Linearly ordered semigroups for fuzzy set theory

The fuzzy set theory initiated by Zadeh (Information Control 8:338–353, 1965) was based on the real unit interval [0,1] for support of membership functions with the natural product for intersection operation. This paper proposes to extend this definition by using the more general linearly ordered semigroup structure. As Moisil (Essais sur les Logiques non Chrysippiennes. Académie des Sciences de Roumanie, Bucarest, 1972, p. 162) proposed to define Lukasiewicz logics on an abelian ordered group for truth values set, we give a simple negative answer to the question on the possibility to build a Many-valued logic on a finite abelian ordered group. In a constructive way characteristic properties are step by step deduced from the corresponding set theory to the semigroup order structure. Some results of Clifford on topological semigroups (Clifford, A.H., Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 9:682–687, 1958; Clifford, A.H., Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 88:80–98, 1958), Paalman de Miranda work on I-semigroups (Paalman de Miranda, A.B., Topological Semigroups. Mathematical Centre Tracts, Amsterdam, 1964) and Schweitzer, Sklar on T-norms (Schweizer, B., Sklar, A., Publ. Math. Debrecen 10:69–81, 1963; Schweizer, B., Sklar, A., Pacific J. Math. 10:313–334, 1960; Schweizer, B., Sklar, A., Publ. Math. Debrecen 8:169–186, 1961) are revisited in this framework. As a simple consequence of Faucett theorems (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 6:741–747, 1955), we prove how canonical properties from the fuzzy set theory point of view lead to the Zadeh choice thus giving another proof of the representation theorem of T-norms. This structural approach shall give a new perspective to tackle the question of G. Moisil about the definition of discrete Many-valued logics as approximation of fuzzy continuous ones.      

Some Properties of Digital Covering Spaces

In this paper, we study digital versions of some properties of covering spaces from algebraic topology. Among our results are some that correct or improve upon the presentation of assertions in earlier papers (Boxer and Karaca in J. Math. Imaging Vis. 32:23–29, 2008; Han in Inf. Sci. 177:3731–3748, 2007; Han in Inf. Sci. 178:550–561, 2008).     

The Steiner Ratio Conjecture of Gilbert-Pollak May Still Be Open

We offer evidence in the disproof of the continuity of the length of minimum inner spanning trees with respect to a parameter vector having a zero component. The continuity property is the key step of the proof of the conjecture in Du and Hwang (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87:9464–9466, 1990; Algorithmica 7(1):121–135, 1992). Therefore the Steiner ratio conjecture proposed by Gilbert-Pollak (SIAM J. Appl. Math. 16(1):1–29, 1968) has not been proved yet. The Steiner ratio of a round sphere has been discussed in Rubinstein and Weng (J. Comb. Optim. 1:67–78, 1997) by assuming the validity of the conjecture on a Euclidean plane in Du and Hwang (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87:9464–9466, 1990; Algorithmica 7(1):121–135, 1992). Hence the results in Rubinstein and Weng (J. Comb. Optim. 1:67–78, 1997) have not been proved yet.     

Ranking of fuzzy numbers by a new metric

In this paper, a new approach for comparison among fuzzy numbers based on new metric distance (D _TM) is proposed. All reasonable properties of ranking function are proved. At first, the distance on the interval numbers based on convex hall of endpoints is proposed. The existing distance measures for interval numbers, (Bardossy and Duckstein in Fuzzy rule-based modeling with applications to geophysical, biological and engineering systems. CRC press, Boca Raton, 1995; Diamond in Info Sci 46:141–157, 1988; Diamond and Korner in Comput Math Appl 33:15–32, 1997; Tran and Duckstein in Fuzzy Set Syst 130:331–341, 2002; Diamond and Tanaka Fuzzy regression analysis. In: Slowinski R (ed) Fuzzy sets in decision analysis, operations research and statistics. Kluwer, Boston, pp 349–387, 1998) do not satisfy the properties of a metric distance, while the proposed distance does. It is extended to fuzzy numbers and its properties are proved in detail. Finally, we compare the proposed definition with some of the known ones.     

Ontology-driven coordination model for multiagent-based mobile workforce brokering systems

Coordination has been recognized by many researchers as the most important feature of multi-agent systems. Coordination is defined as managing interdependencies amongst activities (Malone and Crowston in ACM Comput. Surv. 26(1):87–119, 1994). The traditional approach of implementing a coordination mechanism is to hard-wire it into a coordination system at design time. However, in dynamic and open environments, many attributes of the system cannot be accurately identified at the design time. Therefore, dynamic coordination, capable of coordinating activities at run-time, has emerged. On the other hand, a successful dynamic coordination model for multi-agent systems requires knowledge sharing as well as common vocabulary. Therefore, an ontological approach is an appropriate way in proposing dynamic coordination models for multi-agent systems. In this paper, an Ontology-Driven Dynamic Coordination Model (O-DC) for Multiagent-Based Mobile Workforce Brokering Systems (MWBS) (Mousavi et al. in Int. J. Comput. Sci. 6:(5):557–565, 2010; Mousavi et al. in Proceedings of 4th IEEE international symposium on information technology, ITSim’10, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15–17 June 2010, vol. 3, pp. 1416–1421, 2010; Mousavi and Nordin in Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on electrical engineering and informatics, Bandung, Indonesia, 17–19 June 2007, pp. 294–297, 2007) is proposed and formulated. Subsequently, the applicability of O-DC is examined via simulation based on a real-world scenario.     

On Buckley��s approach to fuzzy estimation

In several works, Buckley (Soft Comput 9:512–518, 2005a; Soft Comput 9:769–775 2005b; Fuzzy statistics, Springer, Heidelberg, 2005c) have introduced and developed an approach to the estimation of unknown parameters in statistical models. In this paper, we introduce an improved method for the estimation of parameters for cases in which the Buckley’s approach presents some drawbacks, as for example when the underlying statistic has a non-symmetric distribution.     

State BL-algebras

The concept of a state MV-algebra was firstly introduced by Flaminio and Montagna (An algebraic approach to states on MV-algebras. In: Novák V (ed) Fuzzy logic 2, proceedings of the 5th EUSFLAT conference, September 11–14, Ostrava, vol II, pp 201–206, 2007; Int J Approx Reason 50:138–152, 2009) as an MV-algebra with internal state as a unary operation. Di Nola and Dvurečenskij (Ann Pure Appl Logic 161:161–173, 2009a; Math Slovaca 59:517–534, 2009b) gave a stronger version of a state MV-algebra. In the present paper, we introduce the notion of a state BL-algebra, or more precisely, a BL-algebra with internal state. We present different types of state BL-algebras, like strong state BL-algebras and state-morphism BL-algebras, and we study some classes of state BL-algebras. In addition, we give a sample of important examples of state BL-algebras and present some open problems.     

Specification and encoding of transaction interaction properties

Transaction-level modeling is used in hardware design for describing designs at a higher level compared to the register-transfer level (RTL) (e.g. Cai and Gajski in CODES+ISSS ’03: proceedings of the 1st IEEE/ACM/IFIP international conference on Hardware/software codesign and system synthesis, pp. 19–24, 2003; Chen et al. in FMCAD ’07: proceedings of the formal methods in computer aided design, pp. 53–61, 2007; Mahajan et al. in MEMOCODE ’07: proceedings of the 5th IEEE/ACM international conference on formal methods and models for codesign, pp. 123–132, 2007; Swan in DAC ’06: proceedings of the 43rd annual conference on design automation, pp. 90–92, 2006). Each transaction represents a unit of work, which is also a useful unit for design verification. In such models, there are many properties of interest which involve interactions between multiple transactions. Examples of this are ordering relationships in sequential processing and hazard checking in pipelined circuits. Writing such properties on the RTL design requires significant expertise in understanding the higher-level computation being done in a given RTL design and possible instrumentation of the RTL to express the property of interest. This is a barrier to the easy use of such properties in RTL designs.     

On Covering Problems of Rado

T. Rado conjectured in 1928 that if ℱ is a finite set of axis-parallel squares in the plane, then there exists an independent subset ℐ⊆ℱ of pairwise disjoint squares, such that ℐ covers at least 1/4 of the area covered by ℱ. He also showed that the greedy algorithm (repeatedly choose the largest square disjoint from those previously selected) finds an independent set of area at least 1/9 of the area covered by ℱ. The analogous question for other shapes and many similar problems have been considered by R. Rado in his three papers (in Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 51:232–264, 1949; 53:243–267, 1951; and J. Lond. Math. Soc. 42:127–130, 1968) on this subject. After 45 years, Ajtai (in Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci. Sér. Sci. Math. Astron. Phys. 21:61–63, 1973) came up with a surprising example disproving T. Rado’s conjecture. We revisit Rado’s problem and present improved upper and lower bounds for squares, disks, convex bodies, centrally symmetric convex bodies, and others, as well as algorithmic solutions to these variants of the problem.     

Approximation Algorithms for Reconstructing the Duplication History of Tandem Repeats

Computing the duplication history of a tandem repeated region is an important problem in computational biology (Fitch in Genetics 86:623–644, 1977; Jaitly et al. in J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 65:494–507, 2002; Tang et al. in J. Comput. Biol. 9:429–446, 2002). In this paper, we design a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for the case where the size of the duplication block is 1. Our PTAS is faster than the previously best PTAS in Jaitly et al. (J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 65:494–507, 2002). For example, to achieve a ratio of 1.5, our PTAS takes O(n ⁵) time while the PTAS in Jaitly et al. (J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 65:494–507, 2002) takes O(n ¹¹) time. We also design a ratio-6 polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the case where the size of each duplication block is at most 2. This is the first polynomial-time approximation algorithm with a guaranteed ratio for this case. Part of work was done during a Z.-Z. Chen visit at City University of Hong Kong.     

The individual ergodic theorem on the IF-events with product

The ergodic theory and particularly the individual ergodic theorem were studied in many structures. Recently the individual ergodic theorem has been proved for MV-algebras of fuzzy sets (Riečan in Czech Math J 50(125):673–680, 2000; Riečan and Neubrunn in Integral, measure, and ordering. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1997) and even in general MV-algebras (Jurečková in Int J Theor Phys 39:757–764, 2000). The notion of almost everywhere equality of observables was introduced by Riečan and Jurečková (Int J Theor Phys 44:1587–1597, 2005). They proved that the limit of Cesaro means is an invariant observable for P-observables. In Lendelová (Int J Theor Phys 45(5):915–923, 2006c) showed that the assumption of P-observable can be omitted. In this paper we prove the individual ergodic theorem on family of IF-events and show that each P {\mathcal{P}} -preserving transformation in this family can be expressed by two corresponding P^\flat,P^\sharp {\mathcal{P}}^\flat,{\mathcal{P}}^\sharp -preserving transformations in tribe T. {\mathcal{T}}.     

A Unified Primal-Dual Algorithm Framework Based on Bregman Iteration

In this paper, we propose a unified primal-dual algorithm framework for two classes of problems that arise from various signal and image processing applications. We also show the connections to existing methods, in particular Bregman iteration (Osher et al., Multiscale Model. Simul. 4(2):460–489, 2005) based methods, such as linearized Bregman (Osher et al., Commun. Math. Sci. 8(1):93–111, 2010; Cai et al., SIAM J. Imag. Sci. 2(1):226–252, 2009, CAM Report 09-28, UCLA, March 2009; Yin, CAAM Report, Rice University, 2009) and split Bregman (Goldstein and Osher, SIAM J. Imag. Sci., 2, 2009). The convergence of the general algorithm framework is proved under mild assumptions. The applications to ℓ ¹ basis pursuit, TV−L ² minimization and matrix completion are demonstrated. Finally, the numerical examples show the algorithms proposed are easy to implement, efficient, stable and flexible enough to cover a wide variety of applications.     

A posteriori error analysis of time-dependent Stokes problem by Chorin-Temam scheme

We present a posteriori-residual analysis for the approximate time-dependent Stokes model Chorin-Temam projection scheme (Chorin in Math. Comput. 23:341–353, 1969; Temam in Arch. Ration. Mech. Appl. 33:377–385, 1969). Based on the multi-step approach introduced in Bergam et al. (Math. Comput. 74(251):1117–1138, 2004), we derive error estimators, with respect to both time and space approximations, related to diffusive and incompressible parts of Stokes equations. Using a conforming finite element discretization, we prove the equivalence between error and estimators under specific conditions.     

The effects of scent and game play experience on memory of a virtual environment

Scent has been well documented as having significant effects on emotion (Alaoui-Ismaili in Physiol Behav 62(4):713–720, 1997; Herz et al. in Motiv Emot 28(4):363–383, 2004), learning (Smith et al. in Percept Mot Skills 74(2):339–343, 1992; Morgan in Percept Mot Skills 83(3)(2):1227–1234, 1996), memory (Herz in Am J Psychol 110(4):489–505, 1997) and task performance (Barker et al. in Percept Mot Skills 97(3)(1):1007–1010, 2003). This paper describes an experiment in which environmentally appropriate scent was presented as an additional sensory modality consistent with other aspects of a virtual environment called DarkCon. Subjects’ game play habits were recorded as an additional factor for analysis. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive scent during the VE, and/or afterward during a task of recall of the environment. It was hypothesized that scent presentation during the VE would significantly improve recall, and that subjects who were presented with scent during the recall task, in addition to experiencing the scented VE, would perform the best on the recall task. Skin-conductance was a significant predictor of recall, over and above experimental groups. Finally, it was hypothesized that subjects’ game play habits would affect both their behavior in and recall of the environment. Results are encouraging to the use of scent in virtual environments, and directions for future research are discussed. The project described herein has been sponsored by the US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM). Statements and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the US Government; no official endorsement should be inferred.     

Characteristic-Based Schemes for Multi-Class Lighthill-Whitham-Richards Traffic Models

In this paper we provide the full spectral decomposition of the Multi-Class Lighthill Whitham Richards (MCLWR) traffic models described in (Wong et al. in Transp. Res. Part A 36:827–841, 2002; Benzoni-Gavage and Colombo in Eur. J. Appl. Math. 14:587–612, 2003). Even though the eigenvalues of these models can only be found numerically, the knowledge of the spectral structure allows the use of characteristic-based High Resolution Shock Capturing (HRSC) schemes. We compare the characteristic-based approach to the component-wise schemes used in (Zhang et al. in J. Comput. Phys. 191:639–659, 2003), and propose two strategies to minimize the oscillatory behavior that can be observed when using the component-wise approach.     

Effect of Stochastic Noise on Superior Julia Sets

Julia sets are considered one of the most attractive fractals and have wide range of applications in science and engineering. The strong physical meaning of Mandelbrot and Julia sets is broadly accepted and nicely connected by Christian Beck (Physica D 125(3–4):171–182, 1999) to the complex logistic maps, in the former case, and to the inverse complex logistic map, in the latter. Argyris et al. (Chaos Solitons Fractals 11(13):2067–2073, 2000) have studied the effect of noise on Julia sets and concluded that Julia sets are stable for noises of low strength, and a small increment in the strength of noise may cause considerable deterioration in the configuration of the Julia sets. It is well-known that the method of function iterates plays a crucial role in discrete dynamics utilizing the techniques of fractal theory. However, recently Rani and Kumar (J. Korea Soc. Math. Edu. Ser. D: Res. Math. Edu. 8(4):261–277, 2004) introduced superior iterations as a generalization of function iterations in the study of Julia sets and studied superior Julia sets. This technique is further utilized to study effectively new Mandelbrot sets and related properties (see, for instance, Negi and Rani, Chaos Solitons Fractals 36(2):237–245, 2008; 36(4):1089–1096, 2008, Rani and Kumar, J. Korea Soc. Math. Edu. Ser. D: Res. Math. Edu. 8(4):279–291, 2004). The intent of this paper is to study certain effects of noise on superior Julia sets. We find that the superior Julia sets are drastically more stable for higher strength of noises than the classical Julia sets. Finally, we make a humble attempt to discuss some applications of superior orbit in discrete dynamics and of superior Julia sets in particle dynamics.     

Semi-Lagrangian Runge-Kutta Exponential Integrators for Convection Dominated Problems

In this paper we consider the case of nonlinear convection-diffusion problems with a dominating convection term and we propose exponential integrators based on the composition of exact pure convection flows. These methods can be applied to the numerical integration of the considered PDEs in a semi-Lagrangian fashion. Semi-Lagrangian methods perform well on convection dominated problems (Pironneau in Numer. Math. 38:309–332, 1982; Hockney and Eastwood in Computer simulations using particles. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1981; Rees and Morton in SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 12(3):547–572, 1991; Baines in Moving finite elements. Monographs on numerical analysis. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994). In these methods linear convective terms can be integrated exactly by first computing the characteristics corresponding to the gridpoints of the adopted discretization, and then producing the numerical approximation via an interpolation procedure.     

On the air damping of flexible microbeam in free space at the free-molecule regime

Predicting air damping is crucial in the design of high Q microelectromechanical systems. In the past, air damping of rigid microbeam in free space at molecular regime is usually estimated using the free molecular model proposed by Christian (Vacuum 16:175–178, 1966), air damping of flexible microbeam is estimated using the model proposed by Blom (J Vac Sci Technol B 10:19–26, 1992). The relation between the two models is Q _Blom = 3Q _Christian. In this paper, a general proof is presented that shows the Christian’s model is valid for the air damping of flexible microbeam in free space at molecular regime. By comparing with the experimental results available in the literatures (Blom et al. in J Vac Sci Technol B 10:19–26, 1992; Yasumura et al. in J Micromech Syst 9:117–125, 2000), we conclude that the Christian’s model is the best choice in predicting the air damping of flexible microbeam in free space at the molecular regime.     

Sublinear Fully Distributed Partition with Applications

We present new efficient deterministic and randomized distributed algorithms for decomposing a graph with n nodes into a disjoint set of connected clusters with radius at most k−1 and having O(n ^1+1/k ) intercluster edges. We show how to implement our algorithms in the distributed CONGEST\mathcal{CONGEST} model of computation, i.e., limited message size, which improves the time complexity of previous algorithms (Moran and Snir in Theor. Comput. Sci. 243(1–2):217–241, 2000; Awerbuch in J. ACM 32:804–823, 1985; Peleg in Distributed Computing: A Locality-Sensitive Approach, 2000) from O(n) to O(n ^1−1/k ). We apply our algorithms for constructing low stretch graph spanners and network synchronizers in sublinear deterministic time in the CONGEST\mathcal{CONGEST} model.     

Speed-Up Theorems in Type-2 Computations Using Oracle Turing Machines

A classic result known as the speed-up theorem in machine-independent complexity theory shows that there exist some computable functions that do not have best programs for them (Blum in J. ACM 14(2):322–336, 1967 and J. ACM 18(2):290–305, 1971). In this paper we lift this result into type-2 computations. Although the speed-up phenomenon is essentially inherited from type-1 computations, we observe that a direct application of the original proof to our type-2 speed-up theorem is problematic because the oracle queries can interfere with the speed of the programs and hence the cancellation strategy used in the original proof is no longer correct at type-2. We also argue that a type-2 analog of the operator speed-up theorem (Meyer and Fischer in J. Symb. Log. 37:55–68, 1972) does not hold, which suggests that this curious speed-up phenomenon disappears in higher-typed computations beyond type-2. The result of this paper adds one more piece of evidence to support the general type-2 complexity theory under the framework proposed in Li (Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Theoretical Computer Science, pp. 471–484, 2004 and Proceedings of Computability in Europe: Logical Approach to Computational Barriers, pp. 182–192, 2006) and Li and Royer (On type-2 complexity classes: Preliminary report, pp. 123–138, 2001) as a reasonable setup.