Lexicographic Equivalence in Mixed Combinatorial Optimization of Linear-Fractional Functions on Arrangements

The paper substantiates the method of constructing the lexicographic equivalence to solve mixed combinatorial optimization problems on arrangements with linear-fractional objective function and linear additional constraints. The method involves directed search of equivalence classes obtained by splitting polyhedral set using equivalence relation. The authors propose exact methods as well as an approximate one. The approximate method allows getting the objective function value that differs from the optimum by no more than a predetermined value.     

Ontological and Algebra-Algorithmic Tools for Automated Design of Parallel Programs for Cloud Platforms

An approach to the automated development of programs is proposed on the basis of ontological facilities and algebra-algorithmic tools for program design and synthesis. The approach is illustrated by examples of developing a parallel weather forecasting program and also a software application destined to run the developed program on a cloud computing platform.     

Concept of a multitask grid system with a flexible allocation of idle computational resources of supercomputers

A new concept of a multitask distributed heterogeneous computing system is proposed. The basic principles of such system are that it uses only idle supercomputer resources and does it as a common user; thus, it does not conflict with the administration policy in any way. The efficiency of the proposed concept is demonstrated by the example of the real grid system that currently uses supercomputer resources to boost the performance of the SAT@home and OPTIMA@home volunteer distributed computing projects.     

Using Conical Regularization in Calculating Lagrangian Estimates in Quadratic Optimization Problems

For nonconvex quadratic optimization problems, the authors consider calculation of global extreme value estimates on the basis of Lagrangian relaxation of the original problems. On the boundary of the feasible region of the estimate problem, functions of the problem are discontinuous, ill-conditioned, which imposes certain requirements on the computational algorithms. The paper presents a new approach taking into account these features, based on the use of conical regularizations of convex optimization problems. It makes it possible to construct an equivalent unconditional optimization problem whose objective function is defined on the entire space of problem variables and satisfies the Lipschitz condition.     

Modeling and simulation of structural components in recursive closed-loop multibody systems

Passenger cars, transit buses, railroad vehicles, off-highway trucks, earth moving equipment and construction machinery contain structural and light-fabrications (SALF) components that are prone to excessive vibration due to rough terrains and work-cycle loads’ excitations. SALF components are typically modeled as flexible components in the multibody system allowing the analysts to predict elastic deformation and hence the stress levels under different loading conditions. Including SALF component in the multibody system typically generates closed-kinematic loops. This paper presents an approach for integrating SALF modeling capabilities as a flexible body in a general-purpose multibody dynamics solver that is based on joint-coordinates formulation with the ability to handle closed-kinematic loops. The spatial algebra notation is employed in deriving the spatial multibody dynamics equations of motion. The system kinematic topology matrix is used to project the Cartesian quantities into the joint subspace, leading to a condensed set of nonlinear equations with minimum number of generalized coordinates. The proposed flexible body formulation utilizes the component mode synthesis approach to reduce the large number of finite element degrees of freedom to a small set of generalized modal coordinates. The resulting reduced flexible body model has two main characteristics: the stiffness matrix is constant while the mass matrix depends on the elastic modal coordinates. A consistent set of pre-computed inertia shape integrals are identified and used to update the modal mass matrix at each time step. The implementation of the component mode synthesis approach in a closed-loop recursive multibody formulation is presented. The kinematic equations are modified to include the effect of the flexible body modal elastic coordinates. Also, modified constraint equations that include the effect of flexibility at the joint connections and the necessary details of the Jacobian matrix are presented. Baumgarte stabilization approach is used to stabilize the constraint equations without using iterative schemes. A sample results for flexible body impeded in a closed system will be presented to demonstrate the above mentioned approach.     

Efficient schemes for similarity-aware refinement of aggregation queries

Interactive data exploration platforms in Web, business and scientific domains are becoming increasingly popular. Typically, users without prior knowledge of data interact with these platforms in an exploratory manner hoping they might retrieve the results they are looking for. One way to explore large-volume data is by posing aggregate queries which group values of multiple rows by an aggregate operator to form a single value: an aggregated value. Though, when a query fails, i.e., returns undesired aggregated value, users will have to undertake a frustrating trial-and-error process to refine their queries, until a desired result is attained. This data exploration process, however, is growing rather difficult as the underlying data is typically of large-volume and high-dimensionality. While heuristic-based techniques are fairly successful in generating refined queries that meet specified requirements on the aggregated values, they are rather oblivious to the (dis)similarity between the input query and its corresponding refined version. Meanwhile, enforcing a similarity-aware query refinement is rather a non-trivial challenge, as it requires a careful examination of the query space while maintaining a low processing cost. To address this challenge, we propose an innovative scheme for efficient Similarity-Aware Refinement of Aggregation Queries called (EAGER) which aims to balance the tradeoff between satisfying the aggregate and similarity constraints imposed on the refined query to maximize its overall benefit to the user. To achieve that goal, EAGER implements efficient strategies to minimize the costs incurred in exploring the available search space by utilizing similarity-based and monotonic-based pruning techniques to bound the search space and quickly find a refined query that meets users’ expectations. Our extensive experiments show the scalability exhibited by EAGER under various workload settings, and the significant benefits it provides.     

Fusion of thermal infrared and visible spectra for robust moving object detection

The detection of moving objects is a crucial step for many video surveillance applications whether using a visible camera (VIS) or an infrared (IR) one. In order to profit from both types, several fusion methods were proposed in the literature: low-level fusion, medium-level fusion and high-level fusion. The first one is the most used for moving objects’ detection in IR and VIS spectra. In this paper, we present an overview of the different moving object detection methods in IR and VIS spectra and a state of the art of the low-level fusion techniques. Moreover, we propose a new method for moving object detection using low-level fusion of IR and VIS spectra. In order to evaluate quantitatively and qualitatively our proposed method, three series of experiments were carried out using two well-known datasets namely “OSU Color-Thermal Database” and “INO-Database”; the results of these evaluations show promising results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A discrete-time approach to impulse-based adaptive input shaping for motion control without residual vibration

Modifying a command or actuation signal by convolving it with a sequence of impulses is a useful technique for eliminating structural vibration in rest-to-rest motion of mechanical systems. This paper describes an adaptive discrete-time version of this approach where amplitude and timing of impulses are tuned during operation to match the system under control. Solutions giving zero residual vibration are formulated in terms of a quadratic cost function and constructed by iterative operations on measured sets of input–output data. The versatility of the approach is demonstrated by simulated test cases involving (1) amplitude optimization of impulses with fixed timings, (2) timing optimization of impulses with fixed amplitudes and (3) combined timing and amplitude optimization. The approach is model-free and directly applicable to multi-mode systems. Moreover, fast adaptation within a single rest-to-rest maneuver can be achieved.     

Algorithms to estimate the reachability sets of the pulse controlled systems with ellipsoidal phase constraints

Methods to construct the ellipsoidal estimates of the reachability sets of a nonlinear dynamic system with scalar pulse control and uncertainty in the initial data were proposed. The considered pulse system was rearranged in the ordinary differential inclusion already without any pulse components by means of a special discontinuous time substitution. The results of the theory of ellipsoidal estimation and the theory of evolutionary equations of the multivalued states of dynamic systems under uncertainty and ellipsoidal phase constraints were used to estimate the reachability sets of the resulting nonlinear differential inclusion.     

HiggsBounds 2.0.0: Confronting neutral and charged Higgs sector predictions with exclusion bounds from LEP and the Tevatron

HiggsBounds 2.0.0 is a computer code which tests both neutral and charged Higgs sectors of arbitrary models against the current exclusion bounds from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. As input, it requires a selection of model predictions, such as Higgs masses, branching ratios, effective couplings and total decay widths. HiggsBounds 2.0.0 then uses the expected and observed topological cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a given parameter scenario of a model is excluded at the 95% C.L. by those searches. Version 2.0.0 represents a significant extension of the code since its first release (1.0.0). It includes now 28/53 LEP/Tevatron Higgs search analyses, compared to the 11/22 in the first release, of which many of the ones from the Tevatron are replaced by updates. As a major extension, the code allows now the predictions for (singly) charged Higgs bosons to be confronted with LEP and Tevatron searches. Furthermore, the newly included analyses contain LEP searches for neutral Higgs bosons (H) decaying invisibly or into (non-flavour tagged) hadrons as well as decay-mode independent searches for neutral Higgs bosons, LEP searches via the production modes τ⁺τ⁻H and , and Tevatron searches via . Also, all Tevatron results presented at the ICHEP?10 are included in version 2.0.0. As physics applications of HiggsBounds 2.0.0 we study the allowed Higgs mass range for model scenarios with invisible Higgs decays and we obtain exclusion results for the scalar sector of the Randall–Sundrum model using up-to-date LEP and Tevatron direct search results.

Program summary

Program title: HiggsBoundsCatalogue identifier: AEFF_v2_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEFF_v2_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen?s University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: GNU General Public Licence version 3No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 74 005No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1 730 996Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: Fortran 77, Fortran 90 (two code versions are offered).Classification: 11.1.Catalogue identifier of previous version: AEFF_v1_0Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 181 (2010) 138External routines: HiggsBounds requires no external routines/libraries. Some sample programs in the distribution require the programs FeynHiggs 2.7.1 or CPsuperH2.2 to be installed.Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesNature of problem: Determine whether a parameter point of a given model is excluded or allowed by LEP and Tevatron neutral and charged Higgs boson search results.Solution method: The most sensitive channel from LEP and Tevatron searches is determined and subsequently applied to test this parameter point. The test requires as input, model predictions for the Higgs boson masses, branching ratios and ratios of production cross sections with respect to reference values.Reasons for new version: This version extends the functionality of the previous version.Summary of revisions: List of included Higgs searches has been expanded, e.g. inclusion of (singly) charged Higgs boson searches. The input required from the user has been extended accordingly.Restrictions: Assumes that the narrow width approximation is applicable in the model under consideration and that the model does not predict a significant change to the signature of the background processes or the kinematical distributions of the signal cross sections.Running time: About 0.01 seconds (or less) for one parameter point using one processor of an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU at 2.40 GHz for sample model scenarios with three Higgs bosons. It depends on the complexity of the Higgs sector (e.g. the number of Higgs bosons and the number of open decay channels) and on the code version.