A fast and adaptive method for complex-valued SAR image denoising based on <Emphasis Type="Italic">l</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis></Subscript> norm regularization

This paper developed a fast and adaptive method for SAR complex image denoising based on l _k norm regularization, as viewed from parameters estimation. We firstly establish the relationship between denoising model and ill-posed inverse problem via convex half-quadratic regularization, and compare the difference between the estimator variance obtained from the iterative formula and biased Cramer-Rao bound, which proves the theoretic flaw of the existent methods of parameter selection. Then, the analytic expression of the model solution as the function with respect to the regularization parameter is obtained. On this basis, we study the method for selecting the regularization parameter through minimizing mean-square error of estimators and obtain the final analytic expression, which resulted in the direct calculation, high processing speed, and adaptability. Finally, the effect of regularization parameter selection on the resolution of point targets is analyzed. The experiment results of simulation and real complex-valued SAR images illustrate the validity of the proposed method. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60572136), the Fundamental Research Fund of NUDT (Grant No. JC0702005)     

Inertial motion tracking using sensor saturation compensation with <Emphasis Type="Italic">l</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript> norm regularization

A smoother is proposed for inertial sensor-based motion tracking, where the sensor saturation is compensated. The sensor saturation estimation term is added using l ₁ norm regularization techniques to the standard smoothing problem. The proposed algorithm is in the form of a quadratic optimization problem. Three slightly different methods are proposed, where the geometric models on sensor saturation are slightly different. Through simulation and experiments, it is shown that the proposed method effectively compensates the sensor saturation.     

Corepresentation of a sylow <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-subgroup of a group <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Subscript>

The corepresentation of a Sylow p-subgroup of a symmetric group in the form of generating relations is investigated, and a Sylow subgroup of a group , i.e., an n-fold wreath product of regular cyclic groups of prime order, that is isomorphic to the group of automorphisms of a spherically homogeneous root tree is also studied. Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 1, pp. 27–41, January–February 2009.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis>-Near-Resolvable Block Designs and <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-ary Constant-Weight Codes

We introduce m-near-resolvable block designs. We establish a correspondence between such block designs and a subclass of (optimal equidistant) q-ary constant-weight codes meeting the Johnson bound. We present constructions of m-near-resolvable block designs, in particular based on Steiner systems and super-simple t-designs.     

Efficient systematic clustering method for <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-anonymization

This paper presents a clustering (Clustering partitions record into clusters such that records within a cluster are similar to each other, while records in different clusters are most distinct from one another.) based k-anonymization technique to minimize the information loss while at the same time assuring data quality. Privacy preservation of individuals has drawn considerable interests in data mining research. The k-anonymity model proposed by Samarati and Sweeney is a practical approach for data privacy preservation and has been studied extensively for the last few years. Anonymization methods via generalization or suppression are able to protect private information, but lose valued information. The challenge is how to minimize the information loss during the anonymization process. We refer to the challenge as a systematic clustering problem for k-anonymization which is analysed in this paper. The proposed technique adopts group-similar data together and then anonymizes each group individually. The structure of systematic clustering problem is defined and investigated through paradigm and properties. An algorithm of the proposed problem is developed and shown that the time complexity is in O(\fracn²k){O(\frac{n^{2}}{k})}, where n is the total number of records containing individuals concerning their privacy. Experimental results show that our method attains a reasonable dominance with respect to both information loss and execution time. Finally the algorithm illustrates the usability for incremental datasets.     

Maximum <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Splittable <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-Flows

Given a graph with a source and a sink node, the NP-hard maximum k-splittable s,t-flow (M k SF) problem is to find a flow of maximum value from s to t with a flow decomposition using at most k paths. The multicommodity variant of this problem is a natural generalization of disjoint paths and unsplittable flow problems. Constructing a k-splittable flow requires two interdepending decisions. One has to decide on k paths (routing) and on the flow values for the paths (packing). We give efficient algorithms for computing exact and approximate solutions by decoupling the two decisions into a first packing step and a second routing step. Usually the routing is considered before the packing. Our main contributions are as follows: (i) We show that for constant k a polynomial number of packing alternatives containing at least one packing used by an optimal M k SF solution can be constructed in polynomial time. If k is part of the input, we obtain a slightly weaker result. In this case we can guarantee that, for any fixed ε>0, the computed set of alternatives contains a packing used by a (1−ε)-approximate solution. The latter result is based on the observation that (1−ε)-approximate flows only require constantly many different flow values. We believe that this observation is of interest in its own right. (ii) Based on (i), we prove that, for constant k, the M k SF problem can be solved in polynomial time on graphs of bounded treewidth. If k is part of the input, this problem is still NP-hard and we present a polynomial time approximation scheme for it.     

An <Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis> || <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis><Subscript>max</Subscript> Quantum Scheduling Algorithm

Grover’s search algorithm can be applied to a wide range of problems; even problems not generally regarded as searching problems, can be reformulated to take advantage of quantum parallelism and entanglement, and lead to algorithms which show a square root speedup over their classical counterparts. In this paper, we discuss a systematic way to formulate such problems and give as an example a quantum scheduling algorithm for an R||C_max problem. R||C_max is representative for a class of scheduling problems whose goal is to find a schedule with the shortest completion time in an unrelated parallel machine environment. Given a deadline, or a range of deadlines, the algorithm presented in this paper allows us to determine if a solution to an R||C_max problem with N jobs and M machines exists, and if so, it provides the schedule. The time complexity of the quantum scheduling algorithm is while the complexity of its classical counterpart is .     

Adaptive (<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript>) interpolation-based hiding scheme

In 2012, Lee et al. proposed an interpolation technique with neighboring pixels (INP) as the base to conceal secret information in predicted pixels. Their method can effectively predict the pixel between two neighboring pixels. However, the different lengths of secret messages caused great distortion when a large secret message was concealed in the predicted value. Therefore, the proposed scheme applies the center folding strategy to fold the secret message for reducing image distortion. Furthermore, the proposed scheme references the variance of the neighboring pixel to determine the length of the secret message for controlling image quality. The parameter pair (k, F ₁) is used to categorize the variance and determine the size of the secret message hidden in each category. k is the total number of thresholds which computed based on the characteristics of each image for balancing hiding payload and image quality. F ₁ is the length of the secret message for the smoothest area. The experimental results show that the embedding capacity of the proposed method is 1.5 bpp higher than that of existing methods. For the same hiding payload, the image quality of the proposed method is 1.6 dB higher than that of existing methods.     

Emergence of anti-<Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity in type-IV bouncing cosmology as due to <Emphasis Type="Italic">M</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript>-brane

Recently, some authors considered the origin of a type-IV singular bounce in modified gravity and obtained the explicit form of F(R) which can produce this type of cosmology. In this paper, we show that during the contracting branch of type-IV bouncing cosmology, the sign of gravity changes, and antigravity emerges. In our model, M0 branes get together and shape a universe, an anti-universe, and a wormhole which connects them. As time passes, this wormhole is dissolved in the universes, F(R) gravity emerges, and the universe expands. When the brane universes become close to each other, the squared energy of their system becomes negative, and some tachyonic states are produced. To remove these states, universes are assumed to be compact, the sign of compacted gravity changes, and anti-F(R) gravity arises, which causes getting away of the universes from each other. In this theory, a Type-IV singularity occurs at t = t _s , which is the time of producing tachyons between expansion and contraction branches.     

From <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-cell to artificial brain

This article briefly introduces the artificial-brain-building paradigm developed at the Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International (ATR). The ATR Artificial Brain Project consists of two related themes: dedicated hardware and psychodynamic architecture. The first theme includes work on the theory of pulsed paraneural networks (PPNN), experiments with q-cellular automata, and studies toward a post-FPGA technology for 3-dimensional evolvable elastic circuits. The second theme involves an original version of the psychodynamic theory of mind, investigating dynamics phenomena in simulated working memories (MemeStorms), testing the behaviors of psychodynamic robots, and building of an environment for growing intelligent systems.This work was presented in part at the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 24–26, 2003     

Symmetric Masks for In-fill Pixel Interpolation on Discrete <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>:<Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis> Lattices

A 2D p:q lattice contains image intensity entries at pixels located at regular, staggered intervals that are spaced p rows and q columns apart. Zero values appear at all other intermediate grid locations. We consider here the construction, for any given p:q, of convolution masks to smoothly and uniformly interpolate values across all of the intermediate grid positions. The conventional pixel-filling approach is to allocate intensities proportional to the fractional area that each grid pixel occupies inside the boundaries formed by the p:q lines. However, these area-based masks have asymmetric boundaries, flat interior values and may be odd or even in size. Where edges, lines or points are in-filled, area-based p:q masks imprint intensity patterns that recall p:q because the shape of those masks is asymmetric and depends on p:q. We aim to remove these “memory” artefacts by building symmetric p:q masks. We show here that smoother, symmetric versions of such convolution masks exist. The coefficients of the masks constructed here have simple integer values whose distribution is derived purely from symmetry considerations. We have application for these symmetric interpolation masks as part of a precise image rotation algorithm which disguises the rotation angle, as well as to smooth back-projected values when performing discrete tomographic image reconstruction.     

Heidegger on technology and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gelassenheit</Emphasis>: <Emphasis Type="Italic">wabi</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">sabi</Emphasis> and the art of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Verfallenheit</Emphasis>

The question of the contemporary relevance of Heidegger’s reflections on technology to today’s advanced technology is here explored with reference to the notion of “entanglement” towards a review of Heidegger’s understanding of technology and media, including the entertainment industry and modern digital life. Heidegger’s reflections on Gelassenheit have been connected with the aesthetics of the tea ceremony, disputing the material aesthetics of porcelain versus plastic. Here by approaching the art of wabi-sabi as the art of Verfallenheit, I argue that Gelassenheit may be understood in these terms.     

On new completely regular <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-ary codes

In this paper, new completely regular q-ary codes are constructed from q-ary perfect codes. In particular, several new ternary completely regular codes are obtained from the ternary [11, 6, 5] Golay code. One of these codes with parameters [11, 5, 6] has covering radius ρ = 5 and intersection array (22, 20, 18, 2, 1; 1, 2, 9, 20, 22). This code is dual to the ternary perfect [11, 6, 5] Golay code. Another [10, 5, 5] code has covering radius ρ = 4 and intersection array (20, 18, 4, 1; 1, 2, 18, 20). This code is obtained by deleting one position of the former code. All together, the ternary Golay code results in eight completely regular codes, only four of which were previously known. Also, new infinite families of completely regular codes are constructed from q-ary Hamming codes.     

Sparse Support Vector Machine with <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis></Subscript> Penalty for Feature Selection

We study the strategies in feature selection with sparse support vector machine (SVM). Recently, the socalled L _p -SVM (0 < p < 1) has attracted much attention because it can encourage better sparsity than the widely used L ₁-SVM. However, L _p -SVM is a non-convex and non-Lipschitz optimization problem. Solving this problem numerically is challenging. In this paper, we reformulate the L _p -SVM into an optimization model with linear objective function and smooth constraints (LOSC-SVM) so that it can be solved by numerical methods for smooth constrained optimization. Our numerical experiments on artificial datasets show that LOSC-SVM (0 < p < 1) can improve the classification performance in both feature selection and classification by choosing a suitable parameter p. We also apply it to some real-life datasets and experimental results show that it is superior to L ₁-SVM.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-Private and <Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-Secure Auctions

In most of the auction systems the values of bids are known to the auctioneer. This allows him to manipulate the outcome of the auction. Hence, one might be interested in hiding these values. Some cryptographically secure protocols for electronic auctions have been presented in the last decade. Our work extends these protocols in several ways. On the basis of garbled circuits, i.e., encrypted circuits, we present protocols for sealed-bid auctions that fulfill the following requirements： 1） protocols are information-theoretically t-private for honest but curious parties; 2） the number of bits that can be learned by malicious adversaries is bounded by the output length of the auction; 3） the computational requirements for participating parties are very low： only random bit choices and bitwise computation of the XOR-function are necessary. Note that one can distinguish between the protocol that generates a garbled circuit for an auction and the protocol to evaluate the auction. In this paper we address both problems. We will present a t-private protocol for the construction of a garbled circuit that reaches the lower bound of 2t ＋ 1 parties, and Finally, we address the problem of bid changes in an auction. a more randomness efficient protocol for （t ＋ 1）^2 parties     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">I-Quest</Emphasis>: an <Emphasis Type="Italic">i</Emphasis>ntelligent <Emphasis Type="Italic">que</Emphasis>ry <Emphasis Type="Italic">st</Emphasis>ructuring based on user browsing feedback for semantic retrieval of video data

In spite of significant improvements in video data retrieval, a system has not yet been developed that can adequately respond to a user’s query. Typically, the user has to refine the query many times and view query results until eventually the expected videos are retrieved from the database. The complexity of video data and questionable query structuring by the user aggravates the retrieval process. Most previous research in this area has focused on retrieval based on low-level features. Managing imprecise queries using semantic (high-level) content is no easier than queries based on low-level features due to the absence of a proper continuous distance function. We provide a method to help users search for clips and videos of interest in video databases. The video clips are classified as interesting and uninteresting based on user browsing. The attribute values of clips are classified by commonality, presence, and frequency within each of the two groups to be used in computing the relevance of each clip to the user’s query. In this paper, we provide an intelligent query structuring system, called I-Quest, to rank clips based on user browsing feedback, where a template generation from the set of interesting and uninteresting sets is impossible or yields poor results.

Nonlinear <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-ary codes with large code distance

We construct a family of nonlinear q-ary codes obtained from the corresponding families of modified complex Butson–Hadamard matrices. Parameters of the codes are quite close to the Plotkin bound and in a number of cases attain this bound. Furthermore, these codes admit rather simple encoding and decoding procedures.     

EP<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>P: An Accurate <Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>) Solution to the P<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>P Problem

We propose a non-iterative solution to the PnP problem—the estimation of the pose of a calibrated camera from n 3D-to-2D point correspondences—whose computational complexity grows linearly with n. This is in contrast to state-of-the-art methods that are O(n ⁵) or even O(n ⁸), without being more accurate. Our method is applicable for all n≥4 and handles properly both planar and non-planar configurations. Our central idea is to express the n 3D points as a weighted sum of four virtual control points. The problem then reduces to estimating the coordinates of these control points in the camera referential, which can be done in O(n) time by expressing these coordinates as weighted sum of the eigenvectors of a 12×12 matrix and solving a small constant number of quadratic equations to pick the right weights. Furthermore, if maximal precision is required, the output of the closed-form solution can be used to initialize a Gauss-Newton scheme, which improves accuracy with negligible amount of additional time. The advantages of our method are demonstrated by thorough testing on both synthetic and real-data.     

On the construction of <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>-ary equidistant codes

The problem of constructing equidistant codes over an alphabet of an arbitrary size q is considered. Some combinatorial constructions and computer-based search methods are presented. All maximal equidistant codes with distances 3 and 4 are found.     

States on <Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis><Subscript>0</Subscript> algebras

The aim of this paper is to introduce the notion of states on R ₀ algebras and investigate some of their properties. We prove that every R ₀ algebra possesses at least one state. Moreover, we investigate states on weak R ₀ algebras and give some examples to show that, in contrast to R ₀ algebras, there exist weak R ₀ algebras which have no states. We also derive the condition under which finite linearly ordered weak R ₀ algebras have a state. This work is supported by NSFC (No.60605017).