal efficiently with database updates, (iii) are applicable only to 2D data but not to higher dimensionality, and (iv) retrieve only approximate results. Motivated by these shortcomings, we develop algorithms for exact RkNN processing with arbitrary values of k on dynamic, multidimensional datasets. Our methods utilize a conventional data-partitioning index on the dataset and do not require any pre-computation. As a second step, we extend the proposed techniques to continuous RkNN search, which returns the RkNN results for every point on a line segment. We evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithms with extensive experiments using both real and synthetic datasets.     

Equivalence of <Emphasis Type="Italic">ε</Emphasis> -Approximate Separation and Optimization in Fixed Dimensions<Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">1</Emphasis></Superscript>

Given a closed, convex set X\subseteq \bbR ⁿ , containing the origin, we consider the problem (P) : max {c^\T x\colon x ∈ X} . We show that, for a fixed dimension, n , and fixed \eps , 0 <\eps<1 , the existence of a combinatorial, strongly polynomial \eps -approximation separation algorithm for the set X is equivalent to the existence of a combinatorial, strongly polynomial \eps -approximation optimization algorithm for the problem (P) . Received June 5, 1996; revised September 25, 1997.     

Basic fuzzy logic and <Emphasis Type="Italic">BL</Emphasis>-algebras II

 Three new (easy) results about the computational complexity of basic propositional fuzzy logic BL are presented. An important formula of predicate logic is shown 1-true in all interpretations over saturated BL-chains but is not a BL-1-tautology, i.e. is not 1-true in a safe interpretation over a non-saturated BL-algebra. Partial support of the grant No. A1030004/00 of the Grant Agency of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic is acknowledged.     

Electrical properties and crystallization behavior of Sb<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Se<Subscript>100−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> thin films

The structural transformation and transformation kinetics of Sb _x Se_100−x films (60 ≤ x ≤ 70) were studied to investigate the feasibility of applying Sb _x Se_100−x alloys in phase-change nonvolatile memories. The temperature-dependent van der Pauw measurements, Hall measurements, X-ray diffraction and a static tester were used to investigate the electrical properties and crystallization behavior of the Sb _x Se_100−x films. The sheet resistance difference between amorphous and crystalline state was higher than 10⁴ Ω per square According to Hall measurement, Sb _x Se_100−x films have p-type conduction and the Hall mobility and carrier concentration increases with the increase in Sb content. The crystalline structure of the metastable phase of Sb _x Se_100−x alloys, which plays a major roll in fast crystallization, is similar to that of Sb₂Te (rhombohedral structure). The transition temperature, sheet resistance and activation energy for transformation decrease as the amount of Sb increases in the Sb _x Se_100−x film. Applying the Kissinger method, the activation energies for crystallization were in the range from 1.90 ± 0.15 to 4.16 ± 0.28 eV. The desired crystallization speed can be obtained by a systematic change of the composition owing to the variation of the activation barrier with stoichiometry.