On improving the efficiency of tensor voting

This paper proposes two alternative formulations to reduce the high computational complexity of tensor voting, a robust perceptual grouping technique used to extract salient information from noisy data. The first scheme consists of numerical approximations of the votes, which have been derived from an in-depth analysis of the plate and ball voting processes. The second scheme simplifies the formulation while keeping the same perceptual meaning of the original tensor voting: The stick tensor voting and the stick component of the plate tensor voting must reinforce surfaceness, the plate components of both the plate and ball tensor voting must boost curveness, whereas junctionness must be strengthened by the ball component of the ball tensor voting. Two new parameters have been proposed for the second formulation in order to control the potentially conflictive influence of the stick component of the plate vote and the ball component of the ball vote. Results show that the proposed formulations can be used in applications where efficiency is an issue since they have a complexity of order O(1). Moreover, the second proposed formulation has been shown to be more appropriate than the original tensor voting for estimating saliencies by appropriately setting the two new parameters.     

Semantic-based authorization architecture for Grid

There are a few issues that still need to be covered regarding security in the Grid area. One of them is authorization where there exist good solutions to define, manage and enforce authorization policies in Grid scenarios. However, these solutions usually do not provide Grid administrators with semantic-aware components closer to the particular Grid domain and easing different administration tasks such as conflict detection or resolution. This paper defines a proposal based on Semantic Web to define, manage and enforce security policies in a Grid scenario. These policies are defined by means of semantic-aware rules which help the administrator to create higher-level definitions with more expressiveness. These rules also permit performing added-value tasks such as conflict detection and resolution, which can be of interest in medium and large scale scenarios where different administrators define the authorization rules that should be followed before accessing a resource in the Grid. The proposed solution has been also tested providing some reasonable response times in the authorization decision process.     

Skeleton computation of orthogonal polyhedra

Skeletons are powerful geometric abstractions that provide useful representations for a number of geometric operations. The straight skeleton has a lower combinatorial complexity compared with the medial axis. Moreover, while the medial axis of a polyhedron is composed of quadric surfaces the straight skeleton just consist of planar faces. Although there exist several methods to compute the straight skeleton of a polygon, the straight skeleton of polyhedra has been paid much less attention. We require to compute the skeleton of very large datasets storing orthogonal polyhedra. Furthermore, we need to treat geometric degeneracies that usually arise when dealing with orthogonal polyhedra. We present a new approach so as to robustly compute the straight skeleton of orthogonal polyhedra. We follow a geometric technique that works directly with the boundary of an orthogonal polyhedron. Our approach is output sensitive with respect to the number of vertices of the skeleton and solves geometric degeneracies. Unlike the existing straight skeleton algorithms that shrink the object boundary to obtain the skeleton, our algorithm relies on the plane sweep paradigm. The resulting skeleton is only composed of axis‐aligned and 45° rotated planar faces and edges.     

QoS Filtering and Resource Reservation in an Internet Environment

Multimedia group applications often operate in an environment where the various participants are located on systems and communication links with different capabilities. Mechanisms are required that ensure full-quality media for high-performance workstations but lower-quality media for playout at low-end systems. QoS filters have been proposed as a way to adapt QoS to the user specified level by changing the structure of a media stream in a well defined way. Resource reservation and QoS filter instantiation should be closely integrated since both represent one particular aspect of the provision of individualistic QoS for heterogeneous users in multipeer communications. The Internet reservation protocol RSVP is receiver oriented and allows each receiver to specify its resource requirements. However, no actual mechanisms are defined that adapt the data stream to the receiver specified QoS requirements.In this paper we present an enhanced version of RSVP (called RSVP++) that integrates resource reservation and QoS filter control. In order to achieve this integration we extend the RSVP functional model and define a new QoS service class. RSVP++ can coexist with common RSVP systems, thus, openness and interoperability of the system are ensured.     

Micromachined Accelerometers With Optical Interferometric Read-Out and Integrated Electrostatic Actuation

A micromachined accelerometer device structure with diffraction-based optical detection and integrated electrostatic actuation is introduced. The sensor consists of a bulk silicon proof mass electrode that moves vertically with respect to a rigid diffraction grating backplate electrode to provide interferometric detection resolution of the proof-mass displacement when illuminated with coherent light. The sensor architecture includes a monolithically integrated electrostatic actuation port that enables the application of precisely controlled broadband forces to the proof mass while the displacement is simultaneously and independently measured optically. This enables several useful features such as dynamic self-characterization and a variety of force-feedback modalities, including alteration of device dynamics in situ. These features are experimentally demonstrated with sensors that have been optoelectronically integrated into sub-cubic-millimeter volumes using an entirely surface-normal, rigid, and robust embodiment incorporating vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and integrated photodetector arrays. In addition to small form factor and high acceleration resolution, the ability to self-characterize and alter device dynamics in situ may be advantageous. This allows periodic calibration and in situ matching of sensor dynamics among an array of accelerometers or seismometers configured in a network.     

Extending the TokenCMP Cache Coherence Protocol for Low Overhead Fault Tolerance in CMP Architectures

It is widely accepted that transient failures will appear more frequently in chips designed in the near future due to several factors such as the increased integration scale. On the other hand, chip-multiprocessors (CMP) that integrate several processor cores in a single chip are nowadays the best alternative to more efficient use of the increasing number of transistors that can be placed in a single die. Hence, it is necessary to design new techniques to deal with these faults to be able to build sufficiently reliable chip multiprocessors (CMPs). In this work, we present a coherence protocol aimed at dealing with transient failures that affect the interconnection network of a CMP, thus assuming that the network is no longer reliable. In particular, our proposal extends a token-based cache coherence protocol so that no data can be lost and no deadlock can occur due to any dropped message. Using GEMS full system simulator, we compare our proposal against TokenCMP. We show that in absence of failures our proposal does not introduce overhead in terms of increased execution time over TokenCMP. Additionally, our protocol can tolerate message loss rates much higher than those likely to be found in the real world without increasing execution time more than 15 percent.     

An adaptive learning approach for 3-D surface reconstruction from point clouds.

In this paper, we propose a multiresolution approach for surface reconstruction from clouds of unorganized points representing an object surface in 3-D space. The proposed method uses a set of mesh operators and simple rules for selective mesh refinement, with a strategy based on Kohonen's self-organizing map (SOM). Basically, a self-adaptive scheme is used for iteratively moving vertices of an initial simple mesh in the direction of the set of points, ideally the object boundary. Successive refinement and motion of vertices are applied leading to a more detailed surface, in a multiresolution, iterative scheme. Reconstruction was experimented on with several point sets, including different shapes and sizes. Results show generated meshes very close to object final shapes. We include measures of performance and discuss robustness.     

The STATFLUX code: a statistical method for calculation of flow and set of parameters, based on the Multiple-Compartment Biokinetical Model

The code STATFLUX, implementing a new and simple statistical procedure for the calculation of transfer coefficients in radionuclide transport to animals and plants, is proposed. The method is based on the general multiple-compartment model, which uses a system of linear equations involving geometrical volume considerations. Flow parameters were estimated by employing two different least-squares procedures: Derivative and Gauss-Marquardt methods, with the available experimental data of radionuclide concentrations as the input functions of time. The solution of the inverse problem, which relates a given set of flow parameter with the time evolution of concentration functions, is achieved via a Monte Carlo simulation procedure.

Program summary

Title of program:STATFLUXCatalogue identifier:ADYS_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADYS_v1_0Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: noneComputer for which the program is designed and others on which it has been tested:Micro-computer with Intel Pentium III, 3.0 GHzInstallation:Laboratory of Linear Accelerator, Department of Experimental Physics, University of São Paulo, BrazilOperating system:Windows 2000 and Windows XPProgramming language used:Fortran-77 as implemented in Microsoft Fortran 4.0. NOTE: Microsoft Fortran includes non-standard features which are used in this program. Standard Fortran compilers such as, g77, f77, ifort and NAG95, are not able to compile the code and therefore it has not been possible for the CPC Program Library to test the program.Memory required to execute with typical data:8 Mbytes of RAM memory and 100 MB of Hard disk memoryNo. of bits in a word:16No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.:6912No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.:229 541Distribution format:tar.gzNature of the physical problem:The investigation of transport mechanisms for radioactive substances, through environmental pathways, is very important for radiological protection of populations. One such pathway, associated with the food chain, is the grass-animal-man sequence. The distribution of trace elements in humans and laboratory animals has been intensively studied over the past 60 years [R.C. Pendlenton, C.W. Mays, R.D. Lloyd, A.L. Brooks, Differential accumulation of iodine-131 from local fallout in people and milk, Health Phys. 9 (1963) 1253-1262]. In addition, investigations on the incidence of cancer in humans, and a possible causal relationship to radioactive fallout, have been undertaken [E.S. Weiss, M.L. Rallison, W.T. London, W.T. Carlyle Thompson, Thyroid nodularity in southwestern Utah school children exposed to fallout radiation, Amer. J. Public Health 61 (1971) 241-249; M.L. Rallison, B.M. Dobyns, F.R. Keating, J.E. Rall, F.H. Tyler, Thyroid diseases in children, Amer. J. Med. 56 (1974) 457-463; J.L. Lyon, M.R. Klauber, J.W. Gardner, K.S. Udall, Childhood leukemia associated with fallout from nuclear testing, N. Engl. J. Med. 300 (1979) 397-402]. From the pathways of entry of radionuclides in the human (or animal) body, ingestion is the most important because it is closely related to life-long alimentary (or dietary) habits. Those radionuclides which are able to enter the living cells by either metabolic or other processes give rise to localized doses which can be very high. The evaluation of these internally localized doses is of paramount importance for the assessment of radiobiological risks and radiological protection. The time behavior of trace concentration in organs is the principal input for prediction of internal doses after acute or chronic exposure. The General Multiple-Compartment Model (GMCM) is the powerful and more accepted method for biokinetical studies, which allows the calculation of concentration of trace elements in organs as a function of time, when the flow parameters of the model are known. However, few biokinetics data exist in the literature, and the determination of flow and transfer parameters by statistical fitting for each system is an open problem.Restriction on the complexity of the problem:This version of the code works with the constant volume approximation, which is valid for many situations where the biological half-live of a trace is lower than the volume rise time. Another restriction is related to the central flux model. The model considered in the code assumes that exist one central compartment (e.g., blood) that connect the flow with all compartments, and the flow between other compartments is not included.Typical running time:Depends on the choice for calculations. Using the Derivative Method the time is very short (a few minutes) for any number of compartments considered. When the Gauss-Marquardt iterative method is used the calculation time can be approximately 5-6 hours when ∼15 compartments are considered.     

The effects of multifocal refractive lenses on occipital extension and forward head posture during a visual task

The purpose of this study was to determine if a change in forward head posture and occipital extension occurred in participants who wore multifocal lenses vs. those persons with non-multifocal lenses while performing an 8-min visual reading task on a visual display unit (VDU). Forty-two healthy human participants were recruited for this study. Thirty-three participants completed the study. Fourteen participants wore multifocal lenses and 19 wore frames with non-multifocal lenses. To evaluate the degree of change of forward head posture and occipital extension digital photographs of cervical posture were taken at four different time intervals: prior to performing the reading task and at 3, 5 and 8 min during the reading task. The digital photographs were analysed utilizing a computer program. Two one-way ANOVA were utilized to determine the degree of change of forward head posture and occipital extension between groups. A significant difference was identified between groups for changes in degrees of forward head posture while performing a visual reading task on a VDU. However, no significant difference between groups was found for occipital extension while performing the same task. Multifocal wearers exhibit greater degrees of change in forward head posture and occipital extension than non-multifocal wearers. These postural changes may place them at a greater risk for musculoskeletal disorders and headaches.     

TeO2 bolometers to search for Double Beta Decay of130Te: status of art

A 334g TeO₂ crystal is operating since January '93 at Gran Sasso National Laboratories as a thermal detector to search for neutrinoless decay of¹³⁰Te. The reduction of environmental radioactivity is accomplished by means of a 10 cm thick external lead shielding and a plexiglas box against²²²Rn, while an inner ultra-low activity lead shield of at least 3.5 cm in every direction suppresses the residual local radioactivity near the crystal. The good energy resolution and the peak-to-Compton efficiency of the detector allow to understand the main features of the residual background. In particular, we are able to reach a sensitivity in the internal contamination of²³⁸U and²³²Th of the crystal of the order of 10^–13 g/g, better than that of modern mass spectroscopy methods. Pulse acquisition and analysis techniques are reported and discussed.Present limit on neutrinoless decay half-life time of¹³⁰Te obtained with this detector is of the order of 10²²y at 68% C.L., exceeding by one order of magnitude the value quoted by the inclusive geochemical measurements, which have therefore to be attributed mainly to the 2-neutrino channel.On leave from the Dept. of Physics, University of Zaragoza