Trust-based group services selection in web-based service-oriented environments

Multi-agent technologies have been widely employed for the development of web-based systems, including web-based e-markets, web-based grid computing, e-governments and service-oriented software systems. In these service-oriented systems, service provider agents and service consumer agents are autonomous and rational entities, which can enter and leave the environments freely. For simplicity, we use terms ‘provider’ and ‘consumer’ to represent this two types of agents. How to select the most suitable service providers according to a service request from a consumer in such an open environment is a very challenging issue. In this paper, we propose an innovative trust model, called the GTrust model, for service group selection in general service-oriented environments. In the GTrust model, the trust evaluation for a service group is based on the functionality coverage of the group, the dependency relationships among individual services in the group, the ratings of individual services on the attributes of the service request and a similarity measurement of the extent to which reference reports can reflect the service request in terms of the priority distribution of attributes. The experimental results and analysis demonstrate the good performance of the GTrust model on the service group selection in service-oriented environments.     

Image inpainting algorithm based on TV model and evolutionary algorithm

With the development of modern image processing techniques, the numbers of images increase at a high speed in network. As a new form of visual communication, image is widely used in network transmission. However, the image information would be lost after transmission. In view of this, we are motivated to restore the image to make it complete in an effective and efficient way in order to save the network bandwidth. At present, there are two main methods for digital image restoration, texture-based method and non-textured-based method. In the texture-based method, Criminisi algorithm is a widely used algorithm. However, the inaccurate completion order and the inefficiency in searching matching patches are two main limitations of Criminisi algorithm. To overcome these shortcomings, in this paper, an exemplar image completion based on evolutionary algorithm is proposed. In the non-textured-based method, total variation method is a typical algorithm. An improved total variation algorithm is proposed in this paper. In the improved algorithm, the diffusion coefficients are defined according to the distance and direction between the damaged pixel and its neighborhood pixel. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms have better general performance in image completion. And these two new algorithms could improve the experience of network surfing and reduce the network communication cost.     

A Model of Green Acceptance and Intentions to Use Bike-Sharing: YouBike Users in Taiwan

With the emphasis on sustainability in transportation, bike-sharing systems are gaining popularity. This paper investigates the attitudes of users of a bike-sharing system with the aim of identifying their priorities, thus allowing local governments to focus their efforts most effectively on enhancing users’ intentions to use such systems. The relationships among green perceived usefulness (the extent to which individuals believe that a bike-sharing system will improve the environmental performance of some part of their life within a specific context), user attitude and perceived ease of use with green intentions, and the mediation effect of user attitude towards bike-sharing are explored. The focus of the study is on how to enhance green intentions via perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and user attitude of the green technology acceptance model (green TAM) (Davis 1989). The two-step approach of structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the empirical results, which indicated that green perceived usefulness and user attitude have positive influences on the green intentions of 262 users and 262 non-users from ten sampled bike-sharing sites around the central administrative districts of Taipei. However, user attitude has the highest mediation effect on green intentions, and perceived ease of use does not have a significant effect on intentions for either users or non-users. Therefore, governmental institutions can strive to improve the attitudes of bike-sharing users and non-users, their green perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use to strengthen their intentions to use this mode of sustainable transportation.     

One-step implementation of a Toffoli gate of separated superconducting qubits via quantum Zeno dynamics

Based on the quantum Zeno dynamics, a scheme is presented to implement a Toffoli gate of three separated superconducting qubits (SQs) by one step. Three separated SQs are connected by two resonators. The scheme is insensitive to the resonator decay because the Zeno subspace does not include the state of the resonators being excited. Numerical simulations indicate that the scheme is robust to the fluctuation of the parameters and the Toffoli gate can be implemented with high fidelity.     

Minimal output unstable configurations in chemical reaction networks and deciders

We study the set of output stable configurations of chemical reaction deciders (CRDs). It turns out that CRDs with only bimolecular reactions (which are almost equivalent to population protocols) have a special structure that allows for an algorithm to efficiently compute their finite set of minimal output unstable configurations. As a consequence, a relatively large set of configurations may be efficiently checked for output stability. We also provide a number of observations regarding the semilinearity result of Angluin et al. (Distrib Comput 20(4):279–304, 2007) from the context of population protocols (which is a central result for output stable CRDs). In particular, we observe that the computation-friendly class of totally stable CRDs has equal expressive power as the larger class of output stable CRDs.     

Size-separable tile self-assembly: a tight bound for temperature-1 mismatch-free systems

We introduce a new property of tile self-assembly systems that we call size-separability. A system is size-separable if every terminal assembly is a constant factor larger than any intermediate assembly. Size-separability is motivated by the practical problem of filtering completed assemblies from a variety of incomplete “garbage” assemblies using gel electrophoresis or other mass-based filtering techniques. Here we prove that any system without cooperative bonding assembling a unique mismatch-free terminal assembly can be used to construct a size-separable system uniquely assembling the same shape. The proof achieves optimal scale factor, temperature, and tile types (within a factor of 2) for the size-separable system.     

Bounds on multipartite concurrence and tangle

We present an analytical lower bound of multipartite concurrence based on the generalized Bloch representations of density matrices. It is shown that the lower bound can be used as an effective entanglement witness of genuine multipartite entanglement. Tight lower and upper bounds for multipartite tangles are also derived. Since the lower bounds depend on just part of the correlation tensors, the result is experimentally feasible.     

Survey of control performance in quantum information processing

There is a rich variety of physics underlying the fundamental gating operations for quantum information processing (QIP). A key aspect of a QIP system is how noise may enter during quantum operations and how suppressing or correcting its effects can best be addressed. Quantum control techniques have been developed to specifically address this effort, although a detailed classification of the compatibility of controls schemes with noise sources found in common quantum systems has not yet been performed. This work numerically examines the performance of modern control methods for suppressing decoherence in the presence of noise forms found in viable quantum systems. The noise-averaged process matrix for controlled one-qubit and two-qubit operations are calculated across noise found in systems driven by Markovian open quantum dynamics. Rather than aiming to describe the absolute best control scheme for a given physical circumstance, this work serves instead to classify quantum control behavior across a large class of noise forms so that opportunities for improving QIP performance may be identified.