The Optimisation of the Mesh in First-Order Systems Least-Squares Methods

We describe an algorithm for optimising the mesh in the least-squares finite element discretisation of first-order systems of partial differential equations. The key feature of the method is that the optimisation process is based entirely on the solution of local PDE problems. We apply the algorithm to the Stokes equations for the flow of a viscous incompressible fluid, and to a convection diffusion equation where convection dominates.     

Generating a Condensed Representation for Association Rules

Association rule extraction from operational datasets often produces several tens of thousands, and even millions, of association rules. Moreover, many of these rules are redundant and thus useless. Using a semantic based on the closure of the Galois connection, we define a condensed representation for association rules. This representation is characterized by frequent closed itemsets and their generators. It contains the non-redundant association rules having minimal antecedent and maximal consequent, called min-max association rules. We think that these rules are the most relevant since they are the most general non-redundant association rules. Furthermore, this representation is a basis, i.e., a generating set for all association rules, their supports and their confidences, and all of them can be retrieved needless accessing the data. We introduce algorithms for extracting this basis and for reconstructing all association rules. Results of experiments carried out on real datasets show the usefulness of this approach. In order to generate this basis when an algorithm for extracting frequent itemsets—such as Apriori for instance—is used, we also present an algorithm for deriving frequent closed itemsets and their generators from frequent itemsets without using the dataset.     

Biomechanical assessment of new hand-powered pruning shears

The aim of the study was to assess the biomechanical strains on the hand-wrist system during grapevine pruning with newly designed pruning shears. Surface electromyography of the finger flexor muscle and wrist postures were analyzed in four vineyard workers during actual work with the new and reference hand-powered pruning shears. Due to the large inter-individual differences in biomechanical data observed with both pruning shears, no systematic effect of the new pruning shears on "extreme" flexion/extension (F/E) and ulnar/radial (U/R) wrist deviations was demonstrated. However, the use of the new pruning shears was associated with a higher frequency of "neutral and moderate" U/R deviations (U/R < 20%(max)) and, to a lesser extent, of "neutral and moderate" F/E deviations (F/E < 20%(max)). Due to the small sample of workers, this result must be confirmed in a larger population of vineyard workers.     

Augmenting and structuring user queries to support efficient free-form code search

Source code terms such as method names and variable types are often different from conceptual words mentioned in a search query. This vocabulary mismatch problem can make code search inefficient. In this paper, we present COde voCABUlary (CoCaBu), an approach to resolving the vocabulary mismatch problem when dealing with free-form code search queries. Our approach leverages common developer questions and the associated expert answers to augment user queries with the relevant, but missing, structural code entities in order to improve the performance of matching relevant code examples within large code repositories. To instantiate this approach, we build GitSearch, a code search engine, on top of GitHub and Stack Overflow Q&A data. We evaluate GitSearch in several dimensions to demonstrate that (1) its code search results are correct with respect to user-accepted answers; (2) the results are qualitatively better than those of existing Internet-scale code search engines; (3) our engine is competitive against web search engines, such as Google, in helping users solve programming tasks; and (4) GitSearch provides code examples that are acceptable or interesting to the community as answers for Stack Overflow questions.     

Weighted Multipass Methods for Global Illumination

In multipass rendering, care has to be taken to include all light transport only once in the final solution. Therefore the different methods in current multipass configurations handle a perfectly disjunct part of the light transport. In this paper a Monte Carlo variance reduction technique is presented that probabilistically weights overlapping transport between different methods. A good heuristic for the weights is derived so that strengths of the respective methods are retained. The technique is applied to a combination of radiosity and bidirectional path tracing and significant improvement is obtained over the non-weighted combination. This method promises to be a very useful extension to other multipass algorithms as well.     

Synthesis and characterization of high molecular weight poly(tert.butyl acrylate)

High molecular weight poly(tert. butyl acrylate) s have been synthesized anionically using a technique derived from that of Teyssié et al. It was established that under proper conditions the sites remained living, allowing proper control of the molecular weight and yielding samples with narrow molecular weight distributions.